Zany Scientists! Scientist Selfie and Bubble Prints!

 What a fun turnout we had yesterday for Zany Scientists Week! In case you missed it, I'm doing a LIVE art and science class every day this week! You can join the live class two ways: my Facebook or my Instagram. And, if you miss any of the live art classes, not to worry as they all get posted to my YouTube channel! I have a ton of art makin' videos there and upload new ones often so you might want to subscribe. If you missed any of Robot Week, you can find all of the videos there!  

Watch here!

Here is the short list of supplies needed to follow along with this art and science activity. And if you'd like to join the fun today, here's what you'll need: 

Hope to see you there! 

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Robot Week! Home-Based Art Making

Knowing that so many of us are teaching and creating remotely, I thought it would be fun to do a little art teacherin' online. I shared yesterday all of the resources of mine that are free and able for you to use if you need to prepare art lessons for at home artists. However, I wanted to create something fresh and new and do a little LIVE art teaching as well. So...here's what I came up with: Robot Week!

What's Robot Week? Well, it will be a daily dose of creating centered around the theme of Robots. I'll kick it off on Monday this this lesson that I'll be doing LIVE but I will also attempt to archive to my YouTube channel. 

 For this first LIVE, I'll probably go for about 30-45 minutes. We'll just play it by ear. If you and your young artists can make it, great! 
You can join me on my Facebook page here or on my Instagram here!

Big thanks to our sponsor Dixon Ticonderoga for joining the fun!

Free How to draw Robots resource for you! To practice, inspire or color! 

 In my art room, we call these Idea Sheets. This one is yours here!

Mitch said I should make y'all a coloring sheet...so here you go! 

On Tuesday, I won't be live but I will be posting a video on how to create robots that look more three-dimensional on my YouTube channel! Again, simple supplies can be used or swapped out for whatever you have on hand. 

I am super stoked about this one, stay tuned!

I know we probably all have a couple of cereal or snack boxes laying around. For that reason, why not try your hand at a collagraph rubbing? It's when you cut and glue shapes to a surface, lay a piece of paper on top and then, using a "sleeping" crayon (one on its side), rub over your design. I then added a watercolor wash to some of mine! 

It's a Build-Your-Own-Bot kind of Wednesday!

What to do with that cereal box collage? Well, on Thursday, I'll show you how to cover it in foil and make a print with just markers and water!

Oh yeah, this one's magical!

On the final day of Robot Week, we'll make a collage with one of my favorite papers to collage with: business envelopes! They have the coolest patterns and designs. 

I do hope you'll join the fun! If you do, I would love to see what you and your awesome artists create. You can email me your images at artteacherin101@gmail.com and I'll try to feature them right here!

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My Favorite Lessons for Home-Based Art Education!

Hey, y'all! I'm about to share some of my fave home-based learning projects but...this is just the tip of the iceberg! I have a TON of art lesssons on my YouTube channel for you and your artists to explore. Be sure and subscribe as I'll be adding many more!

Currently, we as educators find ourselves in the most unusual of situations: away from our students for an unforeseeable amount of time and wanting to still connect, teach and create. If you are like me then your district has requested that you attempt to do just that with home-based learning. Because this is unchartered territory, the idea of teaching remotely is confusing, daunting and overwhelming. Where to even start? 

I've been putting some serious thought into this topic for the last couple of days as I create fun art activities for my students to do at home. I'll be sharing them all right here (for free, of course!) but in the meantime, I wanted to share with you the home-based art lessons I plan to use. Each of these lessons, videos and PDFs are FREE for you and your students can use right now. Feel free to include in your take-home packets or modify to fit your student's needs. Let's begin with this Monochromatic Self-Portrait lesson that is appropriate for kindergarten on up!

Just click for the video! Because many students may not have markers at home, you might suggest crayons for them to add color. 

This Colorful Village lesson was one that all of my students loved! I did it with my first through fourth graders and it was a huge hit. In case students don't have paint at home, markers and crayons can be used. Without those supplies, this could simply be a great drawing task for them to work on creating three-dimensional buildings. Here's the video:

These colorful houses were so fun to create!

My fourth graders always loved this Romero Britto-inspired self-portrait project. I do think that younger children would love it too. 

Again, consider suggesting students swap out supplies used for what they have on hand at home.

Chris Uphues is easily my student's favorite artist! And can you blame them for loving him so much, his work is just so full of joy! You can check out the entire lesson here. 

The link to this blog post also includes free downloadable PDFs!

Introduce your students to both James Rizzi and Vincent van Gogh with this fun lesson. Click the link for free handouts! Here's the video:

Of course, if you want to get kids creating, then you could always have them create their own sketchbook! I plan to create a video to show kids how to create one easily. In the meantime, they could use the Sketchbook Decoder Sheets found here to personalize their sketchbooks! 

If these look kinda familiar, we have done a similar project with my Getting to Know You sculptures. That project is also one that could be done at home with improvised materials!

Times like these could get you down...but we can't let it! So why not have students create drawings of people, places and things that they are grateful for? Click here for two free PDFs!

If you are required to send home a packet as we were in my district, you might consider downloading and printing out this sheet and including a circle sticker. These can be found at the dollar store. Children could access a telling of The Dot on YouTube and create their own work of art in the frame!

If your students have access to paper, scissors and glue, this easy Greg Mike-inspired project would be a blast for them! 

Without access to construction paper, students could simply use the paper that they have on hand.

A lesson that is always a hit with my students is making this pop-out star. They love creating the patterns and then writing about themselves. Again, think of an alternative set of supplies for students to use so they can create at home.

Alright, y'all! Stay tuned as I have much more to come. I hope that gives you and all the young artists out there a fun place to start!

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