There's something irresistible about squeezing out lines and shapes with a bottle of glue. It's fun, yes. But, even better: it's tactile. The glue dries slightly raised on the surface, lending itself to several exciting treatments. In this article, the author describes some activities that confirm how a simple art material like glue can be…

To celebrate a milestone in eighth-graders' lives--leaving middle school and moving on to high school--the author assigns them the "Coming of Age" project, which examines the big idea of identity and promotes the move from self-reflection to self-expression. The project also includes writing components that correspond to each of the nine…

One of the author's favorite things about going home is looking at her parents' new quilts. Over the years, each room of their home has become filled with beautiful, original, patchwork quilts, each of which has a history. Recently the author encountered a new artist online, Vadis Turner, whose work is in the style of the familiar tumbling block…

Chess is one of the world's oldest games, invented in India before 600 AD. The original pieces were inspired by the infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots of the ancient Indian army. The design of chess pieces changed when the game spread to the West, reflecting the society of medieval Europe. The king remained, pawns were the foot soldiers,…

Deborah Rael-Buckley creates stunning figurative self-portraits in clay that layer "personal, cultural, historical, and biological imagery" in a narrative style. Her work provides an exciting challenge in three-dimensional self-portraits for eighth graders. In this article, the author suggests some exercises to get students brainstorming visual…

The fun of creating collages is there are unlimited possibilities for the different kinds of materials one can use. In this article, the author describes how her eighth-grade students created an owl using mixed media.

One of the author's goals this year was to turn all of the different pieces of research she has collected throughout the years into projects. This is when she thinks of bringing Renaissance quilling to her class. Quilling, or paper scrolling, uses strips of paper that are rolled up to create decorative designs. During the Renaissance, it was used…

The last two sections (EJ1039315 and EJ1039319) presented stories about specific moments or lessons. Also, situations infused with complexity where the writers had to toggle back and forth between providing the larger context and the details that support readers' understanding of that big picture were presented. In this section each story is…

Introduce students to humankind's mysterious beginnings with a captivating sense of mystery. Low lighting and simple percussion music will add to the mood. Allow students time to leave behind the sunshine of this modern era and crawl through the narrow tunnel of their imaginations into an immense, dark, underground cave. This is, in fact, was what…

The author and her colleagues had picked an "Alice in Wonderland" theme for their Open House night, and decided it might be nice to have a large sculptural figure of Alice and the Queen of Hearts made out of papier-mache. They were a big hit and the students loved making figures that were larger than some of their students. The next year, they…

This paper focuses on how the arts heighten cognitive experiences through the use of natural materials and sites and the engagement with the natural world. The arts expose viewers to new ways of seeing, feeling, and thinking about nature; this can lead to greater awareness of and motivation to act on behalf of nature. The author examines the…

Last spring, students from several North Carolina middle schools were invited to participate in the annual Celebrate the Arts festival in Columbus Country. Larry Hewett, a local art teacher, had been selected to instruct the middle-school students. Larry's River Rock Circles project was made as the starting point for the Celebrate the Arts…

A major construction project at a school necessitated the reorganization of nearly the entire building at the end of the school year, a time when teachers are already busy with final exams, grading, and cleaning. To ease the burden for teachers moving to their new rooms and to provide a bit of fun, a school-wide garage sale was held. Unneeded…

Andy Goldsworthy has always been one of the author's favorite artists. He admires the way Goldsworthy works with natural material and how his work distills the elements of art and principles of design so that one can easily recognize them. In this article, the author describes how he exposed his students to the natural beauty that fall has to…

The textiles of Africa are rich with possibilities for art lessons. With their unique balance of color, pattern, symmetry and repetition, they lend themselves to exciting art lessons with cultural significance. Asante cloth--or Kente cloth, as it is commonly known--is a perfect example. These rich, colorful repeat patterns from Ghana are woven in…