An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
I love weaving with 1st grade! Here is the paper weaving that I did this year with my 1st grade... Watermelon Weavings! To start the lesson I had them weaving with their body. This year I taught this lesson over two days. In the video below you can see how I broke it down. Every time you see 'Your Turn' I would send the kids to their seats to 'do' then they came back to the carpet for the next instruction! Lots of movement in this lesson. We went BIG with these weavings! I like doing weavings over two days so I can see who need a little extra help. As they turn in their work on day one, I put them in two piles. Day two, they watch the weaving portion again and I hand back the weavings. The 'needs help' pile, I have sit by me on the carpet until I see they are able to be successful on their own. I have found this also give the 1st-grade brain a little time to let it soak in. They always do better the second day. As I mentioned, I LOVE weaving with kids so I have plenty of weaving lessons in past posts.
Read below student artwork to learn how students created these, what they learned about throughout the process, and see photos of students creating! When students came into the art room and sat dow…
From mixed media to simple sketching, there's something here for every 1st grader.
Please Note: All images seen below are of my students artwork only. These photos/lessons are not posted in any particular order regarding the flow of my curriculum. Hot Air Balloon Collage Hot Air …
Step into the world of art where lines take center stage! Here we're diving into the fascinating realm of line art for kids.
First Grade artists are enjoying the poem about Sadie and Dan from Patternland. We took an imaginary field trip to patternland and drew self-portraits! We learned about figure drawing and getting the
From mixed media to simple sketching, there's something here for every 1st grader.
This first grade lesson took about (2) 40 minute art classes to create. Students first learned about the artist Sanford Biggers and we discussed his AMAZING artwork. We also discussed how we’d be u…
Please Note: All images seen below are of my students artwork only. These photos/lessons are not posted in any particular order regarding the flow of my curriculum. Hot Air Balloon Collage Hot Air …
I can’t get over how ADORABLE these weavings are!!!! I LOVE them!! I absolutely LOVE these fun watermelons!!! Thank you Nichole ( Mini Matisse) for sharing this wonderful lesson! My students …
Super fun project for your Pre-k, Kindergarteners, and even 1st Graders. Your students will have so much fun mixing colors, whether they are just learning about color, or revisiting color mixing. This project is very versatile and can be created using a variety of mediums such as watercolor paint, t...
One of the first posts I pinned to my "Painting Inspirations, Tutorials, and Projects" Pinterest board was an abstract watercolor tutorial from Grow Creative. I have been wanting to try Elise's technique for months, and now that I've done it, I don't think I can stop! The results are absolutely beautiful, and their map-like-qualities appeal greatly to the arty cartophile in me! (I am borrowing the term "arty cartophile" from Jill K. Berry and her book Personal Geographies, which I was inspired to pull off the bookshelf after creating these rubber cement resist watercolor paintings.) I followed Elise's technique pretty much exactly, so you can read her blog post for her directions, but I also took photos of each step of the process as I carried it out, so I thought I would share them with you here: First, I used blue painter's tape to secure my 9x12 cold-press watercolor paper to a piece of palette paper on my work space. (I tried low-tack artist's tape first, and too much watercolor paint seeped underneath it. The blue painter's tape left a gorgeous crisp edge.) Next, I dribbled rubber cement over the watercolor paper. There is no planning, just random dripping in all different directions. Then, I spent a little time with my embossing tool, speeding up the drying process for the rubber cement. This is not a task for the impatient! I get into a kind of trance, watching the rubber cement boil, bubble, pop, and dry. Once the rubber cement is dry, the paper is ready for its first application of watercolor paint. For this particular piece, I used Reeves tube watercolors in "Lemon Yellow." In some of my first pieces, I did a watercolor wash across the entire paper. For the example photographed here, I applied this first layer of watercolor in just some portions of the paper, leaving other parts white. The drying process for the watercolor paint is much faster than for the rubber cement! Now technically, you are supposed to apply more rubber cement, but I actually forgot, and put on a different color of watercolor. This time is was Reeves tube paint in basic "orange." I supplemented with another shade of orange from a set of pan watercolors. I used the orange paint to fill in some of those white spaces I left when I applied the Lemon Yellow. After a bit more drying with the heating tool, I applied more random rubber cement. More drying--which meant more time mesmerized by bubbling rubber cement. At this point it was time for my final color--Reeves tube watercolor in "Magenta." Gorgeous! After one final drying session with the embossing tool, I was ready to pull back the painter's tape and enjoy the crisp edge along the perimeter of my watercolor paper. The next step is to use the pads of my fingers to rub away all