My Favorite Lovey-Dovey Lessons (Just in Time for Valentine's!)

Welcome back! It's been a minute (okay, several) since I last blogged and while I missed you all dearly, you guys: I needed a break! In all truth and honesty...a couple things have been going around here on the homefront that have kept me away. First of all, I'm just not feeling it this year. There, I have said it. I've actually said it quite a bit here. And I know this is normal, a season in the art teacherin' life, it's still frustrating. I'm not hopping out of bed with excitement about the day ahead. Sure I can fake it but...I know that it's not my normal, you know? I do think a large project I'm working on has been a contributing factor. I've worked on big projects while teaching before ('member this book?) But this new thing it's, well, bigger and unlike anything I've tried. So other things are starting to slide. Blogging and being completely present and excited in the art room. 

BUT Y'ALL DIDN'T COME HERE FOR ALL THIS, did you? Sorry, not sorry. We all need to overshare sometimes and you just happened to be a good listener. Thank you

Now, let's talk about projects that are perfect for this time of year: Valentines Day-ish lessons! Be sure and click on all the following links as MANY of them have videos for you to share in your art room with your students. Here we go:

Romero Britto-Inspired First Grade Hearts this lesson was a huge hit with my students and involved line and pattern review as well as some fun color exploration with tissue paper and paint sticks!

 Heart Prints with Kindergarten was such a fun way to share printmaking with kindergarten in a way where each student was successful! 

Foil Relief Heart from Kindergarten Printing Plate this was a fun way to do a cool project with our leftover printing plates. Kindergarten then painted the background in a rainbow review.

Robert Indiana Love Prints by First and Second Grade my kids love printmaking. We explored making a ton of prints on styrofoam plates before adding the paper letters on top.

Chris Uphues-Inspired Project for All Grades You'll definitely want to check this lesson out, it's perfect for a sub, comes with a video and free handouts!

James Goldcrown Hearts for All Another easy lesson and a quick one too...and one that introduces a contemporary artist. Win-win-WIN!

First Grade Woven Hearts with Stitched Edge We just finished up weaving in my art room and we just might be doing this next. 

This Our School Has Heart mural is a blog post with so many ideas! One for each grade level, be sure and check it out!

Valentine Animals for All my kids loved this project and I'm sure yours will too. All the videos and details here!

A Contemporary Artist Review! This one was one I did with my older students and it was a blast. We learned about four contemporary artists who use hearts in their work. Video included!

But wait, there's more! So many more Valentine's lesson ideas here. Hope you enjoy!

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In the Art Room: School Pride Collaborative

Last year, my third grade students worked with their table groups of four friends to come up with positive four letter words that describe our school. Guess which lame-o and lazy art teacher JUST HUNG THEM UP THIS WEEK! That's right...this gal right here. 

 This collaborative is one that I think would be a wonderful back to school activity. It really inspired conversations on just who we are as a school and who we strive to be. As a class, we sat on the floor, looked at the work of both Jasper Johns and Robert Indiana. After a discussion of their work, I asked the kids to help me brainstorm a list of four letter positive words. Once the list was complete, the kids were to go to their seats and work as a team. Their assignment: settle on their word and who was going to paint what letter. 

 I had purchased 8" X 10" canvas boards for each student. However, matte board works just as well or even cardboard primed with some gesso! Then my students used carbon paper and a printed copy of enlarged letters. I had laid out every letter of the alphabet on a table for them to find. They would then lay the carbon paper on their canvas with the shiny side down, place their letter on top and trace. What this did was insure that all of our letters were the same size and font style. 

 Once their letter was traced, every child was tasked with deciding how to paint their letter. They could either use all of the cool colors for their letter or all of the warm. Then they were to use the reverse of that color scheme for the background. Like this:

 Having looked at the work of Jasper Johns and admiring his brush strokes, we used that as our inspiration...but really I left it open to the kids how they would paint their letters and background. I love the variety of these letters by my fourth graders. They did these as initial paintings:

It was a fun way to introduce two artists, color theory, discuss our school culture and get them painting and exploring pattern and brush stroke. 

And now they are finally up in our halls (I am a bit of a procrastinator!). I framed them with 16" X 20" frames. The artwork fit PERFECTLY! I chose frames that were lightweight and had plexiglass so if they frames fell, there would not be broken glass. 

 Each is hung with 2 Velcro Command strips. The small frames were thrift store finds! I chose small black frames with each being between 50 cents to a dollar. I then removed the glass and cut plexiglass for the inside. 

 In the small frame, I wrote "A Johnson Elementary, we are...COOL" and then I wrote who painted the four letters and the year. 

I love to do legacy projects and collaboratives with my students every year. There are plenty here on my blog...and this one is my new favorite. Such a wonderful way to start the new school year! 

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DIY: A Dress for Dot Day!

Oh hey, hello and HIIIIIII! I would just like to say that I know I have officially become the World's Worst Blogger. I've gotten lame with blogging frequently (I swear to you it was on my To Do list to have at least three posts up this week and here we are at numero uno), I'm miserable at responding to comments (mostly because I'm so busy DELETING THE VIAGRA SPAM COMMENTS, like what?!) and I've just been busy. Like, I don't know how or why but my summer has become consumed with stuff that I wouldn't necessarily call fun...and it's all my own evil doing. But I promise (and I know I've been sayin' this for months) that Ima try, nay, I WILL be better. I have some big ideas in my little head and I'm excited to work them out and share them with you.

