Since I know so many of you kick off the school year by covering LINES, I thought I'd share a new line lesson with you!
I actually had a brain explosion of line lessons lately...and I CANNOT WAIT to share all of them with you! So be sure and check back here often because I'll be uploading them all over the next couple of days.
Of course, THIS lesson is inspired by the one, the only Larry the Line!
To know me is to know about Larry the Line. He's been in my art room, inspiring artists for 25 years! A couple of years ago, I turned the short Larry the Line poem I created into a book. You can find it here.
I am working on creating a whole library of books on the elements of art. So far...I have line and shape (check out Alfred here!)
But today...we are focusing on LINE.
For this project, I'll be sharing a wet-on-wet technique as I introduce lines and watercolor paint. I love the low-mess, low-stress activity of watercolor paint and this lesson really shares the magic of the medium.
Have you ever tried this technique with your students? They love it and it's like magic!
However...be CERTAIN that they keep their papers flat. The paint will be super drippy and you'd hate to see their lines get all mixed up. I recommend having students carry their work on a tray when it's time to clean up...or a sturdy tagboard messy mat.
Even without Larry's line designs, these are super fun. I hope you and your artists have fun creating!
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!
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.
If you haven't, you might wanna! For the last four weeks, I've been sending out weekly free lessons and downloads! So...if you'd like to take advantage, you might want to sign up. And now...back to the program...
This lesson is just the thing to brighten these long winter days. My students always love creating a variety of silly faces. AND this lesson comes with some free downloads which makes it even better! Tap here for the free heart face idea sheets.
After I got such a good response from my Roll-a-Snowman download (another freebie here) , I thought I'd create one for this lesson too. This is the perfect way for your students to practice their heart drawing before diving into the lesson. Grab a copy of the sheet here.
I know one of the toughest things for students is actually...drawing a heart! To remove that struggle, I did create a heart template. This way, you can simply slide it into a sheet protector and let them focus on the drawing activity.
I did share how to draw a heart with simple steps and the rest of the details of this game and lesson in a video too! So...if you need a little break, let me help em out a bit. You can find the video here:
Feel free to use and share in your art making world!
And BIG THANKS to all of you for making the launch of my new book The Paintbrush Ballerina a success! I know when you order the book, you receive an email to leave a review. If you have the time to do that, I would so appreciate it. I read each one and it really means the world to me!
Don't forget, that I created a bunch of FREE downloads to celebrate the launch of my book. Be sure and grab 'em. You can find them here and here.
Today I thought I'd put together a big ole blog post of some of my very favorite lessons that both introduce and continue to explore painting with children. So if you are looking for a fun and engaging lesson for kids of all ages, I think you'll find something here. Thanks for dropping by!
If you've been hanging out with me for a while, then you've seen me share my method of painting with my students. Here's a little background on how the journey of the Paintbrush Ballerina began:
If you'd like to hear a little big of the book, check this out:
I wrote the book in rhyme as those have always been my most favorite books to read to children. In this story, our paintbrush friend who has been abandoned in a watercup in front of palette tells the tale of the Paintbrush Ballerina. You can read more of the book and see the illustrations here.
It's tough to watch out students struggle with the most essential art supply: the paintbrush. And it's a real bummer to see the destruction they do to our expensive brushes! So I took everything that I learned from 25 years of teaching art to small children and put it into this book!
If you'd like to see me talking to my kindergarten about how to use their paintbrush, then check out this video here:
If you are curious about my teaching methods and would like to see more, I have a playlist on my YouTube channel called "A Glimpse Inside" where you can visit me as I teach my students.
Keeping that brush on it's toes is always the goal! Check out this sweet kindergartener doing just that!
Alright, now let's dive into those lessons, shall we? I have no rhyme or reason to the order of these lessons. This is just a big ole smattering of some of my faves!
Let's start with kindergarten who are my very favorite! After learning about the order of the color of the rainbow, we dive into painting our own with tempera cakes. Tempera cakes are a fave in my art room as they are low mess and, low prep and the colors are just beautiful! I'll circle back to this lesson in a moment.
