I love using cereal boxes for all kinds of things. They are the perfect thickness of cardboard for many projects. I keep them in a box and use them for templates and projects all the time…but usually I just use the back side of them. For this project, I thought it would be fun to use the front side of them and actually see how kids might incorporate the designs from the box into a project.

“Cereal Box Shoes” was a big hit! 

First, I had to try it myself to see how it was going to work. Of course, I love color so I chose a fun colorful box from my collection of cereal boxes.

You will need:

Cereal boxes (a large variety), pencil, scissors, glue, and masking tape.

1. I had the kids trace around their own shoes to get the size of the shoe large enough to actually work with. The front of the box (the colorful side) is going to be the design on the sole of the shoe so I have kids plan this out so they like what they get. I’m sure you already know this, but kids think it’s kind of funny to take off their shoes at school. Sometimes they REALLY don’t want to do this so I just let them work with someone to get their shoe traced while it’s still on…but I take my own shoes off to be silly with them and they usually play along a bit better. 

2. Then the kids cut out the bottom portion of the box that they just traced  for both feet.

3. Those first two steps are pretty fast (once the kid agree to remove their shoes). However, it’s nice to really give the kids some time for this next step. They will use the scraps from their box or share with their friends and design their shoe. Since my example was more of a sandal that is what most kids wanted to make, however encourage them to think of their own ideas and to have some fun designing. Allow time for kids to process and think, some kids can jump right in with ideas and other kids take time. Sometimes kids who need time feel worried when they don’t come up with an idea right away and they’ll just copy someone so as not to look silly sitting there. Let kids work through the “design” phase with trial and error–try to be very hands-off here. Let them see what works and what doesn’t. They can use tape and glue to attach parts of the shoe. Sometimes it is helpful to use tape while designing and then go back with glue and put it all together. 

Okay–I have to warn you–the kids WILL want to try these shoes on. This was something I wasn’t expecting (I’m not sure why I wasn’t expecting this…of COURSE they would want to actually wear them!).

This is one of those projects where the “process” of problem solving and designing is more important than the final result. The kids are not  making REAL shoes that have to stand up to the tests of actual shoes, they are just designing and therefore can dream up whatever their imagination will allow. It’s important that kids get to create in these ways without fear of being “wrong” and with time to allow problem solving to happen.

Other fun recycling-related projects:
Water Bottle Fish

Recycled Crayons

Bottle Top Flags

If you are interested in any of my art integration resources, you can find them for classroom teachers, art teachers and parents HERE.

I hope your kids have fun and, of course, I always love seeing you on social media and reading your comments!

Best,

Jenny K.

A few years ago, our state celebrated its centennial. For our annual art show the theme was going to be centered around this celebration. Therefore, I designed a bunch of lessons based on the state of Arizona. One of the lessons I created was a collaboration project that would involve as many kids as I could. We used bottle tops to create the Arizona flag and used pennies as the star since we are sometimes called the copper state. You could use this idea to make  your own state flag and the buy-in would be great for all of your community. 

Everyone helped with this project in one way or another. First and foremost, we had to round up all of those bottle tops. I asked kids to bring them in. And in they came…and came…and came…and came!  There were so many bottle tops I could have made several of these flags. The best part was that they were all different. The really little kids helped me sort the colors. Since this was going in an art show, I didn’t plan for it to be a permanent piece of art, although after I saw how it came out I wish I had thought of it that way. Also the structure we were attaching it to would be moved to the place where the art show was. So with those factors in play, I attached large thick black paper to the bulletin board that it was going to be displayed on and I drew with white pencil the outline of the Arizona Flag. 

In each space I wrote the color that corresponded to the flag design. My older students and I then started hot gluing the bottle tops on. At first I did all the gluing because I was so afraid to let any of the kids do it and get burned. However, my fifth graders set me straight fast and told me they were used to them at home and could handle it. Turns out they were right and they did a great job. Many different kids worked on attaching the pieces (an no one got burned…exhale art teacher). 

At first, I was intending to put brown bottle tops in the middle but I quickly didn’t like how that looked and came up with the idea to use real pennies since our state is famous for copper. This also created a neat effect because the pennies sat so close to the surface of the board and the bottle tops stuck out at all different depths. There was so much movement and depth in the final work. 

After the centennial show, I just couldn’t bring myself to destroy this work so it stayed on display in our office for a long time, until finally it had been touched and picked at enough that it was “time” to take it down…as much as it pained me, we did. You can use this method and create your state flag …and then show me, because I’d LOVE to see it!!!

Check out all of my art integration resources for classroom teachers, art teachers and parents HERE.

Other recycled material ideas you might like:

Recycled Crayons

Water Bottle Fish

Cereal Box Shoes

Thanks for reading and for making art with your kids!

Jenny K.

