Dot Day Art Lesson: Printing!

Hey, y'all!

We are officially back in school and in full swing! Our first days of art were spent printing dots after reading The Dot! We used Gelli-Arts plates to print our dots because I found that I had about 20 brand new round plates in my storage closet (wow, the things you find when you clean). Here's the video I created for my students:

If you cannot see this video then it's because you are looking at my blog from your phone. Super annoying, I know. It's a blogger thing, it's not you. So here's the direct link to my YouTube page. You should totally subscribe because I add new content all the time.

Now I know many of you don't have those Gelli Arts plates (and they are a bit expensive) so...I came up with an alternative for you: pie pans from Dollar Tree! I am using the pizza pie pans here:

Again, if you can't see it, here it is. 

First grade through fourth were printing which means I had drying racks brimming with art. So a way to keep up with everything was clipping clothes pins with the teacher's names on them between the classes on the drying rack. Once dry, the clips were used to hold the artwork together. I know...every now and then I have a decent idea. 

After two 30 minute art classes of printing, my students looked at all of their prints and picked their fave for display. They then had to give their piece a title and 'sign it' like Vashti so it could be displayed in the hallway. Here was a video I created to explain this process:

Need more Dot Day fun? Well, here is a simple one-day activity I created as a sub plan a couple of years ago. Sheet included:

And if you want to check out a big ole blog post filled with TONS of Dot Day ideas, then here you go! 

20 of My Favorite School-Wide Collaborative Projects!

Collaborative projects! Collaborative projects are one of my favorite things. I love them at the start of the year and the end. I love doing them with the whole school or just a grade level. I love using songs, themes, artist-inspiration...you name it. I just love collaboratives!

We've done a TON over the years and I thought I'd put them all together in one big ole blog post. So, here you go: my 20 Favorite Collabortive Projects. Be sure and click on the links, many of these have how-to videos. 

Check out this blog post on how we created several canvases in this style for our school and the school library!

Students worked in table teams to create these positive four-letter words to describe our school! 

Here's a simple, fast and fun project using clothes pens, paint and words that describe who we are!

A fun mural based on the book You Be You was created by nearly all of my students. You can learn about the process of creating our fish here. Read all about the making of the mural itself here!

Another book we used for inspiration is the book by Todd Parr called It's Okay to be Different. You can check out how we created these collages here!

The Our School Has Heart mural was a piece with a contribution from each student in the school. You can see the breakdown of who created what in this blog post. 

Our clay collaborative mural is a bright and shiny beauty that hangs in a prominent place in our school. Each student contributed something to this piece...you can read more about the process here. 

One year, we created a Village of Kindness as apart of our art show! Each student upcycled a milk carton that our cafeteria queen cleaned in the dishwasher. The students made little doors that opened and said kind words to those who peeked inside. Students worked together to create the landscape on the bulletin board. 

I love to do collaboratives at the start of the school year. I especially like ones where students celebrate our school and that set a postive tone. That was the idea behind this collaborative!

Another fun way to start the school year is with some selfies! We've created them for a monochromatic mural. You can check out the video here. 

Inspired by the artist Romero Britto, this mural was created by my students when I was out for jury duty! My sub just played the video and when I returned, I assembled the mural!

A collaborative mural that definitely made the rounds was this one! The kids loved creating the feathers and it was a beautiful thing while in the hallway but I will say...it was a lot of work to assemble. All the details here. 

My fourth graders created this collaborative one year that lives at the front entrance of our school. We even 'wrapped' it for Christmas and brought out admin out for them to unwrap it as it was hung on the wall of our school. 

We kicked off this school year with our What a Wonderful World collaborative mural. Details and video tour here. 

Here's another look of our school mural. Above that, you'll see our Learning for All collaborative!

During our field day one year, my students rotated through many art stations. One of them was this alphabet and number series. My librarian requested them and we just love how they turned out. Click here to see them framed and hung in our school library. 

Much like our monochromatic collaborative, this map collaborative was created with a self-portrait of each of my students! 

We are the tigers at my school so we do tiger-themed artwork every so often. This mural was created by first graders of all of their tiger drawings. You can find a how-to video right here!

In table teams, my third graders created a Rizzi City inspired by the artist James Rizzi. 

One year, we did super-sized works of art inspired by Andy Warhol and Vincent van Gogh! When these came together, they were stunning. All the details can be found here. 

My 15 Favorite Art Lessons for Spring!

Not sure if spring has sprung where you are but, according to my allergies, it's in full swing here! You know, I never had allergies in my life until moving to Tennessee. Now I have the pleasure of a sneezy nose, watery eyes and sinus pressure like a hammer through the skull for a couple weeks on end twice a year. Good times, for sure. But I suppose the floral and fauna make it all worth is. Or something.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you my very favorite art lessons for spring! I'm just wrapping up my spring break and trying to get my 'head in the game' as I think about how I'd like my students and me to close our school year. So today I'm sharing my very favorite Springtime Art Lessons!

First up is this lesson I posted way back in 2012! It is one of my most popular blog posts but, to be honest, not a lesson I've repeated frequently. Why? Well, it does involve a lot of prep work, especially if you are going to make your own gelatin plates. Making your own gelatin plates is a lot of work, a lotta smelly and it's not vegetarian friendly. Gelatin is made from the bones of animals (which is totally gross if you think of all the Jell-o we ate as kids) and that always made me feel badly. However, these days, you can do a couple different things: make permanent gelatin plates (the ones in my blog post last for ALMOST a week before getting rather funky) or you can purchase the permanent Gelli plates. That's what I've done. And that's what I used for this lesson...

