We had a great time at our school with a visiting author and illustrator named Tracy Subisak. Tracy is Taiwanese-American and studied industrial design in school. She is the author of several children’s picture books. She recently visited our school to talk about her career, process, books and show some techniques for character creation. She read aloud to us the delightful book Sorry, Snail (Amazon Affiliate link used at no extra cost to you). I was immediately drawn to the book because of the neon orange colors. The colors in this picture don’t show how beautiful the colors are in real life ..read more

I found this post in my draft folder. I had written the post and then it was right before Covid hit, so somehow I missed posting it! This is one of my go-to sub plans. Use up the paper in your scrap bin and make a picture just using cut paper shapes. All you need to do to prepare is leave the scrap box available and provide a few examples. You can print these out or make your own! I love how creative the kids can be with simple instructions and inspiration ..read more

It’s back! I used to host a Summer Art Challenge with my classes before Covid, but it kind of fell off the radar. I’ve decided to give it another go this year and see what cool stuff the kids come up with. Here’s how it works: I’ll hand out a list of art challenges for the kids to tackle over the summer. I’ll be slipping flyers into their lockers and including it in our final school newsletter. The kids can complete these projects over the summer and bring them back during the first week of school. I’ll have some small prizes for those who turn in at least 3 projects. Their artwork will be sho ..read more

In April, I had the pleasure of attending the National Art Education Association conference in Minneapolis. I was really excited because Lynda Barry was going to be one of the keynote speakers. I have been a fan of her work for many years. Lynda is a comic/graphic novel artist, author and teacher and is known for her quirky, autobiographical work. Her raw and expressive comics encourage readers to explore their own creativity through writing and drawing. She has taught creative classes at the University of Wisconsin and encourages the process of play. After an inspiring keynote session, I att ..read more

Hello, lovely readers! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week. I hope you felt appreciated! As a special thank you giveaway, I am giving away one $10 giftcard to Teachers Pay Teachers. My shop will be on sale on May 7 and May 8 with 25% off all resources. The giftcard can be used for any shop on Teachers Pay Teachers. For the giveaway, all you have to do it leave a comment on this blog post on my website! I’d like the giftcard to go to someone who really needs it, maybe a newer teacher or someone who is simply feeling a bit burnt out now. Be sure to leave the comment with your email address. I will ..read more

Yesterday I went to a really fun event called the Madison Print and Resist Zinefest. I have been to this before and it has always had loads of really interesting zines. I was on a mission this time though. I decided I am going to do a zine project with my classes and I wanted to find lots of interesting and unique “kid-friendy” zines. What is a zine? A zine is a self-published, small circulation booklet with images or words, usually copied on a xerox machine. A zine can be about anything! I will show you some pictures of the many zines that I picked up for your inspiration. I also took some v ..read more

Recently our school participated in a service learning project for all of our grades, K-8. The local senior center approached my co-worker Sharon who shared the project with me. The senior center was looking for students to decorate lunch bags to distribute to homebound seniors through the Meals on Wheels program. I thought this would be a great opportunity for our students to connect with the community and share kindness and cheer through their art. Here is an article from the Department of Public Instruction about the project. I have been wanting to engage my students in more projects t ..read more

Recently our school participated in a service learning project for all of our grades, K-8. The local senior center approached my co-worker Sharon who shared the project with me. The senior center was looking for students to decorate lunch bags to distribute to homebound seniors through the Meals on Wheels program. I thought this would be a great opportunity for our students to connect with the community and share kindness and cheer through their art. Here is an article from the Department of Public Instruction about the project. I have been wanting to engage my students in more projects that c ..read more

I came across a sweet new children’s book that I’d like to share with you. It is called If You Are an Artist, (Amazon affiliate link at no extra cost for you) by Meg Auchenbach. I always love finding new inspirational books for my young students and this one is a charming book that shows what it’s like to think as an artist. The illustrations are whimsical and the book is delightful. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Art is Basic (@art.is.basic) Before I buy a book I like to know what the pages look like on the inside so I know if it will be useful to me. Here are some of exa ..read more

I hope the beginning of your school year is going well. Mine is going fine. We are getting back into the swing of things around here. Here is a fun and meditative art project good for kids and adults of all ages. You can tie this in to labrynths, mazes and mandalas. I use all different kinds of watercolor paints. I have a whole collection! One of my favorites is the Prima Marketing Confections sets. There are a number of different color sets. I also like the Crayola Education Watercolor sets. For the marker details, I use Posca paint markers and Micron pens. You can use whatever brands or typ ..read more