of the rubber cement that has been resisting various layers of watercolor paint. The rubber cement comes away in balls and crumbs, and leaves behind the wonderful pathways that give the art such a map-like quality. When all the rubber cement has been rubbed away...voila! Now, I think this piece looks beautiful, and am tempted to leave it as it is, but there is a final step that makes it look even more beautiful. Using a fine-tipped black Sharpie pen, I outline various pathways around the piece. (I tried Microns, but the "tooth" of the watercolor paper really does them in.) I start with all of the white pathways, and usually move on to the secondary colors, like yellow in this piece. When I was finished deciding which areas to outline in black, I had my finished piece: I think I could sit around and look at it all day! I really love the results of this technique. What do you think? This was my fourth 9x12 art piece using the rubber cement resist technique. Here are the earlier ones I created: These first two have a similar color combination, with more "lake blue" in the first one. I like how they look when I photograph them without the white perimeter: I'm showing these in backwards order, because this last one I am showing you is the first one I tried. Instead of using rubber cement, I used Art Maskoid, which is the same as frisket. But my bottle was almost completely dried up so I was kind of smearing sticky frisket across the page. At first, I thought the result looked kind of terrible, but it has grown on me, and looks like a map of some archipelago far out in the ocean. (You can also see how the artist's tape didn't give as clean of an edge as the painter's tape does.) Stay tuned, because in an upcoming post I will share some pretty cards I have made using this same rubber cement resist technique!
What can we make with 10 Black Dots? QUIZLET GRADE 1 QUIZLET BASIC ART VOCAB QUIZLET ELEMENTARY ART FLASHCARDS COLOR SONGS!!! We will be discovering the Art El…
The August art session with my little "firsties" was a HUGE success. We created "Wild About 1st Grade" self-portraits. They turned out so dang cute! It was a lot of fun to combine some guided art along with "do your own thing" directions. The bulletin board is adorable. We'll be adding their writing prompt responses to "I'm WILD About 1st Grade Because..." as soon as we finish the edit process. I created a file with the guided art directions, supply list, and writing prompts. Feel free to download this activity file and enjoy it with your little ones. This is a "no fail" activity that make for a super cute parents night bulletin board. Click on the image to download the file I've created prompts for kinder- 3rd grade.
Get to know your students on the first day of art with this art lesson for kids that includes a self-portrait with 3 descriptive words.
A few weeks ago I welcome my first guest blogger to MiniMatisse, Mark Rode. His Paper Dinosaur Sculptures are adoreable, be sure to check them out. Today I'm honored to present you with an Art Teacher I have admired for years. Lauralee Chambers has been an Art Educator for 25 years in Westchester, New York. She teaches over 900 students, 6 sections a day at two different schools with a total of 36 sections in a 6 day cycle. Yep, you read that all right. This woman is a rockstar! Lauralee not only teaches to the masses but also shares, shares, shares on her Instagram, @2art.chambers and on her Pinterest account, Lauralee Chambers. This is how I recently saw Larualee's latest and greatest lesson, Alphabet Soup. She was happy to share with us the process of this adoreable project right here on MiniMatisse. Lauralee writes: I have 6 sections of first grade and our classes are 45 minutes every 6 days. I begin this project by telling them that “I know first graders are alphabet experts” and ask them to recite the alphabet to me. I ask them if they know any alphabet books and I tell them that I have been collecting alphabet books for a very long time because I love letters! I share some books in my collection and show them my other assortment of letters objects that I have including my alphabet necklace. I also created a smart board document with many, many images of letters on things, with the last slide being a bowl of alphabet soup. Day One: Materials: 9x12 white drawing paper 90lb, or other for painting, with a pre-drawn pencil circle outline Oil Pastels Alphabet letter sheet visuals on tables to help them remember Process: After looking at many alphabet visuals and resources, teacher will demo how to draw letters of the alphabet in the circle (bowl) by pressing VERY HARD to put oil pastels down onto the paper. If not done thick enough, soup will cover their letters! I show students how to scatter their letters, rather than putting them in a line like they do for writing. They can go ANYWHERE, upside down, sideways, etc. Rotate the paper for each letter trying to keep them all large enough and thick enough. Colors should be repeated and if there is too much white space left after doing each letter of the alphabet, I have them hide their names in the bowl! Day Two: Materials: Liquid watercolor: I mix up a batch of broth color using yellow and orange and pour into containers for each table to share. This will wash over the letters from last class. Going outside of the lines is fine because teacher will cut circles out so they stay round! This should not take long. Put these away on drying rack and start plaid background “tablecloths”. 