In elementary school, kids use a lot of crayons in art class!  I finally got smart about what to do with all the old beat up crayons that kids don’t want to use anymore. I started using them to make new recycled crayons in fun shapes.  I asked one of my classes if they knew what “recycling” means and a little girl replied, “It’s when you put your trash in the other trash can”…honestly can it get any cuter then that? That was years ago and now I have a toddler and she and I even have a goofy song about the “blue and green” trash cans…If you aren’t an art teacher but still want to make some of these crayons simply ask for crayon donations and you’ll most likely get more than you bargained for.

I am going to break down all of the steps for you with pictures and directions in this post but first you might want to start by watching this video I made…

Preparing the old crayons

Organize all the crayons you’ve collected into their different colors.  I let my little kinders do this when we are working on sorting and colors. They LOVE this, especially if you assign colors to kids, then they just look for “their” color…make it a game and they will have fun while practicing to sort!

I’m not going to sugar coat it, taking off the paper is the worse part of this process. Sometimes the paper pops right off and sometimes…well it’s frustrating. SO, what I learned to do was go around while the kids were peeling the paper and use an X-acto knife and score the paper. I could do this very quickly to many crayons and then the kids would take the paper off. But obviously that should only be done by an adult. Also–VERY IMPORTANT–you need to use good crayons like CRAYOLA (no they haven’t paid me to say that). The wax to pigment ratio in crayons like Crayola is the right mix to melt again. Cheaper crayons are cheaper because they have more wax and that wax bubbles up and is hard to melt.

Melting the crayons (adults only)

Break up the crayons into smaller pieces and put them in glass jars (baby food jars are ideal). 

(You can melt in the microwave but the fumes are pretty nasty. I prefer the stove with the exhaust fan on…HIGH)!

Put a small amount of water in the bottom of the pan.

You are going to bring it to a boil so you’ll only want the water to come up to about 1/2 the height of the jars you are using.

Add the jars in (before you turn on the burner) and fit them in as tightly as possible so they don’t tip over.

Once the wax is melted use an oven mitt (jars will be VERY hot) and pour the wax into candy molds. I’ve found these molds at craft stores in the candy making section and even at IKEA. They are easy to find now because making your own crayons has become very popular.  Mix up the colors and make fun combinations. If you don’t want two colors to mix in the mold let the first layer dry a little bit before you add the next color. I’m impatient sometimes and like to move along fast, so I found that putting the molds in the refrigerator sped up the cooling process. It only take a little while. You’ll know when they are ready because they will pop right out of the molds.

…and Voila!!!!

For some reason I always have TONS (and I mean TONS) of orange crayons. So I actually used an old sand toy in the shape of Flounder the fish (above figure, lower left panel) and used up a bunch of that orange. Those really big crayons make excellent gifts.

I might have gone a little crazy with these the first time I made them in 2011, but it was so much fun and I’ve gotten tons of use from these…

Using the Crayons

Little hands on recycled crayons: I wanted to see how it would go with the new crayons so I gave my students a basic coloring sheet and let them work. I liked how they had to turn the crayons in all different directions to get the color they wanted. This made me think about how I’ll make them in the future so they might have certain color combinations together in one crayon. For example a “landscape” crayon would have blues and greens all together…things like that. Perhaps you may think of other color combinations that would be good together.

I have used these for all sorts of things over the years; gifts, reward systems…you name it! The kids think it’s very special when you give them their own crayon. They sort of cup their hands out and hold it like a little nugget of gold. It’s sweet.

I use them with my own daughter all the time and when she was about 18 months I put her down on my butterfly poster and gave her some of these crayons to use. She loves them too… You can see my post about this HERE or by clicking on the picture below. 

For all of my art integration resources for classroom teachers, art teachers and parents check them out HERE.

Other recycled material posts:

Water Bottle Fish

Cereal Box Shoes

Bottle Top Flags

Thanks for reading and for making art with your kids!

Jenny K.

I have many fun and easy art projects you can do in your classroom for Earth Day. I’ve rounded them all up in this one post so you can see them easily. Many involve using reused materials and are great community projects for your class. I hope you enjoy them! These projects are wonderful in the art room but I strive to bring art integration to classroom teachers to empower them to be successful with the arts. Parents enjoy these ideas as well. I hope you find a fun idea you can use this year for your Earth Day celebrations or for any time of the year!

This is a round-up of my ideas so please click on any images or colored text below to see the full directions for each idea!

Water Bottle Fish

Use your recycled water bottles and let kids make fish out of them. Using simple materials like tissue paper and glue, kids will enjoy a new perspective on a common object. (click on the image to see full post)

Cereal Box Shoes

Recycled cereal boxes have a ton of great uses and here the kids can use all the beautiful colors and shapes found on the boxes in combination with their imaginations to become the designer of a fun, unique pair of (cereal box) shoes.

