What excites the author the most is finding something new and turning it into a lesson her students will enjoy and learn from. Lately, she has been most inspired by the work she finds on one website. The lesson began with a brief PowerPoint based on an artist's website. This particular artist--Jennifer Schmitt--does reduction prints using several…

The author personally started making narrative collaged necklaces about 10 years ago, after being inspired by an artist friend. She would take mini images from magazines and collage them together onto laminate tile samples from a hardware store. She then adds colorful brads and stickers, and then paint and oil pastel over them, finally sealing…

When the author traveled to the city of Barcelona, Spain to see the still-unfinished La Sagrada Familia in person, she marveled at the magical genius of Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece. Inspired by Gaudi's whimsical tile work and cathedral towers, the author developed an art project that engages students in a creative experience, which combined art…

Children can be motivated to transform their thoughts, feelings and perceptions into visual expressions for drawing and painting. A variety of means are available to help them produce diverse and creative artworks. This article offers a few challenging ideas to get one's class whizzing along.

Part of the fourth-grade curriculum in the author's district is the creation of a self-portrait. This is always a challenge for both the students and the author, because it is so difficult for beginners to draw a satisfying drawing of a face, whether it is their own or someone else's. In the past the author tried many formats and materials to…

In this article, the author describes how her second-graders created their cool polar bears. The students used the elements of shape and texture to create the bears. They used Monet's technique of dabbing paint so as to give the bear some texture on his fur.

This article describes a miniature painting project that allows students to research a master painter and then replicate the work on a smaller scale. This lesson focuses on the students' ability to learn to identify style, subject matter, themes, and content in painting through the study of historical paintings, and the application of various…

Fauvism is a style of painting based on the use of intensely vivid colors that were not natural to the faces, landscapes and objects being painted. It was how artists expressed themselves during the first decade of the 20th century, and lasted only a short time. The artists were called "les Fauves," which means "the wild beasts." In this article,…

In this article, the author describes a self-portrait project that encouraged students, boosted their self-confidence, and got them excited about their artistic abilities--while producing amazing results. This lesson effectively develops artistic ability by compelling students to see that drawing is quite simply breaking down objects into the…

In this article, the author describes how her studio art students created their Pop art-style self-portraits. Students were each given a printout of a black-and-white picture of themselves that the author had taken with her digital camera. With this picture, students took tracing paper and traced a basic outline of their face, hair, and neck. They…

Every day, all around the country, art teachers are contending with large class sizes, shorter class periods, and varied student abilities. While the obvious solution might be to standardize, how can an art teacher meet the needs of the entire learning spectrum? How can an art teacher challenge the students who need challenging, while providing an…

Each year, the first-year high-school art students at Surry County High School in Dendron, Virginia, complete a three-dimensional project that attempts to re-create an artifact from the Old Kingdom. In this article, the author describes how the students made canopic jars from recycled 2-liter soda bottles and newspapers for this year's art…

With all the noise in the world, the flotsam and jetsam sensory input from the media, from friends, from family, from life, it is an arduous task to have students slow things down and focus on the simple, raw elements of their world. Specifically related to art class, the challenge is how to help students digest the work of Minimalist artists. In…

The author's art program includes students from kindergarten through eighth grade. In pondering the "nearly impossible," he wondered how the entire student population could work together on one art project that could be exhibited at the same time. He wanted each of his 700 students to create an original artwork that would display individual and…

Art students have different learning styles. Some are visual learners who need to see the information. Some are auditory learners who need to hear the information. Others are tactile/kinesthetic learners who need to move, do, or touch in order to learn. Looking over her curriculum and lesson plans, the author realized almost every art lesson…