2nd grade Heather Galler inspired mugs

Last week, 2nd grade started this Cassie Stephens and Heather Galler inspired lesson! They did a great job decorating their backgrounds by adding patterns and lines! For more details on how to do the lesson, click on Cassie's name! Here's how we made ours. 

3rd grade Oil Pastel Snowmen at Night

3rd grade has been working on this project, inspired by the book, Snowmen At Night, for the past couple of weeks now, and I had to share how they're doing! This was one of my last art on a cart lessons, so I thought it might be helpful for art on a cart folks, or just someone looking for a simple, but beautiful wintry lesson.  Here's how we made them! By the way...This lesson was inspired by A Faithful Attempt art blog! Look em' up! :)

Kindergarten Polar Bears

Oh sweet kindergartners....They are so eager and so ready to learn, but it's a little difficult sometimes coming up with fun/engaging/cute things for them to do! They usually say, "I'm done!!" in 10 minutes, so you've got to find just the right project to keep their little hands and minds engaged! (and I'm still art on a cart, so that's limiting as well!) I was cruising around Pinterest the other day, and found this precious piece of art for a children's nursery, and thought it'd be fun for Kindergarten to try out! Link to the site in the picture. This took one 45 minute class to do! Here's how we created them, as well as some videos showing how to complete this :)

2nd grade Lois Elhert inspired birds

Last week, 2nd grade started this beautiful and colorful, wintry picture inspired by the blog, Deep Space Sparkle! . This project was originally inspired by the book, Snowballs, by Lois Ehlert. She's an artist, auther, and illustrator, who has written many books! Look her up, when you get a chance! 

Here's how we created our own! 

1st grade Winter landscapes

Here's what first grade is up to this week! We've finished our cardinals, and we're moving on to a new project I've never tried before, but found on Paintbrush Rocket's blog, and wanted to try it with my students! 

This project may look simple, but is still challenging for little 6/7 year olds. They're working on their painting skills, craftsmanship, color mixing skills, and fine motor skills! Whew! That's a lot of skillz in this little winter landscape! 

Here's how we're creating ours! 

5th grade Winter Birch Trees

Welcome back from Christmas break! If you're like me, you have snow days on the brain! So I'm ready to do some snowy lessons! This week, 5th grade will be trying out this piece of art, inspired by a great art teacher, Caitlyn Thompson. You can check out her IG account at @artwithcoacht! 

Here's how we're going to create ours!

2nd grade Polar Bears

Welcome back! So glad to see all of you! This week, 2nd grade is going to be starting this cute lil polar bear, inspired by the fabulous Lauralee Chambers! Here's a link to her Insta account, if you want to check her out (which ya should!) @2art.chambers 

Here's how we created ours!

1st grade Winter Cardinals

This week, first grade started this cardinal painting inspired by Art Projects for Kids! They've really enjoyed making them, and I have to! It's tricky to find this to keep these kids cool, just a few days before break, but luckily there is a super strong and supportive art teacherin' community, who loves to share their ideas! I am so thankful for that!

Here are our kids, hard at work on theirs!

2nd grade Ugly Sweater Bears

Here's another great idea from Art Room Britt! Their bears looked so fun and cute, I thought they'd be a great thing to do with just a few days left until break! I did these with 2nd grade (normally our rowdiest grade besides 5th) and they were quiet as church mice!! That's unheard of, this time of year! They loved drawing out the bears and adding the details to their sweater! Each one was cute, and unique!

Here's how we created ours!

4th & 5th grade Jen Aranyi inspired Winter Landscapes

We're almost there folks! Just 1.5 days left until Christmas break!! The kids have actually been great, thanks to fun new projects like this one! I was scrolling through Instagram, Ahem... (I mean Collaborating with my fellow Ahht teachers) when I came across an awesome looking lesson inspired by the one and only, Cassie Stephens, and the ever so talented Art Room Britt. They had been doing the fabulous looking Jen Aranyi inspired landscapes with their classes, so naturally I had to try it with mine! Y'all....They have been turning out great, and they were so excited to try it. They loved watching the artist's time lapse videos, and we just amazed with her beautiful work! 

