This post contains affiliate links. Read my entire disclosure policy here. Artist Study of the Month Since Michelangelo's birthday is coming up on March 6th, we're gearing up to focus on him again during this month's artist study. We studied his work once before (several years ago) as part of a mini-unit about Renaissance artists. Our favorite activity then was a reenactment of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. That's an easy activity: Tape some paper to the bottom of a table that you don't mind getting paint on. Make a cozy spot under the table to lay. Grab some paints. Paint a picture on the paper while laying down. Michelangelo Biography and Research ... Read More
Grandma Moses
Grandma Moses, more formally known as Anna Mary Robertson Moses, was a folk artist of the early 1900's who didn't begin painting until her late 70's. Many of her paintings shared the story of her life - scenes from the landscape around her. We have never studied a folk artist before, so we were excited to jump into "new territory" in theme and art techniques! Biography Before we study an artist's work, we try to learn at least a bit about the artist's life and motivations. We always enjoy the Mike Venezia books! The Garden of Praise has a nice biography for children about Grandma Moses that you might like to read, too. And My Audio School has a fun biography to listen to as ... Read More
Clay Illustration
Art and Literature Connection Have You Seen Birds? by Barbara Reid is a fantastic book from which to pull an art lesson. Full of lovely clay collage illustrations created by Joanne Oppenheim, children can dabble in an art medium (and style) often neglected - clay collage. The illustrations in the book are detailed, yet easy to recreate (with a little patience.) What You Need: play clay (not play dough) cardboard to serve as the base for your design wax paper on which to roll the clay because it has a tendency to stain many surfaces How To: 1. Sketch your basic design on a piece of cardboard. 2. Make blocks of color by rolling the clay ... Read More
Paper Quilling
Classic repost, originally posted Jan. 3, 2008 It was my turn to lead our Keepers At Home group this week and we had so much fun learning the handicraft of paper quilling! Paper quilling is the art of creating designs from strips of coiled paper. There are quilling tools and quilling papers available, but we simply used materials I had around the house. How To: Using my paper cutter, I pre-cut strips of cardstock into 1/4" wide strips. I set out the following supplies: Strips of paper Quilling tools: pencils, screwdrivers, toothpicks, chopsticks (any skinny, round objects I could find) Try to offer varied widths for different coiling effects. Glue (with toothpicks for ... Read More
Competition Night
Our annual competition expo at co-op is always so much fun. With three children entering projects now, we hit an all-time high for family entries - 21! Stressful, yes. Worth it, oh yes! The photo collages are in no particular order and don't show every single project we entered. Some projects were created by a 9th grader, some by a 6th grader and some by a PKer. (We only took part in the art, construction, sewing and cooking competitions. There were probably six other categories we could've entered. I'm tellin' ya, this night is amazing!) ... Read More
Positive Negative Symmetry Art
An art lesson that promotes mathematical thinking - oh joy. With the main focus being on the art concept of positive and negative space, throwing symmetry into the mix gave a nice extra punch to the lesson. Positive space is the area on a piece of art which the subject occupies, while negative space is the area around the subject. You can see in this symmetrical example that the positive space is the pink on the left, but changes to yellow on the right. The method is quite simple. 1. Find two contrasting colors of the same sized paper. 2. Fold both papers in half to establish the line of symmetry. 3. Set one paper aside. 4. Cut the 2nd piece of paper in half on the fold you just ... Read More
Self-portraits
Personally, I think self-portraits (or any human figure for that matter) are very h-a-r-d to draw. We have tackled self-portraits during art many times over the years and each time I see improvements. Well, if you can call snot hanging out of the boy's nose improvement. Oh, what to do with 11 year old boys who think they're funny?? This time around, we used a tutorial from Art Projects for Kids which helped the kids to understand spacing of their facial features. What happened to my artist/picture study time? Some of you have asked how I'm handling art and artist study this year. We are integrating artist/picture study into history. Diana Waring has done a great job including ... Read More
Fun with Leaves
I {heart} Pinterest! Seriously. It may very well be the greatest invention on the planet. Okay, the greatest recent invention. Through Pinterest, I found (and archived) some fun leafy art lessons to go along with our botany studies this autumn. While we didn't get to all the wonderful ideas - this autumn - we found time for two of them. The first was a lesson about layering oil pastels from Art Projects for Kids. And the second was a fun shaving cream transfer painting from Little Wonder's Days. Speaking of botany, the last couple of weeks have been full of wonderful botany related field trips. At Hallway Feeds, we were able to view the creation of specialized animal feed ... Read More
Abstract Art and Living Math
Thanks to Pinterest, I am finally able to remember all those fun ideas I come across while surfing the Internet! This activity was stolen from Heather over at Blog, She Wrote. Thanks, Heather! Abstract Art and Living Math I love incorporating math with other subjects. In this simple abstract art activity, math and art come together to make a pretty spectacular finished product. Use watercolors to make whatever design you like on card stock. On the back of the dried artwork, use a ruler to make a grid of one-inch blocks. Cut the blocks apart and mix the pieces up. Lay the blocks randomly on another piece of card stock to create an abstract picture. Glue the pieces down ... Read More
Expo Competition Night
School has been out since the end of April, meaning all the school-related posts that I'll be publishing soon are way overdue. Oh well, better late than never. Our summer vacation has been nothing short of a whirlwind so far, but I wouldn't trade the busyness with my sweet family for anything! I'll try to post some summer fun posts once in awhile, too. Some of you know that our co-op hosts a yearly competition expo. We love taking part and the photos below show my children's entries this year. Mahayla Caleb Eli ... Read More