I usually start the year with kindergartners learning about and using lines. In previous years we have made line paintings and line sculptures with wire and pipecleaners. Another fun project we made was line windsocks by rolling up line paintings and adding tissue paper streamers. We’ve done line drawings (check out what my old blog used to look like before I moved it over to this website.) This year I was reminded by Cassie Stephens of a project I used … Read more... →

Learn about famous art and create your own sculpture with this fun lesson about Giacometti.

First graders are continuing to learn more about the element of art line in ART! (More photos below of close-ups and of kids creating their sculptures!) They created 2 of each of the follow…

This project requires a few materials, but is so much fun! Our summer camp kids enjoyed creating their paper sculptures. Some kids made ...

Students studied the life and work of American sculptor, Alexander Calder. Inspired by his "stabile" sculptures, students created a unified and balanced paper sculpture by using a variety of paper techniques.

This is a super lesson to try with your young artists - it takes just a bit of prep and the results are so fun! You'll need craft foam, model magic, glue, scissors, pipe cleaners and small pieces of tagboard or railroad board. The inspiration for this lesson comes from the blog, Plastiquem. Before class, I used Elmer's glue to attach a small chunk of model magic to a piece of 5x5" square of railroad board. Due to time constraints, I pre-cut a bunch of shapes from craft foam (students can totally handle this step, but we were short on time) and put a pile of pipe cleaners (fuzzy wires) in the middle of each table. I showed the kids how to gently press the foam shapes onto the fuzzy wires. I made sure to explain that this step takes some practice and is a challenge - a gentle press works just fine and the wire will push through the foam when it's ready - I haven't found the right terminology for it yet, but all the kids eventually got the technique. It's wonderful for practicing those fine motor skills, patience and persistence! I left things pretty open-ended as far as how many foam pieces to add, etc. and the kids just ran with the concept and had fun building their sculptures!!

If you like playing with paper whether it’s new or recycled this chart for all sorts of ways to manipulate paper could really come in handy for making all sorts of things from flowers to scul…

3D Name Sculpture The first project I had my students do was a 3D name sculpture. This was the inspiration for the project (scro...

Teach students about ALL of the Art Elements and Principles of Design in one dazzling art lesson! Engaging organic sculpture lesson 8th-12!

Fifth Grade students studied gesture drawings and the sculptures of George Segal. Students then created their own gesture sculptures showing...

Kids can make these Colored Paper Collage Sculptures as a sculpture and colored paper collage project all rolled into one.

This affordable Modular Sculpture Art Lesson is great for sculpting beginners It is easy to understand while teaching 3D fundamentals.

Kids study artist Ugo Rondinone and his Human Nature sculptures, making their own stacked sculptures using floral foam, paper mâché, and magnets.

Ficus, a steel cactus designed by Chiaramonte-Marin

Der amerikanische Künstler David Kracov wurde 1968 in Boston geboren. David war der jüngste Künstler, dessen Kunstwerke im „Boston Museum of fine Arts“ ausgestellt wurden. Er schafft Metallskulpturen, die die Herzen der Menschen berühren.

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…

7th grade 3-D students finished up their clay cupcakes and were eager to begin their next project. We looked at the artwork of pop artist, Romero Britto. Britto is a painter and sculptor from Brazil who creates light-hearted, happy artwork using simple shapes, bright colors and lots of patterns. He took inspiration from Matisse and Picasso. Students looked at his artwork of animals and decided to create their own animal sculpture. Using Styrofoam, they created large shapes for the body. They had the option to create flat sculptures or make some parts of it rounded. After they created their form, it was time to plaster! We used PlastrCraft strips to completely cover the sculpture, making sure to smooth out all of the holes as best as we could. This would make painting easier. After the plaster was dry, students went in and added thick, black outlines around their sculpture using sharpie or black paint. Finally, it was time to paint! I really gave them a lot of freedom with the paint. As long as they had areas of solid color and patterns, they could do what they pleased. I reminded them to paint crisp edges and smoothly. Here are some of them so far

I just have to share the paper sculptures my Kindergarten and 1st graders have been making! They loved learning about abstract art and ...

