Who is Ms Artastic? I’ll tell you who I am!
Hello my lovely friends! Today I thought I’d share with you a little bit about WHO I am. Now before I do, I’ll give you a brief introduction about who I am and then… I’ll go DEEP!
Hey there, I’m Kathleen McGiveron and I’m a professional artist, teacher, and the creator of Ms Artastic. As an artist, I create lowbrow artworks and have shown my work in both commercial and public galleries. I’m also Ms Artastic and I create art teaching resources and art lessons for Artastic Nation. I have two cats named Audrey and Russell and I live in Canada.
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Autumn Art Ideas for an Elementary Classroom
It’s already FALL. Well, I’ll be honest, I have my pumpkins out already… but I grow them myself. I LOVE growing pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. It is a 6 month adventure as I start my Atlantic Giants indoors in the spring… then after months of TLC I get a giant pumpkin or 2! They’re so beautiful. Also, Halloween is my Christmas. If you’re someone who wants to start getting ready for Christmas in November… well, that is how I feel about Halloween. I LOVE IT. But I also love Autumn too so let’s get inspired by some lovely autumn artworks that you can do with your kids in your classroom or at home.
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Art Teacher TLC during the Pandemic: Take care of YOU!
Art Teachers! Let’s talk about TLC. As well, find a GIVEAWAY in this post! We are SO STRESSED. This year is completely beyond manageable and overwhelming. This year is going to absorb a lot of our patience, energy, and even our welfare. It is going to be really important that we make sure that we take care of ourselves this year because when we’re stressed and overworked, we can create ill effects for both our mental and physical health. I always find that when I am stressed out that I get sick a lot easier. Scroll to the end of this post to find my Art Teacher TLC Bingo Contest! Let’s look at some ways to incorporate some Art Teacher TLC into our lives. #msartasticbingo #artteacher #artteachertlc
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Back to School Tips for Teaching Art During the Pandemic
When it comes to Back to School, a little panic sets in because of the unknown. We are unsure if any changes will happen in the school (which this year, there most likely will be), unsure of our schedule, unsure if there will be supplies budget cuts (why do they do this!?), unsure if the staff has changed significantly, unsure who the kids are… These are all unknowns. These are, for the most part, out of your control. We cannot worry about things we can’t control. We are instead, going to place out focus on things we CAN control. If we focus our attention here and get things we can control organized and prepped, it will make our back to school, as well as the year, a lot more stress-free. Isn’t that the goal anyway?
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Hear my Story. Know my WHY! Enrollment to the Artastic Collective Membership is closing soon!
Explore creating art focused on the Elements of Art in an At Home Learning setting, perfect for Homeschooling or Distance Learning. This blog post has art projects and lessons for experimenting with Line, Value, Mixing Colors, and Texture with unexpected art mediums you already have in your home (that you just didn’t realize you have).
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Art Teacher Interview: Stephanie Bailly
In this interview you will get to know Stephanie Bailly. She is the creator of Picassa’s Palette and I highly recommend that you check out her website & resources!
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The Artastic Collective Membership: Art Lesson Library for Art Teachers
The Artastic Collective Art Teacher Membership provides Art Instructors with an Art Resource and Lesson Library was founded by ME, Kathleen McGiveron (Ms Artastic). My mission is to provide you with prepared art lessons, resources, and activities that will allow you to free up your time and live your life, whether that means traveling, pursuing your hobbies, or spending time with your family. You should be able to be an educator or teacher and be able to have the time to LIVE life. With this membership, you will receive teaching ideas, inspiration, and guidance to help you navigate and problem-solve in your classroom or studio. This membership will give you the freedom to create art with kids, live your life, and will help you engage your students with art lessons.
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Art Teacher Interview: Renee Goularte
In this interview you will get to know Renee Goularte.
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Art Teacher Interview: Tiffany Jo Fox
In this interview you will get to know Tiffany Jo Fox, a high school art teacher.
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Art Tutorial: Art in Nature!
Let’s look at making art in nature with things we can find! So many artists have created art in our natural world and this is a great exploration to do with your students, especially if you want to get them outdoors, creating! As well, this makes a perfect Distance Learning art piece that they can do at home!
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Art Teacher Interview: Whitney Panetta
In this interview you will get to know Whitney Panetta, a high school art teacher. She is also the creator of Look Between the Lines. “I have had experience teaching K-college through student teaching, full time teaching, being a graduate assistant, and volunteer work. The majority of my education experience is in art education and yearbook, although I love designing products outside of my expertise. I received my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Art Education and my Masters of Art Education at the University of Georgia (go dawgs!).
