Your Gifted Learner: 2016

Megan Coyle. Green Coffee Cup. Activities for this Lesson Plan What is “Painting with Paper?” What is a Still Life? Why is Color Important in Art?:

Tulips and Daffodils Make Lovely Art Project Ideas

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Sketchbook Wandering: Tulips:

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I found these wonderful renderings of tulips that has inspired me to come up with a flower project for my art students. Make sure and subscribe to my Youtube channel to get the project right when it goes live.

ONE of my favorite things to do is to find art on Pinterest and to deconstruct them to allow for a student as young as kindergarten to enter into the conversation with pencil and paint.

THIS VIDEO offer a more mixed media approach to flowers:

The Value of Boredom to Spark Creativity

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I love working on a series of paintings and I want to start incorporating this idea with my art students. I remember when I was younger, I read a book where the protagonist had an art teacher who instructed her students to draw an apple for 100 days in a row. I like this idea of allowing the mind to 'bore' itself into focusing on the nuances of an item. I think we underestimate the power of boredom in a child's life.

Keeping with the nature them of this post (kinda), here is a video showing you how to create a bird art journaling page - which of course can ALWAYS be created on a larger canvas.

Do you Know Grumpy Cat? Kids love Him!

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Are your kids as obsessed with Grumpy Cat? My daughter has a teacher who has his very own grumpy cat that he incorporates into his 4th grade class curriculum. Can I just say there are A TON of teachers in Public Schools that are doing the work SO SO WELL.

OK check out our newest video and OF COURSE make sure to subscribe to our channel:

Germany and Cuckoo Clocks and Water Lilies Kids Art Lessons

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Let me introduce you to Cassie Stephens of the blog series "What the Art Teacher wore" - find her HERE

Her quest for developing young artists and create art lessons that she shares with the world is beyond inspiring. This project is a nod to my home country Germany and you know I am going to give it a go.

Here is our nod to Monet and his water lilies - Enjoy friends.

Henri Rousseau and His Jungle Adventures Or a Tour of the Rain Forest

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We are always on the lookout to create art that does not HAVE to be incredibly colorful. In fact, there are times where I invite the students to practice RESTRAINT - using only 2-4 colors.

This lesson would be great for a rain forest discussion or a study on Henri Rousseau.

I have a video of our version of a snake art lesson:

Diego Rivera and the Study of Drawing People

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One of the blogs that really inspired me to go for it in the area of teaching art classes to kids is Patty over at Deep Space Sparkle. Here is a lesson I am going to try for sure. My students are always interested in getting a chance to draw people and this seems like a nice intro lesson.

Here is a fun mixed media lesson that I have done many times and the students love it! They get to play with color by working with scrapbook paper and it helps invite any studnet who might be timid with color to give it a go.

Andy Warhol Poppies and Henri Matisse Fish Art Lessons

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I am always on the lookout for projects that help create connections with famous artists - this one is a nod to Andy Warhol. I like the use of colors and I love the challenge of working with black paint.

Here is an art lesson that is inspired by Henri Matisse - enjoy!

Joseys Art School Episode #69 Elephants in the Jungle Kids Art Lesson Be...

Ducks and Gardens Kids Art Lessons

I came across this organization called Arts For Life
Check them out - this group brings art to kids who do not have the opportunity to take art classes. Having lived all over the United States, I know firsthand that there is still a HUGE disconnect on the value of creativity to INCREASE health, wellness and productivity. Make sure to check out how you can support this group.

Our contribution is to create TONS of art lesson videos online so that if you are not able to afford taking a class in person, you can do so for FREE. We now have over 65 videos and the goal is to get to 100 videos by June 2016. Spread the love please!

Josey's Art school presents an Art Lesson with Bugs

I came across this idea and I think this would be a hit with your art students. Watercolors and doodling and bugs - a little bit of fun for everyone. You can create it as a simple line drawing or you can you a pen and ink project. Simply doodling and add color when time permits is one way to make this move from a 30 minute project to a series on bugs.

Here is a video of my firebugs projects - feel free to add this to your series:

Spring Showers Umbrella Color Wheel Art lesson for Kids

I seriously enjoy this fun way to teach kids about the color wheel. Now you may decide to simply create this project and allow for the students to paint the mood of the day using paints or you can add this as a Spring theme art project. Whatever you decide to do, I found that the raindrop creation was the most DIVINE step of this piece.

