AMAZING ART IN THE WORKS!! Series #1!

Since ALL my students are currently working on their next lesson– and– it will be a few weeks until I post any new finished artwork, I thought I’d share what kids are all currently working on!! Starting with 5th….

 

5th Grade– 3D OP ART paper cone drawings!  

(The pic above is my teacher example)

5th graders are currently learning about OP Art and looked at artwork by OP artists Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley. They are drawing 3D paper cones using black sharpie, then will learn about the element of art value, and will add white colored pencil for highlights and black colored pencil for shading.

This lesson is going to be a great introduction to creating subtle value changes and will scaffold nicely into their grid drawing lesson later on in the year (see under 5th grade art lessons in the menu to check their AHH-maaazing grid drawings!!!!!)

I’m SOO excited about this lesson, and can’t wait to see their finished masterpieces!

I will be adding a step by step video tutorial on this process when they complete this lesson!  Stay tuned!…

Here’s some pics of my 5th graders working hard on their drawings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th Grade– Victorian Architecture! 

(artwork below by my 4th grade students from previous years)

 

 

 

 

Students are currently learning about architecture and the key elements that create Victorian style architecture! Students are also incorporating they’re math skills using rulers to create acute or obtuse angles for their gables, and various geometric shapes for their house! Students will learn about monochromatic color schemes and color in their Victorian homes with colored pencils.

I can’t wait to see all the amazing houses students will create!

To learn more about this lesson and view students Victorian house drawings from previous years- click on the main menu and select 4th grade art lessons and scroll down! 

 

3rd Grade– Self-portraits with personal symbols! 

(artwork below by my 3rd grade students from previous years)

 

 

Students learn about the artist Frida Kahlo, her self-portrait paintings, and what a symbol means. They’ll also learn how to draw facial features and learn blending techniques using oil pastels to create and blend colors together that best match their unique skin tone!

To view students artwork from previous years and learn more about this lesson, click on 3rd grade art lessons under the main menu and scroll down! 

 

2nd Grade– 3D Water Lily inspired by Claude Monet!

 

 

 

(Photos above are of my teacher examples)

Students are currently learning about the artist Claude Monet and Impressionism. Students will learn the term mixed-media and create a 3D flower out of painted paper, felt, tagboard, and tissue paper!

I’m super excited about this new lesson I’m integrating into 2nd grade!!  Kids have begun the painting process for this lesson at Amvet and will create the lily pad next! I can’t wait to see their beautiful results!!

I will be creating a step-by-step video tutorial on this lesson after they finish and will post it on my blog soon! Stay tuned!!….

 

1st Grade– Not So Scary Scarecrow Collage! 

(artwork below is by students from previous years)

 

 

 

Students are learning what a landscape is and looked at landscape paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Grant Wood, and David Hockney for inspiration. Students used a variety of line to create details in their own landscapes and learn what the term collage is when they add their scarecrows!

(To view Not so scary scarecrow collages from previous years and learn more about this lesson, click on 1st Grade art lessons under the menu and scroll down!)

Thank you for visiting my blog!! I’d love to hear any feedback you might have!

Best,

Mollie

 

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ABSTRACT SELF-PORTRAITS -2nd Grade

This is one of my FAVORITE art lessons for 2nd grade!! I LOVE each and every one of them!!

(More info. and how they were created below! Plus a little virtual gallery walk video!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This fun self-portrait lesson combines art exploration in abstract art and color theory!

This lesson took (3) 40 minute art classes to finish.

On the first day of the lesson, students learned about abstract artwork and looked at a slideshow of artwork by various abstract painters (Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Jackson Pollock and William de Cooning). We discussed how abstract art focuses mainly on lines, shapes, and colors.

