Sustainability and environmental issues are highlighted through a variety of lessons that use recycled, upcycled, or renewed materials. Students compete in a fashion art competition and design clothing from sustainable materials; utilize recycled computer parts to build their very own robots; create Picasso-inspired cardboard relief sculptures; and more.
View This Issue Purchase This Issue
I didn’t realize how frugal my grandmother was until I was well into adulthood. She made most of her own clothes and then used the scraps to make us Raggedy Ann dolls, stick horses, other soft toys, and patchwork quilts. She made nylon knit bags to save slivers of soap, cultivated a garden, and cooked everything from scratch, in the process, teaching me how to drink tea the English way, and make homemade fig preserves, mint jelly, and mayonnaise.
Read Article
On my first visit to Storm King Art Center in New York State, I was enchanted by Maya Lin’s Wave Field (2009), an expansive field of undulating grassy earth, imitating the waves of the sea. Visitors can experience the piece from a distance or climb to the tops of the ten- to fifteen-foot waves that stretch for eleven acres. It’s an immersive landscape that’s both calming and surprising.
If you are like me, you’re always in search of art ideas to inspire creativity within your classroom—ideas that will allow your students to experience something new, projects that can be made within a limited time frame, and all of this within a very limited budget. I teach art to approximately 450 students in grades three to five for only thirty minutes twice a week.
Read Article
Any time I think of a new lesson idea, I try to add a twist—a surprise element of some sort to get my artists’ attention. For that purpose, I knew I wanted to introduce my fifth-graders to Keith Haring. Haring has always been a hit with young artists. Students instantly embrace the barking dog, flying superhero, dancing figures, and classic three-eyed face.
As art teachers, sometimes it doesn't take much to inspire us. In my case, it took our school’s tech team leaving behind my classroom’s dismantled wireless router in a trash bin. After digging it out, I marveled at the interesting and colorful components, and I knew my students would love to get their creative hands and imaginative minds on these wires and switches.
Read Article
One of my favorite middle-school lessons involves having students construct cardboard relief sculptures based on the cubist guitars of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. My students love building with their hands. Many who lack confidence in their 2D abilities feel like rock stars as they discover a new skill set in 3D.
I walk into the classroom, and I see students getting out their projects. Supplies are moving, and the class is on track to producing great works of art. This is the description of most days in my art class, but on occasion I like to shake it up a bit. Less planning, less individual, less lag. I want students to move at Mach speed and create something with energy, something that is dynamic and showstopping. This is where my idea for the Best Day Ever was born.
Read Article
I woke up one morning thinking about students, lesson plans, and getting through the day gracefully. I thought about how much I love coffee and suddenly (just like every other morning), I was consumed with getting up and getting some coffee in me. I also thought about how much coffee I consume. It was in that sleepy moment that I thought of the idea for one of my favorite lessons, Love & Consumption.
Veronica Fish is a talented comic book artist whose elegant, sophisticated figures update classic comic book illustrative styles with a more contemporary point of view. From many years, comic books were viewed by many as a low form of art plagued by gender stereotypes and produced for mostly a young male audience. Today, women play a major role in the industry and many titles produced each month reflect a wide variety of interests, perspectives, and points of view.
In 2017, the Cullis Wade Depot Art Gallery in Mississippi State University showcased photography by local children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in a group art exhibition, Through Their Eyes. Compact digital cameras were distributed to nine families who agreed to participate so children could capture informal scenes from everyday life over a period of several months.
Read Article