Show Me the Depth! - Freeform Landscape Collages.

Second grade learned all about foreground, middle ground, and background, and then they did a quick collage exercise using this printable from the Getty Center's Art Ed dept.

From Plein Air Drawing to Plasticine Landscape Bas-Reliefs - Voila!

I am super excited about this project that my first graders just completed. They started out by experiencing plein air drawing on our campus, and then turned their favorite drawing into a plasticine landscape bas-relief.

Kindergarteners Make Tiny Thumbelina Figurines in Clay - Photo Shoot Immortalizes Them

I try to incorporate relevant life experiences as well as other school curricula with my art curriculum. Each grade at my school does a play each year and last year the kindies did "Tiny Thumbelina."

2nd & 3rd Graders Take Creative Risks and Think Like Artists!

For a collage project last year I wanted to challenge my students - well, that's something I always try to do - but this time I really pushed them out of their comfort zones!

Wooden Cubist Face Sculptures - Goofy & Fun!

Once my second graders finished their Spain-inspired artworks, I had all of them work on these Picasso-inspired cubist faces made with wood pieces and tempera paint.  

Mother's Day (or Valentine's Day) Process Art - Hearts A-Peel!

This was a two-day project that involved several types of hand work and the use of a variety of materials by the lambies. They were extremely engaged in all of the steps and the results are lovely - as usual! This would be a great Mother's Day project or could be used next year for a Valentine's gift.

You Can Think Like an Artist!

I created this design in Illustrator and had it printed on canvas to hang up in my art room at school:

We refer to it often during lessons, and students will sometimes point out how we are thinking like an artist when I forget. Its been a great tool this year, as I am really working on teaching my students that art is not just about how real you can make something look. There is much more to artistry than that, and I think they are starting to really get it!

Bubble-Wrap Printing + Shapes = A Lambie Art-Fest!

OMGoodness I just love these finished pieces! Even though this art activity was all about process, I am floored by how beautiful and different each of the lambies final pieces came out!  I would be into framing and hanging up each and every one of these lovelies in my home - they are so cheerful and fun to look at!

Toddlers Wuv Twains!

A while back (I am in the process of catching up on my posts), the Lambies were learning about trains and spending lots of time playing trains during play time. Mrs. Alma asked me if I could plan an art lesson around trains and so I started by reading this book to the lambies:

Our local library had this book in the oversized version which is always really fun for the little ones. While we read the book together we talked about the shapes of the train cars and the wheels.

Third Graders Are Masters of Japanese Ikebana!

Oh boy, what an amazing undertaking! I was looking for something challenging and interesting for my third graders to do this year, and was inspired by this post for Ikebana in the art room. After sitting down to plan it I realized this project would take AT LEAST ten weeks to complete because of all of the steps involved, but I was resolved to go for it because I figured it offered an opportunity for a variety of skills to be learned and materials to learn how to work with. My fear was that perhaps the students would get bored and complain that they were tired of working on the same project for so long, but I found the opposite resulted. Students were very engaged in all of the steps and I feel this project was an excellent opportunity for them to practice focus and commitment to a goal.

Second Graders Demonstrate Their Learning Through Art!

This little sculpture is really small, maybe two inches tall, and it is so sweet!

This year for International Day my school decided to assign each grade a country to research and present to the rest of the school, along with a day of celebration with dances and foods. I wanted to incorporate this research into my art class and second grade art presented the perfect opportunity because the timing was right in their art curriculum.

Mona Lisa, Kindergarten Style!

My Mona by Mariah

In kindergarten art this year we learned about the Mona Lisa by reading book Who Stole Mona Lisa? by Ruthie Knapp. 

Kindies Complete their Commemorative Clay Plaques

Each year at my school the kindergarteners each choose a Mother Goose nursery rhyme to memorize and perform on the school stage. They can dress up if they choose but the goal here is for them to begin to learn public speaking skills. They are so proud of themselves, the parents are too, and this year I decided to have them create plaques to commemorate their experiences.

Lambies "Plant" Mini-Gardens

Spring is in high gear this week at the Lambies, so I decided to provide the materials for them to plant their own personal mini-gardens!

Second Grade Fall Leaf Art Investigations

This fall my second graders were "art investigators". I brought in a variety of autumn leaves and encouraged my students to look closely at what they saw. Looking Closely is one of our ways of "thinking like an artist" that we talk about often in my classroom. 

Spring Has Sprung at the Lambies

Can you all believe it's April already? The lambies have been busy planting flowers and learning about how plants grow. Today we read Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert.

Pink + Hearts = Valentine's Day Art with the Lambies!

Our Lambie V-Day project was a big hit this year! The children got to paint on wood boards, mix red and white paints to make different kinds of pinks, glue on positive and negative space paper hearts, take a photo with colorful flowers, add tissue paper circles, frame their faces with pink yarn, and add details with gold tempera paint. They had a blast using all these materials and exploring their little hearts out!

Lambies Show Their Thanks with Gratitude Boxes

I wanted to do a project for Thanksgiving but wasn't up for incorporating the traditional food approach this year. There's just something morbid about making turkeys that are eventually oven-bound as a way of celebrating in art class. So after doing a little research and looking in my stash of supplies I decided to have the lambies create "gratitude boxes".

For this lesson, we started out by sitting together in a circle and taking turns saying what we are thankful for. The lambies had so much to say that we went around the circle twice - I love them so much!

Music is in the Air! The Lambies Make Instruments

November was "music month" at the Lambies. I found two great instrument projects online that I was inspired by and decided to do with the lambies. The first one was jingle bell sticks: