Create stunning tin foil art with your kids using a simple technique with aluminum tinfoil to make beautiful designs from flowers to animals.
One of the first projects or themes I find fun, simple and engaging is learning about Communities (2 weeks) and making a map as the culminating activity to end the unit. (For a total of 3 weeks on Community) This week, I started by reading the class a book on maps I got on Amazon. The book was chunked over a period of 2 days to ensure understanding. Maps - Kindergarten Unit After the story, the students were shown real maps that I had saved from going on little road trips. We sat in a circle and talked about what we noticed on them. I had a few kids share out about a time they used a map with their family. Real maps - San Diego, San Francisco I also had some maps from the San Diego Zoo and and some play maps for kids from a teacher supply store. We watched a video on maps and models from the United Streaming's website. Our district purchased user licenses for all teachers to access their videos on our Promethean Boards. I pulled out our old ELD song for communities from Rigby. The red car is on velcro and sticks to the different places in the community. So we fill in the sentence frames depending on where the car lands. On Tuesday, I read the last chunk of the Map book. Then, I pulled out our Writing Web for the power word "go." (The laminated web is from a district purchased program called Learning Headquarters). I taught the sight words "go" under my own structure however as a part of this writing unit in my TPT Store called Rebus Writing using Sight Words. The word "go" is week 5 of the 8 week unit. With a pointer I pointed to the word web and we orally filled out each sentence frame from the word bank. I allowed the kids to draw their own interpretation of a map on a half sheet of drawing paper as a pre-assessment to see where they are. Most kids drew standard pictures of places but some surprised me and had some streets and people walking in the map to different places. On Wednesday, I read them a book on map keys/legends. Map Keys and Legends I put up a class legend on the Promethean board that had four requirements. The sample legend was pre filled and colored and drawn and labeled. I asked the kids to draw a map on a full sized drawing page that had a: school, police station, neighborhood of homes, and a park. The symbol for each was a: building with flag next to it, building with a car next to it, triangles to symbolize a neighborhood, and a slide to symbolize the park. I set the kids to work and could see them looking up and referencing the sample key as they drew their maps. I noticed an improvement in their pictures from the day before. Once all the required components from the class key were on their maps I passed out markers and let them fill in the blanks and put more detail in the map. I cut out small legends that were identical to the one I had on the board and had kids glue it on the corner of their map. They were allowed to take it home. By Thursday, I brought out the colorful construction paper! The neat piles of color coded paper soon got a little messy! I had pre cut them into squares or rectangles. The first to go was blue because everyone was required to put a body of water on their map somewhere. It could be a river, lake, ocean or backyard pool. Also, the black strips I precut were the first to go because those were the streets and kids were allowed to use up to four. Building community maps 1 Building community maps 2 Children got right to work. They were so excited. Each map came out truly unique. As the kids were finished up I had them set up on the rug so the glue could dry and so kids who needed inspiration could come do a carousel walk around the rug and get ideas. Finished maps One of my late finishers added a church to her map even though we never discussed it. Cute! She made her map look like quadrants! She added sand to the beach and a church! The early finishers were doing literacy centers and reading books from the community tub. Building maps was a busy day. On Friday, I handed back their maps and a blank legend key. I asked them to make a legend for their map. Each was different. map key/ legend I had them glue the legends on the back of their maps. I made them a word bank so they could copy. However, some were ready for inventive spelling and didn't need to reference it. If this were done at the end of Kindergarten I would not even offer a word bank on the board. I would ask all kids to use inventive spelling to fill out their legend. If you'd like the free blackline master for the legend see the link at the bottom of this post. IF I HAD IT TO DO OVER AGAIN... I would not have them glue the legends on the back of the maps. I would display it next to the maps because once I mounted them all on the wall I realized they were hidden. LOL! Oh well. Next year I'll have learned my lesson. Wall of Maps! Almost done. Just need to add their name tag underneath each map. After reflection, I wouldn't have just had the kids draw on blank drawing paper. So I created these blackline masters as well. Enjoy! MAPS BLACKLINE MASTERS
Inside you'll find an easy step-by-step How to make a Matisse art project tutorial and Coloring Page. Stop by and grab yours for free.
Kids will have fun learning about famous artists Money while doing this fun Tissue Paper Monet Art Project. Fun for kids of all ages.
Use this collection of Vincent Van Gogh teaching resources and complete Famous Artist Unit lesson plans for elementary art classes.