12x18 white drawing paper with a larger circle, pre-drawn with sharpie. I traced these circles over to one side of the paper. (This is where they will glue down their soup in next class, as flat and centered as possible.) Water based markers Water containers paint brushes, I like size 10 or 12 The Process: Add any needed letters, prep for painting, demo washing broth over letters quickly in long strokes. Put these away on drying rack and begin plaid backgrounds. Each student has 12X18 with a sharpie circle. Gather them around to demo a plaid pattern of vertical and horizontal lines leaving spaces between lines as you wish. I ask them to choose 3 or 4 colors that work well together. Students will need directions on how to JUMP over the soup bowl and continue their line on the other side. A bit challenging for some, but the irregularities add charm! Once drawn, students take a paint brush dip, and wipe, in water and trace/drag over the marker lines. Some chose to trace only over the vertical lines, others did all. Lots of options. Put on the drying rack. Don’t forget names on the back! Day Three: Materials: Soft black vine charcoal broken into small pieces Off white paper or tag board, cut to the size of a folded napkin Glue sticks Plastic metal imitation spoons Glue gun for teacher use Plastic alphabet beads, stickers (optional)-- The beads the photos are from Roylco Process: Everything comes together. Students glue their already cut out soup circle into the center of the larger circle and then glue down their napkin paper. Teacher demos the placement of shading. Students apply charcoal to the bottom and one side of the napkin and run along that line with a finger to soften or blur. Also apply charcoal around side and bottom half of the sharpie circle and smear with finger. Teacher will glue on spoons with hot glue. Before the shadow is added: After the shadow is added: Lauralee writes: The focus of this lesson combines literacy and letter formation/identification with an understanding of mixed media, using more than one art material in a lesson to create something that looks like real life objects. This lesson is truely a treasure! I adore the end result. I want to thank Lauralee Chambers for sharing and celebrating on her Instagram so often. A special thank you for being a guest blogger for MiniMatisse. It was so great to learn the process. For more on the happenings of Chambers classroom visit her Instagram or email her at, [email protected]
10 Creative Art Activities for Kids, including free printable drawing prompts and art collages, plus many more creative art ideas!
Teaching Habitats to your primary students will be a breeze with my collection of resources to help make your life easier. There's even a freebie!
I use one of three techniques for drawing portraits in Kindergarten. They are: using templates, drawing the face with the letter "U" approach and free-style
SOUPS ON!!! I was so excited to try this lesson out with my first graders this year–I absolutely LOVE them!! Especially the mixed media/ 3D aspect of them!!! A big shout out and thanks to La…
First Grade Art Project and Lesson Book 36 Weeks of Art Lessons and Projects to go along with First Grade Curriculum. This book goes along with our first grade curriculum. There are other projects …
This week, kindergarten continued their exploration of line, and started these fun line paintings! We used a new medium, to them, oil pastels and tempera cakes. 😄 Here's how we did it! Materials: Sax 90lb paper Crayola Oil Pastels Jack Richeson Semi-Moist tempera cakes First, we reviewed the different types of lines. Then, I showed them how to draw the lines from side to side of their (vertical) paper. I also talked about how you need to make the lines dark with the oil pastels, or they won't show up as well,when you paint. After that, I went over each color with the tempera cakes paint. I used rainbow colors, but told them they could use different colors if they liked. Many of them have not ever painted before, so we discussed how to hold a paint brush on the grip part of the handle, and to not get on the metal part of the brush. (As Cassie Stephens says, "the DANGER ZONE!") We go over the process of DIP, WIPE, and SWIRL, in the tempera cakes. We dip it in the water, wipe it on the rim of the cup, and swirl our brushes gently in the paint. We wanted our paint to go side to side as well, and try to stay in the lines we created. Here's some great artists from Mrs. Garcia's kindergarten class! Stay tuned for more awesome art! After the kids get done painting, we're going to use shapes (another element of art) to turn them into monsters! inspired by Georgetown Elementary's blog! I'll get them to draw the monster shape, on the back, with me Then, we'll draw the shapes out on black and white paper. If they want to go a step further, they can add accessories! Ms. Placha's class has some super cut and scary monsters!! Great job Mrs. Garcia's class! Here's some scary cute little monsters from Mrs. C. Campbell's class! Here's some super spooky, and precious monsters from Mr. Gonzalez' class! Here's Mrs. Kerr's adorable little monsters! “Lauren Stacey is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.”
Instagram @Natty241 @NWaggsArt email- [email protected]
Just a couple weeks ago, my new batch of Kindergarteners walked through the doors of the Art Room for the first time. Many of them looked up and around the room, taken aback by all of the colors, …
A collection of art projects and activities for children age 6 & 7
You have to see this fun drawing game for kids we played at our art summer camp in our children's art studio in Charlotte, NC.
