My Book Larry the Line and More!

So...I can't believe I never did this but...I FORGOT TO SHARE ON MY BLOG THAT I WROTE A CHILDREN'S BOOK!

Seriously?! 

Yes, seriously, I wrote a children's book and yes, seriously...I forgot to mention it here. 

It's official: I'm the worst blogger. 

I think I was just so excited that I posted to my other social media accounts right away...and then I was so excited to pack up and send Larry the Line out that I just, well, forgot. But, better late than never, as they say and so...here we are. 

I wrote a children's book called Larry the Line!

Now for those of you who are the OG's of this here blog, you may already know all about Larry the Line. He's a friend of mine. He can make three straight lines for me!

I came up with the poem during my first year teaching when I was trying to think of a fun and engaging way to teach students about line. It's a short poem and it's aways been a wild hit with my students. I've chatted about it here and here. 

And made plenty of videos about it too. 

After writing and self-publishing Larry the Line, which you can find here, I decided to also create digital downloads to go with it. I had so many requests for them, especially that clay sheet (see below) I thought I'd make it happen. You can pick the downloads up here. 

So...sorry I was keepin' secrets from you but now you know! 

You can also pick up my other book Art Teacherin' 101 here. 

And stay tuned...because I have something big coming soon and I promise, you'll be the first-ish to know. ;)

Read more »

My 12 Favorite Winter Art Lessons!

Need some fun winter art lessons? Here ya go!

Greetings, art teacherin' and art-lovin' friends!

I got such a wonderful response from my last blog post where I shared my 25 Favorite Lessons for Valentine's Day that I thought I'd continue to share. 

Today I'm sharing with you my very favorite WINTER lessons! Around here, we are just now experiencing the cooler temps with winter on the horizon. What better time to incorporate it into your art teacherin' world?

So I present to you my favorite winter lessons, ALL FREE! Just tap the link listed with each lesson and you'll find a kid-friendly video, handouts and lessons. Feel free to use in your art room but, please, be sure and give credit if you decide to post on social media. AND, of course, please do not repackage my lessons and sell on TPT. I know what you are thinking, "Cassie, people do that?!" 

YESSSS! All the time! SMH.

Anyway, let's get started!

If you are looking for one of those lessons that, let me be honest, takes a while (sometimes those can be a good thing!) this Snow Globes is for you! The kids do love it! Drawing buildings is their favorite part but we also do a lot of painting and, despite my custodian's protests, we do bust out the glitter. Here's the full lesson with video!

This lesson could totally be shortened with less painting! We painted these papers to draw on but you could always use colorful construction paper or copy paper to eliminate that step.

One of my most popular lessons both with teachers and students is the one inspired by Jen Aranyi! Just tap the link and you'll find a video as well as a handout! 

You'll notice we are working on cardboard circles here...one of my very favorite surfaces! You can buy cardboard circles at your local food supplier. I get mine at Gordon Food Services (GFS) where they sell them in a variety of sizes. I like the brand Circle King.

Ya know how "you live and you learn"? Well...after having done this lesson and others involving "black glue", I'm going to share with you a different and much easier way to get the effect of black glue without making it! 

But before I do that, you can find a video for this super fun and colorful lesson here. 

So, don't make black glue. Seriously. Unless you hate yourself and have more time than you know what to do with. Because, honestly, it's the worst and there is a MUCH better way!

When doing this lesson, for example, have students draw their trees with black washable markers. I prefer Prang markers (always! Trust me!). Then, using ELMER'S GLUE ALL (never EVER School Glue), have students trace over their black lines. Overnight, the waterbased marker and the glue will mix and mingle and create...a black glue line! Don't believe me? Check out this blog post and video where I share the process. 

So I've shared with you some lessons I've done with my older kids so let's now focus on kindergarten and first. Here's a lesson I did many years in a row! I love it because it teachers value. Students create tints for the snow and shade for the sky. We also practice our cutting skills with collage. Full lesson here.

Okay, kindergarten!

Another super popular winter lesson (and one that the kids love) is this Winter Penguin lesson I did with my first graders. All the details can be found, including a video, here. 

We kick things off with a painting review as well as warm an cool colors. The first graders painted the warm color papers while the kinder did the cool for their lesson, details below. We talked A LOT about holding our paintbrush and brush control. 

Using one of my favorite art supplies: the bingo dauber; we created these penguins! Again, the lesson has all the details so be sure and check it out!

And here's some kindergarten cuteness! Same method as the first grade project except we did snowmen instead. Full lesson with video here. 

We used chalk after drawing our snowmen to add the pops of color. 

Got that one class that's ahead of the rest and you need a one day lesson for? Well, here ya go!

Looking to dip your toes into some printmaking? This one is always a hit with my second graders. No printing ink? No problem! Tap the link and I'll show you how to do printmaking with markers!

Such a fun way to create winter selfies!

How about a cup of hot chocolate? In this blog post, I share with you this quick lesson as well as five other quick winter projects!

Don't you love a fast and effective art lesson?!

One of my favorite all time lessons is for kids to create their own mugs and drink hot chocolate out of them! For all of THOSE details, just tap here!

Speaking of printmaking: if you have Gelli Plates and have been dying to bust them out, here's your sign. And your lesson!

Now we took ours a step further by printing on fabric and stitching the into banners but...let's be real: how many of us have sewing machines?! So you can try it with a small group or just enjoy the printmaking process!

Tis the season to remember just how important collaborations in art can be! For that reason, why not try a big ole winter collaboration on for size?!

Look how colorful and fun!

What to do with all of those paper snowflakes you teach the kids how to make? Try THIS project on for size! Faux metal tooling with fourth grade -- stunning!

Thanks for checking out this post on my very favorite winter lessons! In case you haven't heard, I've written two new books and have self-published! You can take a closer look and find them both here. 

