Make learning about art history more fun and engaging by having an art history of the week! Geared towards secondary level students such as high school and middle school, this download includes everything you need to teach a semester (or 18 weeks) worth of art history movements & styles. Each art history movement takes approximately 10-20 minutes to teach, depending on which video links you decide to use. Integrate art history mini lessons quickly and effectively without boring your students!

Use the Burrito book template so each student can make their own art history "sketchbook" and all you need are scissors! Not sure how to make a burrito book? The template comes with pre-marked dashed lines for cutting and instructions with images in the powerpoint slideshow. Each page of the burrito book is dedicated to a different art movement. Students must write down the time period, art movement name, a definition in their own words, how the elements/principles are used in the example artwork, 3 characteristics of that art movement, and 2 things they learned from the video. The image examples are glued to create interactive flaps that make studying the art movements even more fun. This entire product took over 30 hours of work to complete, so save yourself some time & use this one!
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These cubes were made by my high school Art 1 students. Students signed up for a visual artist to research & create their own famous artist cube. I had students trace a cube template I made onto poster board and then encouraged them to "think outside the box" (Pun definitely intended). The results were pretty amazing! Each student then presented their creation to the class and we talked about our researched artists.

Just uploaded to my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Make learning about art history fun and engaging with your students! This coloring book includes 15 coloring pages that starts with Ancient Egyptian art and ends with Pop Art. Each coloring page has been recreated from the original master work of art. At the bottom of each coloring page, the title, artist, and date are included for reference. This 16 full page coloring book would also be an excellent enrichment or early-finisher activity. Print out the whole book or single pages depending on the unit and age level. These pages could also work as reference images for older students!

Click here to view the coloring book in my store

Which artists or cultures are included in this coloring book?
-“Anubis embalming Sennedjem” Wall Painting 1292 BC, Ancient Egypt
- “Achilles and Ajax engaged in a game” Amphora by Exekias, 540 BC, Ancient Greece
- “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo Da Vinci, 1503 AD, Italy
- “The Musicians” by Caravaggio, 1595 AD, Italy
-Detail of “The Grand Robe” by Great Plains Native Americans 1800-1830 AD
-“The Great Wave of Kanagawa” by Hokusai, 1830-1833 AD, Japan
-“Sunflowers” By Vincent Van Gogh, 1889 AD
-“The Basket of Apples” by Paul Cézanne, 1889 AD
-Advertisement for “Job” By Alphonse Mucha, 1898 AD
-“Red Poppy, No. VI” by Georgia O’Keeffe, 1928 AD
-“Persistence of Memory” By Salvador Dali, 1931 AD
-“Guernica” By Pablo Picasso, 1937 AD
-“Day and Night” By M.C. Escher, 1938 AD
-“Nighthawks” By Edward Hopper, 1942 AD
-“Campbell’s Tomato Soup” By Andy Warhol, 1962 AD

This 16 full page coloring book comes prepared with a title cover in .PDF format. All coloring pages are free of nudity.

I just had to share and brag a little bit :) One of my high school students won best of show in the drawing category at the massive Big 9 competition for visual arts in Minnesota. Her work titled "Russian Blue" was created using white charcoal on black paper. The assignment was to create a drawing using the chiaroscuro technique. She scored a 20/20 and has the opportunity to display her beautiful work at the Perpich Center in the Twin Cities. I am so so proud of her work and excited to see what she creates next.

Just had to share a photo of the crazy coil clay projects that are drying. These were made by 6th graders! I will post more details about the lesson when they are finished, but I just couldn't wait that long!

This semester, I got an idea from a fellow art teacher that I just love! The idea is that you take old hardcover books and upcycle them into sketchbooks! I had the library donate about 75 books to my classroom that had worn covers or torn pages. I asked each student to select a book and "upcycle" it in a way that they liked! I let my high school students use paint, oil pastels, markers, colored pencils-- pretty much any media of their choice. I got out my paper scrap and scrapbook paper buckets and let them go crazy...it has been so much fun!

The nice part about this project is that it is ongoing, allows students a range of creativity and choice in their creations, and eventually each student will have a full and interesting visual journal to keep. Many of my students are taking this project very seriously. I plan on taking photos of each student's visual journal at the end of the semester and I will post photos soon!

