Valentine's Heart paintings-- 2nd grade

We had fun painting paper and then layering construction paper hearts and doilies on top.  We used gel pens to decorate the hearts. 

I got this idea from We Heart Art!

American Landscape Paintings--3rd/4th Grade

 American Landscapes  The 3/4s learned about Colonial times and Westward Expansion.  The students watched a video about American landscape artists during the 19th century and they painted their own landscapes.  One of the goals was to use inspiration from the environment to create a painting.  The students chose a landscape scene from pictures of America.  Painting lessons include how to add texture with a fan brush, how to mix colors and how to add shadows on a mountain.

I showed them my painting of a rolling hills landscape and demonstrated how I created those textures through sponges, fan brushes and using the edges of a flat brush.  

African Adinkra Stamps

The 5th/6th grade class has been carving stamps from soft cut blocks.  They used acrylic paints to print their stamps on muslin cloth!  The students read about the African Adinkra symbol stamps and created their own symbol.

Egyptian Profile Pictures-- 4th/5th grade

Egyptian Profile Paintings:The 4/5s have studied ancient Egypt in their social studies class.  In Art class, they are using the standard proportions of the human face to draw each other in profile.  Then, they are adding typical ancient Egyptian headdresses, clothes and jewelry to their portraits.  Finally, they are drawing some hieroglyphics to finish the picture.

After school class

I am teaching an after school art class for two sessions.  We are painting abstract paintings on canvas with acrylic paints!

We are also experimenting with spray inks and stencils!  Next session, we are going to finish our abstract paintings and then add designs to our sprayed pictures to tie them together.

Weaving on Styrofoam

Weaving on Styrofoam was a recent project with the 1st graders. A restaurant supply store near our school had a huge package of styrofoam plates for very cheap. Slits were cut at the top and bottom of the styrofoam and string was placed in these slits for the loom.  The students used ribbon and fabric to weave over and under the string.  Suggest to the kids to choose a variety of colors and textures. I put out some colored wire, chenille stems, feathers, ribbons and straws. There are so many materials that can be incorporated into a weaving!

Where to obtain yarn: I don't think I have paid full price for any yarn in the 6 years I have been at this particular school. Hit up yard sales, church garage sales, thrift stores, Craigslist.org and Yahoo Freecycle groups. You will be amazed at what people will give away for free. Send out notes to your parents that you are always looking for bright, colorful, textured and snazzy yarn. I found that if I don't ask for "fancy, textured or bright colored" yarn, I receive a whole bunch of faded, dusty, gross yarn. By best yarn has come from members of my knitting group. Since I knit in my free time and belong to a knitting group, I have told the members that I would be interested in any of their scrap yarns and leftover skeins for my school. I suppose you could find a knitting group online (such as a local group that has a Yahoo group) and put out feelers for yarn for your school. If you offered a small price, I'm sure some of the members would be happy to sell you their leftovers or even donate them.

Sponsorship-- Worth Ave. Group

I am excited to present to you my first sponsor.  Worth Ave. Group provides educational insurance policies for K-12 schools and colleges.  Worth Ave. Group has insurance policies that protect student and staff laptops.  They will work with schools to provide individual or group coverage.  They also have an educational grant giveaway going on now.  If your school is in need of technology funding this would be worth checking out. 

Sponsorship Information:
I've noticed a lot of craft blogs have sponsors and thought it would be fun to open up my blog to sponsors.  Education and art education especially can always use support.  Lest you think I will be getting rich off my blog, I can assure you that any and all money from the sponsorships will be used to purchase art supplies or educational art books to enhance my teaching.  :) 

I am accepting sponsorships such as

• artists looking to sell their art
• etsy shops
• online workshops or e-books
• educational businesses
• arts and crafts related businesses

Contact me to start.

Pricing:
$10 per month:  One sidebar ad on my blog, size 125 x 125 pixels
$15 per month:  One sidebar ad on my blog, size 150 x 250 pixels

Included in this price is a blog post highlighting your sponsorship with an image link to your site.
All billing will be processed through Paypal. 

Giveaways and Reviews:
In addition to advertising, I enjoy giveaways for my readers.  If you would like me to facilitate a giveaway for your product, feel free to contact me.  You would be responsible for shipping the product to the winner.  I would also be happy to write up a product review if you sent me a product to try out.

Inspired by Henri Matisse- Kindergarten

Henri Matisse is a popular artist to teach about in the elementary art classroom.  I've seen a lot of Matisse-inspired artwork from other art teachers.  His artwork is bright and colorful and lends itself well to teaching about shapes.  We read the book Oooh! Matisse and watched the video Dropping in on Matisse

The students learned about organic shapes and geometric shapes.

They also used their fine motor skills to use shape punchers.
 

Clay Butterflies-- 1st Grade

These lovely clay butterflies were made by the 1st graders.  Each student traced their hands to make the wings.  Some of the little parts fell off, so I would recommend making sure that the kids don't roll their slabs too thin.  I found this lesson in the book, The Clay Lady Way Textbook.  I was able to flip through this book at one of the National Art Ed conferences and decided it would be worth the investment. 

Editorial Cartoons

Every year, students in grades 5-8 participate in a local contest called the Yahara River Writers Contest.  There are categories in poetry, editorials and editorial cartoons.  In art class, we study editorial cartoons.  We analyze cartoons for their use of exaggeration, symbolism, irony and point of view.  Cartoons for the Classroom has an amazing selection of lesson plans for studying editorial cartoons.  There are over 200 printable cartoons with questions and explanations about them.  We also watch this video The Language of Editorial Cartoons, which is really great.  I doubt you'd want to pay $99 on amazon though.  Our school had it when I started.  Maybe you could find that video or a similar one somewhere else.

I also make sure to be very careful when teaching about editorial cartoons that I find cartoons that show opinions from both political parties.  Wisconsin is a very politically divided state right now and we are careful to not make anyone feel bad about their families' political beliefs. 

After analyzing cartoons, the students drew their own editorial cartoons.  They chose a political, social, local or personal issue important to them.  We used the provided templates to draw the cartoons.  You can see them on the right hand side of the contest page here.   They are listed under "entry forms".