.

The #YAM and #BigArtDay art show is hanging up . The 3rd graders have been telling me this was there "most favorite art project." Who knew painting on 12 inch cardboard circles from School Specialty could be so successful?  I was inspired by a post over at Cassie Stephen's site for Dot Day  for this lesson and came up with my own twist on her successful lesson. Thanks Cassie.  My kiddo's did have an art history starter to this lesson looking at the   circle paintings by  Kandinsky  and learning his importance in Art History. Then using black oil pastels we took a line walk on the white side of the cardboard. No pencils!  The conversation started like this.... 1. Draw a straight line 2. Draw line that intersects the first line 3. Draw a curve line 4. Draw a zig zag line........and so on Then we review the primary and secondary colors. 1. Paint one shape yellow 2. Paint one shape orange etc. Any l...

The circle themed #bigartday15 art show has been installed at my school with the help of a few awesome PTA moms and myself,  but an overnight ice and snow storm has delayed our school event! So here goes....a virtual art show!  Let's start with the littlest....Kindergarten created Monet's pond using painted paper on 10 inch cardboard painted circles.  I loved coming up with this new lesson and they were all successful.   see my previous link about this fun lesson!  I used last years most popular blog post for the Concentric Circle lesson in  1st grade with these little artists. Look how bright and colorful they are.  The 2nd grade and 4th grade created Circle Weaving.  2nd grade's project came from the super successful lesson   over at  Cassie Stephens 's amazing blog.  4th graders not only wove in a circle, but they made the clay looms for their weaving.  If you...

  This is one of those old but good lessons that we just revisited in 4th grade. My teacher friend, Melody, shared this with me when I was a new teacher in my district 15 years ago and new to Texas.  The ties to the IC curriculum are really great in this lesson. I start out with the story of the  The Caves of Lascaux's I have many prints from this collection and we focused on the horned cow. We then talk about how these animals came to Texas .... I follow this with some research on the Texas Longhorn symbol and we do a guided  contour drawing of a longhorn together with various options.  We use pencil and follow up with China Markers for the Rock Art look.... On day two we talk about VALUE.  We do a quick value scale and practice in our sketchbooks. I then give the student's a choice of materials to finish 1. China Markers 2. Ebony Pencils 3. Crayons 4. Oil Pastels The objective is to finish ...

I was planning on taking down all the winter displays today, but we have the day off due to ice. The kindergarteners made these last month. While you can't make a snow man or snow angel with ice, you can have fun staying in your PJ's. I have been chatting away with the 5th graders on Google Classroom too.... It is so funny to see them post pictures of what they are doing today.  I am still in my pjs... The ice hasn't melted... And I beat my daughter finally! Stay safe and stay warm!

The Dallas Museum of Art  has a wonderful   Monet Painting  in a beautiful gold frame which inspired me to create this lesson for our Big Art Day which is fast approaching in Texas schools.  For our Big Art day this year I have a Theme....Circle Art!  Themes are the way to go when organizing events.  I love this new lesson that was inspired by one of my favorite artists,  and two favorite bloggers:  Painted Paper and Cassie Stephen's who also use themes.  I ordered the 10 inch cardboard circle rounds for this lesson, the same size  Cassie used in her Dot Day Art .  School Specialty has various sizes. The kids loved painting on this canvas instead of paper.  We read about Monet's garden and look at prints of his masterpieces. I even show them some of my pictures that I took when I   visited his garden in France.   On day one, we painted the pond and the water ...