Looking for elementary art lessons inspired by African art? This bundle of lesson ideas has 14 kid-tested, exciting lessons, with multiple student-art examples, contextual information about each project, basic lesson procedures, and links to relevant websites with historical and cultural information...
Let me start out by saying this has been one of the most successful and visually stunning projects that I've ever done with my students. It ...
elementary art lessons classroom management
Recently, students at Thomas were lucky enough to be able to host illustrator/author Steve Harpster. Steve is a local illustrator who does free (can you believe that?!?) school visits in Ohio and free electronic visits around the world. He has illustrated over 100 books including many how to draw books. Steve sent several of his books in advance and my students couldn't wait to see him. Steve's presentation was primarily a drawing lesson. He drew many characters from his books. Students (who brought paper and pencil) drew right along with him. Watching 125 students all drawing something at once was priceless. It was the art version of watching a crowd at a tennis match. Everyone would look up at the screen to see the next step in the drawing. Then they would all look down to work on their own paper. Then the would look up, then down, then up, then down, then up, then down. I think you get the point. Pure fascination. Steve drew on his tablet which was projected on the wall. It was incredibly easy for all students to follow along. My students were extremely engaged with the presentation and were incredibly excited and motivated about how good their drawings were. All of the drawings are based around letters or numbers, so it's a totally different style than what they typically see in drawing books. I saw more successful drawings with Steve's presentation and books than I've ever seen from any other drawing book. If you're interested in having Steve Harpster visit your school, I would highly recommend it. More information about his school visits (along with drawing lessons, printables, and other materials) are on his website.
Digital Download from Art Teacher in LA’s popular blog post includes: 3 pages of photographed lesson plans for OCEAN WAVE PAINTING ART LESSON Grade Kindergarten- 8th Written & Photographed directions Step by step drawing instructions Created by ArtTeacherinLA.com co-owner of LA Art School, Viridian Art
Evan R., 4-2 The fourth graders just completed one of my favorite lessons because I actually wrote it during my student teaching way way back in 2004! Speaking of student teaching, you should definitely check out my good friend Mrs. Susa's (she was my cooperating teacher for student teaching!!!) new blog from Lake Elementary!! Anyway, we made these awesome paper sculptures at Suffield after learning about the abstract sculptures of Frank Stella. We talked about abstract art and how it can be "about" something even though there may not be recognizable pictures in it. We looked at his sculpture Jarama II and played The Guessing Game over at NGA Kids. The kids really liked this neat web site! To make the sculptures, each student started with two 9" x 12" pieces of white tag board. We drew two symmetrical shapes with negative space in the center on one piece, and then two asymmetrical shapes with negative space on the other piece. The students carefully cut the shapes out and drew patterns on the fronts and backs of them. We colored with markers and then glued them together with twists and bends to make sculptures. If you try this lesson, be sure to tell the students to hold the areas they are gluing together for a loooooong time or else they pop apart as you try to move on with your next piece! Serenity S., 4-2 Eva H., 4-2 Brenna C., 4-1 Caleb F., 4-1
Who knew that kids would absolutely love sewing? Oh, that's right. I've taught this lesson several times. I knew that. That's why I keep teaching it. I love it when a tough 5th grade boy comes up to ask if his stitching is neat enough. That will never get old. I ran this lesson pretty similar to how I've done it in the past, but allowed a little more freedom this year. Originally, students made monsters. This year I told them they could make anything. The results, as usual, were really nice. I love how much attitude the banana has. (Bananatude?) There isn't a whole lot of technical expertise that is required for this project. That's great for me because my crowning achievement in sewing was making a pair of boxer shorts in 8th grade home economics class. It's simple enough that every student is more than capable of making something cool, but students who have experience with sewing can really run with it and make some cool stuff. This guy is named Mr. Pillow. It was originally going to be an iPad, but I like how my student reworked his idea to make it more successful. My biggest suggestion with the project is making sure that students work with large enough pieces of fabric. I purchased 9x12 sheets of felt. Each student gets two, so the final piece winds up being fairly large. I originally had students use only one piece of felt, so the work was smaller and a little more difficult to work with. I keep all of the fabric scraps throughout the project and students use those for details to glue on with fabric glue once their work has been sewn and stuffed. This project is definitely in line with my idea of challenging 5th graders with materials as opposed to overly technical and skill based lessons. I really think it keeps a bigger percentage of students engaged and truly enjoying what they are doing in the art room. Click here to download my lesson plan! A Harry Potter book with stuffed covers and actual felt pages!
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
CLAY FISH SCULPTURES Art lesson. Simple directions give students lots of leeway to make their fish unique. Great STEAM ART LESSON.