Here's how we created them!
(How to draw videos are close to the end of the post, or you can click on this link)

1st grade Snowy Penguins

This week, we're finishing up day 1 of our precious lil penguins! I found this beautiful idea on Mary Making's blog!  This project incorporates watercolor painting, drawing, value, and oil pastels. 

Here's how we created ours! 

Kindergarten Snowy Cities

We're dreaming of a white Christmas around here, and are in snowy project mode! I found this one years ago, on Deep Space Sparkle I think (but I can't find the original link) :)

 Kindergarten finished their cool colored, wintry landscapes last week....

This was adapted from Art Projects for Kids

and we're moving on to some snowy cities!

Here's how we created them!

2nd grade Deer in the Snow

This week 2nd grade started this multimedia deer in the snow! This project was inspired by the Painted Paper Art blog!
We have snow in the forecast, and we're trying not to get our hopes up, but the thought of snow is so exciting!! 

Here's how we created our little deer!

1st grade Charley Harper inspired Cardinals

This week, first grade will be starting a Charley Harper inspired artwork! He was an American artist who simplified nature into basic shapes, in a style which he called "Minimal Realism". You can learn more about Mr. Harper and view more of his works at his gallery website. 

Kindergarten Snowy Owls

It's freeeezing in TN, so what do we have on the brain?? SNOW! Sadly, there are no snow days in the forecast, so we'll create our own wintry weather! 

This week, Kindergarten will be starting this snowy little owl picture! Mrs. Stacey loves owls, and owls are so interesting! I've checked out a neat owl book, the librarian has passed on some great web resources, and to top it off, we'll create our own little owlet!

Lunar New Year Kites

Starting February 16th, people all over the world will be celebrating Chinese New Year. This is a very interesting holiday to learn about, and is full of fun traditions that you will love reading about! Here's a fun link to all kinds of info on the Chinese Spring Festival. 

Chinese New Year 2020

4th grade Aurora Borealis landscapes

Thank goodness we live in an age where we can get inspiration from teachers all over the world! Most art teachers are alone in their building, so we do not have the opportunity to collaborate with our peers as much as the other teachers do. I'm so blessed to live in an age where an art teacher clear across the country or world is accessible in mere seconds! We can all share our great ideas, and not have to leave the comfort of our pj's if we don't want to! Anyway.... As I was scrolling through Instagram, I came across this beautiful project from Art with Mrs. E. Her 4th graders did such a great job, I wanted to try it out with ours as well! 

We will be starting this when we come back from Christmas break!

I love this technique of spreading chalk to create the look of the Northern Lights. Here's how I did it.

3rd Grade Ornaments

Last week and this week, third grade was busy getting ready for their music program,  so they needed to practice during specials. (which is fine, just gets us off schedule a bit :) Today we were able to get back on a regular schedule, and were able to start this neat little Christmas picture.
 I wish we had more time to spend on it, but they were able to complete quite a bit in a 45 min class.
(I found this lesson on the Color Like You Mean It blog!)

Blended Candy Canes take II

This year, I decided to try out our favorite Christmas project from last year (4th and 5th Blended Candy Canes), and again they turned out beautifully! Click on the link above to see how to do this fun, easy, and awesome project inspired by Katie Mallette (instagram @katieplus4) The kids are learning about blending, using Crayola oil pastels, and also learning about the Element of Art, Value!

Here are some examples from this year!

1st grade Woven Winter houses

First grade is learning about weaving and is starting their woven winter house, this week! We started by talking about weaving, showing examples of weaving, and discussing the importance of this art form. We also discussed all the different materials you could weave, like thread, fabric, straw, wood, plastic, etc. I told them we were going to start with the basics and weave some paper! ;)