Why You NEED Modeling Clay in your Art Room!

When I first started teaching my art room had NOTHING in it but a bowling pin, a Leonardo da Vinci board game with the pieces missing, a coffee can of broken crayons and...a TON of modeling clay. I cast the clay aside not thinking I'd ever have use for it. But when my curriculum called for a "clay unit"...and I had no kiln and no budget, this stuff came in super handy. Turns out, my students and I loved it and used it to explore more than just sculpting. It became a vital tool for learning lines, shape, texture and more. Here's how:

I love using modeling clay for early finishers, lesson review, preview to sculpture and more! I created these clay sheets just for you! Please feel free to use them in your art room. 

Also, I know a lot of you need to turn in lesson plans. My friends at Prang created one for you! You can download it here!

To purchase your modeling clay, here's what I'm using. 

Here you go:

This is a great sheet to use to introduce clay to your students! You can find all of these downloads here. 

I use this sheet after introducing line or when I'm doing a line review with my students. Of course, I read my book Larry the Line and this follow-up activity ties in perfectly! You can find my book Larry the Line here. 

I'm closing in on nearly 200 five-star reviews of my book Larry the Line! I love to see Larry in your art rooms...thank you so much! Get yourself a copy here.

Once my students learn about lines, we move on to shape...so I created these sheets so students can see how to use lines to create shapes. These sheets can be found here!

Of course, my book Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes is the perfect companion to these shape sheets.

You can pick up a copy of Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes here!

Thanks, y'all! Enjoy!

Let's Celebrate Vincent van Gogh: My Fave Van Gogh Art Lessons!

Hello, friends! 

Sunday, March 30th was Vincent van Gogh's birthday! I love Vincent and the story of his life. He was one of my favorite artists to share in the art room. When I was writing my book Find Your Way, a decide-your-direction art adventure, I knew I wanted to include van Gogh. I wrote Find Your Way to read to my students while they worked...and they were always fascinated with his artwork and his life. 

In case you are not familiar with my book, YOU are the main character in the book as the events unfold in real time. It all begins, as most adventures do, in the art room. The reader decides which art adventure to take. When I read this book to my students, we voted on which adventures to go on...and they loved it! I share much more about reading this book to my students here. 

In honor of this amazing artist, I thought I'd put together some of my favorite Vincent-inspired art lessons. I also created two FREE downloads just for you and your students to go with their very favorite van Gogh lesson...a James Rizzi and van Gogh mashup!

The complete lesson with instructional video can be found here. As for the free downloads, just tap the links below the illustrations!

Find the front of the drawing sheet here.

And the back of the sheet here! 

I always keep sheets like these in sheet protectors because...these kids are messy! You can find the sheet with the silly faces and more details on the lesson here. 

Since spring is here, doing a Vincent van Gogh inspired cherry blossom painting might be fun too! I have that lesson available here. 

I'm a big ole fan of Charley Harper so this lesson brings him and Vincent together in one super cute and fun lesson. Details with video here. 

There for a while, I was really into crafting this massive masterpiece murals with my students. They are a lot of fun...but a lot of work. When they come together...it's amazing! You can find details on this second grade Starry Night here. 

Of course, mark making and brushstrokes are always important to chat about when learning about van Gogh. This second grade lesson focused on that while also talking about warm and cool colors.

Here's what the painting exploration looked like after the first day.

And here's our final touches with India ink. Full lesson here. 

These second grade Super Hero Selfies were always a favorite lesson...it's one we did EVERY year! The sky was inspired by, you guessed it! Van Gogh! Lesson details here. 

Van Gogh also inspired my creations! I created this needle felted light up Starry Night dress and a Sunflowers sweater all thanks to him.

Most recently, I even made some buttons for a sweater and earrings...both from polymer clay. Lesson how-to here.  

I'll leave ya with another illustration from my book Find Your Way! The book features 7 different artists, over 80 illustrations, 32 different endings, a biography of each artist and a project inspired by each artist too! It was a labor of love...I hope your students enjoy it as much as mine did!

10 of My Favorite Heart-Themed Lessons of All Time!

Hey, friends! Earlier this week, I shared some of my favorite lessons to ease back into the art room. They were all Valentine's themed to give you a jump start on a display for next month. You can check out that blog post (where each lesson comes with a video!) right here. 

Today I'm sharing lessons that are also Valentine's themed (or really heart/love themed!) but there are a little more in-depth and will take multiple class periods. Personally...I love a long project for these long winter days. It means less prep (after the first initial wave of tons of prep, ha!) and gives the kids something to really dig their teeth into. So, let's dive in! Just follow the lesson links and that will take you to the full lesson, video and resources!

