Art is all about the process of exploration. The final results are less important than what a child imagines, experiences, and learns along the way. Packed with a year's worth of art projects kids can create out of everyday objects and recycled materials. From buttons to Bubble Wrap and rocks to socks, the author shows how to plan exciting art…

This article presents sixty ideas for celebrating the arts. These ideas include concepts about sparking creativity among children. A list of benefits of arts education is also included.

Presents innovative arts and crafts ideas including weaving a sculpture, painting living plants, making clay hearts, and heart art for Valentine's Day. (JMB)

This mini-curriculum introduces the basic art concepts of line, shape and form, texture, color and light, space, and design and composition. (SB)

Should you have an artist in residence in your school? Yes! Here's how you go about it, what a visiting artist does, and why he is so valuable to you and your kids. (Editor)

Describes an art lab developed as an alternative form of education for inner-city children. (GB)

Lists several art activities from which students should be able to recognize and use math concepts, recognize shapes, identify shapes, and practice perceptual skills. (Author/GB)

Thirteen ideas for using paper bags for class art activities are given. Directions for making bag barracudas, bionic bags, bigfoot bags, bag sculptures, bag beads, and body bag superstars are included. (PP)

The article presents ideas for using Van Gogh's painting, "Irises," to teach elementary students about floral still lifes and the use of space, light, and other aspects of composition. It includes a poster of "Irises" along with suggestions and activities for using it to explore the elements of art. (SM)

Ideas for spring arts activities include a whimsical play about royal dragons, a skit on an April fool, and a song. Instructions for making brightly colored birds from boxes, a happy day hat, decorated eggs, and other art projects are given. (PP)

Presents art projects to help elementary educators teach their students about seascapes, providing students with basic techniques for portraying texture and mood in art. After discussing seascapes and lines and showing some examples, teachers can help students create seascapes from construction paper alone or with construction paper and…

This article outlines the steps in an art activity on the elements of landscapes and touches on the topic of perspective. In the activity students create three-dimensional secret gardens of their own out of construction paper. The activity is based on Claude Monet's painting and his garden in Giverny (Normandy, France). (SM)

It is possible to connect art and language arts using traditional Japanese art. After explaining the Japanese art forms of Haiku poetry and sumi-e painting, the article describes a project in which students write haiku on special paper then illustrate their poems with gung and shey strokes. (SM)

Provides a guide to a first-grade teacher's methods of teaching art appreciation. She began a weekly art appreciation study integrated across the curriculum that heightened students' awareness and critical-thinking skills and enhanced their creativity by allowing them to view and respond to art and then create their own. (SM)