20 Valentine's Day Themed Lessons!

Howdy, friends! I put together a blog post full of my very favorite Valentine's-y lessons just for you. These are perfect project for any time of the year but with Valentine's Day quickly approaching, I thought they'd be perfect.

However, if you are looking for winter-themed lessons, I packed a ton of them into this post here!

First up, printmaking! This is a lesson that the kids love...and I think one year I may have gotten a wild hair and done this printmaking project with first grade. They can do it...but it's a little easier with second graders.

Complete lesson details here!

Okay, now this project, believe it or not, I did with KINDERGARTEN! Yes, I swear! BUT then all of my classes saw these giant hearts and they asked to do it too. I'm a sucker for doing lessons with all of my classes if they work. The problem with that is...then the lesson has to be shelved for a couple of years to cycle through the students. Oh well! This one is wildly fun and, tap this link, a video lesson is provided. 

My firsties LOVED creating these critters! I got a wild idea to have each class create a different animal and I made a how-to video for each. You can check out the videos and details here!

Aren't they so cute!?

Looking for a fun sculpture project? My fourth graders created these with tagboard and plaster strips.

You can check out the details here, video tutorial included. For a follow up, check out this blog post. 

I created this lesson for my fourth graders who happened to be early finishers for the sculpture lesson. However, it also would work as a sketch for the sculpture too! Details here. 

A project that my third graders loved was this one! We used our tempera sticks, tempera paint and...PUFFY PAINT. This is the one time the kids could go nutty with the puffy paint and the results were so fun! Lesson and video here. 

This lesson, inspired by the artist Chris Uphues, has long been a favorite with art teachers and artists alike! I have this lesson and a free download that can be found here. 

Want to make it into game?! Free download lesson here!

The lesson for this optical illusion can be found here. Doing these is always a hit with my third grade and up!

Need a fast one day lesson? Then I think you'll love this one!

Looking for a clay alternative? My second graders created these with aluminum foil and celluclay! Celluclay is an air dry clay that I love. You can check out how I prepared it for my students and lesson details here. 

If you are looking to elevate the lesson a little with some plaster to add wings, which is surprisingly easy to do!, then check out this post!

I had always wanted to do this lesson but struggled with it until I figured out a solution! I have all the details on how to create these sweet beauties with your students here. 

If you are looking for a fun clay project then look no further than here!

Every year, I do a paper weaving lesson with my first graders. This one is perfect as it ties in with positive and negative shapes! We use the negative shape to act as a frame for our weavings. Lesson details here. 

Another first grade lesson is this one...we made these on HUGE pieces of tagboard and they were a show stopper in the the hallways. Check out how we created these with bleeding tissue paper here. 

Looking for a lesson that introduces students to artists who also love LOVE?! In this one, my fourth graders learned about four different artists who use the theme of love in their artwork and then they created their own! Details here. 

By the way, start saving those boxes of candy hearts! Turns out the plastic packaging that holds the chocolate makes for great molds! My third graders used the molds to create their own plaster chocolate. Details here.

Thinking now would be a good time to do a school wide collaborative project? I couldn't agree more! I have the details on how we created this big beautiful beast here.

Or how about this collaborative? My students created this one WITH A SUB while I was on jury duty. It helps to have videos, I tell ya! Find the lesson here. 

It's that time of the year when the messy mats are looking more like art than anything else...so why not put them to use!? You can see how my first graders did that here!

Thinking of introducing kindergarten to printmaking?! WHY NOT? I'll show ya how we did it here. 

And look what we created with their printing plates! 

And if you are looking for the perfect book to teach about shapes, since we are focused on hearts around here, might I recommend this one! I packed in to much from organic to geometric shapes, the names of shapes, what defines a shape and how to count sides and verticies and SO MUCH MORE! You and your artists will love it!

Have fun, friends! I'll be back with more brand new lessons super soon!

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25 of my Favorite Lessons for Celebrating Love!

Hello, beautiful humans!

Today I'm sharing my 25 Favorite Valentines/Love-Themed art lessons! From sub plans with handouts to clay and plaster projects, I've got something for everyone...including printmaking with kindergarten! Most of these lessons include kid-friendly videos, some have handouts and all are FREE! I hope you enjoy and...

Happy New Year!

I know next week means heading back to school...and it's just so hard to do after weeks off. I thought I'd try and ease the sting a little by offering up to you my favorite fun and easy lessons for celebrating LOVE as Valentine's Day is on the horizon. It's never too soon to start those Valentine's themed lessons and NEVER NOT a great opportunity to celebrate all things lovey dovey. Many of these lessons here come with a kid-friendly how-to video and, best of all, they're free! Just tap the highlighted link for more!

The above is a lesson I created for my kindergarten friends but it was so fun that I ended up doing it with several grade levels. It's that time of year when you really just wanna ease on back into art teacherin', right? So why not do so with a project where you just gotta get out one art supply (tempera paint and black oil pastels) and call it a day? It's much more relaxing that way...and when you are happy and relaxed, it will reflect in your teaching (and, hopefully, the students). 