(click on the image to see full post)

Interactive Coloring Sheets

We all know how much kids love to color. However, usually coloring sheets, when completed, look pretty similar to one another. Kids all want blue skies and green grass (well, don’t we all?)…but I have created coloring sheets that are more interactive in nature. Meaning that the KIDS decide on all the important stuff like the final designs, the patterns and the colors. This year included with my Earth Day interactive coloring sheets are also pattern-filled sheets so that little kids (who might struggle too much filling in the patterns themselves) can enjoy this activity sheets and prepare for when they can design them on their own.

(click on the image to see this resource)

Recycled Crayons

You know I’m all about making you look awesome(er) to your kids…and what better way then to make your own crayons?! I mean, honestly, they will think this is très cool (because it is)! Use up all your old broken crayons and make new fun shapes just by melting the wax and pouring it into candy molds. This post has a video included as well so you can easily see how to make these crayons. 

(click on the image to see full post)

Collaboration Earth Day Poster

It’s fun to decorate your classroom with posters for Earth Day but if you involve the kids in the process it’s even MORE fun (for them!) I create collaborative posters for all kinds of occasions but I think Earth Day is particularly wonderful because it encompasses the idea of how important it is for everyone to do their part to achieve a desired outcome. In these posters, each student must participate and help out or else the poster won’t look right with a missing or messed up piece…It’s a powerful message that you hardly have to tell them, they really “get” it all on their own! Keep the poster a surprise until it’s put together and you’ll really make them happy.  This resource has two Earth Day poster designs. 

(click on the image to see this resource)

Bottle Top State Flag

Speaking of collaboration…this is the mother of all collaboration projects.

Using recycled bottle tops, create your state flag (or perhaps an Earth Day image) to display in your community. It’s easier than it looks and it really involves everyone in one way or another. 

(click on the image to see full post)

 I hope you found something in this Earth Day round-up that you can use now or pin for later. There are always so many ways to use the arts to excite and educate your children. Thanks for reading, visiting my site and, most of all, for making art with your kids!

Jenny K.

Earth Day Agamograph preview: You can view how this project transitions from one image to another  in 13 seconds by clicking on the video below.

Check out this resource online HERE (or by clicking on the images in this post).

I love this product because it encompasses all that I strive to do with my art integration resources. Traditionally, art teachers create agamographs with their students and they are always exciting. However, as wonderful as they would be for classroom teachers to create as well, they traditioanlly, would be very time-consuming for the classroom and very messy. I’m always trying to think of ways to keep the creative and fun elements of art but to make them as easy and useful for classroom teachers as possible. For this project I have removed as much of the “prep and mess” by doing the work on my end so it’s easier for teachers on their end. Still this project is challenging for the kids and has a HUGE WOW factor at the end.

Provided in this resource are the handouts with the images already spliced together with colors assigned to the various shapes. There are two designs. The first is of a recycle symbol that turns into an earth and the second is of water drops that change into a tree. Students color the images, cut them out and fold them to create amazing end results! 

I have created a video that demonstrates the entire process of this project (included when you purchase the resource) and I have also made very detailed written instructions for the teachers and students along with quick check lists! I have included absolutely everything I can possibly think of to make this easy for teachers and fun for kids.

Also included are writing prompts so the finished work can be related easily to Earth Day! See the product HERE.

Kids loved this project…

The finished display is stunning!

 I sent this lessons to some real life classroom teachers and had them test this lesson out in the classroom. Since these ladies are classroom teachers AND Teachers Pay Teachers authors they know what is needed to make a good resource. They all thought this project was very useful, easy to follow and fun for their kids–teacher (and kid) approved!  Please visit them online to see all the amazing resources they have created themselves…simply click on the logos below to see what they are up to! 

Thanks for reading and for checking out my new ideas! As always, thank you for making art with your kids!!!

Jenny K.

Please welcome Erin Johnson as my Featured Teacher this month and check out the THREE GIVEAWAYS happening at the bottom of this post. When you read her guest blog post below you will know exactly why she is so great. Wait until you see all the amazing projects she did with your class recently. She’s a testament that kids love to make art in the classroom and that classroom teachers can give kids these artistic moments.

Hi friends!

I’m Erin, first grade teacher, wife, mother, and lover of all things creative.  You can find me on Instagram.  My blog is:however, I haven’t posted a darn thing this year!  Time to dust off the cobwebs, reenergize, and refocus.  Thank you to my sweet friend, Jenny, for allowing me to showcase some of the lovely creations that can be found in Room 703 this month with my sweet 1st graders! 

Because it’s spring, we are featuring an abundance of seasonal art. First up, is a simple paper project that came to us via the ever-popular Pinterest. I always attempt to tie in other curricular areas with our art.  To prepare for this piece, we read Shel Silverstein’s, The Giving Tree.

 

“She gave the boy whatever she had.” Tessa

 

 

 

 

 “I made so many lines!” Peyton

 “I loved doing it.  I put paper strips on the egg and then another piece of paper on top.” Elliott

 “I learned that it’s ok to make mistakes.” Quintin

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hi Teachers–Isn’t Erin awesome?! I decided to join her in the spirit of appreciating teachers and I too am giving away a $10 TPT gift card. I am also giving away a copy of one of my newest Earth Day projects.