This Andy Warhol-inspired flower print lesson (and video lesson!) was so much fun to do and a whole lot easier because we used our Gelli plates. Springtime is when we embark on a whole lot of printing in my art room so I am definitely thinking that this project will be on the agenda. We used fake flowers found at the dollar store but real ones would work as well. They just tend to fall apart a little more. Initially, I did this lesson at the beginning of the year with a second-grade class...and I think they were too young. This time, I may try it with my fourth graders or my second grade after they finish their first printing project. Printmaking is so fun to teach because once they have the basics, the kids become their very own printing factory!

You can also print on fabric! I created a bunch of these printed squares using the same materials and method and then stitched them onto a dress from the thrift store. Your students could make a quilt with this idea! More info here. 

Nothing says spring like a big, beautiful and colorful mural! I have done two versions of this mural. Details on how my first graders created the flowers for this mural in this blog post. Curious about our What a Wonderful World mural? Video tour and more photos can be found here. 

Something we do every spring is a ceiling tile project. You can read how we started on this adventure here. The back story is that it was all by accident! We were hosting a sidewalk chalk artist and we were all to draw outside on the sidewalk. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) the day was to be a rainy one. So I had to think fast and we had the idea to draw on the backside of ceiling tiles with chalk. The back side has the same texture as a sidewalk and holds chalk perfectly (much better than paint!). Since then, we've done a ceiling tile each year! One year, we did flowers...which could easily translate to paper as well. Video and lesson for this right here. 

Looking for a fun springtime lesson for your students? These clay flowers were created by my third graders and were a hit! They came out of the kiln just in time for Mother's Day! Complete lesson here. 

Nothing says spring like these second-grade butterfly prints! This could also tie in perfectly with those Andy Warhol flowers as these look like early Warhol paintings! Video demo here. 

Whenever we are weaving, we always have tons of yarn scraps. The kids and I hate to throw them away so one year, we decided to create little still lives with them! These are the results. It was so fun to create and recycle. 

Looking for something for kindergarten? Look no further than these super cute collage flowers! We tied this in with a flower pot painting project too. So much fun!

Nothing says spring like landscape paintings! Especially colorful ones like these. Check out this lesson here. 

If you're hesitant about using chalk in your art room because of the mess ane the fact that it never seems to set, then you might want to try this lesson on for size. It's always a hit and the results look like a cross between oil painting and watercolor...and it's done with chalk and liquid starch! Lesson and video here. 

This collage lesson began as a sub plan! And as a way for us to use up our bottomless supply of popsicle sticks (anyone else have exactly one million trillion?!). Less own with video here!

A lesson I come back to year after year is this one! We go big with these drawings and the results are always stunning. Full lesson here!

Love these beautiful cherry blossom paintings created by second grade! Lesson details right here. 

And last but not least: this Vincent van Gogh-inspired spring lesson! 

And there you have it, friends! 

My top 15 art lesson for the spring. Thanks for dropping by!

21 Art Lessons with the Theme of Love!

Who's ready to kick off this new year with a whole lotta love, color and bright, fun lessons? BUT who's also not done any real thinkin' about said lessons?! If you said ME to both of those questions than I gotta tell ya, YOU AND ME BOTH. Luckily, I've done a whole lotta love lessons over the years and put all 21 of 'em right here in this blog post. If you follow the links to these, you'll find videos for most and lesson details for ll of them. Have fun creating!

Learn how to draw each of these cuties in these how to draw videos, found here! 

Kindergarten tried their hand at printing with this project and had such a blast! 

These relief hearts by kindergarten were a hit and definitely a lesson I hope to repeat soon! 

Of course, you can't celebrate all things love and Valentines-y without sharing the work of Chris Uphues with your students! We've done a couple lessons inspired by him. This one is a collage and printing project. 

This lesson has always been a hit on my blog with other art teachers and my students. In fact, I created this lesson as a sub plan so it's been a hit with my subs too! You can find all the details and video here.

My students created this HUGE collaborative mural inspired buy Britto. Lesson video here!

First grade created these huge Britto-inspired hearts with bingo daubers, bleeding tissue paper and paint sticks. Lesson details here. 

Ready to tackle printmaking with your students? Here's a lesson I've done a couple of years now with my second graders: Robert Indiana-inspired LOVE prints! 

I created these hearts with wings with foil, Celluclay and plaster strips! They are super simple to make. More here. 

Inspired by those hearts, I created a lesson for my second graders to make these! 

A couple of years ago, I did a professional development with the faculty and staff at my school. We created these My Heart Has Wings sculptures. Details here. 

Here was a fun lesson where we were able to use our messy mats as apart of our masterpiece! Not only that but this project provided two heart-tastic pieces for the price of one. These...

And these!

If you are looking to have your students create a large collaborative piece, you can see what each grade level worked on to make this piece here. 

Looking for a quick lesson that introduces students to three contemporary artists who used love and hearts as their theme? Check out this blog post with a video lesson! 

James Rizzi is always a fun artist to share with your students. We loved creating these love birds!

Here's another lesson we do just about every year in first grade: these woven and stitched hearts! All the lesson details can be found here. I created a variation of this lesson recently where students weave together strips of paper in their skin tones. You can find it here. 

These candy hearts were created by my fourth graders and we used plaster strips to create them. It was so fun to see these all come together and display them in a large candy heart box! Lesson details here. 

Early finishers of the candy hearts lesson moved onto this project when they were finished! 

Wow, did the third graders have a blast with this one! We made plaster chocolates that looked good enough to eat! All the lesson details here. 

Need a quick lesson with a contemporary artist inspiration? Try this JGoldcrown lesson on for size!