As I wrap up another school year and move into the easy pace of summer, I like to take some time to reflect upon the past year in order to plan for the next. I’m a sporadic planner at best. I have every intention of sticking to a set curriculum but new ideas never fail to bubble up. I’m in a unique position at my school where the art curriculum is completely up to me and as a result, if I see an idea that I absolutely must do, I make room for it!

Art standards, in particular California Visual Art Standards, provide a great launching off point for my curriculum and gives me a checklist of sorts to make sure I’m providing my students the best possible art program I can give. Soon art educators will be required to integrate Common Core into their art curriculum. I did quite a bit of internet research hoping to find tangible ways in which to incorporate the Common Core ideas, but to me, the language is still too abstract to translate into lesson plans. I can easily see how language, math, science and personal response relate to art but I wonder if the lessons aren’t geared more towards the classroom teacher rather than the art educator. How can art specialists or contracted artists incorporate common core into their art program without these tie-ins? Is this possible? Necessary?

Some of my questions are:

• Will technique-based art lessons be considered unnecessary with Common Core?
• Is there a Common Core standard for each grade level? For instance, are Kinders required to learn some of the elements of art?
• Is the Common Core Art Integration meant for classroom teachers or art teachers?
• How does Common Core Arts Integration benefit elementary school children?
• And someone please tell me whether or not I have to incorporate math problems in the art room. This will be a sad day indeed for this art teacher.

 Your turn….

I want to hear your thoughts on how you have managed to incorporate common core into your elementary art room. And tell the truth…do you like it? Loath it? Hate the change? Love the change?

Put the mystery to be and share what you know? (commenting tips: My hyper-sensitive Akismet will drop you like a hot potato if you put links in your responses, so if you have a great referral site, it’s best to spell it ot. Literally!)

Another year has passed and with it another ceramic tile mural graces our school’s inner courtyard. I can’t think of a better way for our graduating students to celebrate their years at elementary school than by creating their own personal art legacy. I have documented the process of creating these beautiful murals in my Ceramic Mural Project Booklet.

I think about the Oklahoma elementary schools that were affected by the recent tornado. I can only imagine how devastating it would be to lose precious installations such as these. Even last week, Goleta experienced a 5.0 earthquake and although no damage was done (amazing!) it’s a reminder that we must enjoy the process of creating as one never knows how long something will last.

This year’s project had it’s challenges: our kiln wasn’t reaching high enough temperatures to fire the glaze properly and as a result, most of the tiles are a bit cloudy. But I imagined that a lovely “fog” settled over our beautiful tiles creating a soft lustre.

Collaboration is vital to the success of a mural like this one. All kids joined into groups. They were friendship based at first but I moved a few kids around as some themes needed “specialists”. Kids who were good with details, or creating straight edges or who were considered “precise” or “detailed” were asked to consider joining a different group as were the kids who were creative and imaginative as some tiles were a bit hard to create. The kids had fun re-arranging their groups and welcomed their “specialists”.

The idea behind this mural is American Landmarks. As a class, we brainstormed some of the most popular landmarks in a previous class and set to work finding good books and pictures to help with the drawings. The drawings were grouped together with pieces of paper tiles ( I explain this process in my Ceramic Mural PDF).

I created a large grid for the kids to refer to. The number of paper tiles correspond to the number of clay tiles. When creating this type of collaborative mural, allow enough time for the children to really understand how the paper tiles will turn into clay tiles. I only had 45 minutes for this session, but I could have used another drawing class to really work out some of the confusion the kids had about joining their tiles/drawings together.

The second session involved taking their drawings (paper tiles) and turning them into clay tiles. Essentially the kids get two tiles to work with: one as a base, another as the building clay. Not only do the kids build their tiles in this session, they paint the tiles as well. Allow at least 2 hours if not 2 1/2 hours for this process.

Most of the mural was painted as wet clay. I did not have enough time for all kids to finish, so I allowed the tiles to dry, then I fired them and asked the children who did not finish painting to come back after the tiles were fired. As the tiles dry (about 10 days), it’s helpful to allow them to dry on a ventilated rack. Air flowing all around the tile prevents warping and cracking.

After all the pieces are fired, it’s sometimes necessary to do touch-ups: a little paint here, a little there. Often, kids would poke their head into the art room to see if there were any touch-ups needed, so I always kept a palette of underglaze ready for them. A parent helped me dip the tiles into dipping glaze.

It always takes a little bit more time than what you expect to pull off a mural like this, but plan on some set-backs and start the process early.

Enjoy!!!!

I needed a quick art lesson for my last day of art with my first graders. Something fun, engaging and applicable to our unit on color and line. My Kinders did a similar line lesson at the beginning of the year with liquid tempera paint and oil pastel and it worked really well. To reduce the amount of prep, I used puck tempera paints instead of liquid tempera.

