Giant in a City!

I love this project! We just started making the cut paper giant animals- their choice of animal!

We placed our animal in the background paper and started to learn about background, middle ground, and the foreground as we draw the city buildings around them! We will outline the city and color it in with crayon.

I can't wait to show you them when their finished!

Snowmen Decorations by Art Club

The beautification/decoration committee asked me to help add in children's artwork for the holiday decorations. I had them purchase large over-sized poster board for silly snowmen to hang from the ceiling tiles, and things to make snowmen ornaments with to hang with the snowmen! 

Super Silly Snowmen!

Dancing, ice skating, falling in the snow- these are the super silly snowmen my third graders created!

Just finished outlining our drawings

I love the snowman that fell down!

We learned how to show distance through size placement, and how to blend oil pastel to make an icy looking shadow! They had a lot of fun making the snowmen act really silly in the background!

What silly snowmen activities did you do for winter projects?

Tinted Winter Landscapes

Kids just adore mixing paint! They love, love, LOVE the magic of color changing right before their very eyes! When I break out the thick, liquid tempera paint  in class to them it's just like winning the lottery! 

I'm sure you have seen or done something like this before, but it is just

Do You Have Special Needs Artists Too?

Now, as art teachers we've always had to work with every child in the building. They all get to come and enjoy learning about art. It's that one subject that seems to be the least stressful for those children who have attention problems or dyslexia and struggle in their classes. There is movement, they can stand up, there are "No Mistakes, only New Opportunities". Creativity seems to be their strongest point!

Adaptive Multistep, Pre-cut Homes

Then there are those very low functioning students. Do you have them too? I have them about three times  a week- each.  Since they can't learn a new language, as they are still learning their native English, and they can't research or follow in the Media Center, and they cause more distractions in Music as they don't speak or sing but play- they are left with art and P.E.!

Adaptive Snowman

Now, I want them to feel successful and participate in class. However, they

Ready Leaders; Take Over!

Aren't their smocks cute too?

I have to thank a fifth grade teacher for inspiring me into having leaders in my art room! The kids get so excited to get their chance to wear their leader tag, and I make sure every child gets a turn throughout the year.

I know many of you have systems of giving clean up jobs to your kids and other various classroom responsibility jobs are handed out on top of that in some fashion.  I also have special systems in place for clean up and odd jobs. This leader tag system was my way of managing everything that happens in my room on top of the clean up system.

Every time the class arrives for art

Encouraging Self Reflecting Artists

Remember those days when children would walk up to you, poke your shoulder, and ask if they were done? I'm proud to say I have nearly eliminated that, just by posting these signs!

Lovely Little Story Pots

Admit it, we all love a good story, especially when it comes from that adorable little one in your class that is missing their front teeth and is jumping up and down talking a mile a minute! Here is your perfect opportunity to channel that creative energy into something productive that also ties in with cross curricular requirements. Native American Story Pots! 

Third grade begins their journey in writing creative stories, as well as some history on Native Americans. I combined these two elements to have

Line Design Landscapes, Inspired by Van Gogh!

Ah yes.. the world of watercolor and the joy of a sharpie! 

My wonderful third graders are always awe inspired by Van Gogh! In the past they have painted the Starry Night Sky and his Sunflowers, but this is their first time working with his drawings. We studied how he used line in his drawings for texture and movement and embellishment, and created our own landscapes with line as an embellishment. We also looked at how he used thin and thick line and different ways of drawing lines for contrast in art. They had so much fun learning about

Pumpkin Time!

The first project with third grade is always the most challenging for me. It is their first time in my classroom, their first time working with my style of teaching, their first time having to clean up