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Dot Day Rainbow Display
Rainbow Dot Day Display from September 2017 Dot Day is coming! Did you know the beloved children’s book “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds has its own day? On September 15th (ish) teachers, children, and creatives all around the world celebrate creativity, courage, and collaboration inspired by The Dot. I have been celebrating Dot Day for at least 7 years now, but about 4 years ago one of my favorite Dot Day displays took off around the internet! This Rainbow Dot Day display has become one of my most re-created student art displays. I get lots of questions regarding my process of this display so I thought I would break down how I teach this magnificent monochromatic rainbow dot day display that your students, staff and community are sure to love. For this lesson, I often change up the materials my students use based on age, prep, or just to have a variety in the look of the dots. In the past I have used any combination of marker, oil pastels, watercolor, tempera cakes, and tempera paint. You can make the choice as to what your students use- don’t let supplies limit you! Use whatever you have available! To begin the lesson I of course read the book, The Dot, and explain that each table will be assigned a color to paint their dot in. The red table uses only shades of red, the orange table only shared of orange and so forth. Step 1: Make a dot Have students trace a circle template (I just used a circular lid) and then had them begin by making a dot in the middle with an oil pastel. Step 2: Draw lines & shapes in one color Next, after we “made our mark” I talk to students about adding lines & shapes. I explain “radial symmetry” (when you repeat a line/mark from one part all the way around in a circle, like a sun or flower- the pattern radiates around. Students fill their dot with radial patterns in monochromatic oil pastels Step 3: Paint overtop After oil pastel has been added, students use watercolor or tempera cakes in the same color to create a wax resist over top of patterns. A wax resist is when the oil pastel does not allow the watery paint to stick it, revealing the bold lines below. I encouraged students to paint or draw beyond their template pencil lines if they wanted to, still staying in a circle. Step 4: Cut out and arrange When dry, have students cut out their dots and store them in their designated color. Once all dots are cut out arrange on a bulletin board or display in rainbow order, overlapping them slightly. 5. Add Vashti! If you aren’t confident free-drawing Vashti (the main character in the dot), you could project her picture onto a piece of large bulletin board paper and trace the lines. I free-drew Vashti here and used a combo of Sharpie and crayon. STUDENT EXAMPLES: For my 4th and 5th grade students, I decided to have them paint their dots only using tempera paint. My absolute favorite tempera paint is Crayola Premier Tempera- in both traditional and fluorescent colors. Having my students begin the same way (with a circle tracer) I also gave my 4th and 5th graders an additional analogous color to the color to they were assigned. For example: the Red table had both reds and oranges at their table. Orange table had oranges and yellows available, so one and so forth. The reason for giving the older students two colors is so that when the dots are all arranged into our rainbow, we have a beautiful natural transition from one color to the next, not an abrupt stop and go between colors. Here are a few examples of my 4th and 5th grade dots. I also allowed them to work on larger paper for dot variety.
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Simple Portrait Back-to-School Bulletin Board
Here is one the many Back-to-school bulletin boards I created inspired by the students at my school! Looking for a great way to fill those empty bulletin boards at the start of the year? Well, huge shout out to @mslevyteachesart and @amyteachesart (their Instagrams linked) for this idea! These awesome teachers used my Simple self-portrait drawing guide to draw larger-than-life children to display on their bulletin boards! When I made my own displays around my school, I actually went ahead and drew illustrations based on real students at my school, and few caught on by saying “Don’t you think that drawing kind of looks like me?” :) Just using white bulletin board paper I sketched out the children in pencil first, then traced the lines using a bingo dauber filled with India ink (a Cassie Stephens hack) After drawing about 25 diverse children I cut them out and arranged them on about 5 different boards around the school. I added a quote to some of them, others just had the children. It should also be noted that the omission of color was an artistic choice based on aesthetics. A great bonus to this display was once I had enough student art to hang, I left two kids as end caps on each board as another way to kind of frame their work. You can see how adorable my second graders’ “The Real Me” lessons look hanging near my illustrations (lesson linked!) Thanks again to two amazing teachers for this idea, my students and staff loved them! To download my Simple Self Portrait Guide that I used in this blog, you can Click Here! Happy Back-To-School season! Above is me “Simple Self Portrait Guide” that I referenced for the bulletin boards. I sketched the kids largely in pencil first then traced in India ink and a chisel tip Sharpie. Here you can see how they add a nice detail around student art! One of the bulletin boards around the school. There were 5 in total!
