I Could Use Some Time To Sleep
I adore books.  I loooovvvveee picture books, I love reading to children.  Denise Fleming's Time To Sleep  is a book I've been reading to my own kids for over 20 years (this isn't unusual when your children are 18 years apart).  I made up a project to go wi...

Trying Tapigami
At the last conference I attended (a few weeks ago) I was introduced to tapigami .  Which is art made using only masking tape.  I showed my sixth graders a video from YouTube, gave them some tape and scissors and about 30 minutes: These are by no means fini...

Wild Beast Landscapes
My fifth graders started the year learning about fauvism, and we've been working smaller than normal (9 x 12 vs 12 x 18).  Mostly because I know my Artome' show is in the spring and I want to be R.E.A.D.Y. this year (no desperate last minute gluing at 10 pm...

More Painting With Kindergarten
Ever have one of those years that a certain grade level is just rockin' the whole school thing?  Kindergarten is that grade level for me this year.  They're listening , they're learning , they're engaged . And we get oh-so-much-done because of it. Bonus: th...

Some Days There's Nothing Better
I have kindergarten last.  Now, I know some art teachers don't like having kindergarten as their last class, but I love it.   If I had my way (I'd win the lottery, but that's a totally different topic) I'd always have kindergarten last.  After recess.  Mayb...

Hall Displays are Up and Running
While I love the "newness" of a new school year, I'm a typical artist/hoarder and dislike the blank blank walls.  I try to get student work up as soon as I can (and I've already taken some things down and replaced with another grade level).  Here's what the...

Kindergarten Inside Outside Texture Houses
How do I make it through kindergarten every year?  It's mid-September and I'm already wondering what to teach.  Their attention spans are just so short, I feel like I'm always struggling to stay one step ahead of them.  I'd written "Texture Neighborhood" in...

Faux Stained Glass in Fifth Grade
This is a lesson I blogged about years ago, and you can read that post here .  My fifth graders are looking at/learning about Fauvism right now, and we did two little/quick Matisse lessons.  One was a construction paper "flip," and the other was a stained g...

Student Well Being
Student well being is a rather odd title for a post about a third grade clay project.  Let me give you a little back story: last year, in September (the month we're in right now, as it were) a high school girl in our district committed suicide. With a firea...

I Love This Clay Project
I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for new clay projects.  And in 18 years of teaching (HOW did THAT happen????) I've never done fifth grade the same way twice.   With my fifth graders this year, I decided to look at some modern ceramic artists ...