The best high school art teacher blogs, social media profiles and art education websites – a list of the gems we have found.

Special Education Teacher Blogs to Follow

All the lesson plans give background and details. If you click on them and drag them to your desktop you can read, zoom in and print them ...

Summer Vacation!!! Usually those words evoke a picture of sun, fun, and relaxation. Well I have the sun and the fun, but relaxing? I would NOT call my summer this year relaxing. You see, I have …

I don't know if you have seen the amazing videos on YouTube for melting crayons to make art but oh my word..they are awesome. This one happens to be my fav probably because of the Ellie Goulding song playing with it. I didn't notice the terrible language in the comments until just now! Mercy YouTube can be tricky to work with in a classroom. The f word with crayons? C'mon! I was looking for a way to amp up my science lesson this week. We are working on melting and freezing. I also made a goal for myself over the summer to do more science experiments so what a perfect fit. I totally teased the kids the day before by telling them, "You cannot be absent tomorrow. We are going to do the most amazing science experiment! There were dying to know what but I didn't give in. These are the crayons I used to the left. Notice that it doesn't matter if the paper is on or off. I tried it both ways. It also doesn't matter if they are brand new or old crayons or Crayola or cheep-os. Everything works. I just hot glued them down onto a piece of poster board matching up the ends. I saved a pizza box from over the weekend to prop the poster board up and catch any mess. I moved a little table to the front of my carpet and covered it with black butcher paper to make it look like a real science lab. I also borrowed the science lab goggles for the kids to wear. I wish I could post the video of those precious babies in their goggles. Since I don't have every parent's permission for that I'll post these precious angels. that would be my baby on the left, Mateo and my nephew on the right Carter. Ha! I love it! Back to the lesson. I stood at the table and held the hair dryer. I projected a timer onto the whiteboard behind me so we could see how many seconds it took to start melting. I told the kids if it didn't work we'd stop after 5 minutes. (trying to build the suspense) It only took about 35 sec. and boy did they LOVE it. They were so stinkin' excited! I was repeating that vocabulary like crazy and they were eating it up. After the melted wax cooled back down into a solid (do ya like how I threw that science knowledge in there? hehe) I let the kids touch it. I added some labels with a sharpie and this beautiful work of art is now hanging on our science wall. Now how's that for a vocabulary card? I don't think they'll forget what melting means. It was such a success I even had a student teach her parents how to do this experiment that night and they brought it in to show me. Today another little one did the same thing! It just makes my heart sing to know they loved a lesson so much they want to do it at home. Science + Fun experiments = one great day!

There is a lot of Ted Harrison love at the school these days. Both Grades 2 and 3 are completing art projects based on his work. Ted Harrison is a well known Canadian artist famous for his use of line and color in his landscape paintings around his beloved Yukon home. This is an easy art project based on his work. MATERIALS REQUIRED: - watercolor paper or heavy weight sketch paper - watercolor, tempera, or acrylic paints - black paper - glue - scissors - reference photos (there are lots of images of Ted Harrison's work online) - oil pastels or wax crayons I like to tape off my paper and then draw in your line design. You want to discuss the way Ted Harrison uses a strong line to show shape or contour of the landscape, how the line is just as important as the color. With younger kids you may want to use pastels or wax crayons and draw those heavy lines. I'm using crayon here and they resist the paint allowing you to keep those heavy lines, oil pastels work even better. Start painting. It's good to start with the lightest colors first and then work your way to the darkest. Although the crayon or pastel resists the paint you still want the kids to stay within the lines if the can so you have those separate areas of deep color. With older kids you can get them to conserve that white line. When painting with watercolors you'll want to leave some space between the colors any way so they don't mix together before drying. Another option is to try the stained glass method. I've mixed a couple of squirts of acrylic paint into a bottle of white school glue. I then use this to mark my heavy lines, lie flat and let dry. (about 12 hrs.) Once the glue is dry paint in your strong color. They glue helps to corral the paint in each area for easier painting. Now you can add an Inukshuk if you wish. Cut out individual stones out of black paper. Then glue down on top of your painting. Place a sheet of wax paper on top and rest a heavy book on top of that to help it dry flat. The paintings also look great just on their own. Here is some work by Grade 2. They used their twistables for this and it turned out terrific but I think they are ready to try the painting option. Great work grade 2!

A blog about primary school art.

This week I was reviewing The Art of Loose Parts Master Workshop and had to share some of the amazing loose parts. Most of these can be had for a very economical price or free! The best loose parts or repurposed materials. Construction sites and companies, ReStore (Habitat for Humanity), junk stores, asking the families […]

At a staff meeting we were all asked to create a classroom procedures flowchart. At first I went "yuck, more work" but then I realized this is the greatest thing ever!!! It is simple and easy to make...I used Power Point because that is what I was in at the moment. Fell free to download it for idea inspiration. I had them laminated, one for each table. If someone is not sure what to do next the manager of that table will hand them a flowchart. It has changed my world!

