I got such a great response for my Paintbrush Practice sheets (available for free here), that I thought I'd create another way for your students to continue their paintbrush practice...with Paintbrush Ballerina Bootcamp!
Inspired by my new book, The Paintbrush Ballerina, I created a series of fun and quick activities for your artists to practice their paintbrush skills before diving into any painting activity. Here's why:
Often, when painting with students, we assume they have used paintbrushes before and know the do's and the don't's. But many of our students have limited painting practice so...it's great to just start at the very beginning. Before diving into your next painting lesson, why not spend just one art class hosting a Paintbrush Ballerina Bootcamp!?
To begin, gather everyone around and read The Paintbrush Ballerina. It's the method I have used for over 20 years in my art room to teach my students how to use and care for their paintbrush.
From there, have your students use my Paintbrush Practice sheets (download them for free from here) and use their paintbrush on the sheet with just water! Be sure and slide the sheets into a clear plastic sleeve to do so. Here's a quick demo:
Once complete, they can move on to painting on a piece of construction paper and, still, just that cup of water and a paintbrush. This will move them from tracing the lines on the sheet to painting the lines themselves! Here's a look:
The final phase of Paintbrush Bootcamp can be painting...with watercolor paint! I created these free Fancy Frames for you and your students to enjoy as well as certificates to pass out once Bootcamp is complete. Here's one Fancy Frame download. I hope you and your artists love them!
I printed my frames on white cardstock so they could withstand the watercolor paint. I also used Creativity Street metallic paintsticks to add a little sparkle to my frames.
Of course, introducing paint into the mix means another round of instruction. So...this could be your second day of Paintbrush Bootcamp! I did create a short video about using watercolor paint that you and your artists may find helpful:
Once your artists have completed Paintbrush Ballerina Bootcamp, it's time to congratulate them! I created this for you to use too! I added color to mine with those paint sticks and some color pencils.
Hey, y'all! To celebrate the launch of my brand new book, The Paintbrush Ballerina, I created two FREE Paintbrush Practice downloads just for you and your young artists!
I have always found that you can TELL students the do's and don't's of ANYTHING but until they actually put it into practice does it stick. With these two sheets, your students will be able to do just that. Yay!
For over 25 years, I taught elementary art. It didn't take me long to realize that you have to teach students EVERYTHING. So many of them come to us never having painted before! So how to hold, use and care for a paintbrush is part of the art teacherin' territory.
The method of explaining that a paintbrush is like a ballerina really clicked with my students. You can check out my book here. I share more about it here too:
I would recommend using sheet protectors so that students can use these over and again. This is a low mess lesson that would be perfect for:
* Early Finishers! Keep this Paintbrush Practice available for students as a center so can practice any time.
* Intro to Painting! Students of all ages could use a painting intro or reminder when it comes to using paintbrushes.
* Short art classes or half days! With it being winter, I know your teacherin schedule can become a mess. With half days, kids behind on projects, field trips and the rest...a day to just practice painting with the lights dim and some soft music may be just the thing to get everyone back on schedule and reset the painting mood.
And...if you need a little help, I've created a painting video to share with your students. Here ya go:
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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