The Jigsaw Mural Project provides a way for young children to work on a large-scale and permanent mural, in a manner that allows them to work on the floor and without the use of ladders. It is also a chance for art educators to work with students as teacher and collaborator in one. This project took place with preschool children ages two through…

"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…

Almost all early civilizations had mythological stories. From the great cradles of civilization--Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome--to the Mother Earth and Father Sky of the early Native Americans, myths have been part of the civilization of humankind. Typically, in this teachers' ninth-grade painting class, the students paint landscapes in…

Have you ever thought of using music as a subject for art? When the author discovered that her third graders studied jazz in music class every February, it seemed an opportune time for her to simultaneously focus on music in art, specifically through the work of African-American artist Romare Bearden. To familiarize her third-grade students with…

Trimis and Savva detail the in-depth studio approach, which enables students to explore materials and techniques in-depth and to progress in developmental stages, as part of a larger study of museum education in Cyprus. Their aim was to introduce preservice teachers to ways of implementing programs that link museum education with art activities in…

This author relates how she used to hate bugs but a museum visit changed her perception about them. She realized that in her panic of shooing insects away, she failed to recognize them as living models of the elements and principles of design. It made her realize that insects can provide an opportunity to teach this important lesson to her seventh…

Each month throughout the school year, two second grade teachers at Lessenger Elementary highlight a different children's author. The interdisciplinary lessons that evolved the month they selected Margaret and H.A. Rey's Curious George books were the most successful. In this article, the author relates how art, story writing, reading aloud, and…

Expressionistic textured paintings are intense and passionate for both the viewer and the artist. Regional subject matter can relate the artist's feelings with the period and location of the artwork. This article briefly describes one classroom's experience engaging in a lesson relating to combining Expressionism and Regionalism. The class was a…

The author's inspiration for this lesson for her fifth- and sixth-grade students came from an article on Peruvian-style retablos in the December 1998 issue of SchoolArts. She wanted a multicultural theme for a three-dimensional assignment that incorporated many art-making and higher-order thinking skills. She prepared a packet or kit for each…

In the fall of 2003 the Children's Art Workshop, the Program for Southeast Asian Studies and Hayden Library at Arizona State University (ASU), in cooperation with the Arizona Lao Association, had both the fascinating and occasionally difficult experience of teaching Lao art traditions to a group of 25 students from diverse communities in the…

In this article, the author, an art teacher, relates how she struggles every year with finding the time for every lesson she wants to do with her students. Because of time constraints, she always had to make a decision each quarter as to whether her seventh graders would do an artist research lesson, a multimedia project, or a unit on portraits.…

In this article, the author, an art teacher at a Pennsylvanian high school, tells of methods she has used to help "open up" students in her Intermediate Studio Art class who are timid but talented individuals who will not risk embarrassment by expressing themselves. Her methods involved having students serve as models for sketches and…

Describes a process called artist's share in which students volunteer to display their artwork, share thoughts and feelings on its progress, and accept comments from other students. Artist's share allows for responsibility to be shared between artist, audience, and teacher; provides a unique learning opportunity for students; and helps the teacher…

Easttown Township chose to celebrate its tercentenary to create a greater awareness of local history. In this article, the author discusses how she incorporated this celebration into her art classroom. With history and architecture as the theme, sixth-grade art students researched homes and buildings in the township dating back as early as the…

Describes experiences in using art with the homeless in an open studio approach. Discusses how offering open studio time with a range of materials showed that the homeless, each with a unique style and personal interests, were eager to create art objects and present them to the public. (RJM)