Winners chosen and e-mailed Sunday evening April 19th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for reading,

Jenny K.

This year I had entirely too much fun coloring my Pop Art Mother’s Day cards after designing them. I sort of re “discovered” my Prismacolor markers I had been hording saving–oooh la la those markers are lovely!!! Coloring is a wonderful therapy (or any kind!) for children AND adults. I  think it’s really powerful when you stop what you are doing and sit down with your kids/students and make art with them, side-by-side. This is one of those great projects to do that with. This resource includes 12 different ready-to-color designs inspired by artists such as Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana, Wayne Thiebaud, Roy Lichtenstein, Romero Britto and Keith Haring. (Make sure you get all the way to the bottom of this post for some free May-related resources as a thank you for reading!)

I used prismacolor markers to color these cards in the examples but of course you can use anything you have. Crayons, markers or colored pencils all work fine–but bright, fun colors are sort of essential for Pop Art.   There are so many variations you can make with these cards and I think combined with the creativity of your students you’ll be amazed at how the final cards come out. You can either use the templates exactly like they are, print them and have the kids color, cut, fold and write. Or you could let the kids use the designs and incorporate them into their own (new) card design. I can even imagine some middle school kids using the designs as a starting point and inspiration (practice) and then creating their own Pop Art-inspired hand-made card with watercolor paints or other mediums. The possibilities are endless and both teachers and kids always amaze me with the ideas they come up with. 

To preview these cards click HERE. I will be creating cards for Father’s Day soon.

Kids love to make their mothers hand-made cards. I’m pretty sure we can all agree on that. I would also bet (especially being a parent) that moms LOVE receiving these precious, priceless gifts from their children. A hand-made card is like a snap shot in time but from the perspective of the child. The way a child mispelled wrote a word, the way they drew themselves, or their family, are all priceless to a parent as their child rapidly grows up and changes.

Several years ago one of my favorite second grade teachers was retiring. So the kids and I made her really large 3D flowers to hang up at her retirement party. I found the idea on Pinterest (of course) and you can see the original flowers HERE. The images below are the actual flowers we made for that party, that I later hung up in my classroom (because I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away).

The kids LOVED making the flowers but since it was a collaborative effort none of them were able to keep any of the flowers. I hung them up in the art room so the kids could enjoy them…but all the kids wanted one of their own. So, I decided to work on the design of the flower to make it manageable for kids on a smaller scale.  I created templates and instructions for them to use and we combined it with a unique Mother’s Day Card that had the flower on the outside and a letter and self-portrait on the inside.

We glued these flowers on the front of a 12″ x 18″ piece of construction paper folded in half. 

On the inside, we added our letters to mom and our self-portraits!

 When I graduated high school, my mother created a memory book for me and inside were precious pieces of “time” from my younger self–photographs, letters, artwork, awards, etc. I treasure that book. My hope is that parents would treasure the portrait and letters that are inside of these cards as well.

Another Mother’s Day lesson I created was a spin-off of my Valentine’s Day message boxes that kids love to make. In my online store, I’ve put these two lessons together so you get both of them with your download. For this project I  created a flower with six petals and kids all got to write about six things they love about their moms.
Then they put the note inside of the message box that they color, cut-out, and assemble…a very sweet surprise for mothers on their special day. I also included a blank box template for students who want to make up their own design. I find that the really creative thinkers and older students LOVE this! The safety of the pre-designed boxes also works great for some kids…you can use whatever is best for you. 

Thank you for visiting my site and for reading about my Mother’s Day cards and projects. I have a few FREE resources that might help you get through the end of the year. Click on the images below to see download those resources.

 Collaborative American Flag poster in preparation for Memorial Day. 

Collaborative Poster to thank volunteers at your site

Thanks for making art with your students and for sharing some of your time with me!

Jenny K.

This time of year is a busy, busy time. One of the things that schools often do in mid-to-late May is throw some kind of volunteer celebration for all those people throughout the year that have given of their time to make their community school a better place. Without volunteers, schools would be in a world of hurt. I can personally attest to the value of the volunteers I’ve known throughout my career and truly without them things would have been so much harder.

Recently, a teacher approached me and asked if I would make one of my collaboration posters into a “Thank You” poster for her kids to work on for an upcoming event. This poster is now FREE in my TPT store by clicking HERE.

Each poster, when put together, is approximtely 21 in. x 56 in. The exact size of the poster depends on your printer settings. The nice thing about these posters is that you can either hang them up side by side banner-style (like pictured above) or you can hang them up one on top of the other. 

Either way, when your volunteers walk into the room, they will surely love to see these posters and know that they were colored by the kids they have been working to help. Beautiful, professional posters are great, but at a school things made and colored by kids are SO much better!

Each page of the poster fits onto a regular 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper. 

There are 24 pieces in each poster. 

