The author's school is only 30 minutes from New York City, so every year when second-graders study towns and cities, the students do a project based on New York City landmarks. This year was the Statue of Liberty. The author introduced Peter Max's famous Pop art to her students, and explained that, as the art world kept changing, artists decided…

A humid summer haze covers the River Seine and the grassy bank where young men and boys go swimming on Sunday. Everything seems so quiet, still, and very hot. They wear hats to protect them from the hot sun. The artist Georges Seurat used warm tones to give viewers the feeling of the hot sun. Seurat was trying to catch the dazzle of hot sunlight…

In this article, second-graders create a sunflower drawing using pastel techniques that produce similar effects to Vincent van Gogh's brushstrokes. They also learn how layering colors and using white to lighten colors creates depth in their flowers.

Researching whimsical and spirited artists can inspire new ideas and methods of communicating how art remains a valuable part of people's lives both in and out of the classroom. This instructional resource explores one such contemporary artist who, driven by a curiosity in human interaction, continues to explore the world in fanciful and…

The author noticed that, when painting self-portraits, her students struggled with size relationships between the head, neck, and shoulders. In order to address this without having to deal with facial proportions, she had her second-graders take turns drawing a partner from the back. Students began this project by learning about Mary Cassatt,…

The small, isolated community of Gee's Bend, Alabama, is home to a rich quilting heritage. The quilters have enjoyed much recent fame. There have been traveling exhibitions, large coffee-table books, and even a series of postage stamps. The quilts are striking; they feature bold, asymmetrical patterns, bright colors, and rich texture. Examining…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Everyday Arts for Special Education (EASE) program on elementary special education students' academic achievement (reading and math) and social-emotional learning. EASE was a 5-year program providing professional development and instruction in the arts in 10 New York City special education…

Virginia Lee Burton was one of the first author-artists to fully integrate text with images on the printed page, captivating generations of children. She was the founder of the Folly Cove Designers, which is an artist collective known for block printed textiles and design, an artist and a writer, entwining the visual image and written word into a…

The wonderful book, "How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods" by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers inspired a lesson on feelings and expressions for this author's second-grade students. Many students at her school have difficult lives and lots of emotional baggage, resulting in behavioral problems at school. Using the example of Fauvist portraits by…

Creating a self-portrait of having fun "riding a wave" is a very enlightening and engaging experience for students of all ages, but the author's second-graders had an especially wonderful time with this art experience. To begin the unit of study, the author and her students looked at self-portraits created by Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt,…

In this article, the author describes an art project for second-grade students based on American Regionalist Grant Wood's most famous painting, "American Gothic," which was modeled by his sister, Nan, and his dentist. This well-loved painting depicting a hard-working farmer and his daughter standing in front of their farmhouse is the project's…

It is no wonder that works of art by Henri Matisse appeal to children, as his work has been said to "invite participation." His use of shape, color, design, and composition make his creations stand apart from others. By sharing examples of his line drawings, paintings, sculptures, and paper cutouts, children gain the sense that making art can be a…

During the author's undergraduate experience at the University of Georgia, the author discovered a local artist named Beverly Buchanan. She creates beautiful pastel drawings of shacks. Her shacks are not sad houses, but rich, vibrant dwellings filled with memories of people who once lived there. Buchanan also creates sculptures of shacks made from…

While exploring Keith Haring's Web site one day, the author discovered two untitled pieces from 1982 that became inspiration pieces for a lesson on symmetry and complementary colors for her second graders. Haring's simple shapes and colors and playful images are very similar to those found in the margins or on the cover of any typical child's…

Young children are experts at make-believe and delight in listening to tales of fantasy and wonder. When the author learned that the second-grade students in her school were studying fairy tales and legends, she took advantage of their natural interests and classroom experiences and introduced them to the magical, dreamlike paintings of Swiss…