Advocating for the importance of your art program is a big part of our jobs as art educators.  Without our extra efforts to communicate with families and administrators about all the great things happening in our classroom, art can too easily be overlooked in the face of the very demanding deadlines of academic benchmarks.  In my role as art teacher for the whole school population, I want to show that my program supports the goals of the academic subjects. I started newsletters for each marking period last year after seeing how easy and successful it was for a colleague of mine. &n ..read more

As the school year starts, a great way to involve families in your curriculum is to consider hosting a family art night for your school.  I have two different experiences to share with you here- one as a district wide family art event and the other as a single school family art night.  Bringing families into the school to make art with their children is not only excellent advocacy for your program, but for practice of the arts overall.  Families responded so positively, I immediately started sharing the feedback with my colleagues and administration and brainstorming on how to ..read more

Pre K students are gathered at the edge of a small stream watching the water trickle over the pebbles and rocks in the riverbed. Look at that leaf go! Little objects hitch a ride on the current and float on down.  Other children are engaged in collection.  We’ve given them buckets to collect their nature items and they are busy filling them with dandelions, leaves and sticks of all sizes.  Another group of children are working to haul a branch over to their selected site. These students are all working on creating ephemeral art, on site.  Their observations and process la ..read more

A project for early finishers or just a fun collaborative endeavor to decorate your halls for Spring, you can churn out these large torn paper collage in just one week!  I am using these to decorate our entryway for the Spring Art Show, but they're really a nice element for any occasion.  Materials paper to tear (I like to use our painted paper scraps) large paper to use as a base white glue or  my preference *mod podge foam brushes tempera paint for small finishing details large, simple imagery   My students have loved working together on these large scale artworks usin ..read more

In a crazy year, an "unprecedented year",  I made a leap.   The school year is all wrapped up here in TN and have just finished by first year teaching at the high school level.   For me, it has been a great experience.  If you are considering changing levels, especially younger to older, do not hesitate that you have the skills.  Sure there are things I miss about the younger kiddos, but so much to love at this level!     Modifying vs. Starting Over I embrace teaching in "big ideas",  because it helps break down the message to it's absolute.&n ..read more

                             Whether you're working with secondarygrades in an enrichment setting or collecting ideas for the next school year, you might consider some of the lessons collected here!  Below you'll find ideas for art lessons with strong connections to academic content!  I take a lot of inspiration from our awesome online art community.  I will try to give credit to the teachers I saw these lessons from!  Some are recent work I've done with small groups of ..read more

I don't do a ton of seasonal art, but when I find lessons that really work to meet the standards and have a seasonal element (often with a literacy connection too!), I welcome them into the fold! These are art lessons incorporated into the standards and scope and sequence that have also made wonderful seasonal displays in the school halls.  Hopefully you can find some ideas to save or pin for next school year.  These lessons are great for those little times that need to be filled in with a quality activity. Enjoy!  Kindergarten students created pinch pots that we then shape ..read more

Drawing from observation is an awesome skill that every artist should work on.  I don’t mean with the pressure to make the artwork look super realistic, but with the goal of observation at the forefront.  Giving students the experience of an artwork that requires them to SLOW down, not rely on assumptions and check back with their eyes frequently throughout the drawing, is so valuable. This school is new to me this year and my fourth graders are (obviously) new to me too. It was a bit of an assessment for me as well.  I decided to use art supplies as our still life subject, bec ..read more

Many start of year lessons have an ‘about me’ theme.  This one is a little bit of a different twist on that as the theme is abstracted. Kindergarten students worked on these great mixed media number artworks in art class this first quarter.  Students engaged in four different processes that reinforce a lot of academic work from their classrooms! These artworks address color, number and letter recognition as well as learning to identify facts about themselves, like name and age.  Talk about cross curricular! With many English language learners, 'beginning at the beginning' was ..read more

When a new school year begins, one of my goals is get art up right away.  My administration always appreciates having large, eye catching displays that include all the students!    So I wanted to share a few of the things I worked on with my students to start the year!  They are certainly not limited to back to school night or open house night themes. In fact, they are not related to Fall or school starting at all, but they do look great as large displays. I can see them being great for any culminating art display.  In fact, I am saving the works so that I can di ..read more