My middle school art students loved making these polymer clay dragon eyes. Here is a how-to if you want to try this art lesson.
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
The art show! The event we have been working hard the entire year for! The art show this year was incredibly successful. Each student had...
Do you know who Rube Goldberg is? If you do, you're cool in my book. If you don't, you will quite soon. This project was ori...
Detail from the comic above. This guy has such a cool, dry sense of humor. Let me start by saying that this project to...
Behold the magic of the elementary art classroom. This blog is intended as a venue for parents and students to check out what is going on in the art room at Thomas Elementary. Also, possibly more importantly, it is a place for other educators to find free art lesson plans and share ideas. Art, art education, art classroom, bottle cap, mural, elementary art blog, painting, ceramics, fun, awesome, interesting.
The art show. Hours and hours and hours of preparation for show that lasts a few hours. Is it worth it? Of course it is. Do I look for ways to make it simpler and more streamlined? Oh, yeah. Enter Artomé. I had been contacted by art show companies in the past, but I was always a little suspicious. I would furrow my brow and think to myself, "I don't have the budget to pay a company to do what I can do for free." I got some information from Artomé and I realized that I could streamline the entire art show by using them. After talking to some colleagues who used Artomé last year and they were please with the results. I decided to give them a shot. Overall, I believe using Artomé will be a good move. They frame every piece of student work - 750 for me this year. It's free. In fact, I'll make some money from the show. I had two concerns. All of the frames are the same size. That means that all of the 2D artwork at my show will be 9x12. Ideally, parents will buy the framed work and I'll earn some money for the art room, so the artwork should be something that will appeal to parents. Hmmmm.... Well, that's a bit of a challenge. Most of my lessons are larger. It has been a challenge to come up with lessons that allow for a fair amount of student choice, but still conform to the required size. I also teach lessons that don't necessarily produce "pretty art." We explore science, history, and math. I design lessons to help students learn about art and the world, not specifically so they can have something pretty to take home. This is a new lesson that I decided to use for an art show project this year. It's based on the work of Jasper Johns. I really liked how it allows for some messiness, but the work still comes out super cool. I would include the lesson plan, but I borrowed it from For the Love of Art and I don't want to take credit for it. It's super simple. Take a page and have students carefully fold it in half four times. When they unfold it, they will have 16 rectangles. Students write their names in oil pastels as large as they can in each box. I found that using only capital letters worked best. Students then took a couple of classes to paint the areas around the letters, trying to loosely conform to the shape of the original rectangular fold marks. It worked perfectly for my needs and it is something that I'll definitely consider using again.
Kids love the thoughtfully designed art projects in this PreK-5 elementary art curriculum created by art teacher with 20+ years of experience
This term year 9 have been looking into graffiti and lettering. For this lesson the students came to the lesson having developed their own lettering for homework and then in class they drew out eac…
Be afraid, be very afraid! More students have finished their warriors and we're lining them up for a bone dry army ready for their first kiln experience! I'll keep posting photos as students finish and I'll definitely post more once they have been smoke fired (I just can't wait for that finished smokey, rustic effect)! Enjoy... This warrior even has battle scars! Check out his eye I love the epaulettes on this one!
I am working on some quick assessment sheets for key concepts in art class. I came across this famous lines handout from The Bees Knees Cousin. I’m also not too big on worksheets and we rarely do them in art class, but they can be good for some fine motor practice and assessment. I liked the famous lines handout and tried to download it from Scribd, but I couldn’t get it to work. So I ended up making my own … Read more... →
Your source for worksheets,slide shows, and teaching informaion created by Jake Allee
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
Looking for the most efficient way to hang student artwork for a school wide art show? Well look no further! Click through to follow the 6 easy steps that will save your time and your sanity and are art teacher approved!
Islamic art lessons for kids! Marvel at the geometric patterns unique to the Islamic ceramic tile tradition, and then create your own decoration.!
FYI: MORE PHOTOS COMING IN A WEEK Coil pots are a staple in Elementary Art. Before my students build their own, we spend a class having a clay experience day and use my Coil Technique Sheet to help…
Let me start out by saying this has been one of the most successful and visually stunning projects that I've ever done with my students. It ...
Behold the magic of the elementary art classroom. This blog is intended as a venue for parents and students to check out what is going on in the art room at Thomas Elementary. Also, possibly more importantly, it is a place for other educators to find free art lesson plans and share ideas. Art, art education, art classroom, bottle cap, mural, elementary art blog, painting, ceramics, fun, awesome, interesting.
I LOVE these flowers!!! I also think this may be my new favorite art lesson to teach! 2nd Graders did such a fabulous job creating them– SO proud of their work!! Step-by-step directions with…