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Art Teacher Interview: Karen Phillips
Art Teacher Interview: Karen Phillips! Read to learn about Masterpiece Momma and all about her Visual Arts Teaching Practice!
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Element of Art: Shape; Art Lesson Tutorial for Kids
Explore creating art focused on the Element of Art: Shape that features drawing a Red Fox, perfect for Homeschooling or Distance Learning or learning in your Classroom. This is a free, easy to do, quick art lesson that focuses on teaching the Element of Art Shape to kids. This is an easy to implement idea for kids to do as an art project at home or in the classroom. Perfect for kids from grades 2 to 5! Scroll through to follow the step-by-step, or scroll to the bottom to find the full YouTube Video tutorial embedded in this post!
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Element of Art: Color; Art Lesson Tutorial for Kids
Explore creating art focused on the Elements of Art: Color that features drawing cats in a color wheel, perfect for Homeschooling or Distance Learning. This is a free, easy to do, quick art lesson that focuses on teaching the Element of Art Color to kids. This is an easy to implement idea for kids to do as an art project at home or in the classroom. Perfect for kids from grades 2 to 7! Scroll through to follow the step-by-step, or scroll to the bottom to find the full YouTube Video tutorial embedded in this post!
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Element of Art: Texture; Art Lesson Tutorial for Kids
Explore creating art focused on the Elements of Art: Texture that features drawing Fruits and Veggies, perfect for Homeschooling or Distance Learning. This is a free, easy to do, quick art lesson that focuses on teaching the Element of Art Texture to kids. This is an easy to implement idea for kids to do as an art project at home or in the classroom. Perfect for kids from grades 2 to 7! Scroll through to follow the step-by-step, or scroll to the bottom to find the full YouTube Video tutorial embedded in this post!
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The BEST Picture Books that Teach About Art for Kids
Explore creating art focused on the Elements of Art in an At Home Learning setting, perfect for Homeschooling or Distance Learning. This blog post has art projects and lessons for experimenting with Line, Value, Mixing Colors, and Texture with unexpected art mediums you already have in your home (that you just didn’t realize you have).
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The BEST Books that Teach Art History to Kids
Explore the BEST books that teach about Art History to kids to use for art infused lessons in your classroom, to teach art history to your art students, or to use for creating an art history section in your home library. This comprehensive list explores famous artists and artworks throughout art history. It will provide you with ideas and inspiration for creating art lessons and projects that you can pair with this amazing books to help you teach art history in depth in your classroom.
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How to Draw Flower Line Art, Element of Art: Line Art Lesson for Kids
Explore creating art focused on the Elements of Art in an At Home Learning setting, perfect for Homeschooling or Distance Learning. This blog post has art projects and lessons for experimenting with Line, Value, Mixing Colors, and Texture with unexpected art mediums you already have in your home (that you just didn’t realize you have).
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Why You Need a Cricut for DIY Projects: The Ultimate Cricut Guide
Cricuts are precision cutting machines that can help you with your DIY projects, crafts, maker pieces, or they can help you create professional projects or products to sell. Whether you are a beginner DIYer or an expert, you can find ideas, inspiration, and new machines and accessories from Cricut for all your fabric, vinyl, wood sign, mug and tumbler, tote bags, or etching project needs. This is the Ultimate Guide for why YOU need a Cricut in your craft room, classroom, business, or home.
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How to Draw a Silly Landscape, Element of Art: Space Art Lesson for Kids
Explore the Element of Art: Space with your favorite art mediums, such as felt markers and crayons, with this silly Landscape Art Lesson Drawing Tutorial. This is an easy to-do, hands on activity that kids can do at home or in the classroom to help them learn and understand the element of art: space. Let’s make art!
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How to Draw a Monster, Element of Art: Value Art Lesson for Kids
Explore the Element of Art: Value with your favorite art mediums, such as felt markers and crayons, with this Monster Art Lesson Drawing Tutorial. This is an easy to-do, hands on activity that kids can do at home or in the classroom to help them learn and understand the element of art: value. Let’s make art!
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The BEST Free Art Worksheets, Lessons, and Ideas for Kids
I love creating art with kids! In this post you can find FREE Art lessons for kids and you can download 8 FREE Art Worksheets and Templates to use with kids experimenting with art making at home or in your classroom. Let kids explore art making and learn to shade 3D objects, value scales, make color wheels, and more! Find free worksheets and other ideas and art lessons for making art at home or in the classroom.
