Simple printing to learn line directionThis is a simple printing project that helps you very young students learn line direction: horizontal vertical and diagonal. It also helps assess if students are able to recognize and create a pattern using lines. This project is the first part of a unit of printing with the cardboard strips. There are

Kindergarteners "built" their houses by printing lines from cardboard strips. Students were encouraged to make houses like the ones seen around their neighborhood.  Students then were taught techniques to color in neatly and completely. Students were encouraged to color in as neatly and completely as they could.


Simple printing to learn line direction this is a simple printing project that helps you very young students learn line direction: horizontal vertical and diagonal. It also helps assess if students are able to recognize and create a pattern using lines. This project is the first part of a unit of printing with the cardboard strips.

Upgraded iPad lesson

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold 

Her is a great lesson that I have upgraded using iPads in my school. Each of my students has their own iPad so this lesson works very well.   I've adopted this lesson from a traditional tar beach drawing lesson. I've use the iPad as a light board.

Materials needed
iPads with Google Map App installed
Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold
12 x 12 drawing paper with 2 inch borders
pencils
colored pencils
masking tape
a towel or piece of cloth
scraps of fabric
bottled glue

A Playlist of One Day Projects

For those days when you need an emergency sub or just one extra project for a class that gets ahead of the other sections here are some simple one hour long projects for elementary.

Remember you can see all my video on my YouTube Channel at TheAwesomeArts

First day of kindergarten

The first week of kindergarten is always a difficult week to teach an art. I like to start off nice and easy with a simple marker project. It is amazing the wide variety of skill level we have entering kindergarten. Student skill level can be everything from not ever having held in crayon or a marker before to being little master artist. This project helps the teacher learn the names of the kindergarten students and also to assess their abilities as they are entering school.  Once the students are done I go around and take the picture of them holding up their name tags that they've created. I then use this to help learn their names as I take role throughout the year.

Materials:
Pre-print name tags
Markers
A camera to take the students pictures

Time for lesson:  30 minutes

Welcome 32,000 BC! 

 I am so excited about this new art experience I just created for my students.  I brought in an exhibition about cave art from teachersdiscovery.com so that the whole school can be taught a unit about prehistoric art.  I wanted the kids to really experience rock art the way that it is meant to be experienced, the way that the artist originally painted the art.  That is to say, not on a flat surface, and in a cave.

 Here is how I made a cave for my students.  Starting at the art room door I hung sheets from the ceiling using clothes pins and string, to basically make I giant sheet tent.  (kind of like at home when my kids and I need to make a fort).  Then I put a digital projector on the floor in the back of the rectangular tent and angled it up to project on the walls and ceiling on the tent.  the uneven surface of the sheets clothe-pinned together was very effective.  I found that the structure of the tent needed to be wider towards the back so that there weren't big shadows cast.  There is an awesome website that is a virtual tour of Lascaux.  [Note: on PC computer the F11 key will hide the Internet tool bar, making the virtual experience even cooler] The virtual tour only lasts about 10 minutes and that's if you click and explore all of the different images available.  To make the experience last I put together a slide show of prehistoric art from around the world, which lasts about another 15 minutes.  This has been a great end of the year activity.  Next week I'm going to line the halls with crumpled up butcher paper and let the kids make drawings using charcoal and chalk pastels, then they can sign there art with a hand print.  That way I can take down and pass back all of the artwork, without leaving the walls of the school hallways bare for the last 2 weeks of the year.

Cut Paper Ocean Envroment

After learning about the art work of Wyland students make there own under the sea scenes. While doing this, students are learning about overlapping, tucking, foreground, middle-ground and background.

Materials Needed

• Glue
• Scissors
• 12x18 blue construction paper
• Construction paper scrapes
• Crayons

Student Examples

Abstract Expressionist Sculptures

Materials Needed

• 2 pecies of white construction paper
• Watercolors or Temprea Cakes (and cups and bushes)
• Liquid Glue
• Paper clips

Winter Project: Cup of CoCoa

Students will use a verity of lines and shape patterns to decorate a paper coffee mug. Students will learn about landscapes. They will then practice their cutting and gluing skills to assemble their artwork.
---Materials Needed Coffee Cup template
Window template
markers
crayons
6x12 fabric scrape for table cloth
1x5 strips of fabric for curtains
12x18 construction paper

Student Examples

Aboriginal Bark Drawings (perfect low budget project)

Materials Needed:

• Brown Paper: 
• You can use paper sacks, cheap brown roll paper, or even construction paper, but I'm not a fan of construction paper for this project.
• Pencils
• Markers

Student Examples:

Native American Pottery Drawings

  Student will learn about the Southwest Native American Pottery and create paper pots that look 3-D. See more info for list of materials

**Note***

I suggest stopping the video at the Next Step Chapter for the first session and then showing the second chapter during the next class session.