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8 Amazing Adapted Art Lessons
Scribble monsters are a favorite in my adapted art class! If you follow me on Instagram you probably know that I am absolutely head over heels in love with teaching adapted art! I love teaching and creating lessons that meet the individual needs of my students in order to provide them with their own authentic, enriching, and engaging artistic experiences. I am so excited to share some of my favorite art projects for adapted art class at the elementary level. Muffin Tin Prints Before I go any further with this post you must stop right now and purchase the book Art Workshop for Children by Bar Rucci. Bar has been one of the most influential art educators in my life regarding planning my adapted art lessons. In her book, you will find SO many incredible process-based art lessons that can all easily be adapted to students with varying needs. One of my favorite lessons of hers is called Muffin Tin Prints. The concept is pretty easy- paint the back of a muffin tin with whatever colors you like (I usually have an analogous color scheme available for students). Then place a small piece of paper over the top of the paint, creating a monoprint, pull up, and wa-la! You have pulled a gorgeous print from the paint! These are so fun for students and the products are gorgeous when displayed together! For more detailed instructions be sure to grab Bar’s book or head to her blog artbarblog.com. 2. Bubble Wrap Printing Bubble wrap printing is so fun for any student, but my adapted students absolutely love the texture and process of bubble printing. It’s so easy, just use tempera paint to paint on the bumpy side of the bubble wrap, flip it over onto another piece of construction paper and lift to reveal a print! You could also take it a step further and wrap a piece of bubble wrap around a rolling pin so students can roll the texture onto paper. I love to use this printed paper for other projects, like paper weaving (as shown here) and as the texture for this rainbow cloud mobiles. 3. Sensory Bottles For this project, we followed Especially Education’s blog post that you can find here. Plastic bottles were ordered from amazon, and all you need is water, clear glue, and random snazzy goodies! We filled the bottles 3/4 with water and then my students did an amazing job squeezing enough clear glue to the top. I had an assortment of water beads, glitter, sequins, beads etc available for students to pick and choose to add. Even though I bought funnels I found that styrofoam cups were the best way to pour the goodies in! We added a few drops of liquid watercolor (don’t add too much- a little goes a LONG way) and then once they were filled I hot glued the lids on justttt Incase! You can find the steps above. Disclaimer: Please make sure your students’ safety is your #1 priority. Any of my students who crave oral stimulation were not given access to water beads or anything that could potentially go in their mouth, or they were added by an adult in the room. Always always make sure your students are being closely supervised when using art supplies no matter what they are! 4. Scribble Monsters For years I’ve done some version of this “scribble monster”‘ with my adapted art class but recently tied this project to the book The Color Monster. Here’s how you can make your own! 1. Using fluorescent oil pastels students used either warm or cool colors to scribble on a piece of 80lb drawing paper. 2. Using watercolor (or liquid watercolor) students painted over their scribbles. This technique is called “wax-resist”, meaning the water-based paint will not stick to the oil pastels which allows them to shine through the paint brightly. 3. Once the painting is dry, I lightly drew an outline similar to a chubby cat over the paintings in pencil. Then using a small piece of cardboard and black tempera paint, students dipped one of the edges of cardboard into the black paint and “tap tap tapped” along the edge of my pencil lines making the monsters look like they are covered in hair. 4. We glued google eyes on and tapped the black paint and cardboard across for a mouth and then also used it to stamp the monsters’ bushy unibrow 🤣 5. Teeth were cut out of white scrap paper and glued on my students. I encouraged them to add as many teeth as they wanted! 6. Monsters are then cut out, mounted, and matted. Bonus if you want to create a fun textured border with texture rollers! 5. Colorful Cardboard Village Inspired by the gorgeous rainbow murals in the Village of Palmitas in Mexico by the German Crew, my adapted students love always love transforming old cardboard supply boxes into gorgeous colorful houses! To make the colors pop on the cardboard be sure to use higher quality tempera paint and mix it with a little bit of white to make it more opaque. I love to use fluorescent paints because they look so bright on the cardboard. Often times to get the students started I will draw a few doors or windows with a chisel tip sharpie or bingo dauber filled with black India ink (a Cassie Stephens hack you can find here) and I will even cut open a few parts with a Canary cardboard knife (the best tool ever) so they will get even more excited about their house/ building! One of the best parts of making huge cardboard houses is how they all look when you display them together. 6. Nature Mobile The project comes from my friends Bar and Shannon over at The Creativity Project. You can find so many incredible ideas through their blog and website, so be sure to check it out! My adapted art students loved painting the leaves, pine cones, sticks, threading beads, and wrapping pine cones in brightly colored yarn. This beauty was then hung from the ceiling in the students’ classroom. 7. Flower CD Prints I started this project a few years ago and it never ceases to amaze me every time I do it! Shout out to my media specialist for all the old CDs that were no longer used- perfect for printmaking! Starting with a little white for paint mixing (this makes the paint pop on the black paper- but not necessary if you print on white). Crayola premier fluorescent tempera is my paint of choice! Students could either paint some type of radial flower design or they could paint the CD solid and then use a Q-tip to subtract away paint with bumpy or curvy lines- or do both! Once the CD is painted just stamp it on the paper. I also love to have my kids do a ghost print right after to see how it looks! One thing I try to do is have my students use two analogous colors per CD and have multiple colors schemed CDs in rotation. If you mix too many colors on one CD they will definitely get muddy. To finish them up I cut a few leaf shapes out of styrofoam to paint and print as well. You could also add small dots of seeds/ details with Q tips at the end lots of possibilities for exploring! So easy and fun to do! 8. Contact Paper Sun Catchers Using contact paper, small pieces of tissue paper, a smidge of glitter/ sequins and embroidery hoops these beauties are sure to make any space they’re hung in gorgeous!! All you have to do is give students one piece of contact paper with the sticky side up, have students place materials of their choice in the arrangement they would like. Once they are finished, cover with another piece of contact paper, piece sticky side down, sealing the tissue inside. Place contact paper in between two rings of an embroidery hoop, trim the edges, and hang in a window. For more fun, you can hang ribbon or DIY pom-poms from the bottom. If you decide to try any of these projects be sure to tag me on Instagram (@artwithmrs.e) so I can see and share your students work!! Have fun!