But WHATEVER. Let's talk about this dress, people!

I mean, look at that size of that circle skirt, would you?! It's just so...BIG (that's what she said! Sorry...I know the year is 2019 but I will forever be livin' la vida El Office). At the start of spring, I cut out no fewer than 8 dresses from pretty much the same pattern. I had this idea that I just might get a whole lot more sewing done if I did it in batches. You see, I already know the pattern that I love...after years of sewing dresses, I always gravitate towards the same pattern: a 1950's fit and flair. So I cut out and started stitching bunches. And so far...I've only managed to finish two. Le sigh. 

I honestly cannot tell you where my summer time has gone! It's been frustrating for me as I see my days evaporate. And yet I look at my To Do list and I see I'm slowly ticking things off (like my husband...I tick him off daily) and getting maybe JUST MAYBE a little closer to my goals. But that time spent pursuing other things means less time for blogging, sewing and all the other things I love. 

 I usually tackle small tasks. Ones that I know I can knock out in a short time frame. Cuz a short time frame matches my short attention span. But now I've got a couple of big dreams and big goals I am trying to reach and ultimately want to share with you. SO...while I'm going to try, nay, I WILL BE BETTER HERE...just know that I'm still around and working on something that I'm excited about. And I hope you will be too. 

Until then, I love ya lots, Polka Dots! I did make this dress to help celebrate International Dot Day...so I thought I'd share with you just a few of my favorite Dot Day projects. Back to school is upon us and Dot Day is one of my most favorite ways to kick off the school year...so here's a buncha links to my fave projects based on Peter H. Reynolds The Dot:

Round up of my fave Dot Day Projects!

Even more Dot Day Lessons!

Oh my lanta, I just realized after doing a little googling that I have a TON of Dot Day projects! I'll make sure to do a proper blog post soon and link them all...until then, y'all rest up and enjoy the last bits and pieces of your summer. I know Ima try!

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2019 Art Show: 2-D Work!

 Serving up the final installment of our 2019 art show for y'all today! This here is the 2D portion of our art show where every work of art that every kiddo has created all year long is on display! You can check out our Glow Gallery Tour and our Pirate Gallery Tour here! 

In this blog post, I thought I would share a link to each and every one of these lessons you see! This will give you an idea of what projects I teach (2D, that is) throughout the year. If you are interested in details on this art show: how it's hung, who does the hangin', how it's taken down and sent home, then you might want to watch this tour I created to answer those questions for you:

Please feel free to leave any questions about what you see here or on my YouTube channel and I'll be sure to answer them.

 Let's take a tour of theses projects! We'll start with kindergarten. My kindergarteners always have the biggest amount of artwork because their lessons are shorter. I started the beginning of the year with my lessons on line. Those projects did not make it to the art show as they were sent home at the start of the school year. From there, we did the rainbow lesson and Mouse Paint project. 

 One of the more popular lessons for kindergarten on my blog is this one. This lesson is always followed by my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom project which you can find here.  

 Our snowmen were a lot of fun to create this year too. We learned all about the cold colors and painting spiral lines. 

 A new lesson I came up with this year were the heart prints. We were able to get many prints created and used our two favorites for our work of art. 

With our printing plates, we created these beauties! Super fun and stunning!

 The kindergarten gallery is almost always my favorite! 

 Although first grade sure does take a close second. Let's talk about their projects. One of my favorites this year were our Mad Scientists! 

 A classic that we've done many years in a row are our Royal Self-Portraits. I love that we have two selfies in this art show: one as royalty and one as kid-genius. Perfect for my kids!

We also did those heart weavings that you see with the stitched edge. With the heart we cut out from our construction paper for the weaving, we created these Romero Britto inspired pieces. You can see a variation of that lesson here. 

All of the artwork and the kids who created them make me this happy. 

The big penguins you see were created from this lesson here. 

 Let's move on down to second grade! These kids had many works of art both in the Glow and Pirate Gallery that their wall seems a little empty. Don't let that fool you: we are always crankin' out some art!

 Our Super Hero Selfies can be found here while our Chris Uphues Hearts are here. 

 This printmaking lesson is one of our favorites. We seem to improve up on it each year! 

 And this lesson is from my String and Stitch Lab for Kids book! Check it out! 

It's a pretty colorful hallway!

Speaking of, let's move on down to third grade! You'll notice these kids also did the Chris Uphues lesson...in fact, all of my students did as it was a sub plan. 

One lesson of mine that was especially popular was the landscape project! I had run out of paper (omg, an art teacher without PAPER, hello!) and had a lot of cardboard pizza rounds...so we improvised! 

The kids also created those amazing Sandra Silberzweig-inspired self portraits!

 My students did two kinds of weaving, tree weaving and circle weaving. Two kid favorites. These are also featured in my new book! 

 One lesson that I'll be sharing soon is this one! If you can't wait, then check out this blog post as this lesson is a variation. 

 

 This is another lesson that I'm excited to share with you soon! 

 This third grade display brings me so much happiness!

 My fourth graders spent the start of their school year making pillows! We made pizza, donut and emoji pillows, all of which are in my sewing book. 

 One of my favorite lessons this year was our Snow Globe project!

 While planning our snow globes, we made tiny paintings that we later used for our marble still life lesson. 

 Our Fauve-style self portraits were a lot of fun to create too. 

I hope you enjoyed this art show tour! Be sure and check out the other posts to see all the other works of art these artists created. 

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