In the Art Room: Romero Britto-Inspired Hearts in First grade!

Hey, y'all! This blog post is brought to you by my (and my students!) newfavorite things:

* Bingo Dotters (Daubers?) filled with India ink

* Bleeding Tissue Paper

* Sargent Paint Sticks

We had a blast with this lesson. So much so that when I shared on my Instagram, I got lots of questions. I thought I'd create a short video tutorial for your and your kiddos! Here you go:

Please pardon my nasally voice as I'm currently losing a fight with a head cold. I blame the children.

 I have 30 minute art classes with my wee-ones. We managed to crank these out even after watching a video about Britto and reviewing lines, shapes and patterns. I was so loving the direction they were going so far.

 The following art class, we learned all about bleeding tissue paper magic. This had the kids very excited. I encouraged them to use either warm or cold colors in each section. Some did and some didn't. It's first grade, y'all. They do what they want. 

 These hearts are HUGE. We created them on 18" squares. So, by the third art class, some had a little bit more tissue-papering to do and some did not. So I introduced the idea of the paint sticks. I really let the kids do what they wanted in the background...it was a new medium for them and I really wanted to see what they would come up with.

 By our fourth and final 30 minute art class, I still had some kids wrapping up their masterpieces. My early finishers set to work with their paint makers. They added pattern to GIANT hearts that I drew on multi colored bulletin board paper.

 I hot glued their giant hearts together and added them to our heart display!

 Ugh, still need to get some signage up there!

Such a fun lesson, I had to share! Have fun!

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In the Art Room: Artists with Heart!

Last week, we were out of school for seven consecutive days in a row with snow. It was heaven, lemme tell you. We finally ended up going back to school on a Friday after a 2 hour delay. If your school is like mine, when we have a delay, we specials folks get an alternative schedule...which basically means that whatever you'd planned on doing, just go right ahead, open that window and throw it right out. Knowing that, and knowing that I didn't wanna spend my shortened Friday running around like a mad woman trying to locate projects, sort supplies and remember where we'd left off, I decided to do a fun one-day project with all of my classes. That's when I got the idea for a crash course on four artists who use hearts in their art!

I did this lesson in about 30-40 minutes. My classes are 30 minutes in length...but this did run a pinch long. The classroom teachers don't usually mind if I keep their kids a little longer...which only works for me if I don't have another class standing outside my door. Thankfully on this day, it worked out. 

And we cranked out these beauties in that short amount of time! I created a keynote of each artist. I did a quickie intro, shortie demo and then set my timer and said, "okay, you have five minutes!" We NEVER do art class like this...but the kids really seemed to love the challenge. They took to calling it "speed art" or an "art game". I need to come up with a name for it. I really love this idea of a crash course in learning about artists! 

For a wrap up, we've been doing this standing-on-our-chairs thing (hey, if Ron Clark can do it...). At the end of art class, the kids stood on their chairs, looked around the room, admired each other's artwork, got super loud and then I rang my chime and we cleaned up. 

In the video, you'll see what supplies we use and how I have them organized. I love chalk pastels, oil pastels and a new kid-fave: paint sticks!

The kids had not used paint sticks yet and they were huge fans. Several companies now make these. Mine are from Sargent. They go on slick and wet like paint but dry instantly. So fun!

Now we have some fast, fun and colorful art for the halls!

I stayed after school on Friday and started to matte an frame the work. I'm trying to get a little ahead for our big art show that we do in May. I'm always in a mad dash to frame in the spring...so I thought that I'd take one class a week to sort, prep and frame. We'll see if I can keep that routine up. I know I'll be happy that I did come springtime!

I have a TON of love-y dove-y lessons on this blog, you can find them put all together in one blog post here. 

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In the Art Room: Top 15 Fave Valentine's Day Lessons!

After winter break, I always find myself in the mood to start Valentines-y/Warm-Fuzzy/Lovey-Dovey projects with the kids. When doing a little searching on my blog last night, I discovered that I've done 15 Valentine's-themed lessons over the years. I had no idea I'd done so many! I thought I'd share them with you today. May of the links back to the original post will include an instructional video. Please let me know if you do any of these lessons, I'd love to see what you and your kiddos create!

Robert Indiana Love Prints! Believe it or not, my sweet FIRST GRADERS created these a couple years ago! It was a great lesson for printmaking and definitely one I will be doing again. If you don't have printing ink, you might want to check out this blog post where I'll show you how to print with paper and markers!

James Rizzi Love Birds!  Who doesn't love James Rizzi?! These birds are based on some of his work and is a great tie-in if you've already taught Rizzi and his fun cityscape works.

 Recycled Hearts!  Last year, I had a stock pile of messy-mats from our months of painting. We used them to make these two fun works of art (see below also) and they were such a hit! What a great way to review the warm colors, pattern and line.

So much sweetness!

Chris Uphues Hearts! If y'all don't know who Chris Uphues is, then you need to! He's one of my fave dudes to follow on Instagram. His artwork is so fun, so happy and so kid-friendly. They had a blast creating these happy hearts inspired by him.

