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The BEST Way to Hang Student Art for an Art Show!
Looking for the most efficient way to hang student artwork for a school wide art show? Well look no further! Click through to follow the 6 easy steps that will save your time and your sanity and are art teacher approved!
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8 Tips For Teaching Self Portrait Lessons To Elementary Students
If you're looking for a few tips and tricks when teaching self portraits, look no further! In this blog you will find 8 of my top tips to help you implement best practices into your next self portrait art lesson.
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The Ultimate Adapted Art Supply List
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Y'aLL ReAdY fOr ThiS?? *cue up the 90's Jock Jams * No seriously, are you ready for the *Ultimate Supply List * for your adapted art class? After 15 years of teaching self contained adapted art, I have compiled a list of my go to supplies that can be used in many different ways. Oh and there's more good news: most of these supplies can actually be found at your local dollar store! Quick sidebar: If you are teaching a self contained adapted art class this year and are looking for help with HOW to go about navigating this class, I encourage you to head to my previous blog here, and you can also check out this blog post with some of my all time favorite art lessons to do in adapted class. Ok, let's do this!! The Ultimate Adapted Art Supply List * The first three sections of this list are made up mostly of items that can be found at your local dollar store. However, to make things easy, I went ahead and linked what I could to Amazon for convenience. I have also linked my favorite brands for the more traditional art supplies. Containers for Holding Supplies or Used for Printing * Muffin tins Sheet pans Salad Spinner Aluminum Casserole Pans Foil Plastic cups w/ lids Ice cube trays with lids Plastic Spray bottles Materials Great for Sensory Play * Cornstarch (for Oobleck) Food coloring (safer alternative to liquid watercolor) Shaving cream (or whipped cream for sensory play) Flour Dish soap ( Salt (salf resist for watercolor) Baking Soda (for fun experiments with vinegar) Colored Rice (sensory bin filler) Mini plastic animals or cars (perfect for sensory bins!) Kitchen storage rack (for Oobleck play) Chips & dip dishes (for sorting paper, materials or sensory supplies) Recycled Supplies* Bubble wrap (all sizes- for all the printing!) Cardboard (all the cardboard!) Cardboard egg cartons Styrofoam egg cartons Plastic containers (for sensory bottles) Cardboard tubes Materials to Add Texture * Dish brush with handle Loofahs Rolling pins Tooth brushes (use to splatter paint) Cotton Swabs Clothes pins (to hold small pieces of sponge) Plastic silverware Plastic combs Marbles Potato masher Kitchen utensils Garlic press Eye droppers Plastic Wrap Craft Sponges Squeegee Supplies From Art Distributors Kinetic Sand or Play Foam Sand Fun Foam Cloud Clay Model Magic Clay palm printers Texture Rollers Easy grip texture rollers Texture Scrapers Fluorescent Tempera Cakes Fluorescent Tempera Paint (tip: add white to each color to make them more opaque on black paper!) Squeezable paint brushes Kwik Stix Bingo Daubers Chalk Markers (great for drawing on transparencies or windows ) Contact paper Transparency Film Plexiglass sheets (for printmaking & painting) Standing Plexiglass (reuse those old sneeze guards from covid times) Adapted Scissors Large Pencils Clear Glue Empty Daubers (to add glue to) Pom Poms Craft Foam Googely Eyes Adapted Paint Brushes Textured Art Tools Whew! I know that seems like a HUGE list but honestly, I bet you already have many of these materials in your storage room. Stay tuned to learn more about how I use many of these materials for specific activities and lessons in my adapted art class. Embrace the mess and have fun! Cheers!
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How to Create a "Grab and Go" Adapted Art Bin
Learn how to create a "Grab and Go" bin full of Adapted art supplies you can grab in a pinch during class!
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10 Must-Have Art Supplies at Home!