For this project, we will look at Jean Dubuffet. We will look specifically at his sculptures using the Hourloupe style. You and a partner will create a sculpture in DuBuffet's Hourloupe style. DAY 1- Intro Today we will look at a history of DuBuffet and take a look at his artworks. Here is a brief biography of DuBuffet. “French painter, sculptor, printmaker, collector and writer. He was temperamentally opposed to authority and any suggestion of discipline and devised for himself a coherent, if rebellious, attitude towards the arts and culture. For all his maverick challenges to the values of the art world, Dubuffet’s career exemplified the way in which an avant-garde rebel could encounter notoriety, then fame and eventual reverence. His revolt against beauty and conformity has come to be seen as a symptomatic and appreciable influence in 20th-century culture.” “Dubuffet's Hourloupe style developed from a chance doodle while he was on the telephone. The basis of it was a tangle of clean black lines that forms cells, which are sometimes filled with unmixed color. He believed the style evoked the manner in which objects appear in the mind. This contrast between physical and mental representation later encouraged him to use the approach to create sculpture.” “His primitive approach to art making, with its simple, childlike figures and bold, visually dramatic palette, has universal appeal and is instrumental in modern psychology and studies of mental development.” Examples of DuBuffet sculptures in the hourloupe style DAY 1 ACTIVITY After you have watched the videos, get a piece of paper and begin practicing the hourloupe style, following the directions in the vimeo video above. Today is a practice day, so work on trying to capture the hourloupe style in your artwork. DAY 2-3 Sculpture (Making pieces) After discussing Dubuffet and his artworks we will begin to create our own DuBuffet styled sculptures. 1. Look through the slides and the links below to gain some inspiration for your sculpture idea. 2. Draw 5-6 shapes on the piece of paper. Make your shapes large enough to fill the paper. 3. Cut out your shapes. 4. Draw the Hourloupe style drawings on each side of your pieces. Day 3-4 Sculpture (Assembling) 5. Put your pieces together by cutting small cuts into the pieces and sliding pieces together. Click here to find examples of making a "base" for your sculpture so it will stand. You cannot use glue or tape to put pieces together. 6. We will display your sculptures in the library after you and your partner take a picture of it on Artsonia Here are 3 links for you to look at some sculpture ideas for your project. Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 AR Standards: CR1.6.1 CR1.6.3 CR2.6.1 CR2.6.2 P4.6.1 R7.6.1

Dale Chihuly is one of my favorite glass artist. You see his work a lot here in the Northwest. He even had a piece on the Frasier TV show. But not all of us can do blown glass. I really like wh…

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…

Deer Garden Sculptures, contemporary deer sculptures inspired from watching deer in our own garden, crafted in rusted metal. Garden Art and Sculpture

If the coronavirus has you sheltering at home with your kids, this art and play guide will help promote learning while staying creative!

A collection of drawing exercises, downloadable worksheets and beautiful line drawings: inspiration for the student, artist or teacher.

Learn about famous art and create your own sculpture with this fun lesson about Giacometti.

Fifth Grade students studied gesture drawings and the sculptures of George Segal. Students then created their own gesture sculptures showing...

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…

The idea for this lesson came from an image I saw on Pinterest.. but after doing some investigative work - seems to have originated from the blog Art. Paper. Scissors. Glue and before that from the 1991 book written by Sara Beggs, "The No Nonsense Guide to Teaching Art." For this lesson we began by taking about what symmetry is and the difference between linear symmetry (1 line of symmetry) and radial symmetry (more than 1 line of symmetry). Then we talked about what a sculpture is (a piece of artwork you can see from all sides - it is 3-dimensional) and what a relief "sculpture" is (a piece of artwork that has depth on the surface but is not meant to be seen from all sides). Once students understood the principles behind radial symmetry and sculpture we began creating our very own radial paper relief sculptures! Students started by folding a piece of 12"x12" black construction paper diagonally both ways and vertical and horizontally (to create an 'X' crease and a '+' crease). Making these creases makes creating a radial design SO much easier because it gives you guidelines to work with. Once their papers had been folded and their names written, we sat them aside. Before having students begin folding their colored paper (each piece was cut to 3" x 3") to fill the inside of their design, I demonstrated 4 folds to them to get them started. *Students were allowed to deviate from these folds if they wanted to. To download the handout below, click on the arrow button in the top right corner (this will open it in a new window). You can download from there. My kids absolutely LOVED this project! They are already super into origami, so this project was like heaven to them! :) You might also be interested in checking out my Paper Poinsettia Sculpture lesson which uses the same basic concepts. Also available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Have you ever daydreamed about living in a cartoon universe? You know, where you're high-fiving Bugs Bunny, giving some pyrotechnic pointers to Yosemite

After drawing gestures sketches of our classmates, we picked our favorite to turn into a sculpture. The artist Alberto Giacometti influenced us. We added shadows to give them more dimension

The kindergarten curriculum for this 9 weeks calls for a paper sculpture... which is a perfect time to review lines. The students learned h...