ON DAY 1  After viewing the slideshow and doing a quick demo, students drew an abstract drawing using various lines, and shapes on 12×18″ medium weight tagboard. Students then went over all their lines with crayons being sure to press super hard (later on we would do a crayon wax-resist). They then filled out a short questionnaire with questions asking about their favorite things and things about themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ON DAY 2 They painted their drawings using concentrated liquid watercolors creating a crayon wax-resist. Before painting we reviewed what the primary colors, secondary colors and warm and cool colors were. While kids worked, I took each students photo (which I later printed as a high-contrast black & white photo on printer paper).

 

 

 

ON DAY 3  Students glued their black and white self-portrait onto their painting. I printed these out ahead of time and cut each one out (not only to save time, but to ensure that no one would lose fingers or ears etc. when trying to cut them out themselves!!)

As I was cutting them out, I piled them up on top of each other and thought this was kind of a cool picture in of itself!

 

Then students cut out their pre-printed sentences into strips (Yep….I also typed up ALL kids answers and printed them out in Word…I know, I know…) and added them to their paintings using a glue stick! I’m not gonna lie….A LOT of prep went into this lesson– BUT–I think they’re too awesome not to do it!

Students are able to create and identify abstract artwork, use a variety of line and shape to create their drawings, learn about abstract artists and their artwork and can identify primary, secondary, warm and cool colors!

I hope you enjoy these awesome abstract self-portraits as much as I do!!  

Here’s a fun little virtual “gallery walk” video of all their artwork!!

 

FYI– Parents—-Students at Roosevelt aren’t finished yet— I’ll be taking kids pics next week and then the following week they will finish them up!!!  Also my cell decided to die as I was trying to get everyone’s artwork in the video above -so not all student work is in this video unfortunately. I tried!

To view additional abstract self-portraits by 2nd grade from previous years click on the menu and select 2nd grade art lessons and scroll down!

Thanks for visiting my blog!!

 

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DIA de los Muertos skulls –3rd Grade

Many of my 3rd graders finished up their Day of the Dead skulls this week! They came out great!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a little tricky photographing them being so reflective! 

 

 

 

To create them, I first prepared all the kids sheets with tinfoil. I laid a sheet (shinier side facing down) on the table. Then glued a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ heavyweight tagboard with a glue stick all over with a thin coat of glue. It’s important to not have any globs of glue here so it won’t show on the tinfoil as bumps.

 

Then I flipped the tagboard over -putting the glue side down, and smoothed it all over with my hands. Then I glued the edges of each side of tinfoil. Then folded the edges onto it.

So that all four sides of extra tinfoil are glued and folded onto the tag.

Then flip it over to the tinfoil side.

 

I found 3 different images of skulls online and printed them out so the images were printed lighter (a grey outline rather than black). Students then chose an image and taped it to the tinfoiled tagboard with 1 piece of painters tape along the top.

Students then traced the image, pressing firmly with a dull pencil, to transfer the image.

 

 

Students LOVED this and were amazed when they saw their lines transfer to the tinfoil!

 

 

 

 

 

This tracing step took most of the 40 minute art class. Once finished tracing, students then colored in their image using colored sharpies.

 

 

 

The sharpies take about 20 seconds to dry, so be careful while coloring so you don’t smudge.

 

 

 

Students learned that Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday and festival held from October 31st – November 2nd to remember and honor friends and family members who have died and is celebrated throughout Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage living in the United States.

 

My third graders LOVED this lesson and thought it was a lot of fun!

This lesson also ties in nicely to our NEXT lesson -(studying the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and creating self-portraits with personal symbols inspired by her work using oil pastels! (you can view previous 3rd graders self-portrait artwork under the menu and scroll down!) 

 

Next blog post later Saturday 10/28 on 2nd grade abstract self-portraits! One of my absolute favorite art lessons!!! Click under 2nd grade art lessons under the menu, and scroll down to view last year’s artwork! 

Stay tuned!…

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1ST GRADE – “PUMPKIN’S STARRY NIGHT” PAINTINGS!

Lesson inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “The Starry Night”.

****Updated with new pics on Tues. 10/24/17****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On day 1 of the lesson, students looked at a slideshow of Van Gogh’s paintings and learned about his life and artwork. We took a close look at his painting “The Starry Night” and noticed that he used lots and lots of short lines painted close together in certain directions, to create a sense of movement!

