Our Bottle Cap Mural in Progress!

Well summer is here and my students have been donating bottle caps like crazy! Off we go on our first bottle cap adventure. You can see more photos on our Facebook page. More mural posts and progress to come...

Great Art Sites for Kids—Kerpoof!

Kerpoof Studio is one of my kids' favorite sites on the web for drawing and making art. Kerpoof is owned by the Disney company, and though not everything there is available for free (they require a monthly subscription fee for complete access) there are great features that are free that should not be passed up!

Try the Make a Drawing page with a sophisticated and easy to use paint program. Children can see colors being added to their palette and how they mix, and they can choose settings for the transparency and size of their pen.

On the Make a Picture page, children select different backgrounds to start with and then they get to add elements to create their art in a collage style. I happened to find a couple of pages base on famous paintings. As elements are selected, facts are given about the artist and his work. 

I hope you get a chance to play at Kerpoof!

Vegetable Print Seascapes

My younger students have been exploring printmaking and recently we created some lovely seascapes. We used 12x18 construction paper in light gray for a neutral background. First we created an ocean along the bottom of our pages using various shades of blue tempera paint. The ends of cut celery stalks make great waves. The children were quite diligent in printing multiple times to fill up the ocean! Next I had some carved potatoes to use for the sun, clouds and fish. The children were responsible for choosing placement and number of elements on their pieces. The end result was a collection of lively and colorful works. Great job little artists!