Favorite Winter Projects for After Winter Break!

Happy New Year! If you are anything like me, you've spent ZERO time thinking about returning to school next week. Like, I mean, my brain has been switched to ANYTHING-BUT-SCHOOL mode. As it should be, I say. Until, that is, the end of break sneaks up on me!

So to put your cute little head at a tiny bit of ease, I thought I'd share my favorite winter lessons here in this blog post. Be sure and tap the highlighted link to each as many feature the full lesson WITH VIDEO. For free, of course. Cuz I'm a giver, y'all. 

Let's start off with some ambitiousness, shall we? If you are feeling up to it, might I recommend this tree weaving lesson? In my book, Stitch and String Lab for Kids I share how to create the evergreen tree weaving but you can also find the details here, just flip the plate upside down!

A lesson that my students love (and everyone who gives this one a shot!) is this Jen Aranyi-inspired winterscape! We create ours on cardboard pizza rounds found at Gordon Food Service (I'm lucky to have one down the road) but they could just as easily be created on white paper! If you are on a cart and want less mess, try doing the sky with the marker/water method, found here!

Want to introduce your students to printmaking? I love this printmaking lesson that could easily be done with kids of all ages. Okay, look, I'm not gonna lie: I often do the same lesson with multiple grade levels. It's much easier with my 30 minute classes that come back to back (with up to 8-9 classes a day). So, go easy on yourself! If that's what you do, just know that I'm right here with you! Lesson details here. 

This fun lesson introduces students to a wide variety of media from bingo daubers to chalk to...watercolor! Lesson details with video right here!

I did this project with my first graders and they always love it! We work big, 12X18 paper background but you could definitely work smaller, like even half that size. No bingo daubers? Try Sharpies!

This lesson for my kindergarteners is similar to that of the penguins which leads me to my next idea: do similar lessons! Less supply prep and less worry on your part. This year I have made an effort to clump lessons by supplies. I'm too old to be runnin around like a waitress, y'all. Lesson with video here. 

If you feel like tucking into a long lesson, this one might be for you. You know, there's something to be said for long lessons...it means less planning. You could shorten it, however by just making the snowglobes much smaller! Lesson with video here. 

As soon as we return to school, I plan to have my students dive into clay and create clay mugs! Our tradition has been to drink hot chocolate from our mugs once complete. This was inspired by an art lesson we did where we created hot chocolate collages! If you have no kiln, creating these collages and then celebrating with a hot chocolate party may be an idea for you! 

Here's a look at our mugs! Every grade level, except kindergarten, does this every year...so many of them have a collection of mugs at home! We also do another clay project but this one is easily their favorite. Lesson with a couple of videos here.

It's the year of the Rabbit! Did you know? If you need some quick lessons for your younger students, I piled a bunch of them in this blog post, check it out! 

Need even more cuteness? Here's another lesson that your kids WILL LOVE! My students had so much fun with this one and couldn't wait to take their kittens home. Lesson with video right here. 

Okay, need more ideas? Well, I actually have MUCH more! Just visit here where I did a deeper dive into all of the winter-y lessons on my blog. AND if you want to jump ahead and start working on art for Valentine's day, check out this post. See ya soon!

 

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Under the Sea Week: A Coral Reef Relief Collage

 Yesterday, as apart of our Under the Sea Week, we created Coral Reef Relief Collages! If you want to create your own, grab the following supplies:

And now, let's create:

This one is so much fun and the possibilities are endless. 

If you want to join LIVE art class today, here's what you'll need! You can find me LIVE on my Facebook page, my Instagram or join the fun later by tuning in to my YouTube channel. Be sure and subscribe, new videos are added all the time! 

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Snacktastic Chefs Week: Salt Dough Pizza and 3-D Cake!

 Alright you snacktastic chefs! Here's a little bit of a round-up of our projects from Wednesday and Thursday. In case you missed, we made Salt Dough Pizza! Here's the list of supplies:

And here's the video:

On Thursday, we made cake!

 All you need are the following supplies:

I'll show you how to draw both of these cakes right here:

Today we are BAKING! It's important to set that butter out about an hour before I go LIVE so it is softened. You can bake cookies with me on Instagram, Facebook or catch me later on YouTube. New videos are uploaded to my channel multiple times a day so you might want to subscribe!

