Welcome to the How-To Guide for First Year Art Teachers where I give you my 10 Steps for Success! Congratulations! You got your own classroom. OH MY GOSH, you have your own classroom. Your mind and stomach start racing, both with extreme excitement and panic because now, it all just got real. You will have a lot of students, a lot of planning, and a lot of classroom to keep organized. Figuring out where to even start is a huge stress and will require a tea (or a beer) and a nap (probably some Netflix too).
Teach children art history through a variety of fun art projects and lessons. We love using artists as inspiration for our own creations.
We are currently starting our final projects of the year. [I can't believe it!] But for now, let me catch you up on what we just finished... 5th and 4th grade have been working on the same concepts for the past two projects. Both grades participated in a school wide Egyptian art unit by creating Egyptian sarcophagi. They reviewed SYMMETRY, and learned about hieroglyphics. After that, they learned about creating TINTS and SHADES by making an undersea painting. You can find these handouts here- http://www.teachandshoot.com/2015/02/art-room-handouts-round-3-value.html I would have let the students have more freedom with other colors, but I really only had blue left, and underwater came to mind. Thanks for visiting! 3rd grade also participated in the Egyptian art unit by creating Egyptian PORTRAITS! This might be my favorite project from this year. What a wonderful job the students did! After that, 3rd grade made ORIGAMI frogs, but I forgot to take photos! After origami, 3rd grade started creating ASSEMBLAGE art like the artist Louise Nevelson. They are just starting to paint their sculptures this week! 2nd grade created a fun pyramid COLLAGE as part of the Egyptian art unit! After that, 2nd and 1st grade both created ABSTRACT Picasso PORTRAITS. 1st grade and kindergarten created Egyptian necklaces and learned a little bit about PERSPECTIVE by drawing the pyramids. Kindergarten just finished learning about weaving by creating some alligator WEAVINGs!
Simple, hand-drawn examples of various hairstyles. Suitable for posters or handouts, may be used as an adaptive resource. Helps students create more varied and unique hair for their portraits, and hopefully represent themselves a little better.Updated April 2023 to correct spelling.
Road-scapes Grant Haffner Style.... Elementary and Middle School ArtMixed Media Road Trip Landscape Art Lesson, Grant Haffner styleI have been preparing art lessons for the next school year. Recently, I gave this lesson a test run... I taught it online to my art club students in Vancouver, BC. They are elementary students (ages 6-12) They enjoyed the introduction to one point perspective and learning about contemporary artist, Grant Haffner. Here you can see what they created in one hour. This a
Use this collection of Paul Klee teaching resources and complete Klee Famous Artist Unit lesson plans to teach elementary art class.
Earlier this year, my co-worker Jayne found the idea to make a collaborative school-wide paper mural based on the artwork of Thank YouX. The idea for a student mural originally came from Jenell Novello and you can see the lesson plan write-up on Artsonia. She also so generously provided the lesson plan and templates on Google docs. Thank You X got his name by accident. In 2009 Andy Warhol’s spray painted portrait was spotted on a city street in L.A.. … Read more... →
A Printable Elementary Art Rubric is a valuable tool for both teachers and students to assess and evaluate art projects in a structured and objective manner. This rubric helps to provide a clear set of criteria and expectations for the different elements of an artwork, such as creativity, craftsmanship, and effort. Designed specifically for elementary school students, this printable rubric enhances their understanding of the subject and empowers them to take ownership of their artistic achievements.
Do you use rubrics for self-assessment with your students? I developed this rubric based on others I had seen online. I wanted to get my students thinking more about their artwork and writing a few sentences in reflection. We haven’t done much writing in art class before, so I didn’t want to overwhelm them. What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for my rubric? (Does everything sound right, but also easy enough for little kids to understand?) … Read more... →
Our art and craft printables have moved and can now be found HERE>>>
A fun and creative elementary school art lesson plan for K-4th grade. This lesson plans is perfect for celebrating International Dot Day. Art teachers and educators can teach students creativity, courage & collaboration with Kandinsky inspired artwork.
This is a digital product. You will receive a pdf document via email to print on completion of your order. Get creative at home with our Pablo Picasso inspired printable art activity sheets. The printable includes 6 pages of creative activities; create a Pablo Picasso inspired cubist portrait, colour a Picasso portrait
Use this collection of Paul Klee teaching resources and complete Klee Famous Artist Unit lesson plans to teach elementary art class.
Looking for Constitution Day activities for your elementary classroom? These lesson ideas, read aloud and projects will engage your students
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!
How to draw a Keith Haring Figure step-by-step downloadable printout. Use as a visual handout or class poster. ...
The first days of school are always hectic and stressful. If this is your first year teaching elementary art it probably feels downright overwhelming. For me it is about getting to know my students, getting them comfortable with me, introducing rules, and giving them a quick drawing activity. I do it the same every year and it works great for me. I have 30-40 minute classes. I move very quickly through the following activities. I also have these steps outlined on the board, so that I don't forge
I have done this lesson many times, but this year the results are better than ever before. This year, we had more time to do this project, and therefore their drawings had more detail. This lesson focuses on the concept of foreshortening. This is a hard concept for even experienced artists, so to make it simpler, we traced our hands and feet. The other details were drawn in after. I found the idea for this lesson years ago on the blog Oodles of Art. Over the years, I have adapted this lesson, and this year the results are amazing. I just LOVE these!