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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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10 Eye Catching Teaching Visuals for the Art Room!
1 million years ago (ok, actually 14) when I walked into my first art room there was absolutely nothing in it. Other than tables and chairs, there were no supplies, no white board, no decor. Nada. I had taken a job at a brand new beautiful school which certainly had it’s perks (clean, brand new, not having to inherit a hoarder art teacher’s mess) but also came at the realization that every single thing in the room needed to come from me. Back when I first started teaching there was no Teachers Pay Teachers or really anywhere I could go for classroom decor…. So, I had to make it. Yes, everything! Peep this picture of my classroom and some of the first visuals I made when I first started teaching. This was the year that I made my first “Blabber brush” as I called it, hand drew a color wheel, and created my line direction friends to hang out in the front of my room. Over the course of the next few years, I continued to hand draw nearly everything in my classroom until I began to digitally convert them upon opening my TPT store in 2018. Now, so many years later, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the bright, bold, modern yet kid-friendly art visuals that I have in my room. The best thing about these visuals is not only are they decor, but they are educational tools that my students reference all year long! Double bonus! Here are my absolute favorite eye-catching visuals: The Elements and Principles of Art These Elements and Principles of Art were created in collaboration with my husband who is a super talented graphic designer and can always make my visions a reality when I don’t have the tools myself! We were so PUMPED about these. One of my favorite things about them is they are simplified in the amount of information on the poster, but dynamic in their design to visually illustrate what each element and principle means. I personally don’t prefer text-heavy visuals, I would rather my students see visuals that are short, sweet and relevant to them. 2. The Color Wheel I mentioned earlier that my first year teaching I didn’t even have a color wheel in my art room, so I had to make one myself. So now being able to provide myself and other art teachers with a beautiful, modern color wheel feels like such a huge victory. Not only do I love the appearance of this color wheel but I also love the download comes with smaller color wheels that you can print out, laminate and provide for individual student use. This color wheel and others can be found here. 3. No Drama Llama Ok, I don’t exactly know why… but my students absolutely LOVE this “No Drama Llama”. They think he is the funniest, sassiest little dude and they love referring to him. I originally drew him up as just a funny little classroom expectations reminder but now he’s 100% part of our classroom family! You can download him here. 4. Friendly Reminder Frida In case you can’t tell, I’m really into word bubbles in my art room. I love adding extra personality to my visuals as a way to further connect with my students. I drew up this cute little cartoon Frida Kahlo as a way to remind students of different things around the room. Whether it’s to reminder to get in a straight line, or sanitize your hands on the way out the door. It just seemed like a fun way to gently remind my students vs me blabbering away at them. Frida comes with a few word bubble options as well as a blank template, but I also bought whiteboard contact paper that I cut into a word bubble which makes it super easy to update her when I need to! She can be downloaded here. 5. Art Supply Labels I know these labels don’t really fall under “decor” but they are CRUCIAL in the art room! Not only do I use these supply labels to organize my supply room but I use them for caddy organization for supplies my students use on a daily basis on their tables. These are super helpful to have in the room when there is a substitute, and also great for ESL students or students with special needs who need a picture for visual literacy. I also love using these labels digitally in my presentations to tell students about what supplies they will need for the day’s project. I also have just the clip art available for download here. These labels and clip art was HUGE during remote learning throughout the pandemic. 6. Famous Artists Posters I’m in love, I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it! These are 100% my favorite visuals in the art room. Hands down. Over the years I have had so many different famous artist posters in my classroom but not only were they unappealing to reference (full of tiny text that students would never be able to read from a far distance) but it felt like there was NO diversity in the artists provided. I was so sick of only seeing “dead white guys” being deemed as “famous artists” that I knew we had to make our own if I wanted to see a change in artists being represented. In this Famous Artist Bundle, we currently have 24 artists and growing that represent diverse races, genders, ethnicities, etc. Not to mention that many of these artists are alive and working currently. My number one goal with these visuals was to be able to have my students look at this wall and see someone they could identify with. Not to mention they are bright, colorful, modern and make such a statement when you see them hanging in my room. Plus, the BEST part about these artists is my students automatically turn around to look at the wall every single time I introduce a new project and artist. They use these visuals all the time! You can grab the bundle here or find them separated by volumes 1-4 in my TPT shop. 7. 