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…
FUN-to-make Starry Night Art Project for kids based on famous artists that uses a fun aluminim foil technique to explore Van Gogh! .
FUN Solar System Projects for kids of all ages with creative crafts, activities, and experiments to bring the planets and stars to life.
Simple paper bag lung project for kids helps explain how do lungs work for kids with an easy human body project for kids of all ages.
This lesson took ( 2 ) 40 minute art classes to create. Students learned about the artist Charles McGee and we discussed his artwork. We discussed how we’d be utilizing the elements of art, line, s…
This is one of my FAVORITE art lessons for 2nd grade!! I LOVE each and every one of them!! (More info. and how they were created below! Plus a little virtual gallery walk video!) &nbs…
Children will love this picasso for kids lesson making a portrait art project! This zany famous artist activity is easy and FUN!
Blow painting art for kids | Make cute germ or monster art with straws & watercolor. Simple activity for toddlers, preschool, & kindergarten.
Check out student artwork posted to Artsonia from the Fabulous Fauve Faces- Aulis - 2nd Grade project gallery at Randolph Elementary Schools.
Another project in my big Art History unit with my students is finally all displayed and ready to be shared! The two above were chosen for Youth Art Month at the Portage County Library! I found this project via pinterest (which is the worst kind of pinterest post). JUST an image. However, this image was actually pretty useful for understanding the project. Day 1: Picasso intro! Short and sweet powerpoint with a YouTube video of Picasso in action. I did stop it a minute early because he paints a naked lady (and I wasn't ready to tackle that). They really seemed to enjoy this short clip, makes the artist a lot more real to them. If only we had video of Van Gogh! After the video we played "Roll a Picasso" here is a version on Teachers Pay Teachers but I made my own to add a view more parts to it. My students absolutely loved this. They did it for 30 minutes without getting bored! I told them there was no mistakes, they didn't need to erase, and they would take them with them when they left. If they got sick of drawing they could switch to coloring them. I really wish I would of taken some pictures. There was really great ones! Day 2: I show them a little poster that I put together reminding them of some things about Picasso and showing some of his other works. Then I demo drawing the different features on the paper scraps using oil pastels and finishing with a black crayon. I saw such a higher level of confidence of this project and I think it was because of the Roll a Picasso. They had come in knowing what their strengths were with what features, and I didn't limit them to the ones on the sheet either. If there was a way they wanted to draw a feature or knew how, they did it. Day 3: Showed the poster once again just to remind them of Picasso (seeing as we only see each other once every six school days)! And started with a short demo of creating the head shape and coloring and assembling it. Started with drawing the head, arranging the pieces, traced them, took them off and colored the sections of the face with oil pastels. If it didn't naturally break into sections they did it where they thought best. Last step was glue sticking them on and tracing the added paper and lines in black crayon. I am so excited to share these with you, I just LOVE how these turned out! McDill Elementary... Kennedy Elementary... Jefferson Elementary...
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…
Simple paper bag lung project for kids helps explain how do lungs work for kids with an easy human body project for kids of all ages.
First Grade art students are studying the art of Vincent Van Gogh. We looked at many of his paintings and discussed his unique brush str...
Aren't these goofy pumpkin faces the cutest? I've had this pinned on Pinterest for a couple weeks now. They come from artsy_T Flickr stream, and I guess she makes them with her Kindergarten class every year. We read
Use this template to help teach about Paul Klee.Use the "W" to instruct how to draw "Cat and Bird" or use the one already drawn. The recommended materials are on the lesson plan, but the project is flexible for many art materials. Examples of a few materials are shown.Enjoy learning about Shape and ...
First grade back to school art project combing art and books. First grade back to school art project using the book, "Be Big!" by Katie Kizer
Our school art fair was a few days ago. It is one of my busiest times of year. It usually falls around some very special birthdays and during one of my favorite times of year...spring. The teachers hang student art around the building, there is a book fair in the...