The Kindergarten artists and PreKinders also created some artwork inspired by Mondrian. The PreKinders glued down black lines creating squares and rectangles they then colored some of their shapes …
Happy Fall! I don’t know about you, but for me, at this time in the year, the back to school rush of adrenaline has worn off. Students have settled into their classes, behaviors start to escalate and as an art teacher, you’re just plain worn out. But after classes are done for the day, you have to attend to all of the cleaning, organizing, school duties, meetings lesson planning & prepping for the next day. . Art teachers are really AMAZING. The amount of work you do on a daily basis is unreal a
Kids love the thoughtfully designed art projects in this PreK-5 elementary art curriculum created by art teacher with 20+ years of experience
Teaching the elements of art to elementary school children can be a rewarding and challenging experience for educators. The elements of art are the building blocks that form the foundation of visual arts. These elements include line, shape, form, space, texture, value, and color. Understanding and mastering these elements can help children create beautiful and meaningful art.
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 …
6 page PDF printable art lesson plan for elementary school. Pattern Chameleon is a Pattern Art Lesson Plan for elementary school art lessons Pattern Chameleon Art Lesson Plan is easy to teach and make, there is no prep except printing and uses simple materials creating little mess. Pattern Chameleon Art Lesson Plan is suitable for student from Prep to Grade 3, but could be used with students of different year levels. Clear printable lesson plan instructions of the Pattern Chameleon Art Lesson Plan are suitable for Sub teachers An example of the finished Pattern Chameleon is included Pattern Chameleon Lesson Plan includes a materials list Pattern Chameleon Art Lesson Plan includes extension suggestions for how to go further with this project. Pattern Chameleon Art Lesson Plan includes a printable Chameleon to fill with pattern as well as examples of patterns to inspire students. A Printable example of the Pattern Chameleon can be used to demonstrate or photocopied for students to refer to. Learning Intentions and Success Criteria are included in this Pattern Chameleon Art Lesson Plan. A Visual Rubric is included - it can be stuck onto the back of the artwork and used for marking, peer review, or self evaluation All graphics created by Kerry Daley ©2022 You may also like these Art Lesson Plans: Monsters in Jumpers Monsters, Robots and Aliens - Bundle Cut and Color Aliens Cut and Color Monsters Mechanimals Collage Project Surrealist Animal Collage Project Don’t miss out on freebies, flash sales and more! Follow me on TPT Find me on Instagram Follow me on Pinterest Terms and Conditions Copyright © Kerry Daley. All rights reserved by author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Clipart and elements found in this PDF are copyrighted and cannot be extracted and used outside of this file without permission or license. Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY. Pattern Chameleon Art lesson for elementary school pattern art lesson pattern lesson for elementary school Elementary school elements of art lesson printable art project, art lesson plan for elementary school art projects for kids, sub teacher art project for kids
Helpful resources for teaching young artists about the techniques and popular works of famous artists throughout history
Our first project this year has been a very progressive, multi step, multi media project that has really evolved as we created! Our first project when we got back from hurricane Harvery was to release some stress with scribbling to music.... Students spread out on the floor and scribbled to the sound of fast and slow music by “The Piano Guys” they love these songs because they recognize them from the radio but it’s all instrumental. The students were instructed to use large arm motions that cross over the body. Any motion that crosses from the right side of the body to the left or vise versa uses both hemispheres of the brain since each side controls one side of the body. It is very relaxing and the kids LOVED it!!!!!! The next class kids painted over thier scribbles with water colors, tempera paint, and India ink. They explored the way different paint resists or does not resist the crayon. You can follow me on instagram for more photos "Natty241" And my facebook page "Mrs. Waggenspack's Art Room" They were allowed to use their hands at the end. We try to use all 5 senses for a while brain experience. We talked about abstract art, Kinetic art, And the experience of art. It is a process and not just a product that we create in art. After each experience we gathered on the floor and talked about how they felt in one word. Students said, “Free, alive, happy, exhilarating, dancing, creative, like a real artist, quiet, excited, open,angry, peaceful,etc” When the paintings were finished the students tore them up into strips! They were so upset at first. When they saw the next step they were so excited. The students glued the strips on a late paper for the collage. This took three 50 minute classes. Then students traced the eyes and nose of the animal they wanted and outlines the eyes, nose, and beaks with India ink. ( pictures at the bottom of blog) this is the resin I use. I paint it on with a brush. This resin must be mixed one to one ratio and it is toxic so you must wear a mask. Do NOT let the children use it. You have to do it for them if you want the ultra shiney eyes effect! Wear a mask and use gloves! You can sprinkle glitter in it too for extra FUN!!! Then they glued the eyes and nose on the collage. The next step was to embellish the face and add details. We used India ink and fan brushes to make fur and feathers. When the entire face was finished I added resin to the eyes to make them shine These are how the eyes and noses look before they cut them out. We used the fan brush for making fur. These are the travers they could use for eyes, noses and beaks
Hands-on learning is incredibly important for kids. There are a million reasons why! Today I am highlighting more than 60 elementary hands-on math teaching ideas that I have featured over the years on my site.
