Abstraction can be hard for older students to understand, and it usually involves simplifying or rearranging natural objects to meet the needs of the artist, whether it be for organization or expression. But, in reality, that is what young artists do when they draw from life. They do not have enough experience--and sometimes the patience--to see…

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was a very prolific Impressionist/Post-Impressionist artist whose longevity allowed him to produce many wonderful, brightly colored pieces of art that spanned different styles, movements and media. Elementary-school children love color and appreciate any project that does not require their work to be exact or totally…

The author's fifth-graders are usually easy to motivate, especially with an assignment as exciting as dragons and mythical beasts! Since many of the author's projects are "typical" subjects such as flowers, animals, still life and so on, the idea of creating mythical creatures really caused a stir in her classroom. In this article, the author…

This article presents an elementary studio lesson that aims to nurture students' knowledge of peace with art-making activities that enable them to discover the dynamic events that can develop within its presence. Through this lesson, students learn that peace, like art, does not happen on its own, but it is created. This lesson helps students…

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…

Critical thinking is thought-focused on how to solve a well-defined problem when several alternatives solutions to the problem exist. Because critical thinking may help to build tolerance toward others, the author believes it is a worthwhile subject to investigate, given that people are living in an increasingly multicultural society full of…

Gustav Klimt was born in Vienna in 1862. At age 14, he received a scholarship to the Vienna Public Art School. After graduating, he painted realistic portraits and later began to paint landscapes. Klimt was best known for creating a style known as Art Nouveau, in answer to the Industrial Revolution of the early 20th century. Art Nouveau was a…

Mexican printer Jose Guadalupe Posada's (1851-1913) numerous prints of "calaveras" gave vast popularity to skeleton figures through his satirical and politically critical renditions of skeletons engaged in daily activities. They are oftentimes represented in festive and playful posturing. Calaveras have now become the most original trait…

The purpose of this study was to examine what information third-grade boys attending school in three rural school districts might contribute to current understanding about what motivates boys to engage in reading. A multi-method, multi-sensory Mosaic Approach was used to explore, record, and interpret the voices of the 14 boys with varying levels…

Texture is how things feel or how they look as though they might feel if one touches them. Some surfaces are rough and some are smooth to the touch. There are many other words, such as bumpy, used to describe texture when one feels or sees it. This article presents an art project in which elementary students explain how texture is used in art,…

In this article, the author illustrates how she shares her love of sunflowers with her kindergarten and first-grade students through an interesting art lesson. Sunflowers are easy to grow, so the author started the lesson four months earlier with inexpensive seed packets. She planted many varieties, but she most likes the colors of the Mexican…

This article describes an art activity on self-portraiture inspired by artist Tim Hawkinson. Hawkinson created a sculpture titled "Emoter" in which his face, moved by motors, twisted and contorted based on random signals from a TV. This art activity incorporates technology into the art room, brings the work of practicing artists alive, and is a…

Creating clay animals and their habitats with second-grade students has long been one of the author's favorite classroom activities. Students love working with clay and they also enjoy drawing animal homes. In this article, the author describes how the students created a diorama instead of drawing their clay animal's habitat. This gave students…

This ethnographic study examines how one first grade teacher uses an alternative, artist-focused curriculum to develop a critical consciousness in her students to work toward social change. A framework incorporating critical multicultural education and Lewin's theory of small groups is applied to assess how the use of a multicultural curriculum…

Most elementary students approach photography in an open-minded, experimental way. As a result, their images are often more playful than those taken by adults. Students discover more through their own explorations than they would learn through overly structured lessons. In this article, the author describes how he introduces his elementary…