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  As an elementary art teacher, I have all ways been very lucky to receive many small gifts from students. I am always challenged to get thank you notes passed out quickly.  I always keep a collection printed that my students can also color. This year I made thank you bookmarks. You can easily copy or print on colored paper or white card stock.  I included a second set that just say thanks for diversity.  Check them out on my TPT page. Click  HERE Enjoy the Season!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Art-Day-Creations-With-Mrs-Carter   I have be subbing for many art teachers in my school district and notice some of the same line and pattern sheets being used.  Many are difficult for some of the younger learners.  I created a simpler sheet that also has a practice sheet attached.  Check it out on my TPT.  If you like it please give me a rating or feed back. Hope you are enjoying nice fall weather!   

I am an Artist I always loved to add a cover sheet in my student's sketchbooks,  or add a sheet to their portfolios at the end of the year.  Here is a new one that I created for the first week of school. It makes a great icebreaker lesson, and assessment too.  I usually start the class with a fun art book as well.  There are so many book SEL books that make connections to the art classroom One of my favorites is Mixed: A Colorful Story Here is the read aloud! 

I updated one of my favorite back to school drawing sheets  for the first day of art for the little ones.  You can find it here .  In the past I use a sheet that I received from a previous art teacher. The students created a drawing of themselves and me with the information about me, which I cropped out of this photo)  and their art day of the week.  I usually started off the lesson with the book ART!  Art by Patrick McDonnell Hope this helps you start off the school year stress free!  

  After a year of blissful retirement, I have returned to the art classroom as a Substitute in the same district that I work in previously for 20 plus years.  It has been surreal to be in the same classrooms, but after all the craziness of the pandemic.  I was teaching 75 percent of my students online for over a year.  It is nice to have real students in the classroom.   I have traveled, and enjoy working out again.  I even have gotten on the computer to dip my toes into the world of   TPT  Art Day Creations with Mrs Carter and Canva.   I have only made one small sale,  but it is amazing to me how many teachers are working full  time in this field  now! Anyway, I have subbed 5 days this month...my goal,  but I miss my sleeping in time and working out. I enjoyed drawing and reading with the 1st graders this week creating a color wheel garden,  Keep on the lookout for a few more lesson creations and posts from the Substitute Art Day!

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring! The teachers at my school are challenging our school families on the school  FB page each day to connect. I personally challenged the kids to take photographs that express SPRING. The parents will upload in the comments of my video to share on Facebook. I used the app Clips on my iPad Pro to create the video challenge.  After all of the rain we have had, the sun came out and  I went on a nature walk today and took some photos, edited and used Pic Collage,  a free app to make my SPRING photo. It was refreshing to see so many families out at lunch time!

Children are so sensitive to change, and unfortunately most of them are not in school right now.  ART is the one activity that we can do with children to lessen their fears, explore new art making techniques,  read about artists and history.. and have fun at home! My classroom is empty this week... but I am sharing this list of 10 activities for my students to explore while they are at home with their families. Here are ten diverse art activities that families can do together.   I am encouraging my younger students to create an art journal to organize their art at home too! 27 Art Activities and Lessons Daily Lunch Doodles with Mo Williams Robot Week with Cassie Stephens Deep Space Sparkle 12 Museums around the World Art for Kids Hub National Gallery of Art for Kids Art Zone This is Sand Storyline Online Want to make a sketchbook? Here is just one suggestion..... How to make a Sketchbook to organize student artwork at

I am currently taking part in a very Creative and fun global connection with Creatubbles.    I was asked to be a part of a dynamic Plano Texas team of 4 art teacher teammates using the  Creatubbles app and website to share art and learn globally.  I have always felt that being the only art teacher on a single campus is very isolating.  Blogging has opened new windows and allowed me to learn from teachers around the world.   Our school district uses Creatubbles to allow students to do the same by sharing and receiving  bubbles as the share their art using the Creatubbles website and app as a digital portfolio.  On October 12th, art teachers, students and parents will be able to connect through  Global Creativity Initiative boards . What is Creatubbles?  Think of it as a safe Pinterest like place for students to share and receive feed back for their artwork with bubbles and comments,  if you enable.  You can post your students work or your students can

I received in invitation from Activa Products to take part in their  Mystery Box Art Lesson contest last month.  I had to create a unique lesson with 3 of the 4 products below that came in a box. I decided to create a new lesson for my summer school art class, A Passport to Art. I also wanted to do a lesson that would give choices to the makers.  So I came up with the above lesson. Here are the parts and you can find the lesson and the voting site HERE I cut a slice of pizza from a cereal box. I used a little foil for the crust texture and they wrapped it with the rigid wrap and smoothed it with my fingers. I mixed the Celluclay, which comes in gray and white, with warm water in bucket.  I made a patty and pressed it on the dry crust to form the topping.  I painted the pizza and used the air dry Activ.Clay to make the toppings.  To make the ice cream, or gelato, I used a small yogurt cup, spoon and ball of foil. I

#Bigartday17 is tomorrow in Texas. We had a big art time making cakes and pie in 5th grade this past 9 weeks. It was fun, it was messy, but I overheard many time, "this is the best project ever!" My inspiration was the lesson that Rita Martin posted on the Art Teacher Facebook page last year. I ordered the claycrete from Amaco that she recommended from School Speciality at the end of last year when I had some money left in my school spending account.  I ordered the large box and had some left over. I have 100 students.  I introduced the lesson using Wayne Thiebaud paintings and this  video .  On day one the students research the pie or cake they wanted to make. They also had to cut out a template from a cereal box that they brought and tape it together.  Use 3M tape, the cheap stuff didn't stay stuck.  I made several templates but a few made their own.  We also referenced this slide from the AOE You can play around with the templat