Line Designs with Chalk and Glue!

At this point, I feel like I'm spamming my own blog with LINE lessons! Just for a recap, I'll add links to them all right here:

* Line Sculptures

* Line and Shape Paintings

* All About Me Line Portraits

I'll be sure and do a Best Line Lessons post soon but if you are looking for more ideas now, see THIS review of my fave line lessons here!

And if you are looking for all of my Larry the Line lessons, see the end of this post!

Before we dive into the lesson at hand, let me just share my LOOOOVE of lessons with black glue! Now for some of these, I didn't know about this epic time-saving hack and I MADE my own black glue with ink and Elmer's Glue All. It's a REAL DRAG, lemme tell you: the bottles clog, the ink spills, the glue leaves a permanent mess because of the ink...it's all such a pain. I will say...the end result of the black glue versus this hack is better but not so much that it's worth the hassle. 

Here's some of my very favorite black glue lessons:

* Abstract Faces Inspired by Sandra Silberzweig

* Black Glue Tigers with Chalk

* Black Glue Abstract Fish

* Stained Glass Trees

When we use chalk, this is our set up: a divided tray with warm and cool colors and black, gray and brown removed. These divider trays were donated to the art room from a hospital...so I can't tell you exactly where they are from. BUT I do love that they keep the colors separate. 

We also use a tissue for cleaning our finger AND a laminated color wheel.

I always get so many questions on where I got the color wheel...I found it online YEARS ago and I couldn't tell you where. So...I made one for you! You can download it here.

And now for the lesson! Here you go:

I know art teachers tend to have a love/hate with chalk pastel (I just call it chalk)...it's messy and often the artwork smears. BUT I love the stuff. The colors are bold and bright. And if you use a color wheel and really teach the kids about analogous colors, I think you'll find it fun to teach. I use that same color wheel method you saw in the video for every chalk lesson.

For my VERY favorite chalk lessons and more of my tips and tricks, visit here!

When studenst are done with their chalk lessons, I will often spray their work with an aerosol hairspray like Aqua Net from the dollar store. It will dull the work a pinch and can leave little speckles of spray but...it works pretty good. As long as the artwork is not man-handled much once complete, the spray works fine.

And, OF COURSE, if you don't have my book on LINE and SHAPE already, now's the time to get 'em!

You can find Larry the Line here.

And Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes here!

The Perfect Back-to-School Art Project: Getting to Know You Sculptures!

Every single year I do a paper sculpture lesson with kindergarten to kick off the school year. In fact, we do it on the very first day of art! You can see me teach that lesson to kindergarten on their first day of art right here. 

Because that lesson is always a hit, one year, I decided to level up the lesson and share it with my other grade levels, first through fourth. BUT I put a spin on it and we called it our Getting to Know You Sculptures!

Now, we start this lesson AFTER our First Days of Art Rules/Routines, which you can learn all about here:

The above post comes with several free First Day of Art downloads so you'll definitely want to check it out. 

If you are new to teaching elementary art or if you are looking to level up your classroom management game, I dive into all that AND SO MUCH MORE in my book Art Teacherin' 101!

Okay, back to the lesson at hand...

For supplies, you'll need base paper (I used 12" black or white paper) and cut strips of paper. I sprinkled in some unclaimed artwork as well as strips of neon copy paper for the sculptures. You'll also need glue as well as these two totally free downloads!

Find one here!

And the other one here!

I like to keep them in sheet protectors to keep them from getting too crusty with glue.

Now, if you have never done a paper sculpture with students, don't you worry! I've got a couple videos that will walk you through the process. Start here:

And here's a video I created of this very lesson when I was going to be out for a couple of days:

The artists had a blast creating these! The only problem...storage! We had these piled EVERYWHERE. BUT they only had to make it to Open House...and then we hung them all up for display!

OF COURSE these als make for the perfect LINE review! Which is where you can use my book Larry the Line!

What I loved most was that when we displayed these at Open House, they were interactive. Meaning family and friends used a decoder sheet to "read" about the artist! That was so fun to see!

