April Showers and Jellyfish Watercolor Resist

First graders have been working on this painting the past few weeks. We are studying weather patterns and having fun learning new techniques with watercolor like blowing, dripping, and adding salt! 

 Third grade is painting these fun jellyfish watercolor resists! I LOVE this Liquitex gloss Medium and Varnish!! It makes a great resist! 

 We just painted this gloss medium right on the paper to create our jellies...

We are using warm colors for the Jelly and cool colors+salt for the water

I just LOVE the texture from the salt!

 One of the high school teachers in our district used the Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish to make these gorgeous multimedia watercolor resists for Dia De Los Muertos. They stamped the Gloss on the paper, drew their design, and painted over it. We are going to use this technique with our Sureal Self Portraits this year! Cannot WAIT!!

Paper Mache (Easy button) Rainbow Heart Crayons and smelly markers

We have been making heart sculptures the past few weeks. Some kids used plaster craft which was really fun, but we ran out and the rest are using paper mache.

YiKES! Is the first word that comes to mind...however

it can be made very easy

FIRST, no more collecting and tearing newspaper..(that makes your fingers all gray and yucky).just use the  butcher paper (bullatin board paper) that way if they want a red heart, it is already red!

This stuff is THE BEST. Just add water and it turns into a whole lot of clear slime! I can fill four coffee cans full with one box. Dip the paper in the slime, stick on the armature, and smooth with hands. No more nasty flour and water concoctions that end up getting moldy.

Storage is always a problem (I have not solved yet) I have piles of heart sculptures everywhere but I LOVE them!

I put some of this pearlescent medium in the paste and it made their sculptures really sparkle!

On a side note, do you have buckets of od broken crayons?

For Valentine's Day incentives, why not pick up one of these silicon baking heart trays at the Target Dollar spot, simply wet crayons to make peeling the paper easy

fill trays

and stick them in the oven on 350 for about ten minutes, and VOILA!! I have been giving them as good behavior incentives and using them for a free draw station all week and the kids think they are SO AWESOME!

As for markers...I have recieved SO many emails about the Kid Smart 60 Day Cap off markers...they are no longer making them...

I now use these Mr. Sketch Watercolor SCENTED Markers. They have a good variety of colors, last a long time and of course they smell SO GOOD which incorporates the five senses which increases memory and brain connections!

the only draw back....speckled noses!!

updated Beginning of Year FAVORITE ART PrOdUcTS (must haves)

I have had so many great e-mails and comments with great ideas I need to update this post
Here is a link to find the Kid Smart markers, http://www.teacherdirect.com/products/87144+DRI.htm
A few more things that i want to add are
black sharpies and black oil pastels. Need I say more? There is an option in the Sax catalog to buy only black oil pastels!

There are several varieties of the safe-t-cut linoleum blocks. There was a stack of these in my cabinet when I got here(I am not sure which ones they are because I didn’t buy them) and the art teacher told me that I could cut them on the paper cutter and they are erasers. It is nothing but a huge eraser!! I have not had to buy erasers in the four years I have been at this school and one large block cut into erasers lasts me 6 months to a year depending on how many grow legs and walk out each month!! If you have some of this safety-cut linoleum you should try it! They make the BEST erasers and you can cut them REALLY big so that it doesn’t fit in their pockets!!
Also Canson Watercolor paper is awesome!

Okay I really hate making orders, but since this is my 8th year teaching, I have some favorites that are my standby first on the list, must haves. I thought I would share them with you.

These brushes are WONDERFUL! If you do not leave them in water (which is really bad for brushes because it loosens the glue and makes the bristles begin to fall out) and dry them flat not standing they are the greatest classroom brushes and the pack comes with these great smocks!



These are my faaaaaaaaaavorite oil pastels. They have a hexagonal shape which means that they won’t roll onto your floor as easily and get stepped on. The colors are brilliant and great for teaching value because there are at least two or three hues of every color (light blue, medium blue, dark blue, light green, medium green, and dark green, etc.) I LOOOVE them!



If you are an elementary art teacher these pencils are a MUST HAVE!! They are big and hardly ever have to be sharpened. They make nice big bold lines and since the lead is so large it keeps a point for DAYS!!!



When I came to my school the old art teacher had stock in the glitter paint and I thought I would never use it! It has become a regular thing now. Kids LOVE sparkle and bling. A little tiny dab of glitter paint adds a lot of WOW to ANY artwork, drawing, watercolor painting, or sculpture!!



These little liquid watercolors ROCK THE HOUSE! I will be getting LOTS this year. They are sooooooooo beautiful SUPER BOLD AND BRIGHT and cannot be matched by any other! I use them in my personal watercolor paintings now. They are amazing!



If you are still spending your afternoons staying afterschool to wash plastic paint containers, do yourself a favor and get these. They are GREAT!!



If you have to go with the box kind, Prang just makes pretty watercolos



These Biggie Tempra cakes are soooooo good and save the time of pouring all those colors from bottles. Just hard to do projects with limited color pallets.



These are hands down, the BEST markers in the world. They way they look when they dry looks almost like paint. They have a creamy solid smooth looking finish and of course the obvious 60b day cap off time!! Yes, they will stay good for 60 DAYS WITH NO CAP!!! Why would you buy anything else!



I hope you enjoyed this list. If you have any great awesome products to share, please e-mail me Natty241@hotmail.com I would love to hear about them and add them to my list!!