The Art of Giving fundraiser is one of my favorite events of the year! Last year Mila and I made a collaborative painting to donate for our 6th Art of Giving, but it was not the usual in person event at the hospital with tons of kids. This year, the event was back to business and I
There's so much more to do with kindergartners than finger painting.
It's been a total joy collaborating with 8 to 12-year-old kids from Orakei School. I think we've managed to create something uniquely kiwi with these three artworks.
Students paint rocks inspired by popular children's book to create a colorful landscape design,
The Art of Giving is one of my favorite events of the year! I did not participate in 2020 because well, that was a hard year for the world. I'm excited to be back and making a collaborative painting to donate for my 6th Art of Giving! In years past, I make collaborative art projects with
Two weeks ago we had an opportunity to make a collaborative project for an area school art show exhibit. The exhibit was at the Hudson Opera House, and the opening was the evening of Winter Walk. Literally thousands take to the streets of Hudson, and many visit the Opera House as they are the ones who put together the Winter Walk. If you travel to a back room and look up on the wall, there is our lovely group painting. We even won an award! The thing I found most impressive about this painting created by the children is that they all worked together on it, but also the layers of colors, and materials, that came together in a very captivating and free way. I tried to offer the children their favorite art processes to work with. So we first started off with spray bottle painting. They also layered cardboard cut outs on the canvas to leave the impression of these shapes after they spray painted. After spray painting for some time, I took out another favorite of the kids and that is using watered down acrylic paints and eye droppers. Here is what the painting looked like after the first day. Later some of the children used a hot glue gun with white crayons in instead of glue. They used the wax to draw an outline around some of the shapes made from the cardboard cutouts. On another day the children layered tissue paper all over the canvas and then used water in eyedroppers to make the colors from the tissue paper bleed onto the canvas. This added another layer of color and dimension. Continuing through the week, our next group did printmaking on the painting using rollers and stamps. For one of the last layers the children sprinkled broken crayon bits and beeswax on the canvas and then using a tacking iron they melted the wax onto the painting. some drew into the melted wax. And for the final touch they added mirror sticker to the painting. Here it is hanging at the Opera House. At the preschool age I feel the process is more important than the product, however the end product that came out of their process has an organic, beautiful finale that I just love and cannot wait to hang in the school.
Art projects that are fun for kids and bring in big bucks for your school auction!
collaborative circle painting Sometimes we all just need time to practice and make mistakes with no judgements. There are days in my art room called NO JUDGEMENT DAY. This means no one (not even the teacher) can say "that is great" or "work on this" because just like constructive criticism, positive enforcement can be a form of judging. Kids in the older grades understand this and look forward to these practice days. It is interesting to see how many times you are ready to say "Nice Job" and have to stop yourself. Even the students catch me sometimes during these "no judgement days." It is great for the kids who seek constant praise as well, it helps them focus on their process and not worry about the product. I forgot about how important this was until a student reminded me. Here's a recent story of why NO JUDGEMENT days are important to kids development. Long after I introduced NO JUDGEMENT DAY my quietest student said "My last teacher used to hold up my work all the time and tell everyone it was good. I like that you don't do that." "Didn't it feel good to know your teacher liked your work?" I asked thinking maybe he actually missed this positive praise. "It would make the other kids feel like their work wasn't as good and that made me feel bad. I just like to make art. I don't want my friends to feel like they're not as good as me." I felt bad all around. The teacher probably thought he/she was doing a great thing by showcasing his work. Meanwhile, this quiet, sensitive, kid who I hardly knew myself was probably not gaining much favor with friends. It's really important to be careful how we talk about students work. We are all guilty of rushing our comments, me included, so let's make a point to slow down every so often. Even positives can be damaging when they are not used in a thoughtful way. Try a no judgement day for the fun of it, especially with the older students. It's harder then it sounds! Most importantly, talk about a NO JUDGEMENT day before you start it! You'll be surprise what a weight is lifted from classroom and how better communication will be developed when we are all forced to go beyond positive reinforcement and constructive criticism!
“Chromatic Cascade” by Jen Stark, Los Angeles Jen Stark herself! Parking Garage Mural by Jen Stark, Los Angeles Jen Stark is a Los Angeles based artist known for h…
Collages are perfect for kids of all ages to work on together. Try this giant flower collage with your kids at home.
Collect branches, or just one branch, from outside and use tempera paints for a collaborative art experience for kids.
Bring out the pine branches and pine cones to create a preschool pine tree art experience. Great way to explore science and art with kids.