Now let's skip forward to third grade. By then, you'd think they'd have a better idea of how to handle their brush. BUT I gotta tell ya, 'tis not the case. Even tho it feels like we say the same things all day long (cuz we do!) we are saying it to different groups of students! So I had the same sayings and phrases on constant repeat...and the bit about the Paintbrush Ballerina was one I always said. AND they always love!
To read all about bingo daubers and why I love them in the art room, visit here. If you've not tried them out in your art room yet...be prepared to fall in love!
When it comes to painting, it can be overwhelming as to where to start! Do I begin with color mixing? Mark making? Introducing white and black to share tints and shades?
Here's what I've learned: start wherever you like! BUT start with just one thing. That's the easiest for you and your students. So, first things first, begin with how to use the paintbrush! THEN...maybe go with mark-making. I introduced my students to a wide range of color and mark-making ideas to create these beauties.
For many years, this is how I introduced both painting and line to my kindergarten students. By limiting the color to just black (we used a diluted black ink to allow the brush to paint more smoothly), we could focus on just the brush and the lines. From there, we were able to add color!
When it came to introducing color to kindergarten, I usually did that, like I mentioned, the day after our black and white line painting lesson. That's when we did the rainbow paintings. BUT...since I'm skipping around a bit, you'll have to scroll down a pinch to see that first rainbow lessons.
Many of my kindergarten lessons are born out of "the fast finishers need another something to paint!". And that's what happened here! After painting the rainbow, many students then got a sheet of paper and painting stripes of rainbow color. This served to be the perfect background for these adorable self-portraits!
So sorry these are kinda out of order. Truth be told, when I try to edit or move images around, they tend to disappear. So...it's easier if you just scroll then if I sprout more gray hairs.
Meanwhile, in first grade, we took the idea of our paintbrush being a ballerina a little further. We listened to music and had her paint across our page!
More info here. You can also check out how we made these into beautiful weavings!
And now...color mixing! These wee Mouse Paint masterpieces were created by kindergarten. The best part...the Hobby Lobby frames!
I recently had someone give me a hard time about this...
I shared that often, at the start of the school year, I do the same lesson with all of my students, kindergarten through fourth grade. Why? FOR MY SANITY! I'm usually trying to set up my classroom, introduce a thousand routines and just keep my head above water. Once I have my Back to School footing, I feel good venturing into different lessons with everyone. But, to start, we all begin with the same supplies, same visuals and same lesson.
This commenter DID NOT like that and let me know.
Now look, I'm cool with sharing your thoughts and opinions but...there's a way to do it. AND if you aren't an art teacher then...you might just wanna sit it out, you know?
Regardless! I did THIS same lesson with all students AND put a twist on it so it ended up being a big ole collaborative. So there! ;)
Now, let's jump forward to fourth grade! Here's one of my favorite landscape lessons based on folk art. We created these with tempera paint and you can check out more about this lesson here.
My second grade students created these paintings with either a warm or cool color watercolor background. When using watercolor, I often have my students decide if they will use one family of color or the other. This keeps their paintings from becoming 'muddy'.
This lesson with fourth grade introduced my students to tempera cakes and many different painting methods. We began by painting these stripes of color that were later used to draw buildings in Sharpie. Full lesson on this process, with video, here.
We used cardboard circles as our base for our snowglobe. I had my students create three sketches first. They LOVED those little small circle paintings so much that we turned THEM into a project too!
This snowglobe lesson was done with tempera cakes. And glitter...which I don't recommend, ha!
I've done a couple hot chocolate/cup of coffee based lessons (I may be a little biased, I suppose!) and you can find this lesson here!
Let's circle back to the ole bingo dauber, shall we? It's like a Sharpie on steriods!
I LOVE that we can create the most epic contrast with the bold black ink and these bright paints! We are using Jack Richeson's neon tempera cakes here.
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Have you ever tried this technique with your students? They love it and it's like magic! 
Even without Larry's line designs, these are super fun. I hope you and your artists have fun creating!
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