Let's start strong with this Candy Hearts lesson that I did with my fourth graders! They loved creating large candy hearts and coming up with a (teacher-approved, ahem) saying. You can check out the lesson and video process here. 

Spring is when I LOVE to dive into weaving so...why not get everyone prepped by doing a paper weaving project? It's a great way to remind your students of the weaving process. Or...introduce them to it! This is a weaving (with a little bit of sewing) project that I did with my first graders. You can check it out here. 

Looking to dive into printmaking in the next couple of weeks? Here's a lesson that I did year after year with my second graders because it was such a hit! We made so many prints that we did some print swaps before adding our cut letters to these pieces. We even framed them with our scrappy messy mats! All the details can be found here. 

Speaking of printmaking, would you believe that kindergarten created these?! We used foam stickers and had a blast. You can check out the lesson here. 

And we then used our printing plates to create THESE! I know, I love em! You can see how we did it in this blog post. 

My third graders FLIPPED OUT over creating these plaster chocolates with puffy paint icing! Send out an email requesting heart shaped boxes now and use them for a display or, do what we did, and make your own! Details here. 

If you are in the mood to bust out the clay, might I recommend these? This project was one I did with my teachers, faculty and staff at my school! It was so fun to come together and create. I did create a video for them to watch and you can check it out here. 

In the mood to try a new art supply? For these, we used Celluclay, one of my personal favorite supplies to use when I create! These were made with an aluminum foil armature and Celluclay on top. You can check out the details here. 

Since these projects can take a while, you'll find you have some students who finish before others. I resolve that a couple of ways: I allow those students to 'assist' other artists by creating with them (with student permission, of course) or...I give them another lesson to do! This was one of those 'early finisher art lessons' that I created. I simply played the video for those kids and they got to work. This one is much easier than it looks! Here's the details! 

If you are looking for a lesson that can ultimately become a school wide collaborative or a mural, check out this one. This is a SUB PLAN! Granted, my sub KILLED it but...I do have the full video for you and your students to view here. 

Let's Create Art-Themed Ornaments!

As an art teacher, I always love seeing Christmas trees with an artsy theme. So I thought I'd put all of the art-themed ornaments I've created over the years into one blog post. This way, if you want to create an art themed tree for your classroom or home...you can! And I'll show ya how. Let's start with these wee bearded gnomes made from old paintbrushes!

By the way...these projects are kid-friendly too! So if you want to have your students create these, they totally can. Here's a quick tutorial:

Now here's a project that my students LOVED...using toilet paper tubes to make paint tubes! It's an easy one and we used it as a lesson on color theory! Details here.

Now we did use Celluclay and plaster strips to create these. In a pinch, papier-mache could be used instead of plaster and air dry clay instead of Celluclay. You aren't gonna believe how easy this one is. Video here:

This video was made for you to share with your students. 

I used some ribbon found at the craft store and some old paint brushes to jazz mine up a bit. 

Using some wire, I added them to my wreath. I found the wooden pallet at Goodwill and painted it to go with the wreath.

Full blog post can be found here!

And here are the tubes my students created! Details on things I learned about creating these with my student in this blog post. 

Coming up with their own name for the paint was super fun!

Now...here's an art-themed ornament that even my first graders made:

This two-day art lesson used, again, toilet paper tubes and plaster! You could use foil for the ferrule. We used metal tooling. They LOVED these! Although...first grade was disappointed that they didn't 'work' ;)

Here's the video:

How cute would pencils, paint tubes, paintbrushes AND crayons be on an art room tree?! We did make these a little bigger with paper towel tubes. It may be time for you to send out that school wide email and start asking for both! Details here. 

One year, my theme for my art show was "Art Supplies" so we made all sorts of silly stuff like these spilled glue bottles! Details here.

These are made from plaster and Model Magic...with those puffy things that they use in the mail when they are shipping something fragile as the armature! Here's the how-to video:

We even made scissors and...

Glue sticks which were, honestly, the easiest of them all. It's just a plaster-wrapped tube painted in tempera! 

Now you don't have to have a funky colored tree for your art room...any ole tree will do! In fact, I see tons at Goodwill which is a great place to grab one. THEN...you can decorate with all of your (or your students!) artsy ornaments! Details on this tree can be found here. 

The most fun is in the making! So...if you are looking for messy projects as you head back to the art room after Thanksgiving, here you go! Have fun!

Just a reminder: if you'd like my books to arrive in time for a Christmas present for a teacher, a young artist, an aspiring art teacher or a gift to yourself, please consider ordering soon! I'm signing each before popping them in the mail. You can find all of my books here!