I created an art video using feathers that would also compliment the idea of creating a color wheel in an interesting and unique way. Let me know how you created your projects!

Spring or Fall Colorful Trees Art Lesson for Kids

One of the easiest ways to teach drawing landscapes is through this simple activity of dividing the page into two and creating above and below the line. With this autumn tree you have the opportunity to create with a ton of color. What I find so lovely about living in Virginia is just how colorful the Spring Trees are. Having lived most of the life in Arizona, seeing these delights feels like I am in a Dream land.

This lesson can be created with crayons if you want to keep it simple and as always you have the ability to challenge more advanced students by inviting them to create shadows and vary the mood in the sky.

I have a fun art video that builds on color and also includes a message on self esteem - hope you enjoy it!

Alien Spaceship Art Lesson for Kids

Kiddos are fascinated with Outer Space! When I was a Reggio Emilio teacher, we spent an entire month learning about the ins and outs of the Solar System. Inevitably we always have a conversation about aliens and so this is a fun way to play with paint and imagination.

For this project I would use 9x12 paper and break this down as a series of shapes. Lots of simple patterns here and more advanced artists can add more detail if they so desire.

While I do not have a video about Outer Space (Yet!), I have one that hearkens to the sea...

Little Owls Art Lessons for Kids

Hello little owl! Do you have lots of scraps from random projects? I have hoards of scrapbook paper and brown paper and painted pages. This is something that can be done in one sitting or in the student's down time if you have space to save them safely.

Scraps of tissue paper as the background. Cutting the shapes of wings, beaks, eyes, feet and body. And how fun is it to get to twist and roll the branches from brown kraft paper?

AND if you want a little project with a paper plate? Here's a video for that!

Joseys Art School Episode #64 Arrows Mixed Media Painting my Art Process

Cezanne Art Lesson for Kids

This is one of those fun art lessons where you can gather the materials together fairly quickly. This can be done with crayons, markers or watercolor paints. This can start as a doodle lesson and you can later come back and discuss the works of Cezanne. Really another beautiful opportunity to reinforce that everything we draw is a series of shapes.

Mark Rothko is another artist that inspires the use of simple shapes to create beautiful art. Here is one from my series - Enjoy!

Monet's Water Lilies Art Lesson

My first love for teaching art is to teach art to preschoolers. I have always believed that you can teach art to children very early on and this is one example of how to choose an appropriate project that will allow for students to create something beautiful and build confidence for the future in art. You can find this and other lovely projects on this website.

This video is a perfect compliment to Monet - a little drawing lesson of the Eiffel Tower.

Spring Garden Art Lesson for Kids

Another lovely lesson that allows students to create something that is lovely. theme based and encourages problem solving. This project can be done with watercolors, markers or crayons. You can incorporate this into a Montessori gardening lesson or you can include this as a Spring theme or Earth Day.

The materials I would gather for this project include 9x12 paper (my favorite size paper to work with), pencil, watercolor paint, ruler, water and brushes.

I have a complimentary art lesson that shows you a super fun Spring Flowers idea that would compliment this lovely project. Enjoy!

Fireflies in a Jar Art Lesson

This is an art project that I found over at this website and I am in love! The delight on your students' faces over trying something that includes paint and these lovely little creatures is something that really warms the heart. Fireflies are one of those things that remind you of summer and long lovely vacations in the backyard with watermelon and bbqs and I love that this project can encapsulate it all.

While I don't have a video for fireflies, I do have a dragonfly project for you. Enjoy!

Ice Cream Cones Art Lesson

One of the best things about being an art teacher is to take a project and create it so that your group will enjoy creating it. And who doesn't like to create ice cream cones (and eat it too of course!).

For this project, we used brown construction paper as the cones and drew lines with crayons on the paper to make them look like waffle cones.

Then we painted papers with glorious acrylic paints and let dry. The MOST FUN is to tear the pieces and create the toppings on the cones - sprinkles, ice cream and fruit.

Yum! Yum!

I created a line drawing video for you to do as well. Enjoy!

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