Elements of the Art Room: 3rd grade

Showing posts with label 3rd grade. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

3rd grade burlap sewing

3rd Grade Sewing & Fiber Arts

Our 3rd grade artists have spent the past few weeks learning the basics of fiber art by sewing with yarn on burlap! Students practiced patience, hand-eye coordination, and creativity as they carefully stitched their designs one piece at a time.

We got our inspiration from Cheryl at Teach Kids Art! You can check out her blog here.

Here's what you need:

Yarn Burlap Needles Scissors

For this project, students used colorful yarn and simple sewing techniques to create a work of art on burlap. They learned how to thread yarn, stitch through burlap, and use different colors and lines to add detail and personality to their artwork.

This project was a wonderful combination of art and life skills. Sewing encouraged students to slow down, problem solve, and persevere through challenges. Each finished piece is unique and shows the hard work and creativity our young artists put into every stitch.

We are so proud of our 3rd graders for trying something new and creating such beautiful fiber art masterpieces!

Finger Weaving!

This week in art, our students explored finger weaving—a simple and exciting way to create colorful woven chains using just yarn and their hands! This hands-on activity helps students learn about patterns, coordination, and creativity while having fun with bright colors.

What Is Finger Weaving?

Finger weaving is a basic weaving technique where students use their fingers instead of tools or looms to weave yarn together. By looping and crossing strands of yarn, students can create long, colorful woven chains. Each chain becomes a unique piece of fiber art!

Students chose several colors of yarn and worked step-by-step to weave them together. As they practiced the pattern, they discovered how different color combinations created beautiful designs.

Materials:

Yarn

Skills We Practiced

While working on this project, students developed several important skills:

Fine motor skills through manipulating the yarn
Pattern recognition as they repeated the weaving sequence
Color planning by choosing yarn combinations
Patience and focus while building long woven chains

Many students were excited to see how long their woven chains could grow!

Watch the Instructions

If you'd like to try finger weaving at home, you can follow the same steps we used in class. Watch the video below for a demonstration of the weaving process:

3rd Grade "I Am an Artist Portraits"

3rd grade is finishing up their "I am an Artist" portraits, and they're looking so great! This lesson is from Keisha Casiano and can be found here on her TPT account

Here's their fabulous work!

Fabulous Fall Elementary Art Lessons!

Hi! Glad you're here! Here's a list of the fall themed elementary art projects we've done throughout the years! Hope this helps, having them all in one place! Just click on the pictures or titles below, and they'll take you to the original post.

4th and 5th fall birch trees

Leaf printmaking collage

Yayoi Kusama inspired pumpkins

Starry Night Pumpkins

3rd grade Square 1 Art Tigers

3rd Grade Square 1 Art – Tigers in the Jungle 🐯🌿

Our 3rd graders are working hard on their Square 1 Art fundraiser, and this year they are creating bold and beautiful tiger portraits!

We started last week by sketching out our tigers in pencil, and following along with me and my "How to draw a tiger" video, on my Youtube channel.

Once the drawings were ready, we traced over them carefully with black markers to make the details stand out. This week, students are bringing their tigers to life with bright oil pastels and paint. The pops of orange, green, blue, and pink make the artwork jump right off the page!

Here's our favorite supplies that we used! Circle tracers, Pencils, Permanent markers, Oil pastels, and watercolor paint or tempera paint. #amazonassociatelinks

Each tiger is full of personality, and the students are so proud of their work. We can’t wait to see these wild and colorful creations turned into keepsakes for families through the Square 1 Art fundraiser.

Square 1 Art!

Square 1 Art Fundraiser is Back! 🎨✨

This week in the art room, our students began working on their Square 1 Art projects! Each child is creating a special piece of artwork that will be turned into keepsakes for families to enjoy. From mugs and ornaments to tote bags and stickers, there are so many fun products available—perfect for gifts or for cherishing your child’s creativity at home.

The best part? All products will ship for FREE, just in time for Christmas! 🎁 That means families can order unique, personalized holiday gifts while also supporting our school.

Why does this fundraiser matter?
Our school serves over 800 students, and every single one of them benefits from a fully stocked art room. The money raised through Square 1 Art goes directly toward buying essential art supplies—paper, paints, brushes, markers, oil pastels and more—so that every student has the tools they need to express themselves creatively.

We can’t wait to see all of the incredible artwork your children are creating. Be on the lookout for order forms and online access codes coming home in November!

Thank you for supporting the arts at our school and helping to keep creativity alive for every student. 💛

Here’s what we’re working on!

Monochromatic Self Portraits

This year, I wanted to make a collaborative piece of art, to kick off the new year. I also wanted to create something that wasn't too tricky for the kids, while we got back into the swing of things and went over expectations and procedures in the art room, as well.

We got our inspiration from a few talented art teachers and students. Here's some great blogs you can get inspiration from too!

Mrs. Detrich Art

Cassie Stephens

Mrs. Hutchison Art

Here's all you need:

2nd grade cardboard castle prints

This week in art class, our amazing 2nd graders studied the colorful, geometric work of Swiss-German artist Paul Klee— especially his painting “Castle and Sun.” Klee loved using shapes, color, and imagination to build dreamy cities and abstract scenes.

Take a look at his original masterpiece below:

Paul Klee, “Castle and Sun,” 1928

This week in our elementary art room, we dove into the colorful world of Wayne Thiebaud, an American artist known for his whimsical, dessert-themed paintings full of rich color, bold shadows, and delicious detail. Our young artists created their own vibrant ice cream cone drawings using oil pastels on black construction paper, and the results are as sweet as the inspiration!

This lesson came from the fabulous art teacher Joel Scholten! You can download his ice cream templates here!

Chris Uphues & Jen Stark inspired Valentine’s Art!

Today, 4th grade learned about the artists Chris Uphues and Jen Stark! We looked at examples of their art, and got to work on our own! This project came from The Busy Brushes, and came in handy for Valentine’s Day!

Jim Dine Inspired Tissue Paper Hearts

Soon, 3rd grade will start this fun and colorful project inspired by the artist Jim Dine, and the amazing elementary art LauraLee Chambers. (Btw, You can find her on instagram at 2art.chambers)

Here’s the materials you need

90lb paper

Bleeding tissue paper

Paintbrushes

Paint sticks

Oil pastels

Day 1: We’ll look at images of Jim Dine’s art, and create our tissue paper background.

Day 2: We’ll make the heart by fold some scrap paper, tracing it onto the background, and coloring it with paint sticks and pastels!

Here’s the full video tutorial on YouTube!

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

YAM show 2022

Hi! It's been a while! Here's a little glimpse into what we did last year, and which art made it to our annual, county wide, Youth Art Month show. I've been in a portable without a sink for 2 years, and a crazy schedule, so I haven't had as much time to post on here or IG. Plus, sometimes I forget where I got these great ideas, and don't want to make anyone upset. Below, you will see I gave credit, where credit is due! Thank you amazing art teachers for sharing your awesome ideas with us, and thank you to my students, for all your hard work! I am so very proud of you 💖