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!

Art Room Ideas: Finish the Drawing!

Have I got something for you, y'all! Check this out: Finish the Drawing! I explain it real quick in this video but more details on the supplies used and how it works below...

I got this idea because of the following:

* I got lots of paper scraps. Like, LOTS. So this helps me not waste any of that paper!

* I got lots of kids who wanna do Free Draw but LOOK HERE: my art classes are 30 minutes long! And we all know how they be treatin' that paper that they draw on for a minute and then toss in the trash. 

* I got the desire to have kids create...with each other! BUT lack the time to make it happen. This, THIS can make my art teacherin' dreams come true, y'all!

Supplies:

* The pencil is from Chris Uphues. I added the wording to it with my Cricut. BUT you don't need a fancy sign! You're an art teacher, you can make it yourself!

* The frames came from the thrift store, Dollar Tree and my storage closet.

* The clips I picked up from Amazon.

* Paper from the scrap bin!

The premise is simple: pick a piece of paper and draw on it for as long or as short as you'd like! Then, sign it and hang it back up.

OR...pick an unfinished drawing that you'd like to add to. Be kind, considerate and do your best. It is someone's drawing, afterall. Then, of course, sign it. Hang it back up!

Finished pieces get hung in our Masterpiece Gallery or we just keep the fun going by having the work returned to the wall for more artists to add to it!

I hope you give it a shot! You and your kids will love it!

Sewing Room Tour!

I finally cleaned my sewing room (after, you know, 10 years or whatever) and I thought I'd offer a little tour! Before we begin, I wanted to share with you all of the links to my favorite things you'll see in my sewing room. If there is anything you spot that I forget to link, please just ask. BUT...you'll have to ask on my YouTube video as leaving comments here on my blog is darn near impossible. A couple of years ago, my blog was flooded with spam comments and I had to make it more difficult to leave a comment. My apologies for that. But the comment section of this video is open:

Here are some of my recommended sewing must-haves!

My FAVORITE sewing machine for all sewists levels My FAVORITE book for new sewists My FAVORITE way to store spools of thread My FAVORITE thread (don't skip and use cheap thread, trust me!) Good scissors ONLY used for sewing is a must I LOVE this for pin holding when stitching, look how cute! A good cutting mat is a must These sewing pins are my favorite

In my video, I failed to mention that I have a roommate in my sewing room: Max. He's our toothless wonder. Though he's not very old, we had to have all of his teeth extracted a year ago. This means he has to eat soft food separately from our other cats (Johnny and Tika) who are wild wolves and would surely devour Max's soft food. Since he eats in my sewing room, he pretty much spends his days in there. With me. And his liter box, ahem.

I have had many versions of this wall in my sewing room. But what has worked for me the best is to have all of my tools up and visible for me to see and grab. Hence the multiple pegboards and the supplies on the wall. Artwork by my fave, Chris Uphues!

And I just finished that painted jumpsuit! If you wanna learn how I made it, just get thee here. 

There's probably a ton that I failed to mention so just ask!

What would I do without wire shelves?! Since leaving teaching in February, I've ordered a ton more for all of my art teacherin' books and supplies. I plan to share a tour of that space, where I 'work' very soon. It's just currently a hot stinky mess. 

AND if you weren't aware that I stepped away from the art room, YEP! I did! After 25 years. I do plan to chat about that in an upcoming podcast next week, so...stay tuned!

Fabric on hangers is seriously THE ONLY way to go! 

I do hope you enjoyed the tour! Stay tuned for more.