Then students got to work creating their own Van Gogh inspired masterpieces with a pumpkin!

Students followed along with me for the first steps, as I demonstrated under a document camera. (Photos below)

They traced a pumpkin using a cardboard cut-out along the bottom of their 12×18” tagboard paper. Students held their paper vertically rather than horizontally, so they would have more room on their paper to create the starry night sky.

Students then drew a line for the ground, a crescent or full moon ( a banana shape or a circle) and small circles for stars with pencil. They then drew straight lines in the pumpkins stem, and curved lines inside the pumpkin.

Students then took both a yellow and a green crayon in one hand and drew lines using both colors at the same time, all along the bottom for the grass making sure to press really hard as they drew.

They colored in the moon and stars with yellow, and outlined all the lines within their pumpkin and stem with whatever colors they wanted, making sure to continue pressing hard.

For a final step with the crayons, just like Van Gogh did with his brush, students drew lots of short dashed lines with yellow, circling all around each star. Then with blue crayon drew more dashed lines all throughout the sky curving around their stars to create a sense of movement!

Below are photos of students hard at work creating their masterpieces!!! 

 

 

 

 

On day 2 of the lesson, students painted their pumpkin, grass and sky any color they wanted using concentrated liquid watercolor paint. I LOVE liquid watercolors —they’re SUPER  vibrant and saturated! By far, my favorite paint for art lessons! (A little bit trickier for prep and clean up, but well worth it!)

A lot of you art teachers out there might think I’m crazy– but I don’t dilute the paint. Only if the paint comes out of the bottle like syrup would I add a teeny bit of water (like about 1 tablespoon *or less* per little cup of liquid watercolor paint). The ones I buy are Sax brand and lately it’s been hard to find online, as many colors are out of stock. The yellow is really the only one that I add a bit of water to, since I find that color is for some reason the most syrupy in consistency.

The only rule with color I had was that they had to paint their pumpkin, grass and sky each a different color. That way they would each stand out from one another.

*Skip this next paragraph in bold if you’re not an art teacher or not interested in details about paint and art teaching stuff*

I find that concentrated liquid watercolors can be tricky when trying to see the actual color in the cups due to their intensity. Red, orange, and magenta can all appear to be the same when just when looking at it. So what I have kids do is **GENTLY** take their brush (and I demo this part under a doc camera) and after dipping it in the cup, slide it up the side of the cup and look at the color dripping down the edge back into the cup to see. It seems to do the trick.  I might label each cup by color with tape and sharpie next time to make it even easier. Not sure how long the tape would hold up…maybe writing it directly on the plastic cups would be best but sometimes I use the cups for other things. 

The cups I’m referring to are from Tide laundry detergent caps….and they are awesome to use!! They are stackable, hold up with wear and tear because of the thickness of the plastic, are just the right size, and rinse out easily! Plus– this way I can pour any leftover paint into individual bottles! 

Anyhoo…….While painting, students learned about the technique crayon wax-resist. They all loved watching the paint glide right off the crayon parts and thought it was pure magic!!!!

 

 

 

On day 3 of the lesson, students went over their moon, pumpkin, and 5 circles for stars with glow in the dark three-dimensional puffy paint! We talked about how the puffy paint adds texture and will pop out from the paper. Students obviously LOVED this step although I must admit, I was a little nervous on how this would all work out! They did a really good job! …. other than a few kids “forgetting” to only add puffy paint to the few areas I told them!  Students then watched a quick 7 minute animated video on Van Gogh when finished!

 

Some finished work with glow in the dark puffy paint! 

I can’t get over the VIBRANT colors these paints have!! I love how each one turned out!!

 

Here’s some fun close-ups of the texture we added with puffy paints! Kids L-O-O-V-E-D this step!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the photos below, this class used tempera cakes to paint rather than liquid watercolors because I didn’t receive my paint order in time, but they still came out vibrant!