We started by jumping right into taking our line for a walk. No explanation of lines was necessary as this was the last day of art and lines had been covered extensively over the course of the year. But if you do this any other time, looking at a line chart or drawing different types of lines on the white board is not only fun but provides the basis for this lesson.

Taking a line for a walk….

On a sheet of white paper, draw a “frame” or border around the perimeter of the paper.  This is so the kids won’t paint off the edge of the paper thus reducing the need for placemats. Hey, what can I say.  It was a busy day.

Starting at one section of the border, draw a line…any old line…and see where it goes. The kids had fun with this and much to my surprise, were quite disciplined with how many lines they made.

After the lines were drawn, the kids painted the resulting shapes with any combination of colors they wanted.

I loved the variety of colors they chose. Each one different and unique to the artist. A great way to end the year.

In a few weeks I will be giving a talk to my local SCBWI group (The Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators). I belonged to this group for ten years while pursuing my dream of publishing my middle grade novel. I LOVE this group. They are the most giving of people and the encouragement I received from countless writers was nothing less than extraordinary.

Deep Space Sparkle has been my biggest love recently so my book writing days are behind me. So when Alexis called me and asked if I would give a talk on how authors and illustrators could market their books to appeal to teachers, I jumped at the opportunity.

Next to art, children’s books are my biggest love and as most of you know, my biggest source for art lesson inspiration. I combine art and literature all the time and have a page on this site devoted to art and literature connections. Occasionally, I will do an author/illustrator interview and create a lesson based on the book. Some of my favorites are:

• Monsters Don’t Eat Broccoli by Barbara Jean Hicks. Art lesson here. Author page here.
• Trucks, illustrated by Megan Halsey. Art lesson here and interview with Megan here.
• Arlo Needs Glasses by Barney Saltzberg. Art Lesson here.
• Pantone Colors. Art lesson here.

Would you like to help out? 

In order to help the authors and illustrators market their books, they need some help. If you have a blog and develop your own lessons, would you be willing to answer a few questions? If so, jot down some answers in the comment section of this post and I’ll be in contact with you.

1. If you create your own lessons, how often do you use children’s picture books to inspire your lessons?
2. Would you be willing to link your lesson to an author/illustrator’s website as a cross promotional tool?
3. Would you be willing to do author interviews?
4. Can I include your blog in a resource list for authors/illustrators? Please provide your name and blog URL and your blog name (if different).

Thanks for helping out these wonderful authors and illustrators. I’m sure many of them wold love to send you a free book to give to your readers or for lesson development.

Planning my new e-course, Beyond the Basics, has challenged not only my organization skills but my own personal comfort zone. I often wondered how teachers managed to teach a unit on papier mache…what paste they used, how they handled the storage, dealing with the mess….you know what I mean. And now I have a fairly good idea of what practices work and what I will never attempt again. And I mean NEVER EVER.

I have always wanted to try weaving…but not just paper weaving, but yarn weaving. How hard would it be? What grade levels would benefit most? And how exactly do you teach weaving? It’s not enough to see pictures of finished projects…I want to see the children work through the process.

These are the questions that intrigued me as I planned my entire 2012-13 art curriculum. Follow my journey as I introduce print-making, ceramics, papier mache, acrylic painting, weaving (and so much more) to my students.  There are over 30 new art lessons (33 to be exact!) planned for Beyond the Basics. All of them will have video instruction plus PDF lesson plans.

If you ever wondered how to start these types of lessons or if you were like me and avoided acrylics or papier mache for years, I invite you to sit back and watch how I taught the lessons.

All lessons are packaged up into tidy little PDF’s which you can print out and use for your own art curriculum.

I love happy art lessons. The ones that engage children right from the get-go. These painted paper butterflies are a perennial favorite in my art room. My first graders make painted paper and then use the paper to create butterfly wings.

I set out wing templates from my Eric Carle-Inspired Lesson Plans PDF but encourage the children to make their own wing shapes. If the children draw their own wings, they usually end up with very tiny butterflies. This is not a bad thing, but sometimes its preferable to have larger wings so the children can decorate the insides with little struggle and more freedom.

Here’s the secret to avoiding tiny butterflies: ask the children to use one template for one set of wings and ask them to create a second pair of wings of their own creations. Once the children get a feel for tracing and cutting out the larger set of wings, they can understand the scale required for the second pair of wings.

Children learn how to create texture with paint, how to blend and mix colors, develop fine motor skills, understand symmetry and learn a bit about butterflies. And did I mention that they had fun?

 Here’s What To Do:

1. Create Painted Paper on sheets of 12″ x 18″ white sulphite paper using liquid tempera paint. Cut papers in half for more manageability.

2. Place photographs of butterflies on a display board.

3. Using templates (I used the wing templates from my Eric Carle-Inspired PDF ), trace templates (or draw wings) on back of painted paper.

