I remember the day my art students made these mixed-media wooden structures two summers ago. My husband came home from work and saw them all on the table (reference the last photo in this post) and said, “Are these Game of Thrones inspired?” and I was like WAIT A MINUTE!!! No, but now that you…
Process Art
Stacked Cardboard Sculptures with Kids
Shannon from Hatch is back with a wonderful, open-ended art invitation for kids: stacked cardboard sculptures! Also known as threaded sculptures. Aren’t these FABULOUS? What I love most about Shannon’s idea is that it can even be done with toddlers. It’s very process-art oriented and works those small motor and hand-eye skills. Here is Shannon…
Cupcake Liner Flowers Easy Art Station
During my weekly art classes, I always set up one main project and then one art station. An art station is a table where early finishers can work independently. It’s usually something very open-ended and simple so that they don’t need any help or guidance. These cupcake liner flowers make a wonderful, easy art station…
Clay 101: Clay Exploration with Young Children
There are six art forms that I strive to introduce my art students to while they are in my classes: drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, construction, and clay. Of all these six, I think children get the most excited about clay. Their response is so visceral, they instinctively jump and clap with joy! Clay exploration with young…
Leaf Painting with Kids
It’s been raining here in Connecticut for what feels like a decade, and it’s still muggy and warm. Where are you, Fall weather? We are ready to take out our big sweaters and take a walk through the colorful + crunchy leaves, collecting all the best ones as we go. This leaf painting with kids…
Wooden Sculpture Prompt: Imaginary Playgrounds
One of my favorite process art experiences for my art students is setting out wooden pieces and letting them make sculptures. On this day, I gave them the prompt to make imaginary playgrounds. I love what they created so much! How cool would these be if they were life-sized? I think all playgrounds should be…
Beach Art
This is an updated version of an old post. I originally wrote this 3 years ago, in 2015. Since then, we’ve had many more opportunities to use our found collections to make beach art. Not only that, I recently challenged my Facebook fans to post their own beach art photos. And their ideas were so…
Recycled Materials Art Wall
My young students constructed this art wall from recycled materials, and then they mixed all of their own colors and painted it!! Kids are so capable. It’s no wonder that everything my students design and create makes me want to open a children’s art museum. Can you imagine how cool that would be? Artists from…
Cardboard Tube Sculptures
Even though I’m calling the material we used for these sculptures cardboard tubes, it’s just a euphemism. What you really need to start saving are those toilet paper rolls! This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support! The kids LOVED making these sculptures! The pieces easily stuck together with regular white glue, so…
Invitation to Paint: Giant Coffee Filters
Happy 4th of July! I hung these giant coffee filters on a line and set up this invitation to paint last week in art camp. They reminded me so much of fireworks, I thought that today would be a good day to post my photos. I got this idea from my friend and colleague Kim…