Today, 2nd grade embarked on a new project! New to me and certainly new to them! I saw this awesome idea on Abby Schukei's blog, Art, Eat, Tie Dye, Repeat and decided to give it a go! Here's how we created ours! Materials: 90lb 6x18" paper 6x18" Tru Ray construction paper Crayola oil pastels Fiskar scissors Pencils Big Kid's Choice flat paintbrushes Crayola Artista II tempera paint Day 1: Talk about the Element of Art, VALUE! Value is super duper important, y'all! Value is the lights and darks of a color. We use value to shade things, and to make our pictures just look more AWESOME! ;) I like to say, Value adds $Value$! Need another example of Value...how about the ever popular Ombre craze? It's everywhere! You can have ombre from head to toe if you wanted! Well, we're making ombre ice cream! lol Today, we're focusing on the lights or the TINTS. I tell them, not like the tent you sleep in! A TINT is when you add white to a color. (A shade is when you add black to a color, but we're not doing that) I gather them around my middle table in my room and show them how to paint a 6x18" piece of paper. I start with my plain color, and slowly add dollops of white to make the color get lighter and lighter! I remind them to paint in one direction to make the color smoother too. After I paint my long paper, I show them how to paint their cone paper. I used oil pastels to make crisscrossing diagonal lines. (peach and brown from Crayola's oil pastels) Then, they got to work! Here's Mrs. Fitch's class, hard at work, making their Tints & cones! Day 2: I'll get them to trace an ice cream template on the back of their paper, cut them out, and assemble them on a complementary color of their ice cream! Mrs. Fitch's class doing a great job! Here's Mrs. Parsons' class, hard at work!
Impressionism art easy is a great way to teach impressionism for kids! This art projects is a simple spring rain craft that explores impressionist style.
This quick and EASY frankenworms experiment demonstrates baking soda and vinegar chemical reaction with fun halloween activities for October.
Reading self-portraits, clay snails, and much more!
Kids will go nuts over this fun, EASY how to make a homemade kaleidoscope craft project at home. This activity is fun for all ages!
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…
Create stunning tin foil art with your kids using a simple technique with aluminum tinfoil to make beautiful designs from flowers to animals.
FUN-to-make Starry Night Art Project for kids based on famous artists that uses a fun aluminim foil technique to explore Van Gogh! .
We studied Dali and his The Elephants painting. We made our birds and similar to Dali. Long skinny legs and warm colors for the background. We also added a cool color bird to make it POP! I saw this lesson online and fell in love with it! It is a two day lesson that keeps the students engaged the entire time!
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
Lots of pretty autumn crafts for kids creating fall leaf art projects! Lots of clever and unique leaf crafts for preschoolers and up!
As a child I really loved Alexander Calder's sculptures. Whimsical and colorful, they let me see that art can be fun too! Today I'm sharing a really simple paper sculpture project inspired by Calder's large scale metal ones. They take only minutes to whip up and certainly would also make for fun scissor practice with younger kids as well! Kids Calder-Inspired Art Sculptures This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support! In case you're looking for some great art books to go along with this activity, here are... Our current 20+ favorite art books: Colorful Dreamer Lester Fizz Bubble Gum Artist The Iridescence of Birds Modern Art Adventures Mix it Up Press Here Any Ed Emberley Book The Day the Crayons Quit Beautiful Oops Dog's Colorful Day Too Much Glue Harold and the Purple Crayon Day with No Crayons Artist to Artist Artist Ted The House Baba Built A Blue Butterfly: A Story of Claude Monet Sandy's Circus A is for Art The Artful Parent This Bridge Will Not Be Grey Art Workshops for Children I shot a video generally showing how to make one of these sculptures. Calder-Inspired Paper Sculptures from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo. But in case you like to read directions, here they are! 1. Cut out a rectangular piece of paper. I used construction paper, which stood up fine at home, but fell down with any bit of wind. If you want to make these sturdier, use cardstock (Optional: Decorate it with markers!) 2. Fold it in half. 3. Make cuts like pictured. Cut lines and curves until they almost reach the fold. 4. Optional, decorate with groovy circle stickerrs. 5. Open it up and fold the strips to the front or back in an alternating fashion. (This will help the sculpture to balance.) So on the left side you would fold the strips (starting from the top) front, back, front, back, and front. And on the right side you would fold the strips (starting from the top) back, front, back, front, and back. Once you get the basic design down, you can play around with your cutting ... like I did below! It's really neat seeing all of these guys standing up! They're kinda addictive to make... and I hope you try making them with your kids too! If you liked this paper art project, you'll like these other ideas as well! Easy Matisse Murals 3d Twisty Snakes Woven Paper Banner Jasper Johns Wall Art Slinky Paper Garland Paper Net Garland Kirigami Flowers Kirigami Stars Let's keep in Contact! You can always find fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts! (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.) Happy making, friends!
Name posters are an easy art project for the first day of school and also double as classroom decor!