I created a set of prompts for each of my class. They have the entire semester to complete the prompts. I included the list of prompts below for your use. 

Since 3rd quarter is just about done, I decided to try something new with my art students. I just finished having what I call "Mini conferences" with my high school students, and I had to write a blog post to report my findings! Basically, I spent two days meeting with each of my high school students one on one during class. Half the class was on the first day, half the class was on the second day. I focused on talking about the following with each student:

• Grades, participation, & academic progress
• How they feel about the class & their art skills
• What I can do to improve as a teacher or the curriculum as a whole
  
  

Overall I spent only 3-5 minutes with each student, which doesn't seem like a huge amount of time, but the amount I learned during this process is more than worth it! There are a few reasons why I will do this again, and I outline them below:

1. Get Feedback from Your Students

This was something I was not expecting, but was beyond value to me! While talking with each student privately, they provided me with a ton of feedback to improve my teaching and curriculum. When I asked students how they felt about the class, most students said "Good". When I asked them about the pace of the class, I had several students say they felt that it was going too fast. Many students said they'd like to spend more time on their paintings. If I had never asked them this, I would have kept trucking along! I also asked students how they felt about the projects. Many students shared their own ideas for projects they would like to try. They gave me so many ideas, I just wish I had them for the entire year so we could do them all!

2. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

While discussing grades, I also talked with students about their strengths and weaknesses. Even if a student has 100% in my class, I know they are not perfect. For example, I have a student who has exceptional skill and a high level of perfectionism. Her artwork is college-level work, but her artist statement writing is below average. When discussing this with her, I discovered that she has always struggled with writing and just doesn't know where to start when writing an artist statement. She said she really struggled with getting her thoughts onto paper. We talked about this for a bit, so I offered a piece of differentiated instruction: I would walk her through the questions for the artist statement verbally, then she would orally respond with her answers and I would take notes for her on her responses. Next, I had her re-write my notes as a 2-paragraph artist statement. This seemed to really help her through the process and she still demonstrated her learning (which is the goal, right?) Identifying strengths and weaknesses with students helps them understand where they need to improve and grow, but it also helps me understand where I need to start with a lesson. It helps me differentiate depending on student skill level and readiness.

3. Help them Stay on Track

I don't know about you, but I have a few students who would rather sit on their phones all day looking at themselves than work on their projects. For these students, I found the mini conferences to be extremely valuable. First, I showed them what work they were missing. One girl literally had no idea she was missing 3 assignments. Turns out, she forgot to turn 2 of them in. She immediately went to her drawer, got the 2 assignments out and turned them in. I didn't take points away. She had done the assignments and demonstrated her learning. Next, we talked about participation. I showed students the total number of points they had received and why they lost points (on their phones, not working during class, etc.). I think this was a real eye opener for some students. While the points don't negatively affect their grade, I keep track during class as a way to collect data. If a student is not doing what they are supposed to do, I take a point away, and attempt to redirect them. While I love my cell phone, I explained to students that when they're just on their phones the entire time, they are not able to focus and also miss important things like announcements, lessons, and the real world around them. I ended the conference by telling them that I care about their success in my class, whether they like art or not, and that my job was to help them succeed. I can't tell you how many of my struggling art students went right to work afterwards!

The cool thing about living in Rochester is that we actually have a set of Andy Warhol's Endangered Species Series here at the Mayo Clinic. They are free to view, however, they do not do field trips or tours. This was fun, since some of my kiddos said they had seen this artworks in real life. 

After our discussion about Andy Warhol's work, I had students choose an animal to draw. I tiered the assignment so students of all abilities could feel a sense of accomplishment. The lower level students were allowed to trace an animal. The middle level students were allowed to draw from observation by looking at a picture of the animal. The higher level students were encouraged to draw the animal from memory or based on an idea. This allowed my gifted and talented students a little more freedom and independence, which I think they enjoyed. It also allowed my lower level students to feel like they could create an awesome work of art. I'm not a huge fan of tracing, but it has it's time and place in every art class.

Once they drew their animals, they had to show me their drawing in order to get their foam. They taped the paper to the foam and started tracing over their design. They went over their designs with a blunt pencil or mechanical pencil with no lead. Next, we started printing! After they printed 3 different prints, I had some students outline their lines with oil pastel to add an Andy Warhol look to their work. You can view the demo video I played for my students at the end of this post. View examples of my students work below.