One of my all-time favorite things to teach first grade is...paper weaving! And I know what some of you may be thinking: SERIOUSLY?! Yes...because I got it down to a science! They make the looms, we weave together on a big loom I created, we do this on the floor and help one another...it's so fun! Here's the full lesson!

Nearly all of these lessons here are inspired by artists! Which means that students learn a little about both contemporary artists as well as artists of the past with these projects. Here we learned about Jen Stark!

For me, back to school after a long break meant back to the basics...a review of rules, routines and expectations. I cover all of that in my book Art Teacherin' 101...it's always a good time to get a handle on classroom management. No matter how could it is, it could ALWAYS be better, right? I share all of my tips and tricks in that book, if you are interested!

With that being said, I often just used simple supplies like markers when we return to school. But 'just markers' doesn't mean you can't do something super cool! Check out the video here on how we created these optical illusion hearts!

Of course, sometimes it's fun to just jump right back in with big and exciting projects! I've been all about the plaster and Celluclay in my own artwork lately...and kids do love it! More here.

Of course, back to school usually means PD meetings. One year, I convinced my admin to let me lead a workshop on creating these clay hearts with wings! I loved doing workshops with my faculty. It was a fun way to get everyone together in a relaxed way (which we never seem to do!) and enjoy creating and each other's company. To teach such a large group, I created a how-to video. 

As you know, teachers are some of the worst students (I'd insert a laugh emoji but we all know it's true!) so having a pre-recorded video will help!

I've never met a kid who didn't LOVE printmaking! But it can be daunting and super messy...which means a lot of clean up for us. However...you CAN do printmaking with just markers and Styrofoam. Let me show you how we made these!

This lesson is probably one of my most popular Valentine's projects! I show you how to draw each of these cuties in videos you can find here. 

I'll also show you how to make easy heart stamps with scraps!

Wanna make these?! My fourth graders loved creating these giant candy hearts! I created a video for them (and you!) here. 

Speaking of candy hearts...complete video to share with your students can be found here!

Wow! Did we LOVE creating these (see what I did there?!) And I have an easy method for you to make each one successful. You can check it out here!

This is a project I did with my second graders and they loved it! You can check out the video tutorial and lesson details right here!

Here's a fun lesson I put together to do in one class period! Well, for me, it took 2 classes as my class period is 30 minutes long. I did this with my fourth graders as a way to introduce them to four different artists...in one lesson! Check it out here.

Did we have fun with this one! We used old candy heart boxes and plaster to create our own faux chocolates. We also used tagboard and newspaper to create our candy boxes. It was so stinkin' fun. Full lesson here. 

Look how realistic! Did I mention we used puffy paint?! Everything is better with puffy paint.

I really like to work big with my students. The bigger the paper, the better! It's a challenge with storage...but it's so worth it. These hearts were created on huge squares of paper. We chatted about Britto and did a line review...

Speaking of line...if you need a book to teach (or review) line with your students, did you hear I wrote a children's book!? Yep! it's called Larry the Line. If you are familiar with my Larry the Line poem, let me tell you this is the longer more in-depth version with idea sheets to be printed and shared in the back! You can pick up a copy here. 

Big thanks to all of you that have purchased a copy and left a review! 83 5-star reviews is so amazing! Thank you all so much for the love and support. Okay, back to the lessons...

Another super popular lesson on my blog: My Chris Uphues Lesson! This one is perfect for a sub plan as it comes with a free handout.

Looking for a school-wide project? I have a ton of collaborative ideas on my blog (check out this post). This one involved each grade level creating a heart with a different medium!

This Britto-inspired lesson was another collaborative we did and...it was a sub plan! Check out the lesson video and process here. 

Looking for an easy one day lesson!? Look no further, I got you right here!

Check out these scrappy hearts made by first grade! This was actually a lesson with a focus on positive and negative space. The kids were so excited by the negative space their cut out hearts created that we filled the space with tissue paper on plastic. More here. 

Aren't they so pretty up close?

And this is what we did with the hearts we cut out! Just black and white painted designs. Simple and so pretty!

Do you want to explore printmaking with kindergarten students but you don't know where to start?! Try this easy and fun lesson on for size!

Once your students are done printmaking, you can take the hearts and create THESE! Aren't they so pretty?!

Got scraps of painted paper laying about?! You're an art teacher, of course you do! Spend some time teaching the kids how to cute out hearts and create these cuties! Use them to hang as mobiles, put them in windows, send to faculty as love notes...the possibilities are endless. Details here. 

Last but not least...check out these James Rizzi birds! Full lesson with video here. 

Thanks for dropping by, y'all! Know that it's TOTALLY OKAY to ease on in to this new school year. The slow you go...the more they will GROW, I promise! Slow it down, focus on what matters and enjoy art teacherin!

Love ya!

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