I can’t wait to display them in the halls!! I love them ALL!! 

MY NEXT POSTS WILL BE TOMORROW AND THURSDAY NIGHT (10/25 & 10/26) WITH NEW FINISHED ARTWORK FROM SOME NEW ART LESSONS—1ST AND 3RD GRADE—- AND 2ND GRADE ABSTRACT SELF-PORTRAITS!!           

STAY TUNED!!….

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TISSUE PAPER PUMPKIN COLLAGES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special needs students created these gorgeous pumpkin collages using liquid watercolor, tissue paper, glue, and liquid tempera paint!

On day 1 of the lesson, students traced a pumkin using a cardboard tracer onto 9×12″ 70# or 80# paper. They then glued on orange, red, yellow and pink squares of pre-cut tissue paper using a paintbrush and watered down glue. They brushed on a second layer of glue once a piece of tissue was placed on. They used a brown piece for the pumpkin’s stem.

On a second sheet of 12×18″ heavyweight tagboard paper, students painted a turquoise sky with concentrated liquid watercolor paint.

On day 2 of the lesson, students cut out their pumpkins and glued onto the sky painting using a glue stick. They then glued on cut strips of various green and yellow tissue paper for the grass using watered down school glue and a paintbrush.

For the final step, they sponged on leaves in the sky by lightly dipping a pre-cut sponge in the shape of a leaf into a plate of drizzled red, yellow and orange liquid tempera paint, then gently pressed onto the sky to create falling leaves!

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1ST- 5TH GRADE SKETCHBOOKS!

In the beginning of every year I have all my students create their own sketchbook, that will be used periodically throughout the whole year.

Each grade has a different drawing lesson to create a cover for their sketchbooks. Sketchbooks will be used to free draw in if kids finish a lesson early, to practice drawing before creating a final version for a lesson, to copy down information that they’ve learned about a particular lesson, and to experiment in with various art materials.

 

5th grade – Superhero Sketchbook Covers

5th graders looked at a variety of superhero comic book cover illustrations and then came up with their own unique superheroes demonstrating their superpowers. They had a choice of creating sidekicks, whether they wanted to include a villain and created a background scene. Drawings were then outlined in black sharpie and colored in with a choice of marker or colored pencil or both.

I love this drawing lesson because it allows so much creativity! Each one is so unique!

AS YOU’LL SEE BELOW, SOME STUDENTS ARE STILL WORKING, BUT COULDN’T WAIT TO SHOW THEM! I WILL RE-POST THEIR FINAL VERSIONS ONCE COMPLETE LATER. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STUDENTS FILLED OUT A WORKSHEET ON THE FIRST DAY TO PLAN OUT THEIR IDEAS FIRST. 

 

 

PHOTOS OF 5TH GRADERS WORKING ON THEIR SUPERHEROES!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***To view superhero sketchbooks from previous years, click on the menu button and select 5th grade art lessons and scroll down. 

 

Up next!!!…..OP ART 3D CONE DRAWINGS! 

 

 

4TH GRADE – INITIAL DESIGN WITH ANALOGOUS

COLORS

For this lesson, students created a tracer of their initials from manila tagboard using block letters. Students could draw their letters on the tagboard either stacked on top of one another, side by side, diagonally, and could flip them backwards.

Once cut out as one piece, they traced their initials at least 8 times, creating an interesting design and went over their lines with black sharpie.

They then drew a background design with pencil, and colored in only the background with markers using analogous colors, leaving their initials white so they popped from the colorful background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PHOTOS OF 4TH GRADERS WORKING ON THEIR ARTWORK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UP NEXT!…… VICTORIAN HOUSE DRAWINGS! 

 

 

 

3RD GRADE- ART TOOL SKETCHBOOK COVERS

Third graders chose 1 art tool (they could choose from: scissors, hole punchers, staplers, tape dispensers, foam rollers, glue bottles, or paint bottles) and created observational drawings of their chosen tool from 4 different viewpoints (from the top, from the bottom, from the side, and from the front). Kids could also draw additional drawings of their tool once the 4 viewpoints were drawn and could draw some of them coming off the page or overlap some.

