This book offers a wide variety of easy-to-make crafts, including toys, games, and gifts, and each project begins with a box. The book provides directions, a materials list, and suggestions for setting aside a work area. The projects are illustrated with large full-color photographs and explained with simple step-by-step instructions. Contains a…

Five different art activities, using different media, are described: (1) "mystery molds," using plaster and discarded packaging materials; (2) "calico cottages," using boxes and fabric; (3) "foam friends," using plastic foam packing pieces; (4) "bauble boxes," using spray can tops and papier mache; and (5) "soft stuff," using old clothing. (CJ)

Examines the community mural movement as an educational activity, reviewing the history of the modern mural movement, noting its democratic direction, and concluding that community murals can potentially educate artists and nonartists. Modern murals have demonstrated a vast capacity to expand awareness of the struggles of oppressed people. (SM)

Gives instructions for student art projects inspired by the work of five famous artists: Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, and Michelangelo. Directions for making art smocks and a display kiosk are also included. (ME)

Presents students' drawings that resulted from a discussion of literary works and their illustrations. (RL)

Clay is an incredible medium and can well serve any curriculum. Strategies that elementary teachers can use to help children interpret their ideas into finished clay pieces are discussed. (RM)

Describes the advantages of displaying children's art in public places and focuses particularly on such activities in New York City. Includes examples of student art. (KH)

This paper examines the role of visual arts in student creativity development and gives guidelines for using a comprehensive visual arts program which can foster interdisciplinary connections throughout the curriculum. Sections of the paper include: (1) "Visual Arts in Education"; (2) "Visual Arts is a Way to..."; (3)…

Describes a design exercise for college education majors. Five paper scissor shapes are used to illustrate the role of balance, variation, repetition, and unity in design. After comparing their own designs to Indian molas, students explore how color and shape affect design by elaborating their work with oil crayons. (AM)

Following a "building code" specified by their art teacher, sixth-graders designed and built cardboard townhouses to serve as permanent hallway decorations in their school. This article is one of four in this issue describing elementary level mural projects. (SJL)

Describes Image-making Within the Writing Process, an innovative art-based literacy program designed to entice even the most discouraged of learners with a series of process-oriented art explorations and concrete tools for thinking through and designing stories. (SR)

"Lwa" is the term given to spirits who are believed to act as intermediaries in the lives of Haitians. Many Haitians call upon the "lwa" daily for their problem-solving abilities. The goal of any artist is to be one with his or her own artwork. When working with young art students, this is the key to keeping them on task. For…

Suggests that in contrast to art as "recess" creating a collective mural is a process of self-exposion and conquest. The child's image expands not only to arm's reach size, but to the size of the whole wall. For once the child is acting on his own environment rather than being acted on. (Author/AM)

Working in small groups, fifth graders designed and made a ceramic title mural that became a permanent display in the school entryway. The project is described. (RM)

A teacher or art specialist who would like to initiate kite activities will draw confidence from beginning with proven, class-tested designs, easy to make and decorate, sure to fly, using inexpensive materials. Instructions for making a Vietnamese kite and a stapled sled kite are provided. (RM)