by Andrea Mulder-Slater Do you love markers like I love markers? Generally speaking, markers are fairly easy to get a hold of, which is terrific, because most drawing and painting lessons can be adapted to make room for markers. If you have a lesson to share with your students, and that lesson calls for tempera paint (but you just don’t have the resources to pull it off), you can always make a switch and use markers instead. Similarly, if you have a watercolor lesson to work through, but you are short on time, you can suggest students paint plain water over a picture drawn with washable marker ..read more

by Andrea Mulder-Slater Do you doodle?  I sure do.  Blank spaces on my to-do lists, calendars, and notebooks are often decorated with arrows, swirls, stick figures, and cubes.  It’s an involuntary act that’s been with me since my early days – tracing lines on my desk – while I desperately tried to concentrate on the material delivered by my teachers. As it turns out, my penchant for doodling wasn’t a hindrance. Rather, it helped me navigate my way through school.  Recent studies have proven that making doodles aids memory by keeping the mind from wandering. Honestly, inform ..read more

by Andrea Mulder-Slater A number of years ago, my husband Geoff and I were fortunate enough to be able to take an art trip to three European cities – London, Paris and Amsterdam. The Louvre While in Paris, we visited the Louvre, where we walked through the courtyards, marveled at the architecture, stood motionless in front of historic paintings we had only seen in books and waited in line with hundreds of others – just to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa. Happy me with Mona (after a really, really long wait). The Mona Lisa was nice (but small!) and trust me, I was ..read more

by Andrea Mulder-Slater If you are looking for a sure fire way to get a great response from your students, walk into the art room and tell them they will be “drawing with glue.” I can remember Jantje and I going into a school to teach a particularly skeptical (and unsure) group of ten and eleven year olds. When we told them that they would be drawing fish, they silently stared at us as if to say, “yeah, right.” Undeterred, we proceeded to hand out the initial materials required for the lesson which included black poster paper (half a sheet per child) and a bottle of Crayola® School Glue ..read more

by Andrea Mulder-Slater Many years ago – when my mom (Jantje) and I first started visiting schools – one of the workshops we offered was maskmaking. We would show the children how, using some poster paper, papier mache, paint and a few found objects, you could transform simple items into wild and wonderful masks. Sure, the kids enjoyed the designing, cutting and construction of the masks, but what they loved (more than anything else) was digging their hands into the box of “found objects”. We were lucky enough at the time to work with a public art gallery who often had items donate ..read more

Today, we are celebrating LEARNING!   I’ve teamed up with Callisto Media for a celebration sweepstakes in honor of World Teachers Day on October 5th. Together, we’re offering up the chance to win some incredible educational books for kids of many ages and stages! Fun fact: I LOVE Callisto and have worked with them on art several books for kids! Enter for your chance to win:  – A $500 Grand Prize – OR, 1 of 10 gift bundles of our brand new box sets (10 box sets included in each bundle!) This sweepstakes opens on 10-1-2022 at 12:00 AM ET and ends on 10-31-2022 at 11:59 PM ET. (Ope ..read more

Recently, some KinderArt Club members were wondering about inexpensive ways to create portfolios for their students, so I shared a style that I used regularly when teaching in schools. My daughter also has one of these, but I was unable to track it down It is made from 2 sheets of poster paper or Bristol board – the kind of thing you can find at most dollar stores (usually 50 cents a piece at the most). The size is 22” x 28” so it can accommodate most artwork sizes. The bottom and two sides are taped with duct tape which has been folded over the edge of the papers. The handles are made of fol ..read more

by Andrea Mulder-Slater   When kids are afraid to fail, they become frozen… unable to try anything but the known and the predictable. It’s a pattern that will be carried with them throughout their lives.   And, isn’t that a shame?   Art class should be a place where children are provided with room to experiment, learn and grow.   But if the projects they are presented with consistently have too many restrictions (draw this here, use this color there), then that fear of failure can start to sneak up and smother whatever creativity might be lurking within.   T ..read more

by Andrea Mulder-Slater Artist trading cards (or ATCs) are little works of art designed to spread happiness and joy. The movement isn’t new. Swiss artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann initiated the project in 1997 and since then, thousands of people from around the world have created and traded ATCs online and at in-person events. The rules for decorating artist trading cards are few. In essence, as long as the size is 2 ½” x 3” (64 mm × 89 mm), anything goes. These cards – created by artist Anitra Redlefsen – have been embellished with canvas, buttons, wire, sticks, feathers, yarn, paint, ink, seashell ..read more

by Andrea Mulder-Slater When I first graduated from art school, I worked as an educational assistant at a public art gallery. In addition to making papier-mache with 6-year olds on Saturday mornings, I drove to multiple elementary schools with a mug of coffee in my hands, and a box of art supplies in my car. On any given weekday, I could be found teaching 5th graders how to paint landscapes, showing 4th graders how to make masks, and walking 3rd graders through the construction of clay mobiles. During those caffeine-fueled years, I stood in awe of my supervisor. Her name was Judith and she was ..read more