An art supply gift guide for kids ages 3-7 One of the most frequently asked questions I receive around this time of year is what supplies I recommend for young children to use at home. Well, y’all are in luck- as an elementary art teacher AND a mom of two young children (ages 2 and 5) I am here to share my favorite art supplies that my kiddos, students, and I all love! It’s worth noting that the links in this blog post contain affiliate links to supplies I love, and I hope you do too! BUY HERE OOLY Drawing Duet Markers We have gone through ALOT of drawing markers here in the Edington house and I can easily say these Ooly Double sided Duet markers are my son’s favorite to draw with! The colors are vibrant, the shape of the marker is triangular which is great for gripping and one pack comes with 24 colors! We take these markers with us everywhere! You can grab them here! BUY HERE Melissa & Doug Large Paper Roll Ok I know this looks large and in charge but TRUST ME on this. This paper roll literally saved me during the lockdown in the early stages of the pandemic. I would roll out a long piece of paper on this roll and start drawing roads, cities, speed ways, you name it! My (then 3 year old) couldn’t get enough of playing on a paper he was also drawing on! It was the best of all worlds! Kids go crazy for drawing on large surfaces and the best part about this roll of paper is that the supplies are relatively contained! When your kiddos are done you either just roll up the drawing or you can recycle it if everyone is done with it! You won’t regret this one. You can purchase this paper here. BUY HERE Kwik Stix Paint Sticks We are totally paint sticks crazy over here! There are so many amazing brands to try, but I am such a big fan of one of the originals, Kwik Stix. If you’ve never tried a paint stick, they are so satisfying to draw with and they are (relatively) less messy than traditional paint! My kids both love Kwik Stix for all kinds of art projects, especially when drawing on cardboard boxes! Grab them here! BUY HERE Arteza Sketchbook If you have been following me on Instagram for a while, you’ll know how much of a sketchbook advocate I am! I love sketchbooks for all children and for countless reasons! Two of the most important being: 1. The mess of papers is contained! Need I say more? Your child always has access to paper and their completed drawings stay nice and safely in one place. 2. This is the best way to document growth in your budding artist. As they draw in their sketchbooks their skills will naturally improve and how wonderful for them to see their own progress! I love Arteza’s 9 x 12 spiral sketchbooks for my kids! BUY HERE BUY HERE Paint Sets! There are so many great watercolors and paints but a few of my favorites to keep on hand for my own kids are these Ooly Chroma Blends Neon watercolors and Faber Castell Watercolor Set We love neons alot in this family but it’s also great to have a high quality set of traditional watercolors for your kiddos. Both of these paints are great! Faber Castell Beeswax Crayons As an art teacher I am typically tried and true Crayola crayons in my classroom, but at home we are 100% obsessed with these Faber Castell Bees Wax crayons! Why? Because they are a bit thicker / more heavy duty than typical crayons making them perfect for little ones. I also feel as though the crayon glides smoother than other crayons and I just love the plastic carrying case they come in! Perfect to throw in your diaper bag and take to a restaurant to entertain your kids. We love them! Find them here! BUY HERE BUY HERE Ooly Watercolor Gel Crayons These are SO fun! Smooth like Kwik Stix but a bit smaller and water soluble, which means double the entertainment! If you child loves to paint, you could just give them a small cup of water and a paint brush and allow them to paint over the Ooly smooth stix! You can find them here! BUY HERE Crayola Paint Brushes The quality of these really are *chef’s kiss * Different sizes and shapes with synthetic bristles- we love them! You can find them here! BUY HERE Cloud Clay from Excellerations Ok so this cloud clay isn’t exactly an art supply by my adapted art students absolutely LOVE this stuff!! Originally put on my radar by the amazing Friends Art Lab, it is the perfect squishy yet clean, and totally satisfying dough that kids of all ages go crazy for! This is definitely on our Christmas list for my own children this year! You can find Cloud Clay here. BUY HERE Canary Corrugated Cardboard Cutter Ok this supply is definitely NOT for kids but 100000% recommended by me for parents of littles to have on hand! If your children are anything like mine they absolutely LOVE cardboard boxes. With the holidays coming up and I’m sure endless packages showing up, make good use of all that cardboard by encouraging imaginative play and building! My son is so cardboard obsessed now that everyday there is even the tiniest piece of cardboard he immediately asks “Mommy, what are we going to make THIS out of today?” If you want to help make your child’s cardboard dreams come true, this tool is a game changer! With a corrugated blade, it’s kind of like a mini saw and the blade just glides through the cardboard like butter! It’s been hands down the best tool to have on hand when creating with my kiddos. You can find it here!
