Jessica's "Daily Affirmation"

Happy New Year!!!! One last post before it will be 2011! This has nothing to do with Art or Education... but it is so stinkin' cute... I thought it would help you start off the New Year with some positive thinking! I hope you have a wonderful New Years celebration tonight- just think.. after this weekend, back to school!

Everybody loves a Parody!

 

Materials:

- 9" x 12" drawing paper

- pencil

- colored pencils

- light boxes or windows

- Mona Lisa and/or American Gothic Reference Sheets

Crazy Camouflage

Materials:
- Tempera Paint
- Paintbrushes
- Hands
- White Drawing Paper
- Liu Bolin examples

Art Wars

So I've never actually submitted anything on this site, but I figured I'd share for you that have been in an art slump and need some inspiration. Art-wars.com conducts contests for artists for money in which the artist must read the requirements for a new contest, produce an original piece of art, and upload it to the site. More information is on the site if you're interested. 

Happy Art Making! : )

Blazing Banyan Tree

Materials:
- white drawing paper
- black tempera paint
- paint brushes
- pencils
- oil pastels

Ceramic Christmas Ornaments

 

Materials:

- clay

- glaze (unless you use air dry, substitute with acrylic paint)

- brushes

- ribbon

Salvador Deli

 

I saw this funny cartoon posted by Phyl on There's a Dragon in my Art Room... thought I'd share with you, too! Enjoy : ). 

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from my family to yours. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a terrific New Year. We need some well deserved rest these next few days. I hope you are surrounded with lots of friends, family and love. See you in the next year! : )

Create your own Pollock

Fun little website to emulate your own Pollock artwork. Drag your mouse across the page to "drip" paint and click to change colors. Would be a good introduction to Pollock and preliminary assignment.

Jackson Pollock

Mandala Maker

Quick and easy website to introduce making mandalas and radial symmetry. Would be a great preliminary activity.

Mandala Maker

Dowce

My Block Posters page sent me to a new page, Dowce!, and I found it so useful I had to share this one, too! It's a free program you can download to easily create screen captures. It seems as if this program is just for Windows, but I use a Mac and frequently use their screen capture feature which operates in the same way.

Screen captures are a nice tool for fellow bloggers or any tutorials you may want to show your students.

Block Posters

A great resource to enlarge images for the art room or for personal use - and it's FREE! Click on the link below the image to see.

http://www.blockposters.com/default.aspx

Christmas Card Wreaths

Materials:
- Christmas Cards
- card stock
- scissors
- glue
- ribbon

Waiting for Superman

A must see film for all educators.

Davis Guggenheim, the Academy Award-winning director of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, comes another stirring, must-see clarion call of our times: WAITING FOR "SUPERMAN", a deeply personal exploration of the current state of public education in the U.S. and how it is affecting our children. Fueled by his conscience and electrified by the possibilities for change, Guggenheim sets off on a probing journey into the lives of five unforgettable kids whose dreams, hopes and untapped potential reveal all that it is at stake at this critical moment.

Creative Color Wheel

Materials:
- tempera paint (red, yellow, blue)
- paintbrushes
- white drawing paper
- pencils
- scissors
- glue or glue sticks
- black mounting paper

Silhouette Collage

Materials:
- white drawing paper
- black construction paper
- scissors
- glue
- overhead projector
- magazines

Mounted Butterflies

Materials:
- water color paper
- water color pencils
- water
- paint brushes
- acrylic paint
- air dry clay
- wire
- tagboard or heavy paper for mounting

Changing Education Paradigms

This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award.

An interesting video that takes a step back to look at how education is today and what needs to be done to move forward.

Positive Messages with Keith Haring

Materials:
- Paper
- Markers
- "Love" by Keith Haring

Science Mural

I was approached by our PTG to create a Science Mural for our front foyer. I was excited because I haven't engaged in a large art project for quite some time now. I hope you like how it turned out!

Open House Display

This was a simple little fun display I put up for Open House this year. When students were done with their projects early, I asked them to decorate a person template into a self portrait. I even ended up scanning the school photos from last year's yearbook and making a person for each staff member. I hung them all up on a wall and instead of making a "Where's Waldo?" sign, used our Principal as our person to search for. It was quite a hit having each student be able to contribute to one large display and interact with it and their parents at Open House.

Picasso Head

Materials:
- computer with internet access
- printer
- paper

This was a fun and easy lesson to expose my students to Pablo Picasso. We discussed his artwork, style and specifically portraits. With the use of our school computer lab, the students were able to create their own abstract Picasso Head. This website also introduced basic editing tools like stretch, rotate, flip and more. The best part was the students were able to sign their work!

If it's in your school budget, it's nice to have a print out of each child's work.

Creativity Kill?

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Ish Art

Materials:
- paper (I cut my down to 6" x 6"), but you can do a large sheet or as small as a sheet as you'd like
- tempera paint
- paintbrushes
- "Ish" by Peter H. Reynolds

Mouse Paint

Materials:
- paper
- watercolor paint
- water
- paintbrushes
- black oil pastels
- red, yellow, and blue sticker dots
- "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Stoll Walsh