Once drawn in pencil, they outlined in sharpie and colored in using marker or colored pencils, or both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3RD GRADERS WORKING ON THEIR ART!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Students are currently working on their “Finish the Picture” lesson)

UP NEXT!…..DAY OF THE DEAD SKULL DRAWINGS ON TINFOIL!!

 

 

 

2ND GRADE- WARM/COOL HANDS WITH PATTERNS

 

Second graders created a drawing of their hand with patterns inside their hand and in the background and then colored in using warm colors inside just the hand and cool colors only in the background (or vice versa) with marker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This student is still coloring in, but is doing such a fantastic job had to post it! Nice work Milo! 

 

 

 

 

 

(2nd graders are now working on their “Abstract self-portrait paintings!”)

UP NEXT!….MONET INSPIRED MIXED-MEDIA 3D WATER LILY

 

 

 

1ST GRADE- LINES THAT WIGGLE DRAWINGS

First graders listened to the fun story “Lines That Wiggle” by Candace Whitman. We then looked around the room and did a line scavenger hunt with our eyes!

Students drew at least 8 loopy, overlapping lines with pencil. We talked about how it kind of looked like a rollercoaster! We also discussed how when lines connect, it creates a shape! Students then outlined all their lines with black sharpie, and colored in each shape created with marker!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1st Graders are currently working on their “Pumpkin’s Starry Night” lesson inspired by Van Gogh!)

UP NEXT!….. “NOT SO SCARY SCARECROW” COLLAGE!

 

I am SOoo excited because I have SO many NEW awesome art lessons planned for the year that I KNOW the kids are going to LOVE!!

I cannot WAIT to get started on them! (There will be least 1 new lesson per grade) and can’t wait to show you!

Of course many of my previous art lessons will still happen because they are keepers and students love them as much as I do!!

Some new ones will start right away and some are coming up later on the year!! Stay tuned!!…..❤️

Best,

Mollie

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Open House Photo Op!

A wee bit late posting this…. I created a little photo op spot in the gym during open house at Roosevelt School (which was almost two weeks ago!)  But O-well! Better late than never right?!?

I thought it’d be fun to create a fun, silly photo opportunity for kids to strike a pose for that evening, while parents went to their children’s classrooms! Kids were playing basketball too, so it was kind of a crazy space to try to photograph– BUT…even amidst all the craziness and chaos with balls flying everywhere the kids had fun!

I made a giant frame from foam board, cardboard and model magic, a quick splatter paint backdrop, a couple of speech bubbles, as well as painted giant paintbrushes and a paint palette for props. There weren’t too many kids that night but the ones that did come with their parents (or ones that were hosting a table with info. for parents) had a blast posing for a quick pic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEXT BLOG UPDATE COMING THIS WEEKEND!

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1st Grade 3D Line Sculptures!

 

First graders are continuing to learn more about the element of art line in ART! (More photos below of close-ups and of kids creating their sculptures!) 

They created 2 of each of the following (curved, zig zag, and curly) to create these awesome three-dimensional paper sculptures!

They also learned that they created their sculptures focusing on 4 of the 7 elements of art(line, color, shape, and form) and how ALL artwork in the world is created using at least one or more of these elements- And that 3D artwork means artwork that isn’t flat and sticks out and that sculptures are 3D!

Students did such a fantastic job creating these line sculptures! They got really creative and glued pieces on top of other pieces and created their own lines as well!!!  I love how they look all assembled together on the wall too! Thank you Cassie Stephens for the lesson idea!

Be sure to read the previous post below! Super fun glow in the dark pumpkin painting lesson for 1st graders!!

Follow me on Instagram @mammalovespeaches for more student artwork and lesson ideas! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best,

Mollie

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Glow in the dark pumpkin paintings!