“Chromatic Cascade” by Jen Stark, Los Angeles Jen Stark herself! Parking Garage Mural by Jen Stark, Los Angeles Jen Stark is a Los Angeles based artist known for h…
So, just what does every art teacher on the planet think of on his/her last days of art teacherin'? What they plan on teaching next school year, that's what! For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be sharing with you some of my favorite (and simple!) school-wide collaborative projects. These are easy and fun ways to unite your young artists as well as shine a spotlight on your program from the start of the new school year. I'll also be speaking on this topic at this summer's AOE online conference: Back to School with a Bang! School-Wide Collaborative Projects to Kick Your School Year Off Right. I hope you'll be there to join the fun! Not only that, but with each post in this series, I'll be hosting a GIVEAWAY! That's right, y'all! Here's what's up for grabbies this week: A whole buncha gently used artsy t-shirts, size large! Yay! Here's how you can enter to win: * Click the follow button on the right of your screen if you've not already. * Follow me on instagram (I'm addicted!) and on my Facebook page. * Leave a comment below! I'd love to hear what collaborative projects you've done with your students to I can steal them next year! I'll notify you of your win this time next week when I post another School-Wide Collaborative Series post. Good luck, y'all! Now, let's chat the school-wide collaborative at hand, shall we? Our Village of Kindness! Each one of my students, kindergarten through third (fourth was too busy weaving up their pouches at the time) worked on creating a house for our village. If you've been hangin' around this blog for a bit (what's WRONG with you?! Get a hobby, man! I kid. Thank you.), then this might look slightly familiar as I shared with you the first stages of this project here. In case clicking on that link is too difficult for you right meow (I get it. I'm on summer vacay. I don't do NUTHIN I ain't gotta), lemme give you the short version of this project. My super awesome cafeteria friend saved and rinsed out a mountain of milk cartons for me. Each kid got their own, signed the bottom and spent their first day painting it with warm colors. The following day, we used a miniature brush and added details in the cold colors. Oh! And we read that book The Big Orange Splot which a great read. If you don't own it, it's prolly like a buck on amazon. Throw that in your shopping cart along with those beach reads you've been eyeing. You've earned it! Then we busted out the funky monkey scissors, oil pastels and went to town on our roofs and doors. Now, our village is one of kindness (hence the name. duh.) so when you opened the doors of the house, it's supposed to say something nice to you. Give a warm fuzzy. A cotton candy hug. An emotional high five. You get the idea. The village itself was created on those last days of school. The kids worked with their friends and finished simple patterns that I started. Like trees! And flowers! Then we collaged the papers into a landscape. I simply hot glued 'em to a piece of background paper and double-sided sticky taped it to my white board. Because Art Show Land was closing in on me, I took the liberty of adding the blue outline. This giant landscape looked a whole lot like the ones my fourth graders just finished. Extra painted sheets of paper were used as table cloths. So that the kids could easily find their houses on the night of the art show, parent volunteers divided the class "towns" up with strips of black paper as roads. Ohhhh, and those ceiling tiles? Another collaborative! I'll be sharing details of that soon so stay tuned! The added bonus of that mural is that it's now up as decoration for the new school year! Oh, and that bunting you see at the bottoms of the table? The kids created that with the remnants of their large painted papers. They simply glued them to long strips of red paper. They were then adhered to the tables for the art show! And there you have it! A school-wide project to kick your school year off right. Teaching kindness is a full time job. I love starting the school year with that theme. Don't forget to enter the giveaway, kids! Good luck and we'll chat soon!
Nature painting kids' art activity, creating an Impressionist work with a leaf brush.
[Beginning next week, I will be featuring your yes stories every Wednesday. Please continue to link up helpful links that work for you. I hope it’s a yes or two.] Put a yes in your mess. And …
Create a fall craft inspired by Famous Artist Yayoi Kusama with this creative Pumpkin Dots Art Project for Kids.
We have such a great local museum for our students to view a real-life Dale Chihuly artwork and the Kindergarten students visited the museum during a recent field trip. The Kindergarten teachers have been so wonderful in allowing a little collaboration between what they're studying in the classroom and what we do in the art room. Each student was given a coffee filter and a piece of scrap newspaper (to protect the table). They then chose 3 colors of water-based markers and created some kind of pattern design on the coffee filter. Once colored, the students sprayed the coffee filter with water to let the colors start to blend together. We dabbed away excess water and then set the wet coffee filter on a cup to dry to create the macchia shape. Once dry, I glued the macchia shapes on poster board to create a collaborative kindergarten art project! Thanks to We Heart Art for this AMAZING project idea! They suggest using spray starch to help keep the macchia shape, but I found that plain water worked just as well!
A collaborative process art painting project.
Faux Batik Anne viggiano Art
I’m experimenting with some string wall art and this easy DIY macrame and driftwood wall hanging is part of that experiment. I recently saw a really cool DIY string wall…
Introduce kids to abstract art with a fun Kandinsky-inspired project featuring concentric circles in squares. Explore vibrant colors and geometric shapes to create eye-catching, child-friendly artwork!
In Kindergarten, we offer children the opportunity to complete self-portraits throughout the year. They usually complete 6 self-portraits on a piece of white paper. These pieces are a powerful tool…
CREATE GIANT KID SIZE SPIROGRAPH DRAWINGS
Skip the store and find supplies around the house to make these recycled art projects. 30 creative ideas will keep your kids busy crafting for a long time.
DecoArt Blog - Use a squeegee to make a simple and colorful modern art piece that will bring any room together.
4 Easy Dot Day Activities for teachers to use in their class with students. Use all 4 Dot day activities or just choose a few!
If you have string, nails, and just a few other supplies, you're halfway to making beautiful string art. Learn what you need and how to get started.
We are back!!! Actually, we have been back several weeks and the days are flying by. I always struggle with what to do with my students on the first day of art. I, obviously, cover rules and procedures but then what? I like to do something quick and fun to get them excited about the year. This time I decided to have my third, fourth, and fifth graders create a collaborative wall hanging to fill our stark new year walls. I quickly shared some weavings from Central America and we looked at some of the latest fashions inspired by these weavings. I think I had at least one child wearing an Aztec print in every class I taught! The students worked in groups adding their own rows of patterns to the "weavings". When a new class came in, they would just pick up where the previous group left off. Some of the last groups glued on the yarn fringe. I love the pop of color they bring to our hall!
Creating the Pumpkin With a pencil or sharpie, make two dots. One on the top and one on the bottom, close to the edge of the paper. Next create the edge of the pumpkin using the letter “CR…
