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…
Process Art
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…
Marshmallow Painting
These photos are from two summers ago, if you can believe it. I was going to put this project in my book, but it ended up being one of the 22 art experiences on the cutting room floor. I am SO excited to finally share it with you now! This one was really fun, for obvious reasons. There was an…
Self Portraits with Kids: What Does Your Imagination Look Like?
There are so many ways to approach self-portraits with children: observation, inspired by a particular artist, symbols of interests and activities, the list goes on. This time, I wanted to create an engaging, multi media self portrait that could be completed in just one session with my little artists. { This post was written by…
Paper Bag Collage Art
I am so very excited to introduce you to a new contributor to Art Bar. Please welcome Shannon Merenstein from Hatch Art Studio in Pittsburgh!! Shannon has the most beautiful Instagram feed where she shares truly original and open-ended art ideas for children. I have been so inspired by her this past year that I sent her…