I created this culture jars art lesson for an Art and World Cultures class, and continue to use it in art classes because it is so well received. The word
Artist Inspiration: Paul Cezanne (above) and Henri Matisse (below) Blog Inspiration: http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/2012/03/apple-still-life.html You can see all the steps laid out nicely on this blog. I just didn't use spoons to paint the apples. Day Two: We talked about CONTRAST in our Idea Books...colored (using crayons) our apple sketch in our idea books with warm colors (just like we painted on day one) and then added a shadow under each apple. Then we colored the plate and table with cool colors to show "contrast". Once they understood the process, they painted their big apples with watercolors. They turned out great! Here is a student who absent on day one...I gave them a 9x12 paper so they could catch up. I demonstrated how to add a pattern to the 'tablecloth' if they wanted to take the 'art challenge'. Here's a shadow that got a little greedy. Also, here's another option for Day 2...Collage I was going to just let them color the plate and table with oil pastels when one of my bright 1st graders suggested that we cut the plates out. And I thought..."great idea!" so I grabbed a handful of construction paper and let them choose a background color. I also had the oil pastels out already so we added a little pattern to the 'tablecloth' paper. Then as I was rushing through the art closet getting paper I noticed some super shiny mirror-like paper that I had never used and immediately thought, "silverware!". This awesome mirror-y paper just so happened to be like a giant sticker which was fun for the kids to use. Great day for improv in the art room! This was also a fun opportunity to discuss how to set a table with the kids.
Reggie Laurent: Contemporary Artist Reggie Laurent is a self-taught artist living in Georgia. He creates very intricate abstract shape paintings. I saw his paintings online and I was immediately drawn to all of the fun patterns and colors. My first graders learned about his abstract pictures. They are filled with lots of different shapes, fitted together like a puzzle. His artworks are highly detailed and very colorful. Student Shape Collages The students learned about and used organic (freeform) and geometric shapes … Read more... →
Interested in cool & simple thing to draw on your hand? Dive into fun and educational hand art with Artistro! We've prepared a lot of...
For me it is always a challenge to keep up with Kindergarten art projects. I see my classes twice per week for 40 minutes, so they get to do a lot of art! They go through lessons and projects quickly, their attention spans are short and they have difficulty sometimes with very basic skills. Here are three Kindergarten art lessons that are fairly easy to prepare for, teach important art concepts and use the same selection of materials. The first … Read more... →
I am linking up with Fourth Grade Frolics for Monday Made It. This year I am going with a bird theme in my room. It just kind of happened. I already had a great picture I bought last year at my school's art auction. Then I happened upon these, and that's all she wrote! I have a small space above some of my cabinets in my room. Over the years I have tried to put decorative items on the soffit, but to no avail. It was just too small of a distance from cabinet to ceiling and nothing looked right, until now. Yay! I found these at Kirklands and they were the perfect size. I then saw these bird houses at Hobby Lobby. Again, just the right size. Now I was happy. :) I bought the houses and some paint and this is what happened: I am going to snip the string off the small houses, but they came in handy as I was painting them. I am heading up to my room to add them to my decor. Once my room is put together I will snap some photos and post them. Of course I am thinking of bird things to do with my little sweeties once school starts. I saw this on Pinterest and immediately knew I would be doing something like this. I then found some free bird clipart on TpT and made this. It is part of my upcoming bird pack I am working on. If you would like a copy click HERE. I also made a PowerPoint presentation for one of my classes last week. It goes with the book 'The Day the Crayons Quit'. I plan on using it on my interactive whiteboard to check comprehension after I read the story to my little learners. They will be able to choose an answer, touch it, and the correct answer will stay on the screen. I would love any feedback if you choose to view it and/or use it with your class. The Day the Crayons Quit - Revised from lolaragan Thanks for reading! Have a great day. :)
Kinder students drew beautiful patterns using crayons. We reviewed all of the geometric shapes, free form shapes, and different kinds of lines and discussed how we could combine those elements of art and make them repeat to create patterns. Then we practiced painting, remembering how to use our brushes gently so we take care of the bristles. After the paintings were dry, we created a wonderful soft sculpture with the paper; look for these sculptures to be "swimming" home soon!
Please Note: All images seen below are of my students artwork only. These photos/lessons are not posted in any particular order regarding the flow of my curriculum. Abstract Self-Portrait Paintin…
The sun will come out! Do you need to reintroduce a warm and cool concept in a colorful way? Here is a fun lesson that incorporates line and color. My students really enjoy creating these ad…
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