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Exploring the Elements of Art with Kids at Home
Explore creating art focused on the Elements of Art in an At Home Learning setting, perfect for Homeschooling or Distance Learning. This blog post has art projects and lessons for experimenting with Line, Value, Mixing Colors, and Texture with unexpected art mediums you already have in your home (that you just didn’t realize you have).
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The Ultimate List of Distance Learning Art Projects and Resources for Kids
Even in a crisis or emergency, students deserve the BEST art education, whether they are able to access their classroom or not. These art resources have been selected for this list because they can either be used as take-home art resources, accessed online for e-learning, or can be used with any choice of mediums or materials. These Art Resource creators and educators are here to provide you with assistance during this crisis. All the quality and easy to implement art resources that you need to be able to support your students through this new thing called Distance Learning.
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Distance Learning Art Resources for your Students
Art instruction has become a challenge with the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. In this post, I will provide you with the Distance Learning Art Resources and Activities that I have created for you to use for instructing your students. From Distance Learning Art projects that can be used with any mediums or materials to my Full FREE Art Lessons on my YouTube Channel that I’ve created for you, my goal is to alleviate the stress of planning and creating for you and to provide your students with quality art ideas and at-home lessons.
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St. Patrick’s Day Art Ideas for Kids
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in your classroom with art projects, ideas, and activities for kids. These cute art projects for kids are suitable for teaching a range of art techniques and skills and can be done as either an artwork or craft. Read this post to find art ideas for kids, directed drawings, coloring pages, and St. Patrick’s Day teacher shirts to make your St. Patty’s Day celebration complete.
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5 Must Have Mediums in an Art Classroom and WHY
This is my list of ideas for the 5 ultimate art mediums that you should have in your classroom for making art with kids. If you can’t have everything, then these are the different art mediums you need in your art classroom to allow for hands-on, creative, and possibly mixed media art projects. Art teachers, read here to see what you MUST have in your art classroom.
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How to Fuel Your Creativity
Creativity can’t happen if you don’t allow time for it to occur. Sometimes we have intentions on “painting this month” or “writing a blog post this week”, but before you know it, the month or week has passed and you made nothing happen. It is important for your own success that you schedule a specific date and time when you are going to block out the rest of the world, including your TV and phone (music is allowed). In my life, I schedule my own business and my free-creative times in my studio on my digital calendar. I use my OneDrive calendar, but you can use your Google Calendar or phone calendar app. You can also purchase a calendar or notebook calendar or agenda for the year where you can pencil in all your adventures and blocks where you will dedicate yourself to being creative in your office, lounge, studio or wherever you’re creative experiences occur.
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How to Encourage ALL Your Students to Create Art (even those who don’t want to)
Inspire kids to make art through encouraging them, earning their trust, and building a relationship in your classroom! These are classroom management strategies for art teachers to help them reach all their learners (even those who are unwilling to make art or are challenging to teach). Learn how to draw out the artist in each of your students, inspire them, and be YOUR BEST teacher through reading this blog post! #artteacher #artteachingstrategies #firstyearartteacher #msartastic
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Steps to Walking a Creative Path in your Everyday Life
Learn the steps of how to be creative and integrate creativity in your everyday life. In this blog post, I’ll tell you the secrets of creativity inspiration and how to get ideas that will let you be creative with your ideas, thoughts, DIY projects, art, drawings, design, poetry, blog post writing, podcast making or any other creative adventure you want to pursue. Don’t know how to get over the creativity fear? Here is how. #becreative #creativeinspiration #creativityquotes
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How to Encourage a Maker Mindset in your Classroom
A Makerspace is an opportunity to allow kids to be creative, experiment, and learn and apply Growth Mindset thinking when trying to solve real-world problems or STEAM design challenges. It is important to expose kids in Elementary and Middle School to design challenges or projects that require building to provide hands-on experiences to solving problems. Read about my ideas on how to encourage a Maker Mindset in your classroom, library, or home. #backtoschool #makerspace #steamchallenges
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5 Ideas for Valentine’s Day Art Activities in your Clasroom
Have fun creating one-of-a-kind Valentine’s Day Art Pieces with kids this February. These 5 art ideas will allow your kids to get their hands-on art mediums that are easy to use and quick to clean. This illustrations and how-to drawing tutorials are the perfect solution for your at home art night needs or for creating in your classroom with your students. Whatever you need, these tutorials and art ideas are bound to get you and your kids or students creating amazing Valentine’s Day Artworks that will capture an audience! #valentinesdayart #valentinesdayartprojects #valentinesdaydiy
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10 Reasons Why Arts Integration in Schools is Important
Arts integration in schools are important as they provide students with a complete education. Visual Arts teach visual communication, fine motor skills, culture, how to persevere, how to problem solve, how to think critically, and how to face challenges. All these skills can be learned through the arts, then applied to other academics, and later, a child’s career. Here are my 10 Reasons on why arts integration in schools is important. #artseducation #artintegration #artteacher
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Valentines Day Art Project Tutorial for Kids: Valentines Puppy
Teaching Art to Kids leading up to Valentine’s Day can be fun! Here is an art project tutorial that teaches elementary students how to create a Valentine’s puppy using oil pastels and paint. Teach how to use a variety of art mediums with this quick and easy art activity that will have kids making a fun illustration. Perfect teaching resource for grade 4 and grade 5 students.