The colors used in these posters are simple, but it’s important that you have bright colors–so if you can, provide your students with some fun, bright new markers, crayons or colored pencils!

The other nice thing about these posters is that you can just use the “Thank You” portion of it if you are celebrating some other group of people besides volunteers.

The steps of this poster are all broken down in the free resource, but in a nutsell it’s as easy as this: color poster pieces, cut out pieces, tape (or glue) pieces together and you are done! Each child gets to particpate and the final poster is big, colorful and powerful!

If you try this with your kids, send me an e-mail or #artwithjennyk on social media…I’d love to see the kids in action!

You can get this poster HERE.

I have tons of collaborative posters that you might enjoy. You can see all that I have HERE (or on the images below).

Best,

Jenny K.

Cinco de Mayo is a great time of the year for some of my fun, easy art integration lessons. See my  Cinco de Mayo coloring sheets “in action” with this fun time-lapse video I made. You will see the entire coloring in 14 seconds!

Of course they don’t get colored quite that fast in class…but still the kids will have a blast! In my Cinco de Mayo coloring sheets I have included 5 interactive designs AND 5 pattern filled designs. 

Take a closer look. The design on the left is interactive and the kids get to decide on the patterns that will be put into the image. The design on the right already has the patterns included and is ideal for younger children or in a classroom where the teacher needs to discreetly differentiate for a few students. With both designs, the kids have to really think through the colors and overall composition of the artwork! Older kids always like to use these as a starting place to plan for a painting or other larger artwork.

You can see my Interactive Coloring Sheets for Cinco de Mayo HERE I also have an entire collection of these sheets for all major holidays and events bundled together to create a large savings for teachers. You can see that coloring book HERE, there are over 80 pages in the large bundle.

No matter your medium of choice; crayons, markers or colored pencils I think you’ll see that kids really like having a fresh take on coloring sheets where they can create something that is uniquely their own and not just like everyone else’s when it’s finished!

If you are having a Fiesta for Cinco de Mayo you might enjoy decorating with my collaborative group poster. This project is so much fun because each student gets to color one part of the overall poster. Don’t tell them what it’s going to be and you’ll watch in amazement as they see it all come together!

There are 16 pieces to the poster and each piece fits on a normal 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper! 

Check out this poster Cinco de Mayo Group Poster HERE and see how much fun your students will enjoy this!

Also you may enjoy some of my other FREE collaboration posters for later in MAY! 

Thank you for making art with your kids…I hope the end of your year is enjoyable!

Jenny K.

What in the world is an Agamograph you may be wondering?? Well, wonder no more. I’ve produced a time-lapse video to show you (prepare to be wowed)! It’s really cool!

You can find this resource HERE or by clicking on any of the Patriotic Agamograph images below.

Last month I debuted my first Agamograph for Earth Day. I was so delighted when teachers responded well to this new idea of mine. I was even more excited when I heard how much the kids enjoyed the “wow” factor when the project is all put together.  For the month of May, I decided to make another agamograph for Memorial Day (but this project could really be used for any patriotic holiday, such asIndependence Day or Veterans Day). 

As you saw in the video, an agamograph morphs from one image to the next as you walk from side to side. For this design, I used an American flag and a group of soldiers. On one side you see the American flag and then as you walk to the other side the image changes into, well, a group of soldiers. From the front you see a mixed image.

Front View

The effect works best at eye level of the viewer and when put together with other agamographs from a class of kids they make an amazing display. I have had excited classroom teachers e-mailing me since Earth Day eager to share their displays and final images.

This project is easy once you’ve made one. I have already done the hard part–interleaving the two images. All the kids have to do is color, cut, glue two sheets of paper together and fold. I include a detailed how-to video and written instructions with this resource so it’s a breeze!

I recommend this activity for grades 3 and up but have had teachers in grades 1 and 2 write me and tell me they were successful with my Earth Day agamograph. I have two slightly different version of the Memorial Day imagery to allow for differentiation (one is a slightly simpler design).

The first design (below) is of a group of soldiers on one side and a full American flag on the other. This is a great design for older students who can handle the small shapes that need to be colored and if you have available an appropriate medium like colored pencils or markers to use. It would be very hard to get in all the small spaces with dull crayons.

If coloring around all 50 stars is too challenging/time consuming for your age group, you would want to use the second design (below). I purposely created this design to take less time and be easier to color. You could use this second design for younger kids or even as discreet differentiation in your group where some kids might need less of a challenge. The end results are both so stunning it doesn’t really matter which one you use!

Whenever possible, I like to have children do some sort of writing prompt to go along with their art. To see a child’s art is wonderful and paired up with their thoughts written down on paper make their work priceless. I have included writing prompts in this resource.

I hope you will give this project a try…it’s such a great way to honor the soldiers that create this free land for us to grow, prosper and be creative in! You can see my other patriotic lessons HERE. I will be making many more agamographs in the future, I hope you will come back to visit me often…I’ve already received requests for a few ideas.