I'm so VERY excited to present my very first guest blogger on MiniMatisse. I met Mark Rode a couple months back at a training and we share our social media information with each other. I have been so impressed with Mark's Instagram that I asked if he would write a blog post about this amazing project. Mark is an Elementary Art Teacher at Oxbow Creek Elementary in Champlin Minnesota. He explains that his inspiration came from another teacher in West Australia, Ann Farrell. I'm a fan of her work as well! Please be sure to check out her blog, Use Your Coloured Pencils. Mark maintains an amazing Instagram account, @oxbow_creek_elementary_art. He is also active on Twitter, follow him @oxbowart. Here is what Mark had to say about this captivating project. I taught this project to my first graders to kick off their unit on form. It took two 60 minute classes, but next year I may stretch it to three, as it was difficult for some to finish on time. There are so many great books on dinosaurs too, and having time on the third day for reflection would be ideal. Nevertheless, I felt like this project was a great way to begin working in three dimensions, as it let students figure out how to make something stand up and occupy real space with familiar materials and subject matter (who doesn’t like dinosaurs?). After teaching this lesson, I had multiple students bring in other versions to share that they had made at home, as well as some other paper sculptures, which I felt was a good sign. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. I even wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up! There is still a big part of me that gets excited about them, so it was really fun to share this excitement with the kids. Of course, in every first-grade class, there are always a few dinosaur experts who love to share their unique knowledge on this subject as well, so I introduced the project by displaying pictures of a variety of dinosaurs and facilitated a lively discussion. We talked about different characteristics that we noticed, as well as compared and contrasted the different types. I then told them that they would be making a dinosaur sculpture, and demonstrated how to begin. I told them that they were going to get two pieces of tagboard, one wide and one narrower. They would also get a sharpie marker and a stencil for the body shape and legs (these were made from brown tag. I usually don’t use stencils, but I made an exception with this step, as the success of the final work was heavily contingent on getting these shapes right…). I told the students to trace the body shape on the large sheet of tagboard, right in the middle. After that, they added the other features (neck, head, tail, horns, designs, texture, etc.). I then told them to trace the leg stencil on the smaller sheet. Depending on the type of dinosaur, they would either do this once or twice (an Allosaurus walks on two legs vs. a Brachiosaurus that walks on four). After adding details, I told them they had to cut out the dinosaur and the legs. They then had to flip the body over and add details on the other side (it is important that they cut out first before flipping). Finally, they added color on all sides with a marker. I told them that scientists don’t know for certain what color the dinosaurs were, so it was really up to them to color their dinosaur how they thought it would have looked. This, I believe, gave them more creative agency, and I think, in the end, they looked more interesting because of it. On day two, we reviewed the steps. I then said that I would give them a piece of matboard for the base and that they had to draw the setting for their dinosaur (bird’s eye view). They also had to make a few slits (one on the top of each leg and one or two on the bottom of the dinosaur). I then showed how to make it stand by carefully connecting the slits together. In order for it to be sturdy, it does require some wiggling and finessing. When they got to this point, I told them that it was really important for them to try to get it to stand up. This was challenging for many, but it was good for them to work through it and problem solve. I also stressed the importance of helping each other out. Once they got the legs on, I added hot glue to the bottom of the feet and glued the dino to the base. Most students were able to get it to stand, but there were a few that needed some assistance from me. At the end of the class, we all had our dinosaurs on one table and it was such a pleasure to see them all together! This project was predominantly product based, but also gave a lot of room for creative decision-making. The goal was to have the dinosaur three-dimensional. The main concept was form, although we also talked a lot about shapes, lines, and textures. Here are some of the project samples that Mark was so generous to share with us. For more images of this project and so many other amazing projects, please be sure to follow Mark on Instagram @Oxbow_creek_elementary_art.

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…