---Materials Needed----

• a verity of size and shades of brown construction paper
• a 12x8 piece of paper
• brown, white and black colored pencils
• #2 pencil
• scissors
• glue stick

Student Examples:

Dreaming with Miro

I did this with 2nd Grade but it could be use grades 2nd-7th
Materials Needed:

• pencil
• sharpies
• crayons
• watercolors or tempera cakes (not liquid tempera)

Student Examples:

Color Circle Experiments

Material Needed

• an assortment of lids, found at any recycling site or collect from home
• 1 black oil pastel for each kid. 
• watercolor paints (no substitute) I prefer Prang brand
• water cups
• Brushes

Student Examples

Kindergarten Stain Glass in 5 easy steps

This is a great lesson for kindergarten that requires them to draw lines from one edge of the paper to the next, which is a pre- literacy skill.  It also teaches them how to color in a space without scribbling.   Step 1:  Talk about Stained Glass, show some example pictures and ask if anyone has see Stained Glass before. (offend time in church or temple) 
Step 2: Show the video to the students.
Step 3: Pass out the materials.  Don't forget paint shirts for this project, because they are small children with permanent markers. Then students may start on their project.  This project my take 45-70 minutes depending on the child's fine mortar skill.  I typically just stop them after 45 minutes and fill in the rest for them ( I tell them it was the Art Fairy that comes at night to help good little students get finished.) 
Step 4: After collecting the projects write their name in the corner with a fine tip permanent marker, like a a Sharpie.
Step 5: Display these in a window that gets direct sun light.  The light passing through will cast beautiful colors on the floor and walls inside.  Use a little piece of Scotch Tape to put them up.

Materials:

• Transparency paper
• Pencils (to write their name on the back) 
• Permanent Markers
• Paint Shirts  
• a fine tip Sharpie (generic is ok)
• Scotch Tape

Design Elements: Space. Positive and Negative Space

3rd - 5th Grade 

Click here to view video on YouTube

There are 7 elements of art. The elements are color, line, shape, form, texture, value (shading) and space.  There is positive space, the space with focus on, and negative space the surrounding area. This is a quick project that exemplifies this element.  It also looks great in the hallways.

Materials:

• 12 x 18 White Construction Paper
• 6 x 9 Black Construction Paper
• Scissors
• Glue Sticks

Student Examples

A great first painting project for Kindergarteners.

 Click here to view video on YouTube

Step 1:  Read to the students "The Dot" By James H. Reynolds.  Then tell the students that they are going to paint just like Vashi did in the story.  

Step 2: Set up the paints, paint cups and brushes.  This might be a good time to model to the student how you want the paints passed out and set up.  

Step 3: Show the video to the students. 

Step 4: Pass out the paper to the students.  Have them put their name on the back of the paper, or you can have it written on the paper by an adult ahead of time.  Once their name is on the back they can start making their dots on the front.  The painting time should be limited to 15-20 minutes.

Step 5: Model how you would like the paints and paintings to be put away.  This is the time to practice the clean up procedure.

Materials Needed:

• 12x18 White Construction Paper
• Tempera Cakes (click here to buy these on-line)
• Water cups
• Paint brushes

Let me help you teach Art to your students.

I think that my first post should be a brief explanation about what this is all about.  This is a blog that will post Art Lesson that will always include a video that you can show directly to your students.  It's like having a visiting Art Teacher in your room.  It is my hope that this will be a great resource for new Art Teachers and Classroom Teacher who are required to teach art.  In fact it is the Classroom Teacher that I really hope to help. Art teacher in their first few years of teaching will find this helpful at first, but I suspect that as you develop your own style and curriculum you will use this resource less and less.  Classroom Teachers, however, I know that many of you are expected to teach a Fine Arts Curriculum, having been given little to no training to do so.  I know that you want to do more, but you have limited time or resources to commit to teaching Art.  However, I believe, as I am sure you do too, that children should have a quality education that includes a quality art education as well.  It is my hope that through this videos that all students can be taught the Arts not just crafts.  Now let me be clear on this; Art is different then crafts.  You can find tons of crafts on the internet and in books at the library, but many of these are not teaching art.  Art should teach creativity, not direction following.  It should inspire the student to make their own choices and make mistakes.  Teaching Art should always include a lesson in Art History or a major design theme.  When you have 25 snowmen that all pretty much look the same, what you have is a great winter holiday craft, but it's not Art.  Art is something that the student will be proud of because they have made it distinctively their own.  It's something that the child will save and 15 years later, open up a box, see it and say, "Hey, wow, I made that!"  This is what I strive to accomplish with my student and I want you to be able to do it with your students.  If you are a Classroom Teacher, then please feel free to play the videos directly to the students.  In fact I originally made these videos for my students to watch as their instruction. I do this for several reasons.  One major reason is because the average class size at my school is 27 students and the kids can't all see when they try to gather around a table.  The other benefit to these videos is that if a student is late or absent they can easily make up instructions, I simply set them in front of the computer and push play.  Then when the video is done they have all the information as the rest of the class and can get started immediately.  Now I want to share these videos with you, so that you and your students can benefit from them too.   

-Enjoy