art project ideas for kids and grown-ups

while i try my best to be original as an art teacher, i think there are many ideas that other artist have already come up with that can serve as inspiration for my curriculum. i struggled a bit with the idea of not using my own ideas exclusively, thinking i'd be a copycat if i ever incorporated other art teacher's ideas. but eventually i realized that the aim is to get the student to learn and improve, and using proven methods to do so is a legitimate and beneficial thing do do.

after all, do music teachers write all the music they teach the students? not at all! they might at times write their own, but generally they use compositions by other musicians in their lessons. so why not incorporate some other art teacher's ideas in my lessons? here are some examples of results from one of my art students (2nd grade):



materials needed: paper for background, paper for the birch trees, paint, scissors, glue.
for the birch tree image to pop it is important to have a bright, colorful background, but i left it up to the student to execute how this is going to be achieved. 
for inspiration and further details see this link: birch art

 



materials needed: include anything you can think of. we used scrap book paper, newspaper, glass stone, yarn, bubble wrap, paint & markers, gel stickers, and pepper.
pepper was the students idea - when she got the hang of using all kinds of seemingly random materials for this painting she spotted the pepper mill and wanted to use pepper as well. so we made some glue puddles and added crushed pepper corns!
for inspiration and further details see this link: flower multi media art

both art projects have a very high fun factor. while i gave instructions and guidelines, the development of these pictures left much room for creativity and experimenting.

if this inspired you to create similar art yourself or with your kids let me know, i'd love to see the results!

5 comments:

sylvia said...

Love the birch trees and what a cool idea with the pepper

Dawn Suzette said...

These are both great pieces of art. It is obvious that you create a wonderful environment for the kids to be creative with whatever techniques are presented.
Love the use if the pepper. So awesome!

Tracey ~ Clover said...

Thanks for the ideas, they will definitly be used here. My 16 year old loves to draw, especially with pastels, but I want him to try different mediums, branch out, see what he really enjoys most.

Danielle Quarmby said...

These look fab :) Teaching isn't about creating originality as much as supporting creativity itself, and teaching method. It seems pretty clear that you are an awesome art teacher :)

Kim said...

Such wonderful ideas, might have to try them out with my little man. Thanks for sharing :)

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