Line and Shape Paintings!

Y'all, I don't know if you have noticed but...I'm on a bit of a lesson-sharing roll lately and I hope you all are here for it! Because...I have much more to come. The best way to stay tuned is to check back here often, join my email list or subscribe to my YouTube channel. My lessons are always FREE and usually come with free downloads too. 

I'm so excited about this lesson!

This video lesson has THREE lessons in it...and you can decide what works best for you and your artists. Before we dive in, here are the supplies I used:

* Oil Pastels (I like neon ones, you can find them here)

* Square paper (I only use 80lbs paper)

* Ink-filled bingo daubers

* Watercolor Paint

This first portion of the lesson goes perfectly with my book Larry the Line...if you don't have it and would like to take a look, you can find it here. 

This video is broken down into three different lessons. It's perfect for a wide range of learners! Here's what I would recommend: K-6th Grade: Everyone can do the first portion of this lesson! It's a wonderful line introduction and review. Students will also learn how to use their watercolor paint to add color. 3rd-6th Grade: The second portion of this lesson is great for these learners as it will introduce them to geometric and organic shapes as well as positive and negative space. 4th - 6th Grade: The final portion is perfect for these learners but does require paint pens (I am using the POSCA brand) or metallic Sharpies. I know these supplies can be pricey so you may wish to limit this portion of the project based on the supplies you have available.

The second half of this lesson focuses on SHAPE. I dive into all things shape in my book Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes!

I dive in deep in this book...I wrote it when I noticed that most books on shape just focus on learning the names of shapes and seem to cater to very young children. I used the second grade curriculum to guide me in writing this rhyming book and it covers ALL things shape!

For this final portion, students can use paint pens or metallic sharpies. Both can be pricey...which is why I recommend this for your older students who may take better care of supplies. 

Regardless of which portion of this lesson you use, I know you and your artists will love it! I especially know they will love the first portion of creating lines from sounds!

If you have not used ink-filled bingo daubers, I have lots of info about it here. It's one of my very favorite art supplies!

Thanks for letting me share, y'all! Have a great weekend!

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Larry the Line Printable Snake!

Hey there! If you happened to see my last post, I said that I had a whole lot of LINE art lessons coming your way...and I wasn't kidding! Here's another one! This one is perfect for our younger students and it's a great project if you are short on time or just looking to do a review.

From what you have told me, your students LOVE Larry the Line so it got me thinking: how fun would it be if they got to have their very own Larry?!

With that in mind, I created this totally free download for you to use in your art makin' world!

I thought of a couple different ways you could use this free download: students could create the lines and add color with the medium of your choice, as I did here. By the way, you can find the line sheets here. 

Another idea would be to print a bunch of Larrys on some brightly colored copy paper and let students pick the one they want to add lines to. This would make the lesson shorter and allow more time to focus on lines. Again, the handout above is here.

OR! Use this sheet as an early finisher activity! Slide the sheet into a sheet protector and allow students to follow the steps and practice their line drawing on the sheet protector. At the end of class, they just erase! This would eliminate the cutting portion...which I know is a separate skill that needs to be taught thoroughly! (Which I can help you with here!)

No matter how you use this sheet, I hope you and your artists have fun with Larry the Line! Stay tuned, more to come!

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Line and Shape Monster Collage!

Hi, y'all!

I recently created a lesson with my friends over at Prang using (my favorite!) their Tru-Ray construction paper and Prang's white school glue. You can find the lesson, with the step-by-step process here!

For a link to my favorite Tru-Ray paper and glue used in this lesson, check it out here.

To dive into the video, here ya go:

I hope you like it!

This lesson is perfect if you are wanting to do a line and shape review and create something a little fun and silly for the Halloween session. 

I shared a variation of this lesson a couple years ago that is more line focused. It's the perfect lesson for pre-K and you can find it here. 

Need some shape books for the lesson? You can find my book Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes here. 

And another fun book to read would be this one. It's always a hit with the kids!

I hope your artists have fun with this one!

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Line and Pattern Collaborative Painting!

Hey, friends! I'm coming to you today with a lesson that has been rolling around in my head for a while. I know this time of the school year, so many of us focus on LINES and I thought this painting project, that could serve as a school-wide collaborative, would be perfect!

Like my more recent lesson videos, I'm doing a little bit of a teacher-talk at the start of the video to walk you through the prep process. There isn't much but I do think it's important. 

By the way, for A TON MORE line lessons, check out this blog post!

Okay, let's dive in! 

For this lesson, you'll need:

* 9" square paper

* 9" square template if creating a collaborative mural

* Paint-filled bingo dauber, 1 per 1-2 students

* Tempera paint

OF COURSE you're gonna need a copy of my book, Larry the Line, right?!

I find that templates work great and just make one per table! Then the kids can add the tick marks so they know where to start and end their first lines. I think the mural would work best if those first lines were all the same. I decided to use a dark blue.

I've been using the Prang Tempera Paint and really loving how bold and bright the colors are. Looking for a crash course in using tempera paintin the art room? Check out my Top Ten Tips for Tempera Paint here!

If you do this lesson and post on social media, please be sure and tag me, I'd love to see what you and your artists create! Please do not rewrite this lesson and sell on TPT as your own...I hate to say that every post but, it happens!