3 P’s Classroom Expectations This poster is one of my favorites because it’s short, sweet and positive. Laying out clear expectations for my students is really important to me so this poster is one of the first things they see as they enter my room. It’s pretty self explanatory and makes an impact. You can grab it here. 8. Painting Visuals Ok, this actually a 2 in 1. Teaching proper paintbrush care is incredibly important to me so let’s just say I have quite a few visuals that provide "gentle” reminders to my students about my expectations when handling painting supplies. This Paint Brush Care poster was created many many years ago by hand as a way to help my students be more mindful of the care of the bristles of the paintbrushes. I am a big fan of personification so making these brushes kind of come alive was a blast. My students get such a tickle when they compare my slick and smooth bristled paintbrush to the “BAD HAIR DAY” paintbrush. I greatly depend on my “Dip Wipe Swipe” poster when teaching my young students how to paint with watercolors. Nothing would drive me crazier than the * tap tap tapping* of paintbrushes on the rim of the water cup. I wanted to come up with a catchy slogan to remind them to wipe their brush on the lip of the cup vs. tap. You can find both of these visuals in my TPT shop! 9. “Every Child is an Artist” Poster A staple quote and visual in my art room. I have always loved this quote by Picasso so why not make it so all students know that they are each an artist whether they realize it or not. Above you will see a large bulletin board display in my art room but we also created a poster with a similar aesthetic below available for download here. 10. Blabber Brush If you remember from earlier in this post I shared a photo of my original “Blabber Brush”. This was my art teacher solution to monitoring the noise level in the classroom. I have this visual hanging on my front board near my rules and procedures. On each color, I have a small piece of velcro and the corresponding piece on the paintbrush. I then place the paintbrush on the color/ noise level I would like to keep them on while they work. Many times they work on red- but this is not a bad thing at all! This is simply when I need my students to be quietly focused on their own work, or as I also say “how real art studios sound”. This visual has been a life saver and has carried me through over a decade of teaching! To download your own, click here! I hope that these visuals help spark some ideas for you as you set up your art room. If you’re looking to purchase the visuals I shared above you can find them all and much MORE in my Classroom Decor Growing Bundle in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop. Have fun and best of luck this school year!
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40 Engaging Drawing Prompts for Kids
Looking for the perfect response to the age-old statement “But I don’t know what to draw”? Well, say no more! Here is a list of 40 drawing prompts that are sure to keep your children or students engaged while flexing their creative muscles! *Note: For added fun, write each of these prompts on a craft stick so that students can randomly choose a prompt from a cup! Students love the spontaneity of not knowing what they will get! Design your dream castle to live in Draw Your dream vacation Draw a dinosaur ice cream shop Draw what’s hiding under the couch? Draw if the moon was made of cheese? Where did the other sock go missing from the laundry? What do you want to be when you grow up? Draw something out of place in an aquarium Draw yourself as a famous artist Design your dream treehouse Draw a man with crazy facial hair What is inside the treasure box? Design a treasure map Draw your teacher as a pirate Draw your dream bedroom Design your dream house Design a video game Draw your pet or favorite animal as a super hero (and give them a name!) Design a robot to do your chores Draw your dream meal Design a robot that does your homework Combine two animals together Draw your dream pet Design a thinking cap that gave you all the right answers Where does the rabbit hole lead? Draw underground… Draw the principal as a monster Draw your family as aliens Design your dream backyard Draw me as a monster! Draw something that smells bad Create a new invention What’s living in your closet? Draw a 4-panel comic If I were the President… Draw something you are craving to eat right now! Draw an art supply dance battle Draw yourself as part human, part animal Draw a person with crazy hair Draw something completely out of place in the ocean Draw a space cat Download this drawing prompt list for your students!
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5 Reasons Sketchbooks are Important in the Art Room
Sketchbooks are more than just blank pages—they're a space for students to experiment, reflect, and grow as artists. In this blog, discover five key reasons why sketchbooks are an essential tool in the art room and how they can inspire creativity, build confidence, and support artistic development all year long.
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8 Tips For Setting Up Your Art Room
Setting up your art room for a new school year can feel overwhelming, but a well-organized space sets the stage for creativity and success! These 8 practical tips will help you create a functional, inspiring, and stress-free environment for both you and your students.
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