Just wanted to share this low-mess/low-stress back to school lesson that is always a hit. Happy BTS season!

All-About-Me Line Portrait Painting Lesson!

Hi, friends!

If you are like me, you like to kick off the school year with a couple of things: a getting-to-know-you style project and...a return to the elements of art with an intro to LINE. Which got me thinking...what if there was a lesson that could combine BOTH?!

And...so here I present to you...the All-About-Me LINE Portrait! (complete with two totally free downloads!)

So now...I wanted to share with you some ways for you to adapt this lesson to other grade levels. Let's start with the younger students like first grade. For them, I would consider using this lesson with just the emphasis being on learning and drawing lines. So after creating the border and the grid, have students draw a line inside of each box. 

In the video, you might have seen me reference one of my Larry the Line downloads. You can find those here. For my book, Larry the Line, visit here!

For students in second and third grade, you may want to consider using this (totally free) download!

With this, students can draw lines that tell a little about them. When displaying their work, consider creating a large version of this sheet to hang with the artwork! It's perfect for Open House as the students can share it with their families and really spend time talking about their artwork. 

This lesson was inspired by another lesson of mine...one called Getting to Know You paper sculptures. This is a perfect tie-in! If you have other grade levels that you are looking for a lesson for, you might wanna check it out!

Teaching paper sculptures the first weeks of school is MY FAVORITE THING EVER...so I'm a big fan of this lesson, with or without the idea sheet!

I also did a version of this for when my students create sketchbook covers! For this, we used tempera sticks. You can check out those details here.

PERSONALLY...I think THIS would make an amazing sketchbook cover! I plan to share more details on that idea soon but...imagine this folded in half and filled with paper and amazing artwork. So fun!

Now, for older students, you might want to allow them to fill out their own sheet! So I created a blank version and you can download it here.

Print these on colorful copy paper and display them next to the paintings for a real pop of color!

Now let's chat supplies I used:

* Ink filled bingo dauber

* Tempera Paint

* Ice cube trays for the paint

* 12" X 18" 80 lbs paper

* No-Spill water cups

* Paintbrushes

If you are looking for some pointers when using tempera paint, check out this blog post with my top tips and tricks!

As an alternative to tempera paint, I also demonstrate how to use watercolor paint! This works well as does tempera cakes. So...if busting out the tempera paint isn't something you are in the mood to do the first couple weeks of school, you could always try watercolor for less of a mess!

Enjoy and STAY TUNED! I have a ton of LINE lessons (and more!) coming your way! The best way to stay up to date is to join my email list! You can do it here.

Simple Shape Sculpture Lesson!

One of my VERY favorite lessons of all time is teaching my kindergarteners how to make LINE sculptures. And we do this lesson on the very first day of art class!

Several years ago, I started doing these shape sculptures with my students when we were finished with our unit on LINE. And I realized...I never shared that lesson with you in video form!

So, I thought I'd create a new video for you and your artists in case you are ready to dive into the wonderful world of SHAPES!

Some troubleshooting for this lesson:

* You'll probably want to start with either a 12" square of paper or a sheet of 9" X 12" construction paper to create the cube.

* So that your students will be able to create shapes that are a good size for the cube, you'll want rectangles of paper that are 12" X 2"

* You'll need glue! Glue sticks may work in a pinch...but I find that the hold is better with glue.

* OF COURSE, you'll probably want a good book to read for your shape lesson. How about THIS ONE?! ;)

You could do this lesson any number of ways!

For a quick version, you may wish to leave the construction paper blank. This allows the shapes to really take center stage. 

OR...you could use paint sticks or ink-filled bingo daubers and have students do a little bit of a line review. In the video, I wanted to share all three versions! Personally, I like the plain background best but I am always looking for a good review and the lines in the background does just that. 

Don't forget! I just shared a super fun SHAPE painting lesson that is a great tie-in with this project. 

No matter what, I do hope you and your amazing artists have fun! Please let me know if you do this lesson, I would love to see their awesome artwork!

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!