Art Blog Hop

I am in the process of planning out our art for the year. I thought that I would share some of the wonderful art blogs that I have visited so far. I wish that I was a kid again so I could attend some of these classes. I do not remember having art teachers this cool.

Katie at Adventures of an Art Teacher has a great idea for a Dimensional Paper Project. This will be an amazing project. I cannot wait to do this myself.

These beautiful Rainforest paintings are from Art With Mr. E.

Stop by Ms. Malone's Art Room to view this great lesson on Name Mandalas. My children love mandalas.

Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists made these amazing Calder-esque Sculptures. These will be beautiful on our school shelf.

Some of Our Art Work from the last 2 weeks...

Squirrel did this in our homeschool co-op 2 weeks ago. That artist woman had a fantastic Polar Bear Craft.


Last week the kids and I worked on chalk pastel iguanas. This was my first time ever using chalk pastels. Thanks to Deep Space Sparkle for this great project.

I just had to try...

Last night I was reading Deep Space Sparkle and I just had to try her Line Drawing Part I: Turtles. I had so much fun. I cannot wait to do it with the children. I just tried to do the fish in her next section, but my paper was too small. I will have to wait until I get a bigger piece of paper. I am going to take her advice and have many examples of different patterns on the board before doing this with the children.

Doodles

My kids like to do things while I read aloud. One of their favorite things to do is Doodle while I am reading. Here are some of their creations. We had a doodle starter, but I cannot find the link at all. If you happen to know it, please leave it in a comment. TY!

Awesome Children's Art Lesson Blogs

I spent a good bit of the morning blog hopping on art blogs. Let me just say that I absolutely feel in love with these blogs. I wish that I had an art teacher like these teachers.

The Crafty Crow gives you wonderful ideas on how to use recyclable materials for crafts.

Art Projects For Kids uses math to create art.

Deep Space Sparkle demonstrates how to make a Foil Turtle and Fish Collage.

Oodles of Elementary Art Projects has a new take on self Portraits. Falling Back In Space Portraits look like they were a lot of fun to make.

Miss Tabareca has a creative way of making your name into art.

Miss Julie shows you how to make your own castle.

I see lots and lots of crafts in our future.

Control Freak? Yes or No?

We are participating in an Easter Egg Exchange through a pen pal group that we are a part of. The idea is to decorate construction paper eggs and swap with another family. I thought that this was a great idea. My kids loved this idea.

We are sitting down to make them and I am trying my best to not tell them how to decorate them. I did not want to stifle their creativity. Well after 30 minutes, I couldn't help it anymore. I know that my children are not putting out their best work. They are half-assing(if that is a word). I had to say something. When I asked the kids if they would want something that someone spent 20 seconds with or something someone put thought and care into. They all wanted the later.

I feel bad, because I said that I was going to let them do their own thing. I want them to understand that they cannot just sign up for things and not follow through. I want them to be responsible.

I just can't decide if I am really just a control freak. What would you of done?

First Day Back

We started school back up today. We started off easy. The kids did some P.E. on the Wii this morning. We then went to the library and A.C. Moore. Once we came home we made lunch and watched Iron Chef America. We sat down together and did math. I must say that it was a little bit of a struggle today. They just couldn't get back into the school frame of mind for math. We then read part of Nature's Paintbox A Seasonal Gallery of Art and Verse by Patricia Thomas. This is a great way to introduce different art mediums to your kids. We did drawings today with pen. The kids could use very little color. Some had an easier time understanding this than others.

Nest we started our solar system unit. We are starting with the sun and then working our way out. I read 2 books on the sun today, Sun Where Do You Go? and Why the Sun & Moon live in the Sky. Both of these books were great! One was very cute and one informative in a fun way. After we read the books they painted suns on canvas panels.

Thanksgiving Art Class

The kids had art class last week. They had to draw and then paint Thanksgiving pictures.

Watercolors

I took was trying to make paint from a powder. I accidently made it too thin, but then it looked like watercolors. My kids had a blast here are some of their creations. Dragon made "Nothing" and a Ferris Wheel.
Tracker made a Pokemon.


Squirrel made a beautiful Rainbow.

Th is is what happens when you try and clean up the painting fun by putting all the cups in a paper bag. Even 2 days of rain hasn't made it completely disappear.

Mandalas

On Saturday we had the amazing opportunity to go see The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Mandala Sand Painting exhibit. The actual sand painting was amazing. Words cannot describe the beauty of it. There was so much love and peace in the room. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures. Of course pictures wouldn't do it justice anyway. The picture above was taken from the newspaper(you can click on it to see the article & more pictures).

I had a wonderful discussion with the museum's Education Coordinator. I learned that the monks use 16 different designs. That the monks don't decide on a design before they arrive. They want to get a feel for the community before they commit to a design. Once they have a design picked out they make a chalk outline. But they only do this for the geometric parts of the design, the rest is dome freehand. While they are creating the sand painting, they say prayers and kind words. They put positive energy into it. Once it is completed(the one we saw took 30hrs to complete) they have a closing ceremony this is from their website:

Traditionally most sand mandalas are destroyed shortly after their completion. This is done as a metaphor of the impermanence of life. The sands are swept up and placed in an urn; to fulfill the function of healing, half is distributed to the audience at the closing ceremony, while the remainder is carried to a nearby body of water, where it is deposited. The waters then carry the healing blessing to the ocean, and from there it spreads throughout the world for planetary healing.

My kids got the chance to use their instruments and they had a blast! I have taken a blank mandala design and had it blown up. It is roughly the size of a poster. We are going to work on it as a family. Then I am going to get it matted and framed. I am hoping to hang it over our couch.

Here are some great online resources for your own mandalas:
Mandala Galleries
Mandala Prints
Mandala Art Gallery
Zodiac Arts Mandala Gallery
Mandala Project: Mandalas
Personal Mandalas
Animal Mandalas
Printable Pages...
Printable Mandalas - You can print these to color. I saved them all. My kids have been coloring them like crazy!!
Mandala Coloring Pages
Mandala Coloring Pages 2
Mandala Coloring Pages 3
Mandala Coloring Pages 4
More Coloring Pages
Mandalas for Young Children
Animal Mandala Coloring Pages