I’m so excited to start this lesson with my 1st graders!! They are going to FLIP when they find out they’ll be using glow in the dark puffy paint!!!

Here is a quick time lapse video of me adding the final touches to one of my teacher examples.

 

First graders will begin this lesson after they create 3D paper line sculptures!

I’m even considering buying a black light to hang kids art under in the case at school! However, I’m not entirely sure if the additional halogen lighting in the area where it will hang will affect the glow?????, so if anyone out there knows about this—please let me know if it’s worth doing!

This lesson is inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s painting; The Starry Night. Students will learn about Van Gogh and his artwork and how he used lots and lots of short lines close together in certain directions, to create a sense of movement. The puffy paint adds texture, like Van Gogh did with his paint in his paintings. Plus it’s just so darn fun, kids will go crazy over it!!

Last year I did this exact lesson but without the addition of puffy paint. To learn more about this lesson click on 1st grade art lessons under the main menu and scroll down!

Follow me on Instagram (@mammalovespeaches for more student artwork and ideas)

Best,

Mollie

 

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ART is for EVERYONE!

LEAF BIRDS!

My special education classes just finished their super cute leaf bird collages inspired by Art with Mr. Giannetto (via Instagram)! Thanks for the idea Mr. Giannetto!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On day 1 They glued strips of brown paper for branches, applied yellow painted dots with their finger, and added leaves using crumpled tinfoil dipped in green paint.

On day 2 They glued their leaves for the birds body, added a triangle for a beak, and googly eyes and a feather to complete their collage!

Since the second part was only going to take a few minutes, we started another art lesson for the remaining time in class.

They stamped black lines and circles using cardboard and a plastic cup on 12×18″ paper. We talked about horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines as well as shapes (in this case; circles) and overlapping lines and shapes.

We looked at Kandinsky’s abstract artwork for inspiration.

In the following art class we will add paint to the shapes created to finish our masterpieces!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I teach 2 special education classes at one school in my art room and 1 class at another school off a cart. The classes are small (usually up to 4 or 5 kids) with AMAZING paraprofessionals that assist them while they create. Their ages can range from 1st-5th grade and they have varying physical and mental challenges.

When I plan lessons for these students I think about their ability and what they will feel successful at, what can I have them work on to improve their fine motor skills, speech, social skills, emotional processing and of course, what they will enjoy! A lot of the lessons are tactile, which are especially nice for my hearing impaired and visually impaired students.

Modifying the tools and techniques are important for these kids. Sometimes the para’s bring in special equipment like small easel boards that can mount onto the wheelchair or special sized scissors or electric cutting tools. I also offer large handle paintbrushes, wide pencils and sometimes have things pre-cut or use tracers to help them draw and collage together. Smaller items to glue or alter (like bending pipe cleaners for instance) also help students develop their fine motor skills.

Most of my students I see year after year in the same class…which makes it a bit tricky coming up with new lessons every year for them. Especially since most lessons are 1 day projects (at best, 2 day projects). I sometimes repeat lessons that are just way too awesome not to, but I try to switch up the art lessons so they don’t bring home the same projects year after year. That way they are learning new art concepts and techniques AND creating new art each time too!

I get so many awesome ideas from my fellow art teachers in my district, (love you guys!!)  fellow teachers on Instagram, art teacher blogs, as well as on Pinterest. Oftentimes I’ll see a lesson for kindergarten or 1st grade and just modify it a bit. A BIG thanks to EVERY ONE of you AMAZING art teachers out there sharing your awesome lessons!! It’s so wonderful and helpful to have those great resources!  I hope that my lessons help you out as well!

If you teach special needs kids too, what are some of you’re favorite art lessons? 

Please respond by clicking on “no comments” directly under the title of this post  or “comment” if someone has already commented.

To view previous student artwork with lesson descriptions for special needs scroll under my menu on the main page and select special education! 

Some of my favorites I’ve taught are shown below! (all photos are of student artwork only) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow me at mammalovespeaches on Instagram for more elementary art lesson ideas!

 

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