Abbey's Idea Machine Talia's Idea Machine For me, the best thing about blogging is the ideas so generously shared. I found this Souther Salazar inspired idea at shine brite zamorano... We watched this time-lapse Youtube video of the artist creating his installation 'Alejandro's Idea Machine'. It finishes with a pan around some of the marvellous detail in the piece. We also looked at some of his drawings, again noting the detail and free-flowing line work, before completing our own Idea Machine drawings using black marker and white chinagraph pencil on coloured paper. Souther Salazar: Alejandro and the Idea Machine

5th grade students participated in a "Genius Hour" project as a culmination of all the amazing art skills that they have learned in elementary school! Click Here to See Our Genius Hour Planning Page Click Here To See Our Project Ideas and Instructions Sheet Click Here to See Our Powerpoint Presentation

Back-to-School Ideas for The Art Room % %

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Over the past few years I've had readers contact me and ask me how to start a blog for teachers or anyone! Whether you have extra time over the summer...

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Seesaw is an amazing tool for both teachers and students. Click here to check out the four ways that I use Seesaw with my reading groups!

14 years ago I walked into my very first art room, full of so much excitement but also feeling totally overwhelmed wondering where to even begin!?

Looking to connect with other teachers? These secondary ELA Instagram accounts are a great starting place for your educational community on IG. (Blog post)

Learn all about the amazing artist Sonia Delaunay with these 7 Gorgeous Sonia Delaunay Art Projects for Kids, with art work, collages and more!

Pre-Made Sketchbook Pages Download % %

I have a quick and simple tip for you today. Another teacher gave me this tip a few years ago and I love it! (I wish I remembered who gave me this tip and where they got the idea from so I could give the credit.) Do you ever start to give directions and you ... Read More about A quick classroom management tip

Pendulum painting is another of those activities like fly swatter painting and the balloon cage that we have been doing at Woodland Park since my first year as a teacher. I build two of these rigs from PVC pipe . . . Look, you can still see the splatter marks on the wall from our recent fly swatter painting sessions! . . . string, a few links from our plastic chain set, and a plastic cup with a hole poked in the bottom. I've learned that every gallon of tempera paint has a slightly different consistency, but you normally need to dilute it with water so it flows properly. The jug we were working off this week needed to be about 2 parts paint to 1 part water. Of course, it also makes a difference how big you make the hole in your cup. I used a Phillips head screw driver to do the job. As the kids approach the table, the art parent puts her finger over the hole to prevent the paint from spilling out prematurely, fills the cup about half way with the thinned paint, and hands it over to the child saying something like, "Give it a swing." The results tend to be frame worthy: I've tried making the paint even thinner, but if it's too thin, the paintings dry "fuzzy" as the excess water tends to absorb into the paper as it separates from the paint a bit. Of course, thinner paint does nothing to reduce the child's experience, but this is one of those few art projects where Woodland Park parents say they really want to take one home to hang on their walls, so I go with thicker paint in the hope of creating a few of these keepsakes. Also, I usually pre-tear dozens of sheets of butcher paper to have stacked under the pendulum so that all the adult has to do is whip one away to reveal a blank canvas for the next artist. Not only does this help give kids their turn without a lot of waiting, but it also helps keep the table from becoming a big pool of black paint while you're changing out the paper. Between the Pre-3 and 3-5 classes, we made at least 100 of these artworks over the course of the past two days forcing us to be very creative in finding enough flat surfaces to dry them (for obvious reasons they can't be hung to dry). We went through an entire gallon of black paint and had to resort to blue by the end of the day yesterday. By this stage, the only painters left were a clutch of hard core scientists who were being quite intentional in their efforts. I wanted to share a few of these because you can see more complexity and evidence of different swinging techniques being employed. I even heard Anjali say, "I'm trying to make a butterfly." I think this is the butterfly. Annabelle achieved this by, in part, holding onto the string and swinging the cup in a kind of chaotic manner. Not all of them turned out looking like something from an art gallery . . . . . . but that was hardly the point of this lesson in physics.

I am not a huge fan of photorealism. And I don’t particularly enjoy total abstraction (i.e. nonobjective or nonrepresentational art). For any of you who regularly read my blog posts, these declarat…

A Teacher Blog by Jessica Meacham

Designed a new Bell Ringer Format using several different ideas found on Pinterest. Thanks go out to all the art teachers sharing amazing ideas. This format will fit our journals. If a student doesn't have a journal this can fold into a handmade book. Contact me for blank template, grade rubric etc.

Today’s show is a little bit different y’all. I spent some time with 10 educators talking about 10 awesome ways to use Flipgrid in your classroom [LIVE from ISTE] at the Flipgrid booth. You won’t want to miss the big updates Flipgrid announced at ISTE that Adam “Short-Shorts” Goldberg shares! The educators that stood up to speak shared some amazing tips on how to get the most out of Flipgrid in your classroom. From using it to encourage collaboration on projects, creating global classrooms, and giving students a way to practice giving feedback, the tips were fantastic and unbelievably actionable.

Goldenrod paper is not longer being sold commercially, but that shouldn't stop teachers from continuing to use this amazing paper in their classrooms!

10 TED Talks Every Art Teacher Should Watch % %

Before I started teaching high school, I taught middle school science for 14 years and my absolute favorite topic to teach students is genetics. The “a-ha” moments when they learn about Punnett Squares, the ability to connect to their own lives, and the amount of creativity that I can add to my classroom add to […]

A (way cool) 21st Century Elementary Art Room in Flower Mound, Texas

When it comes to student engagement, the biggest challenge for teachers is being able to consistently motivate and inspire students through different lesson

Marc Chagall believed in painting from the heart and that's what he did! Learn more about this amazing artist with 10 Marc Chagall Art Projects for Kids.