Inside: Six works of art with discussion questions and creative activities that make perfect first day of school art activities for art teachers of any grade. August is coming… I know. Summer just started! You’ve barely had a chance to sunbathe or swim, and yet it’s almost time to attend in-service meetings, set up your…
frida kahlo
5 Tips for Meaningful Classroom Art Discussion
Inside: Five tips for how to lead a classroom art discussion that will get your students thinking about and enjoying works of art. Looking at art is an inspirational and emotional experience. Talking about art is a launching pad for creativity, collaboration, and cognition. A meaningful classroom art discussion helps students develop empathy, flex thinking…
Beyond the Poker Table: 25 Dogs in Art
Inside: There is more to dogs in art than just dogs playing poker! Check out 25 of these fetching examples of dogs in art. Next week is Chinese New Year which starts the year of the dog! To celebrate the year of the dog and to honor the newest member to my family (meet my…
8 Powerful Modern Mexican Artworks
Inside: This group of Modern Mexican artwork will inspire you with emotion, depth, and storytelling. Explore these top Mexican artists as well as new artists you may not know! I don’t know how much art is worth be caught outdoors in an epic torrential rain miles from the car with two crying children, but I…
The Two Fridas – Art Discussion Lesson
During the first week of school, three teachers and administrators at my new school told me, “All of middle school hated art and music last year. All of them.” And, they didn’t just hate it, they LOATHED it. Let me tell you, that gave me a great confidence boost to start the new school year. Yikes. I think…
10 Artworks Perfect for an Art Criticism Lesson
Through my many years of teaching, I’ve accumulated a nice list of artworks that are perfect to discuss with students and teach them how to analyze art. These artworks spark lots of interesting ideas, have easy to notice design choices that contribute to the meaning, and always lead to a great art criticism discussion (or…
The Best Examples of Balance in Art: Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, and Radial
Continuing on with The Elements and Principles of Art series, this article focuses on good examples of balance in art. These examples and definitions are dividing into the different types of balance in art: symmetrical balance in art, asymmetrical balance in art, and radial balance in art. I will add to this examples of balance in art…
5 Artworks to Intrigue Your High Schooler
Welcome back to my series where I curate groups of paintings around themes for use with your students. Each post, I will pick 5 artworks that you could start discussing today in your homeschool or classroom. Also, check out this post on how to look at art with kids for tips on discussion artworks. Note…
Best Artist Books and Movies for Kids and Adults
Although I don’t think it is necessary to study the lives of individual artist to enjoy and connect with their artwork, hearing stories about artists can make their art come alive in new and exciting ways. Several months ago, I received a message from a reader. This is what she said. My number one struggle…
A Year of Art Appreciation for Kids: 52 Artworks your Child Should Know
I have compiled for you a massive list of artworks for you to look at with your kids this year. I picked one artwork for each week of the year, and I tried to pick the best of the best. If you haven’t been showing art to your kids, this is a great list to…
Art Around the World in 30 Days – Day #3 – Mexico
Hola! Today Masterpiece Monday and Art Around the World collide into an action-packed post about a super cool work of art. Okay, maybe not action-packed, but the artwork is super awesome. I gave you a hint yesterday that an awesome unibrow would come into play today. Did you guess the artist correctly? If you guessed…