Hi! The winner of the Createures game is Karen Riehle. Congrats! I love GIVEAWAYS. Another one will be coming soon in the next couple of weeks! (Amazon Affiliate links have been used at no cost to you.) Candlewick Press sent me a review copy of the book Birds by Carme Lemniscates, along with a few free activity downloads to share with you. See the bottom of this blog post for the bird activity printable downloads. Birds is a thoughtful, poetic homage … Read more... →
With this Eiffel Tower craft for kids, your child can make a 3D model of one of France's most iconic landmarks. Free printable included!
Restorative practices in elementary schools are incredible, but they look a little different than in the secondary levels.
Every year in my first year classes (12 year olds) I touch on the principles of perspective, at least in its one point form. We do a little art history, take a look at Masaccio and Mantegna. We mak…
I was introduced to this lesson by Claire Kirk & Katie Flowers. Both amazing artists and art educators I have had the honor of knowing and working with over the years. From observational drawin…
Help students plan their individual artworks!This acts as a pre-assessment, establishes an understanding of revision and reflection, and also integrates smoothly as a part of a modified choice art classroom, geared to elementary grades. In order to help students develop their art skills, we as teach...
Here is a post that I am putting on my school class website for parents: Children are prolific artists. I have found some interesting ways to document your child’s art journey and display favorite works of art. 1. First, you could create a book! Take photographs of your child’s drawings, sculptures and paintings and use a service like walgreens.com to create a photo album. Many of your child’s artworks are already photographed by me on our Artsonia gallery. You could … Read more... →
Collaborative projects! Collaborative projects are one of my favorite things. I love them at the start of the year and the end. I love doing them with the whole school or just a grade level. I love using songs, themes, artist-inspiration...you name it. I just love collaboratives! We've done a TON over the years and I thought I'd put them all together in one big ole blog post. So, here you go: my 20 Favorite Collabortive Projects. Be sure and click on the links, many of these have how-to videos. Check out this blog post on how we created several canvases in this style for our school and the school library! Students worked in table teams to create these positive four-letter words to describe our school! Here's a simple, fast and fun project using clothes pens, paint and words that describe who we are! A fun mural based on the book You Be You was created by nearly all of my students. You can learn about the process of creating our fish here. Read all about the making of the mural itself here! Another book we used for inspiration is the book by Todd Parr called It's Okay to be Different. You can check out how we created these collages here! The Our School Has Heart mural was a piece with a contribution from each student in the school. You can see the breakdown of who created what in this blog post. Our clay collaborative mural is a bright and shiny beauty that hangs in a prominent place in our school. Each student contributed something to this piece...you can read more about the process here. One year, we created a Village of Kindness as apart of our art show! Each student upcycled a milk carton that our cafeteria queen cleaned in the dishwasher. The students made little doors that opened and said kind words to those who peeked inside. Students worked together to create the landscape on the bulletin board. I love to do collaboratives at the start of the school year. I especially like ones where students celebrate our school and that set a postive tone. That was the idea behind this collaborative! Another fun way to start the school year is with some selfies! We've created them for a monochromatic mural. You can check out the video here. Inspired by the artist Romero Britto, this mural was created by my students when I was out for jury duty! My sub just played the video and when I returned, I assembled the mural! A collaborative mural that definitely made the rounds was this one! The kids loved creating the feathers and it was a beautiful thing while in the hallway but I will say...it was a lot of work to assemble. All the details here. My fourth graders created this collaborative one year that lives at the front entrance of our school. We even 'wrapped' it for Christmas and brought out admin out for them to unwrap it as it was hung on the wall of our school. We kicked off this school year with our What a Wonderful World collaborative mural. Details and video tour here. Here's another look of our school mural. Above that, you'll see our Learning for All collaborative! During our field day one year, my students rotated through many art stations. One of them was this alphabet and number series. My librarian requested them and we just love how they turned out. Click here to see them framed and hung in our school library. Much like our monochromatic collaborative, this map collaborative was created with a self-portrait of each of my students! We are the tigers at my school so we do tiger-themed artwork every so often. This mural was created by first graders of all of their tiger drawings. You can find a how-to video right here! In table teams, my third graders created a Rizzi City inspired by the artist James Rizzi. One year, we did super-sized works of art inspired by Andy Warhol and Vincent van Gogh! When these came together, they were stunning. All the details can be found here.
Preparing for Your First Elementary Music Teaching Job. Organized Chaos. Top 5 suggestions to help you get ready over the summer for your first elementary music job.
Math and Art are no strangers, as these Math Art Activities for Kids show! Be ready to be mesmerized by how even Math can look gorgeous!