I like to post free resources on my blog whenever possible and also have an entire section for free resources on my TPT site HERE.

You might enjoy this free collaborative American Flag poster that your student cans can work cooperatively to color and assemble! Makes for a great classroom display.

Thanks for making art with your kids, and, as always, all the best,

Jenny K.

Integrating art doesn’t have to be hard…in fact, my goal is to make it easy for you!  I spend almost every waking moment thinking about, or creating, products that aim at making art integration easy for classroom teachers.

Often, if a teacher feels like they “can’t draw stick figures,” then they are worried about providing art for their class. Nonsense! To help disavow you of this silly notion,  I am joining the ladies at Inspired Owl’s Corner and Pawsitively Teaching for this wonderful teacher appreciation  “What works: Successful Teachers Share Secretes from their classrooms” link up and giveaway to share some helpful tips with you. And just wait until you see all the prizes up for grabs…read on and see what you can win–you’ll be amazed!!! Here are my three secrets…

Color with your kids and use a pencil exchange system to save your sanity with colored pencils.

Color with your kids …no really, I’m serious! I know you are thinking “Jenny, come on, I don’t have time for that.” Well, we all know relationships are key in our classrooms. Without a good relationship with our students nothing else really matters and WITH a good relationship anything is possible. Coloring with your kids will help you build those relationships. Try sitting down and coloring with your students, you’ll be surprised what comes up and how thankful they are for your attention  (plus, you may even have some fun/therapy yourself–adult coloring is all the rage now!).

You can use anything to color with, of course, but colored pencils are such a nice treat for kids. However, I know all too well what a nightmare they can be. All the broken pencil sharpeners and frustrated minutes hours trying to get that tiny piece of red pencil out.of.the.sharpener. AHHHHH –sound familiar?

I stopped using colored pencils for a while in my classroom because I was so tired of this battle. The lead in colored pencils is very soft and when kids sharpen their pencils it’s very hard for them to know when to stop. They like a super sharp point and often, getting to that sharpness breaks the pencil.

So, in order to resume using colored pencils (and still preserve my sanity),  I started a system where the kids can simply exchange their “dull” pencils for a “sharp” one.  I took on all the pencil sharpening myself and life got easier. All I have to do is grab the dull cup, sharpen it and then put the sharp pencils back where they go. You’ll notice I like to split up my pencils by warm/cool/neutral colors…but that’s not necessary. This trick also works great for regular pencils. You can see a more detailed blog post about this technique HERE.

Cut paper using a ruler instead of scissors!

Wow–here it is the end of the school year, teachers and kids are EXHAUSTED and I am lucky enough to be able to host this HUGE giveaway to a very lucky, hardworking teacher–all thanks to Ellison who asked me to review their personal-sized AllStar SuperStar Die Cutting Machine and give one away to one of my readers!  Make sure you read through this post all the way to the end to enter to WIN your OWN Ellison AllStar SuperStar Die Cutting Machine  AND $100 in dies of your choice all sent directly to you from Ellison.

I have been having so much fun with my new  Ellison AllStar SuperStar die cutting machine that I could hardly fit all the ideas I came up with into this one post. This portable die cutting machine is like when we all were able to purchase our own laminators for our classrooms and homes. It’s so unbelievably cool that now, we, as teachers, can have our OWN die cutting machine either at home, in our classes, or as teams/grade levels at our schools. The uses of this machine are endless, educational and easy!

Check out some of the fun things I made with my new machine and read to the bottom to enter to win your OWN machine and $100 in dies of your choice. 

There was a lot of excitement when my box from Ellison arrived. I chose dies that would easily help infuse and integrate art into the classroom curriculum. This machine was easy to assemble (all you have to do is screw on the handle) and use. The pieces all sandwich together like this, plastic base on bottom, die cut on top of that (foam side up), paper on top of die cut and then plastic plate on the very top.  Then you place this entire “sandwich” in the machine and crank the handle, it rolls through and comes out the other side with PERFECTLY cut shapes and designs. It’s a dream. 

You can cut a variety of paper (and even fabric) in about 5″ x 5″ pieces to run through your machine. The first thing I really wanted to try was using my alphabet die with some of my textured paper. If you don’t know how I create textured paper you can read about it in this blog post HERE. Caution, be sure when you print letters or numbers that you have the colored side/textured side of the paper facing down or against the foam. If not you will have backward letters and numbers.

Store bought letters are fine, but children are much more interested in their class when it’s full of things they made. Use textured letters and number for your bulletin board displays or to personalize your centers/stations. These letters would also be great for kids to sort, spell or create with during centers or at the start or end of any unit. I also had this idea to do with the letters…

(and don’t forget about the negative space from the cut out…the stencil of the letters is very useful)!

I had to have the White House die when I saw it. I immediately thought about how neat it would be to have kids make their own White House books when they learn about the our nation’s capital, the presidents, or any unit about government. With some simple accordion folded paper in the middle for all the content they learn from you, the kids would have a keep-sake that would make learning meaningful and fun. I made 2 styles of books.