This project was quite extensive, but one of my favorite projects I have ever taught! We spent a day having a class discussion about the work of Shepard Fairey and the way Shepard Fairey uses visual art as a way to draw attention to a particular social issue such as pollution, inequality, and greed. We also talked about the works of Banksy and Ricardo Levins Morales (Minneapolis-based activist artist). We listened to a Podcast interview of Ricardo and his work. Listen to the podcast of Ricardo Levins Morales on MPR here.

Students were first asked to brainstorm different social issues. At first, some students really struggled thinking of ideas. For the kids who struggled, I asked them what they liked. For example, a student said he liked music. I asked him if he knew of any problems in the music industry. He immediately said "Piracy", "Inequality", "Sexism" and "People need to support local music more".  These are all great examples of social issues that tie into a student interest. Some examples of social issues chosen by students for this project include marriage equality, racial equality, saving and protecting animals, recycling, protecting the environment, religious equality, self esteem, perfectionism, anti-bullying, and greed.

One issue I did run into was I had one student who wanted to do a design based around legalizing marijuana. Even though I personally didn't find this offensive, I knew it would be an issue since I teach at a public school! Drugs are bad...mmmk? So I had to explain to the student that while I am all for freedom of expression, that I would appreciate it if he chose a different, more school appropriate topic. I dislike the idea of censorship in my classroom, but there's got to be a line drawn somewhere, right?

Next, students were given the challenge of illustrating that social issue. The goal was to create a design that clearly illustrated the chosen social issue. Some students did better at this than others. Each student had to show me their design plan in order to get their linoleum. Students used a 6B ebony pencil to outline their design plan, flip the plan on top of the linoleum, and burnish the design onto the linoleum. This helped students keep their words & letters backwards when carving without having to worry about writing the letters and words backwards.

Finally, students started carving their designs! View my demo video below for complete instructions.

Students were asked to create 6 different prints and choose 3 for display. After they finished preparing their prints for exhibit, they were asked to write an artist statement. Two of the guiding questions for their artist statement was "How can art change the world?" and "What is visual art's relationship to society?". Some of the responses I got were truly inspiring. Overall, I loved this project and how it engaged all of my students!

 My high school students just recently finished their Zentangle or Tangle tile project. We talked about the differences between geometric and organic patterns. Students were asked to divide their 12"x12" drawing paper up into at least 12 different sections with each section having a different pattern. Students used sharpies with different widths to create their patterns and designs. Students were also asked to create an equal balance of darker patterns and lighter patterns. I allowed students the option of adding color.

My students with anxiety and depression really seemed to benefit from this project. My room was so quiet when they were working on this! Not to mention, my room was less of a mess! I played relaxing piano and classical music while they worked...which surprisingly most kids enjoyed. Some students said this was their favorite project of the semester!

My Draw/Paint I high school students did an awesome job on this project! Though I usually like students to have a more open-ended art assignment, this one seemed to work well for all students.

For this assignment, I introduced students to the work of Wayne Thiebaud (Tee-Bow). We discussed how he used colors in interesting ways and applied the paint thickly to the canvas like frosting. His work has a 3-dimensional quality that makes it addicting to look at! I then had students experiment with oil pastel and mixing colors of oil pastel using the 3 primary colors.

Finally, I had students choose a color copy of a Wayne Thiebaud work that they liked. The nice thing about Thiebaud's work is that it offers an enticing selection for students to choose from. My students had to draw the work based on the color copy with pencil first. Some students chose to draw using the grid method they had learned in the previous lesson.

Next, they used oil pastel to add color. I encouraged students to apply the oil pastel very thickly to recreate the 3-dimensional quality of Thiebaud's work. This project was a lot of fun, because it helped even below average students feel successful at art. This project took approximately 2 weeks (10 50-minute class times) for students to finish.

Halfway through the project I brought in cupcakes for all my students because they complained that Thiebaud's work made them hungry. What's better than making art and eating cupcakes!?

View the compiled stop motion animations below!

This was probably the most difficult to teach but most fun project I have done with my 6th grade students. This project took approximately 6 class times to complete. I had the idea for this project based on the "Ugly Dolls" that I've seen in gift shops here and there. I was also inspired to teach this project because my school eliminated it's FACS and Industrial Tech classes and I've had many students asking me when they will get to learn how to sew.

