Dancing Ballerinas!

Cover of Degas (Basic Art)

Big THANKS to Miss Julie for posting this lesson!! I did this lesson in many different classrooms and some of the teachers even used the art for their Mother's Day cards.

Before the lesson, we talked about Degas and looked at some of his artworks depicting ballet dancers.
Miss Julie gives a great tutorial on the lesson, and I used the circle and triangle template as she suggested.

Thank You Santa Rosa Elementary Artists!!

Still Lifes- Cezanne

Image via Wikipedia

Here's a lesson where my 6th graders this year at Flamson Middle School paid their respect to Cezanne.
Step 1 - show Cezanne still life examples and point out shadows, values, and tablecloth shadows.
Step 2 - put an upside down box on a desk in front of room, white table cloth on top, place vase and fruit.
Step 3 - students cut white table cloth, draw (add value on colored paper w/ crayons or pastels) and cut out vase and fruit, then glue onto background.
Step 4 - add lights and shadows w/ white and black crayon or pastels.

Thanks Flamson 6th grade artists!!!!!!

A rose is a rose, is a rose...., but is it?

Kid quote of the day (today):
This is a lovely work of art in progress, don't you think?
Well, I do. So I said to artist, "Oh golly, I just love your tulips. Those colors go so well together, and I also like the way you made your flowers different sizes."
Artist said, "Mrs. Smith, don't you know? These are roses. I don't even know what tulips look like!"
My response....just a smile. Really, what can a middle-aged woman say to a cute-as-a-button 3rd grader when she is certain that her Tulips are Roses?

One More Yarn Cutie!

Done today and too darling to not include with the others in post below....it's the leaves that get me on this one. Can you tell this little kindergartner cares about her art? :)

Yarn Flowers

When I saw this post of Yarn Poppies on Mod Podge Rocks a while back...I knew someday I would be borrowing the idea for one of my art lessons. Kindergarten art lessons are the hardest for me to come up with and this one was very fun.

Some tips for teaching this to kinders. Demonstrate starting the coil of yarn with the TIP of the yarn near the button, otherwise kids will lay the yarn down around the button not thinking they need to begin at the END of the yarn. (Awww Mrs. Smith, you mean I have to pay attention to details, even in art?!) With demo and instruction, this lesson took 40 minutes.

Materials for each child:

one piece of 6x9" background construction paper

one skinny green construction paper for kids to cut in half for stems

small green construction scrap for leaves

two buttons

two pieces of yarn, approx. 20" (I also let students cut their yarn once they thought their coil was big enough.)

glue (white glue works best) and scissors

This little guy (above) was the very LAST one finished, can you see the perfection in his coils...he was very proud - as he should be!!!

Okay, you may have noticed the glue is wet. It does dry clear, but who can wait for glue to dry when hands have to be washed, trash needs to be thrown away, shoes need to be tied, buttons on the floor need to be found, stories need to be told, books need to be shared, questions need to be answered, skirts need to be twirled (Yes, one girl was ADAMANT that I was not leaving her classroom until I saw how she could twirl her skirt), and lost snacks need to be found ----uhhh, life in a kinder classroom, where do I end, or begin, or end, or...?

Big thanks to San Gabriel Elementary kinders!

Well it's good to be back!

Phew, sometimes things go a little differently than planned, but all is good in the end. Glad to be back in the blogging world....It's May already - are you madly punching out end of the year lessons, and all the other loveliness that goes along with school in May and June? Seems like I never get a breath this time of year -
Meanwhile, as I was barely breathing on a recent trip to the library, I came across this book. Let's just say I laughed out loud (yep, I accidentally let out an audible guffaw in a public library) when I read the interpretation of "Whistler's Mother".
Here's a new book I'm adding to my favorites: The Cats History of Western Art, by Susan Herbert.

Read this (above), then look at pic (below) -- giggle, giggle.

These are just some of the fun paintings you'll find in this really great book, and the stories that go with them are clever, clever, clever!

Until Later.....

God's beautiful earth is showing off these days here, on the California Central Coast, with a massive wildflower display. Here's my son contemplating the scenery last week in an area called Shell Creek.

Hope you're enjoying your spring!

I'll be gone for a few weeks..............see you on the flip side!

Are you feeling lucky?

My blogger friend, Sarah, is hosting a "Giveaway"! She makes beautiful, charming jewelry and you might be her next lucky winner...Oooooh, imagine your wrist wearing this bracelet:)

Why am I sharing this? Well, months ago I was the lucky winner of one of Sarah's giveaways and I love wearing the jewelry she sent me... a) Because it's beautiful, and b) because whenever I wear it I'm reminded that good things really do happen, sometimes when we least expect it.

So now it's your turn --- Good luck!!! (And if you win, by all means, I'd love to hear the good news!)

Egyptian Art Book- PDF Download

Our 6th grade students study Egypt in Social Studies, so I decided to create a PDF art lesson, which you can purchase here for $6! Directions include drawing instructions for a Mummy Cat, Egyptian Eye, Scarab Beetle, Asp Snake, and Pyramid Landscape. The lessons are super easy to incorporate into a typical busy school day. No special materials needed. With the step by step directions, teachers without any arts background will feel comfortable teaching these directed drawing lessons, or copy the directions for groups of students and they can even do them on their own!

Big thanks to Santa Rosa Elementary 6th graders!!

Super Cute Bunny Card!

This super cute bunny is a foldable card. My dear friend, Evie, sent a cardstock template for it - knowing I'd love it. (Want to know how she knew I'd love it? She's 83 years old and she's got the wisdom to prove it!) Below is its shape before being folded. I used regular printer paper because I was in a hurry to get this post up.....the clock is ticking and bunny time is expiring soon...., but if you have cardstock that would be best.

And, if you want, you can even write a fun message on the bunny flaps:)

I traced Evie's template and made it into a PDF, you can download it here. If you make your own, I'd LOVE to see it -- I can just imagine how you'd creatively make yours special with colors, glitter, whatever.

Your download will look like this:

And now I'm going to pass along the message Dear Evie sent to me in her cute bunny card...these same sentiments I send to you - Happy Easter!

May the miracles of spring, bring you peace & happiness...

And the season of Easter inspire you...

And the joy of the Lord dwell in your heart all year!

Maybe you want to sell some lessons?

Have you heard of "Teachers Pay Teachers"? My mom sends me newspaper clippings when she sees something I might be interested in...(aren't moms the GREATEST!)...and she sent me an article on this business about 5 months ago. I put my PDF art lessons on their website, and they've been selling. Unfortunately Teachers Pay Teachers takes more of a commission than the company (PayLoadz) I use for selling the same PDF's on this blog and my website, but I'm grateful for the sales just the same.

If you're thinking about selling some of your art lesson ideas, you may want to check out the site--- If I can use it, believe me, it's user friendly! (It was time consuming to upload, but easy to navigate. I did have to set aside a couple of late nights to put up 8 lessons. But once they're up, you don't have to do a thing.)

And, guess what (I promise I didn't know this before I decided to write this post, it's true) if you sign up as a "seller" and use this in the Promo Link box

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup?ref=tishasmith

Teachers Pay Teachers will pay me 5% of your sales for your first two years of selling, for referring you to their site. Seriously, I didn't know this before I just went to the site during this post.....Wow, 5% isn't much, but I know you have fantastic lessons that would definitely sell and every now and then I might be buying myself a frozen yogurt and saying at the cash register -- "Thank you fellow teachers, this scoop is on you."

Whether or not you use my promo link, I hope you'll consider this avenue for reaching more teachers. And please let me know if you do!