A Scarecrow Bulletin Board To Display Art Work

Hey, just wanted to share with you the scarecrow bulletin board that displays some of the 'three tricks for creating depth' pumpkin patches.
Here it is...  Cute, simple and ties in with the kids art work nicely. Hope you like it!!

How do you display your students' artwork. I'd love to hear about some of your bulletin boards ideas. You can comment below.

How To Promote Your Art Class On 'Meet The Teachers' Night

Do you need some kind of handout to give parents on Meet The Teachers Night? You know, the kind that explains what... it exactly is... that we do in  art class.
Well, here is mine. It's always available to give to that parent (or parents) who stops by for a chat. 

So, why is this important, you may ask?
Here's two reasons why!
#1. It's a way to promote your art program.
#2. And, it's a way to give credibility to your program. It shows, that yes... we actually have art standards and...teach important skills in art class!
I hope something like this would be useful in promoting your art class.

Do you have a handout you give parents on Meet The Teachers Night? I'd love to hear about it. You can comment below.

Three Tricks For Creating Depth In A Drawing

Educreations is a great app you can use to create tutorials for your students. It's one of my favorites. And the kids like it too. Especially when they are learning a new drawing skill. They can even watch it more than once if they want.

I wanted to share with you one way to use Educreations with this pumpkin patch drawing lesson for my third graders. The tutorial is all about showing the kids 3 easy, tricks they can do to create depth. 

What are the three tricks? Well, you'll have to watch the tutorial below!  But I'll give you a hint- one of the tricks is diagonal lines.

Take a look!

3 Tricks For Creating Depth In A Drawing
If you want to learn more about Educreations you can read more about it in this previous post- How To Make A Video Tutorial. Maybe you'll be inspired to make your own tutorials.
Do you an app or program to create tutorials. I'd love to hear about it. You can comment below.

How To Keep Track Of Erasers

Do you want an easy way to keep track of erasers? This is the simple way I kept track of my erasers when I taught middle school art.  

How about using an ice tray that's color coded?

In the tray, there would be three erasers for the red group, the blue group, the green group and the yellow group. The color coding helps to keep track of which group was using an eraser.

When some one in the blue group needed an eraser, they took one of the blue dotted erasers. When they were done they put it back to the blue color coded spot.

When the class was cleaning up at the end of the period, it was easy to glance over to see if all the erasers were put back in their proper spot.

Pretty simple, huh!

Would this work for your art class? How do you keep track of erasers? It would be great if you could share your eraser tips below.

Celebrating International Dot Day

Do you want to help your students conquer their doubts and trust in their own abilities.  Do you want to help your students on their journey of self discovery?
I hope you said 'yes' to all above. Then, please, read on.
How about challenging them to 'Make Your Mark And See Where It Takes You'.

That is the theme of Peter Reynolds's popular book The Dot. One small dot on a piece of paper helps one little girl on her journey to see the potential of her creativity. (Oh, yeah!) And now, that little girl is inspiring children all around the world to be brave enough to create and make their own dot. (Double, oh yeah!)

After reading the book and watching The Dot youtube video, my students were inspired and challenged to 'Make Their Mark.'

For my 2nd graders "Dot Day' project we used a 6 X 6 piece of black paper for the background and multi colored scraps for the dots. The kids were then challenged to make dots in their own style.

And here's what they came up with.

How about you? Have you inspired your students to 'Make Your Mark'? If you've done a Dot Day project in art class, I'd love to hear about it. You can comment below.