The first style was an accordion folded book. For this design I cut 3 – 2″ x 10″ strips of paper and folded each in half and then glued them together, and then to the front and back “White House” cover. The second design uses a simple staple to hold it all together. For this book I cut 2″ x 5″ pieces of paper (as many as you need) and then stapled them in the middle of the “White House” cover on the left side.  The children would author these interactive books with the content you supply. This book idea would work for MANY of the Ellison dies available for historical events, seasons and more.

One thing I love to do with kids is to make things 3D–because they think it’s really cool. I love this house die cut because there are so many things you could do with it. Such as these little 3D homes that children could write in. They would also make a great bulletin board display for how kids get “home” written on each little house like this…

There are so many great uses for the house dies. I also wanted to play around with cutting fabric. I could see each student bringing in a piece of fabric from home and the teacher creating a unique display of each child’s fabric piece and their connection to learning about home and community. This machine cut fabric perfectly. 

Since the fabric was so easy to cut I decided to play with my book idea some more. I first cut out some fabric pieces with the house die cut and then I glued them to a piece of thick white paper. 

If you have access to Mod Podge (and a great ventilation system) you could use it or you could water down some Elmer’s glue and spread it all over the top of the fabric you’ve already glued down. Once the houses are dry, cut them out and then they make a great front and back covers to an accordion book. Children could write about many things in this book that  you could easily connect to  various units you already teach. 

I love teaching kids about tessellations in art class and I know teachers always have this standard to address in their classrooms. There are many shape dies available with this machine and the endless creation of tessellations would be so much fun for kids. If you already had the designs cut out for them they could play around and see which shapes “do” and which shapes “do not” tesselate. Then if you took it a step or two further to create irregular tessellations, children could dive into the work of mixing shapes, like this pentagon and triangles to make more complex tessellations. One idea I had using my Pentagon Die  was to have each kid create a large pentagon tessellation using the pentagon shape and a triangle (pictured as the negative space below). Kids would first glue the 6 pentagons together (as pictured below) to create a larger pentagon shape, then cut them out to reveal the larger pentagon shape (far right below).It would be really neat if each kid in a class created one of these shapes, and then they could tessellate their tessellations! 

…and because I liked cutting fabric with my new machine I added personalized fabric pentagons to the centers of each design. This would be the start of a beautiful classroom “quilt” as a final project on tessellations or as the anticipatory set of a tessellation unit. 

Still with me? I know, I told you I had a LOT of ideas. I have just a few more to share with you and then you can enter to win this machine and $100 of dies for yourself.

I already showed you the 3D house up above but I also really love the 3D options for holidays. Using the Christmas Tree Die  I decided to make a 3D Christmas tree that kids could decorate and use as an ornament for their trees. You could either cut them and slide them together (using two pieces per tree) or you could fold them and glue them all together (using 4 tree pieces per tree) to make ornaments like below. 

These techniques would apply to many of the dies available HERE.

The speech bubble die was one of my favorites. As a Pop Art enthusiast I just LOVED how you could cut out four different speech bubbles with one die and then have a variety of fun with them. I also cut out black ones because I wanted the black shadow behind each bubble.  Kids can make thank you cards (or any kind of card) and the content can be unique to them as they write in the bubbles.

Kids love creating comics and with a simple story board template (that you can easily make like the picture on the top left) and a variety of speech bubbles, the imagination of your students will shine. Connect this to their writing and you have another meaningful way for kids to learn while having fun. 

Setting goals is an important part of each classroom and I could see how you could create a wonderful bulletin board display using these speech bubbles. Print a  picture of each of your students and then put it next to their “bubble,” so it looked like they were saying what they goal was for the school year–what a great visual this would be for motivation throughout the school year.

And one more thing…don’t throw away the paper that you cut the pieces from!!  They make great stencils!

As a teacher you probably find that stencils are very useful. I know I do.  The negative space of each these dies  make perfect stencils.

As an art teacher I have to mention the simplicity and beauty of these shapes and colors all on their own (picture below). When I was playing with my ideas I kept thinking about how much fun it would be to provide kids with a variety of shapes in different colors and watch how they design them. It’s important that children can be the masters of their own ideas and they need time to “play” to learn and build confidence. I can’t wait to see all of the unique things kids will come up with when given the cut outs, left over stencils and scraps. I’ve witnessed it enough to know that kids will amaze us with even those simple supplies.

Thank you for reading, I hope some of these ideas will spark your own imagination — teachers are a resourceful and creative group of people and this is only a small sample of things possible with this fun new teacher toy !

So without further ado…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for reading and for entering this amazing giveaway!

Jenny K.

This Memorial Day make art with your students that teaches them the meaning of working together to create something special. Use my FREE American Flag collaborative poster  to have each student color one part of the flag and then let the kids watch in amazement as the poster is put together. Kids LOVE being part of something like this and they will always be able to tell you exactly what part of the flag they worked on. 