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5 New Years Art Ideas to Try in your Classroom
Start the New Year off in your classroom in an artastic way! Engage your students with art ideas that are perfect for goal setting, practicing drawing skills, and getting creative at the start of the New Year. Try these 5 New Years Art Ideas in your classroom or at home to get your creative juices flowing. Let’s get started!
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New Year 2020 Zen Doodle Art Project Tutorial
Start the new decade off with an artastic art project in your classroom! Have your students create New Year 2020 Zen Doodle Art Projects. Not only will this get your students engaged in the first days back in class (which no one will be excited for), but it will also get them exploring both marker, paint, and the Element of Art: Line and the Principle of Design: Emphasis. Let’s get started!
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FREE Winter Evergreen Art Project
Learn how to create this Winter Art Project in your classroom for FREE with the FREE Downloadable PDF that includes all the tools and steps that you need to not only teach the lesson, but display it too. Students will use paint, paper, and pastel to create this FREE Winter Evergreen Art Project.
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6 Christmas Art Ideas for Your Classroom
Coming up with ideas for what to do with your students before Christmas break can often be difficult, especially when you’re burn’t out and tired from both teaching and getting-ready-for-Christmas-life outside of work. Here are 6 Art Activity Ideas that you can do in your classroom to be prepared and done planning before your vacation days start.
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Thankful, a Thanksgiving Art Project for Kids to do in your Classroom
Thanksgiving is a great time to create some Autumn themed work that reflects our thankfulness for things that we appreciate in our lives and the harvest that has been collected from the summer. This Thanksgiving, get out a piece of paper or your sketchbook and get ready to create some Thanksgiving art either in your home or in the classroom.
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Teacher T-Shirts & Art Teacher Apparel at Ms Artastic’s Collection
Teacher shirts are fun to wear to school for many different reasons: they can have empowering messages that are classroom related, they can share your favorite interests, and they allow you to wear a T-Shirt to your classroom. Ms Artastic’s Collection is the perfect place to get your teacher shirts and art teacher shirts to wear to your classroom to show off your flavor or positive affirmations.
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Vampire Art Project Tutorial
Create a Vampire art piece with your students this Halloween! Explore oil resist painting and create a fun design when things get spooky! Perfect activity to do in the days leading up to Halloween or to leave with a sub.
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Halloween Art Project, FREE Tutorial Download
This Halloween Line Art Project is a great art project to do with kids as it teaches them mixed media processes and the Element of Art: Line.
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Autumn Pumpkin Art Project Tutorial
This autumn pumpkin art project is a perfect project to teach your students to blend oil pastel and how to layer mediums. This art project uses both oil pastels and watercolor paints. Perfect to teach to your students or print this page and leave it for a sub.
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Autumn Leaves Line Art Tutorial & FREE DOWNLOAD
I love when the leaves change and they begin to change into those warm, beautiful colors. This is a great opportunity to teach your students about both Autumn and the Element of Art: Line using this FREE Art Tutorial. Click here or scroll to the bottom of the page to download the printable tutorial; great to use yourself or leave for a sub!
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How to Get FREE Teacher Shirts and Accessories to wear to your Classroom!
I believe in providing the opportunity for earning some awesome teacher swag without buying the shirt yourself. Here are some ways to get teacher shirts and gear for free from Ms Artastic’s Collection of Teacher Shirts and Accessories.
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The Dot: Free Dot Day Activity for Your Classroom
This is a wonderful lesson not only to do for “Dot Day”, but you can do it as a Back to School Activity and Growth Mindset activity as well. It is also a great activity if you are teaching a “Transform” lesson with Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power series. This is a fun activity that transforms a bulletin board quickly.