Thank you as always for all of the support, y'all!

Read more »

First Day of Art for Kindergarten

People can tell me how they run their classroom all day long and I do love to hear about it because I am a person who LOVES to try new things. I like to throw EVERYTHING at the art teacherin' wall just to see what sticks. But what REALLY helps me is seeing it in action. Sure I can imagine what Call and Response or a behavior management plan my look like but it's so much better to see it happening. So...that's why I love to share what it looks like in my art room. For that reason, I'll be sharing my first day teaching kindergarten right here!

If this video looks a little familiar that's because...I have been running my first day of kindergarten the very same way FOR YEARS. If it works, stick with it, right? And I'll be adding links to more blog posts with videos here. 

This blog post breaks down the lesson and why I teach certain routines on that first day. 

Want more details on where this lesson goes from here and how it becomes my kindergarten unit on line? Try this post!

If you are craving more First Day videos, here's a compilation of first day lessons with all students. 

If you've never done paper sculptures with your students, they are an absolute blast. ALL kids can have great success right out of the gate. This provides an immediate love for art class which is what we all want, right? I've even done this lesson with my older students as a Getting to Know You activity. 

If you are interested, you could check out my book where I share all of this and so much more!

Read more »

A Bell-Ringer Idea: Calendar of Gratitude

On my list of Things That I Wish I Did Regularly are the following:

Journaling

Sketching

Gratitude-in'-ing ... or something

And I have MANY a reason why I've never really been able to stick with these habits (top of the list: laziness) UNTIL NOW...Allow me to introduce you to a little something I'm callin' my Calendar of Gratitude. My Cal-itude. My Gratit-dar. Okay, so it's a working title but hopefully you get the idea. Here's a lil video explaining it all:

Here's how it works: 

* You print out a calendar. If you google "free blank calendar", you'll find bunches. For example, here you go. 

* At the end of each day or perhaps the following, you sketch something you are grateful for: a beautiful sunset, fresh fruit, time with family, a cute cat, you get the idea.

* On the reverse, jot down your memory. 

and BOOM! you've just sketched, journaled and shown gratitude all in in under 10 minutes!

Not to mention, you now have a sweet little memory of your gratitude. I get so excited everytime I look at mine. Like happy little postage stamp-sized memories.

I'm also super into matcha right now. Anyone else? Currently I'm a matcha latte lady but hope to graduate up to straight matcha soon. 

Just a sentence or two in lieu of journaling. It does the trick!

Art teachers, I thought this might be great for those students who you see for a semester every day. I've never taught that age group so you'll have to forgive my ignorance...but I just thought it may be a great bell-ringer to get young artists in the mood and mindset. They could use their medium of choice...I have really enjoyed colored pencils for this. 

WANT MORE GRATITUDE PROJECT IDEAS?! 

I got you! Check out this FREE download for the elementary age students here. 

You can also find a lot of gratitude lessons in that post as well. 

Read more »

Dot Day Celebration!

Every year, Dot Day creeps up on me and I find myself scrambling for ideas. This year, I decided to create Dot Day Stations for my students to travel to in my 30 minute art class. I had four tables set up with four different activities of dot makin' mayhem and the kids LOVED IT! So much so that I decided to extend the activities to next week! We'll use our dots to create a collage (like what's seen in the image above). Added bonus: the kids are exploring 12 different art making techniques! Here is what we did on the first day:

The following day, students rotated between these stations:

And my older students did these activities:

I did this with my first through fourth grade students and, seriously, they had the best time. Here's a little short of us in action:

If you need more Dot Day ideas, I have plenty of blog posts! You can check them out here...this one has a free downloadable activity sheet! This one has a lot of ideas for kindergarten through fourth! And this one was a HUGE hit last year and could also be done in one day! Okay...seriously...if you google "Cassie Stephens Dot Day" and hit that image search button...you'll have a ton of ideas and videos. Have so much fun!

Read more »

Sewing Basics!

My fourth graders are getting ready for a new sewing adventure! Last year, they stitched these pizza pillows. Next up, we are dying our own fabric and creating a kind of faux-Shibori dyed pillow (see below). 

I love teaching sewing (and all things fibers) to my students. If you are interested but don't know where to start, I share all of my tips and tricks in my book Stitch and String Lab for Kids! 

I'll be sharing my favorite fibers projects in an upcoming post but if you just can't wait, you can hop over to my YouTube channel and visit my "Fibers" playlist! Be sure and subscribe, I'm currently adding a lot of video content!

I decided to create a video to walk my students through sewing basics. I played it today on our first day of stitching and it was a hit! I didn't have to thread a single needle and only tied one knot. If you'd like to view it, here you go:

Feel free to use it in your art teacherin' world!

There are a lot of things I've learned about teaching children to stitch over the years. Many of my tips you'll see in the video. However, I plan to share much more in upcoming Art Teacherin' 101 videos. 

Just a preview: fourth graders opened their dyed fabric, pinned it and began stitching in 30 minutes! When they are interested, it's amazing how fast they can work. 

Here's where we're heading. Again, this is a project from my book and always a hit. Happy stitching!

Read more »

Season 2 of the Cassie Stephens Podcast!

I'm baaaaack!

I took a small hiatus from my podcast back in March when I learned we were not returning to school. Suddenly my focus was on distance learning...and not much else! I had no intention of taking a break but, for me, it was necessary. However, I'm so thrilled to announce that I'm back with two episodes of Season 2! They're titled How to Prepare for the Unknown, Part 1 & 2...kinda appropriate, right? I do hope you enjoy. If you know other teachers who might, please feel free to pass this along. I would also love to read your comments so feel free to leave them wherever you listen to the podcast. Thanks, ya'll!

Read more »