This project cost around $200 for the supplies. That came to around $1 per student, which I thought was reasonable, considering the time they spent working on them. I got a jumbo box of 20 lbs of stuffing from Nasco art supplies for around $32. The felt was about 25 cents per sheet. The glue sticks were the most expensive part. I already had a lot of buttons and extra decorating materials.

For this project, I taught over 200 6th graders how to sew in two class times. It was a lot of work, but I'll give you some pointers if you want to give it a go.

Tips for this project:

• Cut & tie the knots in the crochet thread or yarn before having kids sew. Tying the knots was extremely difficult for some kids and ended up being a major waste of time. I learned the hard way....it was so much easier to just tie the knots for them!
• Stress that each student gets one piece of felt-- no more, no less. I let the students who were most respectful when I was talking at the beginning of class choose their color of felt first.
• Have lots of ribbons, buttons, and odds/ends for students to use to decorate their monster
• You will use lots of hot glue if using it to glue on decorations. I went through 8 bags of 50 glue sticks with 200 6th graders.

Organize & keep track of sewing needles by sticking them in a piece of scrap foam board. Label each needle with a # and assign each student a #. This worked pretty well!

Don't buy store-bought needle threaders. They break very easily (as I learned the hard way). You can easily make your own with the thinnest jewelry wire you can buy, some scrap mat board or card board, and glue. These needle threaders saved so much time and the kids thought they were magic!

This has got to be one of my favorite projects to work on with my middle school art students. The project goes relatively quickly (2 class times) and my students love to learn about the glass artist Dale Chihuly. The sculpture in the picture above is made of 200 plastic bottles. Each bottle was donated by a student or staff member at our school. We started collecting bottles about 3 weeks before we started the project. Each student selected a bottle & painted it with acrylic. Acrylic paint works much better than tempera. Next, each student was assigned a style for cutting the bottle apart (star shape or spiral shape). Some students modified their styles slightly for a more unique design.

Today I spent the better part of the day creating my own Elements of Art posters. As a newer teacher, I've had some problems finding decent posters and decorations for my art room. I found one batch of posters that retailed for over $75.00 and they weren't all that attractive. I created these Elements of Art posters in a variety of formats depending on what you would like to use them for. They are exciting and really hone in on the key concepts of each element of art. I also wanted to expose students to a variety of different artworks on the posters such as works by Rembrandt, Salvador Dali, Andrew Wyeth, Picasso, Grant Wood, Mondrian, and Van Gogh.

Each poster includes the definition of the element and multiple examples for students to learn by. A .zip file containing 96 total pages of posters is available for sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I offer them in a 24"x30" and 16"x20" block poster size as well as .jpg and .pdf formats for easy printing. Save money and assemble your own posters that will appeal to your students. These posters will appeal to students of all ages and abilities. You can also use the posters as printable handouts for students.

Buy the set of 6 elements of art poster designs in a 96-page .zip file by clicking here.

I decided to create two summer art classes that were each a week long through Community education in my district. The first class was called "Art Around the World" and featured projects such as a chinese lantern, making didgeridoos out of PVC pipe, and multicultural paper mache masks. The second class was called "Arts & Crafts Camp" and I definitely think this class was my favorite. The Arts & Crafts camp really let student's imaginations run wild and create some really cool art! Each class included students from the ages of 9 to 13. If you've never taught a community ed art class before, you should know it's a blast! No tests, no standards, just a room full of art supplies and enthusiastic students. For any other interested art teachers out there, I included the schedules for each class's days below for your reference.

Art Around the World
Day One- Mexican Folk Art terra cotta pots & Paper mache mask
Day Two- Australian Didgeridoos made out of PVC pipe with a beeswax mouthpiece
Day Three- African Adinkra printmaking on t-shirts
Day Four- Ukrainian painted eggs & Russian architecture metal tooling
Day Five- Chinese Calligraphy lantern & Free Art Time

Arts & Crafts Camp
Day One- Cardboard Challenge & Leather tooling/stamping
Day Two- Travel Posters & Clay food
Day Three- Dada-inspired lamp & Drawing to Music
Day Four- Metal tooling & painting clay food to look realistic
Day Five- Junk Sculptures & Hot glue fancy frames

Check out the photos below to see all of the cool art we created & tips for doing the same!