If you are looking for something unique for your Patriotic events for Memorial Day you might like my newest line of resources, agamographs. My agamographs are really fun because I’ve taken a technique usually only found in the art room and I’ve removed as much of the “prep and mess” and made it really easy for classroom teachers to provide to their students.  For the patriotic events like Memorial Day, Independence Day and Veterans Day, I have created an image that morphs from an American Flag into an image of soldiers and back again when you walk from side to side. This project is great because it makes for an captivating art display when it’s complete–there is a huge WOW factor to this project! When you display these outside of your classroom, I guarantee it will get your entire school talking about art.  You can see all of my agamographs HERE.

The process is very easy for teachers. I have already spliced the images together and assigned colors to each section of the project. Each design includes two pages of paper that the kids color according to a key I have assigned. 

I provide all the written instructions needed as well as a short video that walks the kids through the entire process. I made the video in such a way that you can show it to your students to let ME do the teaching. When the agamograph is put together it will look like this from the front. 

However…when you walk from side to side the image will change from one image into the next.

Another popular Memorial Day project teachers like using with their kids are my  Patriotic interactive colorings sheets. These coloring sheets are a big hit for just about any holiday or event because they are so unique. No two will ever come out the same. Unlike traditional coloring sheets where the sky is blue and the grass is green (on each child’s artwork) these sheets require that the children do ALL of the designing and coloring. Kids really enjoy getting to be the master of their own ideas and to play with patterns, shapes and colors to make an interesting composition. See all of my interactive coloring sheets HERE or check out my heavily discounted Interactive Coloring Book BUNDLE. 

There are many designs included in this set for various patriotic events. These are just some of them that are included. A favorite project among classroom teachers and art teachers for Memorial Day is  my collaborative poster of a soldier. Last year for Veterans Day many teachers used this soldier poster. To this day I still get comments in my Teachers Pay Teachers store about how much teachers enjoyed having a collaborative project for the kids to work on that had so much meaning when put together. Also teachers told me (and still do) that they used this poster for various assemblies and events they held at their school for our soldiers. If you like this one you can also see my other collaborative posters HERE.

There are 20 grid pieces included and the final poster is approximately 28″ x 35″ depending on your printer settings. If you have more than 20 kids in your class you could combine my soldier poster with my “Thank You” poster or have two kids work on one sheet. Teachers always find creative ways to use my resources and I’m always amazed.

Whatever you are doing for Memorial Day it will be great. If you are using one of my resources then I thank you for allowing me to have a small part in such an important day. Mostly I thank you for making art with your kids for meaningful events like Memorial Day and Veterans Day. It’s an important message that is sent to the kids when they realize that sometimes words can’t do what images and art can.

Best,

Jenny K.

To further our culminating activity, we took a look at the artwork of Andy Goldsworthy. He uses items found in nature to create art. We then took a little field trip to a neighborhood park.

Look at these works of NATURE ART!

Grab your freebie of Memoirs of a Seed HERE.

Remember to integrate some art time into your lessons. Allow students time to create, draw, color, build, sing, act, and even dance! Have fun!!

You cannot govern the creative impulse, all you can do is eliminate obstacles and smooth the way for it. -Kimon Nicoliades Providing this opportunity for children, “smoothing the way,” is what art integration is all about. Teachers need simply to provide students with creative opportunities and “eliminate obstacles” in order to witness the creativity of their [...]

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Classroom organization is essential for teachers, art teachers and all other specialists teachers. I finally found the right system for my colored pencils (and regular pencils) to cure the craziness pencils caused for me. If you are anything like I once was you DREAD using colored pencils in your classroom. Mostly because you don’t want [...]

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STEM Activities for kids: Imaginary Playgrounds using scrap paper! “The creative adult is the child who survived.”  I love this quote and it is the inspiration for this post on creative play and imaginary playgrounds to help you integrate STEM activities into your classroom or at home with your own children! Children are born creative [...]

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“I am ____ years old” Art Integration Lesson  for PreK-1st GradeJasper Johns & Robert Indiana Many artists have used the common shapes of numbers to create art. Artists like Jasper Johns and Robert Indiana are two very famous artists you might recognize. Most likely you know Robert Indiana for this piece of work: This “LOVE” [...]

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I’m so excited to welcome my guest blogger, Hord Arsalan from Hord’s Studio. I first saw the neat things she had to offer on Instagram and invited her to share some of her creative ideas with us. Hord shares some really wonderful ways to integrate music to math, literacy and science.  Enter to win a free [...]

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I’ve been hearing a lot about “sketch notes” recently.  I invited Stacey from Expressive Monkey to share with us all about sketchnotes because she has a super awesome sketchnotes resource! I think you’ll love how Stacey breaks down the “6 Ways to get Students Engaged with Sketchnotes.” She is also giving away a copy of [...]

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