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Let's Make a Landscape!

Here's an easy and fun way to teach about the four parts of a landscape: horizon line, back-, middle- and foreground. What I love about this little lesson is that the pop-up stands up and it can act as a card of a storytelling prompt as it opens like a book! Check out this three-minute demo. Feel free to share with the young artists in your life!

Have fun!

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Earth Day Art Lessons: Let's Give Earth A Hug!

Wednesday is Earth Day but I thought it would be fun to celebrate all week! Let's kick things off by giving earth a hug! Here's how:

I hope you have fun creating! Be sure to subscribe here so you don't miss out on any Earth Day art projects! 

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Dinosaur Week: A Wrap Up!

Dinosaur Week was such a blast, thank you so much for joining! In case you missed any of our creative fun, I've put 'em all together in a blog post right here. Let's start with Friday. We created these amazing Dinosaurs in the City inspired by the book If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most!

On Thursday, we learned that Dinosaurs Love Snacks and created a pop-out dinosaur mouth featuring their favorite imagined snack foods:

Wednesday was probably my favorite day as we went on a Dino Dig!

On Tuesday, we created these fun hatching Dinosaur Egg Pop-Ups!

And we kicked off the week with these Paleontologist Portraits!

I hope you'll be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel as new videos are added almost every day! Also, if you want to join the fun live next week for Outer Space Week, you can do so on my Instagram or Facebook. See you real soon!

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Outer Space Week!

Who is as excited for Outer Space Week as I am? I'm thrilled to share the line-up of art projects that we'll be creating this week. I'll be LIVE on my Instagram and my Facebook page every weekday at 11am CT. If you miss out on any of the live art classes, not to worry! I archive each lesson to my YouTube channel. By the way, I've been adding a ton of new videos nearly every day so you might want to go ahead and subscribe so you don't miss out! 

Okay, here's the line-up and supply list for each day! 

If you don't have the ingredients to make the clay then Play-Doh is an excellent substitute. Any clay will work! 

"Take me to your leader!"...that's what my alien would say. What would yours say? This fun pop out is so silly because you can make your alien TALK! This process is also great for creating other moving and talking cards and pop-ups!

Here's something you can create and then interact with once complete. Tell stories, write plays, come up with your own universe! 

This is such a fun process. If you've been creating with me for a while, you might remember we did a project using this method for Robot Week! 

Big thanks to our sponsors! Dixon Ticonderoga supplies me with the most incredible art supplies on the planet! And Art to Remember allows us to create a gallery of our own artwork on line...which can be shared with family members and even printed on a multitude of items. Thank you so much, sponsors!

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Dinosaur Week: Dino Dig!

We had so much fun creating dinosaur bones yesterday with our simple salt dough clay recipe! If you don't have the ingredients, any clay will work. Modeling clay is the only one that will not air dry but the others like Play-Doh or Model Magic would work great. Here's what we used:

You can create any ole dinosaur or imagined creature that you like. If you are using your own clay, just zip through the part where I make my salt dough clay.

Have fun! If you'd like to join us today, here's what we're creating:

Pop-Out Dinosaurs Love Snacks! You can create with me LIVE on my Instagram or my Facebook. Or you can catch the afterparty on my YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe, new videos are added nearly everyday! 

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Superhero Week: Miniature Comic Book and a Wrap Up!

Well, that's a wrap for Superhero Week! We ended this adventure by creating our very own comic book! We used all of the skills we learned throughout the week and combined them in the drawing portion of our book. In case you missed yesterday's lesson, not to worry, here are the supplies you'll need:

And here's the lesson:

I thought I'd also share the lessons we did throughout the week. Here was what we created on Thursday: Superhero Costumes!

On Wednesday we had so much fun creating a Superhero Pop-Up Card!

Tuesday was spent creating an Onomatopoeia with salt dough clay.

And on Monday we made a Superhero Selfie!

Next week, our theme is DINOSAURS! I'm working on the projects now and plan to post the lesson line up and the list of supplies tomorrow. 

