Goodbye School, Hello Summer!

on June 06, 2017

"It's time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I'd much rather say hello. Hello to new adventures."


School is out at ACE Academy where I teach art, and summer has begun.. 
It was a great year for myself and my art students and I am sad but happy to see them go, so much to explore in this world.. who wants to waste it in a classroom?! 

Just kidding, school has positive qualities, too, but so does the outdoor classroom....

Enjoy and Have Fun Little Ones!

I'll be here in the Fall.. ready for ART!

--

Now, check out these hot air balloons, taking off! Going on their first summer adventure...

✌





Happenings in the ACE art room...

on April 03, 2017

Artists of the Month


In the last few months at ACE Academy, we have been studying famous artists... Paul Klee, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Rousseau, and Gustav Klimt.


I am loving being able to study an Artist and their works with students instead of doing art projects with no direction. It gives the projects more meaning when we have been studying the artist for weeks at a time. And the information given has more of a tendency to stick in the mind.

Ahh the power of multiple styles of learning!


Murals

Each month when we study our Artists and their artwork, we have been completing collaborative projects like.. MURALS! 


I love the idea of creating something together. A group project gives two great opportunities: to learn about a specific piece from the Artist and how to work together. Students were able to work on their sections when we had extra time after a lesson. It is the most perfect solution for finding "early finishers" something else to do.


Next up...


Portfolios

I am currently in the process in putting a portfolio unit together so students can learn to create studies and save their work like professional Artists do. I am very excited to get the students more involved in why we create Art. This would come with a possible gallery or art show happening with the school. I want to talk to a few of the staff and teachers and see if the school would be interested in doing that for an interactive learning experience for the kids. Not only students from our class can be involved, we can open it up to anyone, even staff, or a whole class! 


Let the creative juices flow in whichever way they choose!


New year, new goals, new attitude

on August 25, 2016

Welcome to the 2016-2017 school year!



The year has officially begun for the new school year! 

I am now back in action after a maternity leave. I'm ready to teach art and make amazing lesson plans to share with students and other educators. 

And I am excited for this year. I have some good ideas in the works! There will be some challenges along the way with maintaining my level of activity (due to the newest addition to my family) but I am looking forward to fulfilling to some much needed goals and lesson plans. My baby girl is my newest motivation to manage my time and new burst of creativity. 

A new year is ahead with a lot of opportunities to do my best .. Let's do this! 

.
.
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'The earth without art is just "eh".'

Ms. Jessica
The Art Teacher

Teacher Appreciation Sale!

on April 30, 2016

I am having a Teacher Appreciation Sale from May 3 to May 4, TWO DAYS ONLY! 

20% off EVERYTHING IN MY STORE!

I have a few new handouts up for Set Design and my lesson plan templates as well. I have been working on getting my original art lesson plans up there, too. 
I can't wait to share those when they are ready!


Thank you
:)

Fox Drawing Lesson

on February 25, 2016

We made a fox! 


 I found this lesson on Pinterest and it was a fun one that each class enjoyed so much. 

Each student created their fox in the foreground after learning about this element including middle ground and backgrounds in a composition...



Here is the step-by-step:


Every single fox was a happy little dude or gal! 


Some examples of student work: 





I recommend this lesson when learning about woodland animals!

Enjoy

Creating Mandalas

on January 14, 2016

What is a mandala?

"A mandala is a sacred space, often a circle, which reveals inner truth about you and the world around you."




"In Sanskrit mandala means both circle and center, implying that it represents both the visible world around us (the circle-the whole world) and the invisible one deep inside our minds and bodies (the center healing circle) from Native American and Tibetan sand-paintings to Gotgic rose windows and Hindu yantras, mandalas are used as symbols for meditation, protection, and healing."
- Clare Goodwin 1996

ART PROMPT: CREATE A MANDALA USING PATTERN AND SYMMETRY.


Students were taught how to create mandalas using repeating patterns and symmetry design. Each student created a mandala on 9x9" drawing paper using sharpies and colored pencils. 

 








I recommend using this lesson when teaching about geometry and symmetry in art.

I will be adding a template I used to create the mandalas (once I find where it went!) to this post, so check back soon or please comment for questions.

-

 Have you found other ways to bring mandalas into your child's education?

 Let me know your findings so we may all learn together!

Griffin Lesson

on December 03, 2015
Last week, students learned how to draw the mythical creature called a Griffin or Griffyn. This animal is half eagle and half lion and the students at Ace Academy loved drawing it. We created them using watercolors and they turned out beautiful!









I am officially on TpT!

on April 01, 2015
What is TpT? It is Teachers Pay Teachers - a website where teachers can list and sell their original lesson plans and whatever else is original and could help all teachers alike! And it is totally free!

It is a really awesome place that I have finally started to post on... you can find my shop here:

my Little hearts Little art TpT Store


I will always have free art lessons on this blog, that will always ALWAYS be free on my TpT store as well, but there are definitely some extensive lessons you might want to check back for that are priced at a fair cost! So check 'em out if you are wanting more...

A little snippet of what my Store looks like:

Quote of the Day

on June 11, 2014
Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.

Warm-to-Cool Drawing Series: Phoenix Lesson

on June 02, 2014

Warm-to-Cool Drawing Series

What is the "Warm-to-Cool" drawing series?

Starting off as a way to save time & energy, I created a draw along by just following the natural progression from a warm color to a cool color. You only need one drawing for your lesson; just the one like below. Then each line, by the order of how you want to instruct said line, is colored in the continuous step by step color on the color wheel: yellow, orange, red, violet, blue, green. 
It is that simple and easy to follow along, especially for us art teachers! 


How does this help?

If you are like me, you try your hardest to create your own lessons from scratch, and with this method it saves energy and time from drawing each step by step over and over again! You also kind of teach the kids something too, if you choose to hand these out; how to reach a cool color coming from a warm one! It's like two birds! A win-win! Learning and drawing!

Now you try it!

1. Draw what you want to teach (light pencil lines!)
2. Starting with a yellow marker or crayon, trace the first line you would like your students to draw. The very first step in a drawing! (Yellow is good as a starting point because the natural progression is highly evident, but also because it is a very light color, and the perfect match as the colored line for the basic shapes you would first start off with in your drawings.)
3. Then trace the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. from warm to cool. (orange, red, violet, blue, green, respectively)
4. You choose which colors are used, add the in between colors of blue-green or red-violet if needed, or even pink! It's easy, just take a gander at the color wheel and you will have endless possibilities for colors!



If you still have extra steps, invent colors! Double line it. Use the little gift of your mind we are so blessed to create with. 

Thanks for reading! Now, the official lesson and examples below.

How-to-Draw-a-Phoenix


Phoenix - mythical creature
Fantasy Art Class

Examples from Students:








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