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Element of Art: Line in 10 Famous Artworks
The Element of Art: Line is a fun element to work with as an art teacher as most art begins with line and line can take on many shapes or forms or expressions. Line works with the other elements: shape, color, form, texture. Line can help create shape or texture. For this reason, it is is a lovely Element of Art to start with in teaching in your art classroom.
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Back To School Art Projects for your Classroom
Here are some art project tutorials that you can use in your classroom for Back to School success! They are all complete with the step-by-steps, student handouts, reflections, assessment, rubrics, and examples.
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New Art Teacher Course: Get Focused and Plan for Success in your Art Classroom
I am so excited to introduce you to my course, the New Art Teacher Focused Course! This opportunity to mentor new art teachers has been …
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10 Art Teacher Tips for Back to School Success
Get Focused! The best thing you can do would be to have a lot of your beginning of the year activities and units prepped and …
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How-to Guide for a First Year Art Teacher: 10 Steps for Success
Welcome to the How-To Guide for First Year Art Teachers where I give you my 10 Steps for Success! Congratulations! You got your own classroom. OH MY GOSH, you have your own classroom. Your mind and stomach start racing, both with extreme excitement and panic because now, it all just got real. You will have a lot of students, a lot of planning, and a lot of classroom to keep organized. Figuring out where to even start is a huge stress and will require a tea (or a beer) and a nap (probably some Netflix too).
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How to Teach Classroom Routines and Procedures in a Fun and Engaging Way in Your Art Classroom
Teaching students rules and procedures is a skill in itself. You have to learn to teach it and then reinforce them while doing it in an engaging way. In this article, I’ll give you some ideas of how to teach your students your classroom routines and expectations in a fun and engaging way.
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Back to School Guide for Art Teachers
I’m going to share with you how to efficiently set up your Back to School routines and systems to allow you to effectively teach rules and routines and create classroom community.
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Art Teacher: Outfit Planning, Shopping Ideas & Gift Guide
I have decided to take a look and find some of the best to create some Art Teacher outfit inspiration, perfect for Back to School. Listed in this post you will find great wears that you can totally get for your new Back to School Art Teacher look.
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10 End of Year Ideas for the Art Classroom
The End of the Year has finally come and it is always a good idea to end it strong, purposeful, and meaningful in your art classroom. Here are my top 10 ideas for ending the year in your classroom.
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How to Teach Growth Mindset in your Art Classroom
Teaching art to kids is a dream; a perfect job where you get to be creative and experiment while inspiring young minds to do the …
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FREE Ocean Art Tutorial for Kids
Summer is finally here and I have been so inspired to create new art projects for both End of the Year and the Summer. In …
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Tips for Art Teachers
Once in a while we change our routines, and habits, or throw away the old as they say. When this happens we wrap our heads …
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How to Create a Pink Shirt Day Art Project
Need a quick lesson for Pink Shirt Day in your classroom? Learn how to create a Pink Shirt Day poster or art piece with a …
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All About Ms Artastic
My name is Kathleen and I am Ms Artastic. I am a teacher in Canada and I strongly believe in allowing students the opportunity to be creative, explore and experiment, and make mistakes. I also have two cats who are named Russel and Audrey. As Ms Artastic, I design art resources, projects, and curriculum for teachers from kindergarten to grade twelve.
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Visual Arts Sketchbooks for High School Students
One of the most meaningful activities that I can bring into a classroom is the sketchbook. Sketchbooks are one of those things that can be …
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Ceramics! Zen Doodle Pinch Pot Art Project for your Classroom.
Play with clay in your art classroom! This is the perfect, free ceramic art lesson that you need to kick start your curriculum. Students will explore the Element of Art: Line, subtractive sculpture technique, and texture through creating Zen Doodle Pinch Pots. Pinch pots are a traditional vessel in ceramic history and is a way to create a strong, durable drinking cup or bowl using your hands and a pinching method to form clay.
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Draw a Unicorn: Art Lesson
Unicorns. Majestic, mythical creatures, fighting Narwhals. Let’s take a look at a quick and easy way to draw one of these fabulous creatures! This is …
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Quick and Easy, Christmas Holly Art Project
Merry Christmas to everyone who is an ARTASTIC Teacher! I wanted to thank you this Christmas by making a FREE Quick and Easy Art Lesson …
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Winter Birch Trees Art Project for Kids
Birch trees are pretty popular these days! They look extra beautiful on winter days. One project that is new to my TeachersPayTeachers store is my Winter Birch Tree Art Project. This is a great way to engage your Gr. 5 – 8 students as it nears closer to the Holidays.
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