4. Glue wings and body to black or white paper.

First Grade Butterflies

Lesson time required: Three, 40-minute sessions

I recently introduced my Kinders to the magic of watercolor and oil pastel resist. I love hearing the squeals of delight after seeing white oil pastel appear through a wash of color. These are the simple joys of teaching art.

As with most watercolor projects, a good drawing lays the foundation for a successful project. Three directed line drawing instruction are included in the lesson plan. If you aren’t sure what directed line drawings are, I’ve included an overview of the benefits. For the children who finish early, I have 3 activity sheets for the children to color, create their own patterns on or even count the shapes.

I created this lesson for my three Kinder classes, but you could easily use them with first and second grade children. By increasing the degree of pattern details, older children can be equally as challenged.

All of the lessons require about 60 minutes of art instruction and process time. If you have an extra ten minutes, I included a few book recommendations to read at the beginning of the lessons.

Included in this 18-page lesson plan:

• 3 easy-to-draw art lessons: Elephant, Bird and Turtle
• How-to-draw handout for above lessons
• 3 activity sheets
• Teacher scripts
• How to paint with watercolor instructions
• Art supply links
• Book recommendations
• Student Gallery

Only $5

Connecting with California State Kinder Visual Arts standards: 

Students apply artistic processes and skills, using a variety of media to communicate meaning and intent in original works of art.

Skills, Processes, Materials, and Tools

• 2.1 Use lines, shapes/forms, and colors to make patterns.

Communication and Expression Through Original Works of Art

• 2.6 Use geometric shapes/forms (circle, triangle, square) in a work of art.

Purchase through Teachers Pay Teachers

There are many ways in which to design a mural but I tend to stick to a basic graph style layout. I talk about different styles in my Ceramic Mural PDF. This year, the mural will be collaborative, meaning that each child will be a part of a larger group focusing on a certain landmark. I designed the overall theme with general ideas and gathered enough visuals for the kids to draw from.  The two 6th grade classes are divided into groups of 4-6 kids. Each group will receive a landmark. Then, together they will decide how the landmark will look on the paper graph.

In two weeks, I will cut hundreds of clay tiles and the groups will turn their flat paper drawings into 3-D tiles. I can’t wait!

Here are some posts on previous murals….

Ancient Greece 2012

California Marine Life 2011

Nautical Mural 2010

The mural will be finished by the end of the school year.  I will post about the progress, so stay tuned…

A lovely surprise yesterday…one of my favorite lessons in my favorite art magazine.

Arts and Activities sent me some copies of their 80th Anniversary issue. I have used and been inspired by many art lessons from this publication and had to think which one was my favorite. In the end, I loved Lady Liberty as it opened up so many teaching possibilities. What has been your favorite lesson from the magazine? If you have links, please share (but only one or the comment will automatically be sent to my spam!)

Here are a few of my favorite lessons from the magazine:

Lady Liberty Gets a Make-Over

Lady Liberty Art Lesson

Poinsettia Art Project

Ceramic Turkey Bowls

Musical Medley

Happy Anniversary Arts & Activities Magazine!

Looking for a lesson on the Masters? Here’s a directory of my art lessons from the past ten years featuring the great artists…

Cezanne: Still-Life in Chalk and Tempera Paint for upper grades

Chagall: Marc Chagall’s “Drawing a Dream” 

Kahlo: Frida Kahlo Portrait

Klee: Paul Klee Buildings in pen and watercolors for upper grades, Paul Klee’s Cat and Bird in chalk and oil pastel for younger grades

Klimt: Gustav Klimt’s Tree of Life in tempera paint, Klimt Multi-Media Ladies for upper grade

Matisse: Matisse Goldfish in tempera paint, Matisse’s Purple Robe and Anemones, Matisse Paper Cut Dancers, Matisse-inspired painted self-portraits for upper grades, Matisse-inspired oil pastel portraits for lower grades, Matisse-inspired paper cut name panels

Miro: Painted Miro art lesson for upper grades, Miro line drawings in marker

Monet: Monet’s waterlilies for younger grades, Monet’s Tulip Fields in Holland multi-media art lesson, Monet’s Magpie Winter-scape art lesson

O’Keeffe: Graphic Flowers in watercolor

Picasso: Cubist Animals for lower grades, Easy Picasso faces in watercolor, Portrait of Dora Maar tempera painting art lesson, Oil Pastel Picasso Portraits, Primary Picasso Portrait Collage

Rouault: Rouault Royals art lesson for upper grade, Rouault Still-Life

Rivera: Diego Rivera’s Mothers Helper art lesson in chalk pastel, Rivera’s The Flower Gatherers Art lesson

Van Gogh: Oil Pastel resist landscape fro younger grades, Van Gogh’s Irises Tempera painting, Van Gogh Sunflowers in oil Pastels here and here, Landscape with chalk pastels and paint, City at Night paper and paint art lesson, Van Gogh Flowers in tempera paint.