Have a great week, friends!

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The Coolest Cardboard Sculpture Lesson Yet!

So I admit, the title of this here blog post is a little self-congratulatory but...WOULD YOU LOOK AT THIS SCULPTURE?! And tell me that it's not super duper fun!

This lesson is one I came up with while i was playing around with cardboard for THIS cardboard sculpture lesson. While tinkering, I realized I could connect the cardboard to make faces...or busts. Then I even made little people (lesson coming soon!) and just had so much fun.

This lesson is perfect for the start of the school year when you are learning all about lines! It's a great pairing with Larry the Line, OF COURSE but also a book by my friend Barney Saltzburg, Crazy Hair Day!

The prep for this lesson involves the same supplies I used in my sculpture lesson. You'll need to cut some cardboard...but that's really about it! For links to the supplies I recommend, visit here. 

Ready to dive in?! I share some trouble shooting tips in the beginning of the video just for you. You'll see that I did struggle using cardboard squares for the head that were larger than 6" squares. That proved to be too heavy for the pipecleaner, as you can see. That's why my guy has no neck! So...when working with your young artists, keep your cardboard at 5" squares or smaller!

If working with young children who struggle with cutting the cardboard, just have a ton of bits cut for them! Allow them to glue and I really recommend Elmer's Glue All for the best stick. 

Of course, painting these would be fun (I do have a lesson on that coming soon!) but I chose to focus on lines. You do you! I'm sharing this lesson for you to take it and run with your artists!

If you are looking for the line sheet I use in the video, it's a free download! You can find it here!

Just a gentle reminder: I share these lessons because I want your students to have fun...and you to have a break! PLEASE do not recreate and/or sell my lessons on TPT. You do not have my permission and, sadly, it happens a lot. I mean, c'mon. That's just not cool.

Have fun and happy creating, friends!

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My Top 10 Favorite Line Lessons!

Welcome to my Top Ten Line Lessons!

Since I have been sharing so many LINE lessons on my blog lately (with more to come, yay!), I thought I'd create a blog post with ALL of my very favorite lessons on line. Consider this your one-stop-shop for all things Line-Lesson-y!

Of course, we have to kick things off with The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Larry the Line! All my line lessons begin with Larry so if you'd like to get yourself a copy of my book, you can do so here!

To kick things off, let's start in kindergarten! Right away, we dive into all things LINE by create a line sculpture on the very first day! By the third day, we are ready to put our line knowlege to work with these lines paintings. 

Did you notice in the photo how nicely the artist was holding their paintbrush?! That's because they know all about The Paintbrush Ballerina! This method of teaching painting will totally change how your artists handle their brushes and paint. 

For a little Paintbrush Bootcamp (with free downloads!) visit here!

After these structured paintings where we paint lines across out paper, we dive in with either watercolor or tempera cakes to add color. You can find this line unit here!

This line sculpture lesson is one of my all-time faves AND it's what I teach on my first day with kindergarten artists! I also recommend this lesson if you have to do a teaching demo for a job interview. It's always a hit with kids of all ages!

To take a look inside my art room on that very first day of art, you can watch me teach! Check it out here!

Of course, if you are on a cart or simply don't feel like busting out the paint at the start of the school year (don't blame ya!), you could always do a variation of the line lesson with tempera sticks!

Then you can finish 'em off with these wild and wacky line monsters! For that lesson, visit here.  

And, of course, if you are doing collage with your students, you DEFINITELY need my new book Scissors, Glue and YOU! 

One of my FAVORITE ways to teach lines is with Line-Making Stations! My artists CRANKED out so much artwork in just a couple of 30 minute art classes. Not only did they learn all about lines but a variety of ways to create them! You can read all about that and check out the video and handouts I created for the occasion here. 
Printed lines was a fave! They really popped with black and white paint on black and white paper. Stay tuned to how we used all of these pieces of art!

All ya need is cardboard and some paint! Visit the link for the handout!

I did these stations with my first through fourth graders. Even this cutting station because, let's be honest: they all need the practice!

Here we used our ink-filled bingo dauber. If you aren't familiar, visit this link and I talk all about 'em!

For details on how these looked when finished and for some trouble-shooting tips, visit this blog post!

One year, I did a variation on the kindergarten line sculpture and made it into a school-wide project! We called them our Getting-to-Know-You sculptures!

I created a couple of totally free downloads and my students used them to create a coded work of art! These were so fun to have on display for open house. 

Here's a little look at what the finished display looked like! Tips and tricks for this lesson can be found here.

You could also...turn that sculpture into a HAT! I did my sculpture on a paper plate and then wore it like an artsy thinking cap! For the lesson video, visit here!

Once the paper sculptures are complete, your artists could try their hand at these super fun cardboard line sculptures!

Of course, modeling clay is fabulous for teaching lines. Let me share this sheet with you as well as walk you and your artists through the process here!

Keep the line sheet in a sheet protector and it's perfect as a center for those early finishers or for a line making station!

Looking for a Larry-themed lesson?! Then this new one from my blog is sure to be a hit! You can check it out (with video, of course!) here!

Whatever you do, I hope you have fun AND I hope you have a wonderful long weekend. You've earned it, friends!

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