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How to Make Painted Paper
First of all, if you’re not following the fabulous Laura Lohman over at Painted Paper Art (@paintedpaperart) then stop what you are doing and follow her on all social media outlets. Laura is a fabulous veteran teacher who so many lessons, resources and much more available on her blog. Through the magic of Instagram, one of the thing I learned from Laura was how to make painted paper. I never thought I was one much for collage but creating beautiful unique painted papers has become a game changer and my students just adore them! You can check out Laura’s blog post here about how she orchestrates her painted paper set up and organization. Laura has taught me a ton about painted paper but I thought I would go ahead and share with you how I go about making them with my students. PAPERIn years past I have made painted paper with 80 lb drawing paper but this year I decided to try it out with cheap newsprint (to save my good paper for drawing projects). After watching a video about Eric Carle making his papers on tissue paper I decided to give thinner paper a whirl- And guess what! The newsprint was awesome! I just had to remind my students that the paper was thin so they couldn’t “over paint” or “over scrape” in one area of the paper or it might rip through. PAINT I only use Crayola Premier tempera. Fluorescent paint too (it’s a must for me!) I tell my students that as a class we are going to all work together to make a huge assortment of painted paper to all share. Using lidded ice cube trays (thanks @kelsiquicksall for that genius hack!) I supply each table with two analogous colors (colors that are next to each other on the color wheel) plus a little white. The reason for only analogous colors is that no matter how much of little they colors are mixed they will still look lovely no matter what! When you add too many color options you can go ahead and assume the kids will mix them all and leave them with brown or gray painted paper. After providing paint, i encourage students to add any lighter paints first and then layer darker colors. That way when they go to add texture the dark paint scraps away revealing a beautiful bright texture underneath. TOOLS I provide each table with a variety of texture tools. Textured scrapers, texture rollers, plastic forks & knives, bottle caps, sponges, toothbrushes, old hotel swipe cards, you name it! The key is reminding them paint about a quarter / half of their paper at a time and then adding texture while the paint is still wet! If they paint the whole paper, chances are by the time they go back to add texture not much will happen or they will rip the paper Bc the paint is no longer wet & smooth. Allow the paper to dry then (if needed) press with large books to flatten (my go-to are those old art history books from college that I no longer need!) Have fun making lots of painted paper and don’t forget to head to the queen of painted paper’s blog, Mrs. Laura Lohman aka Painted Paper Art.
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How to Organize Drawing Guides for Students in the Art Room
As an art teacher, I have tons of drawing guides that I have made and acquired over the years. Not only do these step-by-step drawing guides help students during specific projects but they are perfect for my early finishers, students who are trying to catch up after being absent, and a great backup plan for a sub in case of a teacher absence. However, one thing I had often struggled with was how to organize and store these guides for myself and my students. I wanted my students to have easy access to these guides while working in sketchbooks or practicing a new skill but found myself having to take instructional time to dig for them in my lesson folders. Not very efficient. At the start of last year, I briefly taught from an art cart and had purchased this hanging file folder from Target as my plan for storing my students’ art on the go. Thankfully I was able to use my classroom again a few weeks later and found I no longer had a need for this system of transporting student work, so I decided to use it to keep my drawing guides neat and organized! I purchased the fluorescent hanging file folders from Staples and love how bright and fun they are and love that they came with plastic tabs to label them. In each folder, I have about 20-25 copies of each guided drawing subject with a clearly written label on top of each folder. You could, of course, add fancy typed labels or pictures and organize them in ABC order, by subject, you name it. If you find yourself looking for a system for your drawing guides, I hope this helps you out! Cheers! All drawing guides pictured above can be found in my Growing Drawing Guide Bundle on TPT. You can grab them here!
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8 Tips For Setting Up Your Art Room
Just landed your first art teaching job? Whether you're setting up your first classroom, teaching from a cart, or somewhere in between, this guide is packed with practical tips from a veteran art teacher. From classroom management and organizing student artwork to creating an inspiring space and building relationships, these 8 simple strategies will help you feel confident and ready for back to school!
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