J Goldcrown Hearts! If you need a quick one day project, I would recommend this one for sure! You can introduce your students to another street artist, J Goldcrown, and have them work in chalk! This is a great project for just about all levels. 

Sculpture Hearts! Last year, I introduced my second graders to Celluclay with this project. I have 30 minute art classes with these kiddos so we had to hustle! We spent one day covering our foil hear in clay, two days painting and the last day stringing beads. These were one of my favorite projects for Valentine's day!

 My Heart Has Wings! If you want to do a feel-good project with your faculty and staff, might I recommend this one? We did it on a PD day and it was so much fun. Of course, this would be a great project for kids as well.

Candy Heart Sculptures! My fourth graders created these candy hearts last year and they had a blast. We used plaster strips which created a super hard surface for the candy. We even made giant candy boxes to display them in!

 Woven Hearts! Every year, first grade does a paper weaving and every year we do something a little new. Last year, they nailed the weaving part so well, I thought I'd introduce them to simple sewing. They did great and I loved hanging them up like a quilt.

Candy Heart Drawings! When my fourth grade early finishers were done with their candy heart sculptures, I had them move on to a drawing of their candy hearts with oil pastel.

Britto Mural! A few years ago, I had to be out for a couple of weeks for jury duty. While I was gone, I had my students work on the parts of this Britto-inspired mural. It was great because then there was a fun masterpiece to hang in the hall when I returned. You can check out the instructional videos in the link.

Valentine Animals! My kindergarten kiddos created these fun animals last year. I created an instructional video for each one which you can find by clicking on the link. 

Collaborative Heart Mural! Collaborative pieces are a lot of fun this time of year. If you follow the link, you'll see which grades created what for this huge collaborative pieces that still hangs in our front office.

Peter Anton Box of Chocolates! This might have been a kid-favorite as it involved using EVERYONE'S favorite art supply: puffy paint! Check out how we made the faux candies and boxes by following the link.

What are your favorite projects this time of year? Love to hear! 

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What the Art Teacher Wore #172

Allow me to just kick off this here What the Art Teacher Wore by saying No, I did not create that AMAZING felt flower Frida-esque crown I am wearing. It was created by art teacher Linda McConaughy who was so sweet and kind to send it to me. You can check out and purchase Linda's designs here. If there is something you have in mind, message her! And, if you've ever been to NAEA, you might also know Linda by her paint brush crown pieces (you can see me wearing mine here!). In fact, she'll be at NAEA in NYC this March (as will I, so excited) so you can check out more of her wares there. Thank you so much, Linda, I LOVE my flower crown and my students did as well. Matched my color wheel shirt completely!

 Target, You have the Best Kid's Clothes: I ain't ashamed to admit I just about purchased the entire Cat and Jack line at Target...for myself. Yes, it's kids' clothes. No, I don't care. That color wheel shirt is currently on clearance for something crazy like $2, y'all! top and skirt: Cat and Jack for Target

So. Did y'all survive Friday the 13th, the full moon and Mercury Retrograde (I'm not exactly sure what that is but if it had anything to do with the painting of one's hands and then licking it off episode I witnessed this week, I ain't down with it)? Thankfully, I have a long weekend to recover. It was my first week back after the break and we hit the ground running: weaving, sculpting, painting, printing. You name it, we were doing it. And all of it was in the name of LURVE...

 Before break, my firsties had finished these weavings. Honestly, I had NO idea what we were going to do with them until Monday morning. I remembered that before break, these kids had whizzed through weaving. So I decided to see if they could handle a little bit of hand stitching. Y'all, they rocked it! You can check out the complete lesson here. 

With all the possible bad luck floating around, I decided to ward it off with some freaky evil eyeball jewelry. You can see more of this craziness here. I'm so on a 80's kick right now, y'all. I've had a hair crimper in my Amazon shopping cart for a week now. 

 The Problem with Wearing Kid's Clothes: Is that half of your students wear them too. I was told that I match several kiddos in our school, a couple in kindergarten and a few in first grade. Yep. I've got the fashion sense of a 6 year old. Sounds about right. top: Cat and Jack; skirt and tights: Target; boots: Frye

Second grade printed this week and learned about the artist Chris Uphues. I love his artwork but his street art hearts are my faves. The kids really got into his work. Lesson to come!

 Wonderful Wednesday: I was so excited about Wednesday because my fourth graders started on their Candy Heart Sculptures! sweater: thrifted; pins: vintage; top: JCrew; skirt: resale find at Buffalo Exchange (I knooooooow!); yellow tights and hot pink fishnets: who knows

We got out armatures complete and started on the process of cutting the plaster into strips. I wasn't about to do that myself so I put the kids on that one. Next week, we cover in plaster!

 When You Look as Ridiculous as You Feel: All day long. That's what happens when you dress like a kid, y'all! top and skirt: more Cat and Jack. I done told you I bought everything they had. Gift cards from Christmas came in mighty handy; shoes: Aldo

Second grade had so much fun printing hearts that I decided to create more stampers and have kindergarten do it as well. You can see how I made the stampers here. More to come on this lesson! 

All Eyeballs on Me: Yep, I had to. Details on this dress here. Shoes from Modcloth

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