If you want to follow along art class live, you can do so on my Instagram, my Facebook or catch it afterwards on YouTube. Be sure and subscribe to my YouTube as I'm adding new videos sometimes twice a day!

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Pirate Week: Alligator Puppet and a Weekly Wrap Up!

Wow! I don't know about you, but Pirate Week was an absolute blast! So many of you joined the fun that I loved seeing photos of you and your children creating along with me. It means the world to me. Thank you so much for sharing! In case you missed out on making your own Alligator Puppet, here's the list of supplies you'll need:

And here's the how-to video:

In case you missed any of our Pirate Week adventures, I thought I'd do a recap of all of our projects here! I'll be sharing the videos here but if you want a list of supplies, you can check out this blog post.

There's what we created on Thursday...a crowd favorite: Treasure Maps!

I brought back the Salt Dough Clay recipe because it was such a hit during Zany Scientist Week. With it, we created the details on our Treasure Chest!

We constructed a Pirate Ship Collage with materials found around the home:

And we even drew ourselves as pirates when we created this Wanted Pirate Poster!

I'll be going LIVE again this week for...Superhero Week! Stay tuned for the projects I have lined up for us, I'll be posting later on today. You can catch me LIVE here on Facebook or on Instagram. You can also catch me later on my YouTube channel.

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Zany Scientists! Making Your Own Clay!

Can you believe that Zany Scientist Week is over!? Not to worry if you missed a single day because I'll be sharing all of our art AND science projects right here! Let's start with yesterday's installment where we made our very own clay and then created with it!

Then on Thursday, we created our own beakers and made a Magic Potion which was my favorite experiment we did all week! 

On Wednesday, we created a drawing that exploded before our very eyes! That was so fun. We also did Floating Chalk Prints!

Tuesday we created our very own Thinking Caps before venturing into our experiment:

And on Monday we did Bubble Printing and drew Scientist Selfies!

If you missed ANY of our adventures during Robot Week, you can see them all right here. You might want to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode! 

Next week, our theme is Pirates!! I'm so excited. I'll be sharing with you the list of supplies needed by tomorrow. You can catch me LIVE every weekday at 11am right here on Facebook or here on Instagram!

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In the Art Room: My Favorite Oil Pastel Projects, Hacks and Techniques

Okay, today I'm talking and sharing all about every art teachers favorite art supply: the oil pastel. In this week's podcast, I'm not only excited to share our sponsor Creativity Street's Oil Pastels but also my favorite hacks, my four favorite kinds of oil pastels (from fluorescent to water-soluble) and my favorite lessons. I'm also talking about how to clean oil pastels (yes! you can clean them!) and also how I easily remove the paper wrapper and store these babies. You can hear it all right here! 

I don't often repeat lessons but when I do, it's this first grade hit! We call these our Royal Self Portraits and they are a great use of both oil pastels and water-soluble pastels. Check out the full lesson here. 

My second graders truly are super heroes and it shows in this project! Fluorescent oil pastels were used in the background of this Vincent van Gogh inspired sky and it really pops with a watercolor wash. Lesson here!

Y'all need some of them sub plan things? I got you right here...and your kids will learn about a contemporary artist too! 

Nothing like oil pastel pattern-y landscapes, says me. The pop-up houses with puffy paint also made these a huge hit with the kids. Lesson right here!

Speaking of puffy paint...do y'all use it in your art room? My kids are HUGE fans. I admit, I love the stuff too. But, back to oil pastels. We used them once again to create a great textured resist for this piece. 

Can you guess what household item we used for this piece? Guess you'll have to take a listen or click the link to find out! Video tutorial included! 

These kindergarten pigeons bring me so much happiness! Lesson with video right here!

Speaking of kindergarten, I know they can be a struggle but I got you. I have so many kindergarten lessons on this blog! Just search kindergarten in the search bar or try this fun lesson on for size. 

I mention several different scraffito projects in the podcast episode and this is definitely one of my favorites. More here. 

Need another mental health day? Boo-boo, I hear you. Here's another sub plan favorite! 

First grade and kindergarten love this pattern-y landscape lesson. More here!

Have you checked out my Glow Gallery?! AH!! So fun, see it all and learn all about it here. 

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