Shaving cream snowman art lesson with tutorial

This post has been one of my most popular lessons that I have shared. I still get hits on this post everyday, and I originally posted it over three years ago. Since we had our first snow yesterday here in Northwest Arkansas, I thought I'd share it again for my new readers. It's such a fun project and has such great results.

2012-Since we didn't get enough snow this year to build a snowman, I thought it would be fun to take some snow to my daughter's class with this fun project. I've seen lots of different recipes and suggestions online about how to make puffy paint out of shaving cream and glue, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I bought three cans of shaving cream at the dollar store, and it was more than enough for 18 students to create a snowman on an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of construction paper. Since these were first graders, and I had limited time, so I pre cut the hat, eyes, nose, and scarves.

We divided into 3 groups of 6 and let each group make their own bowl of snow by filling up their bowl with shaving cream...

And then squirting a bunch of glue on top and mixing. So fun... and messy!

Most of the "recipes" I read online called for equal parts of glue and shaving cream. We just added enough to give it a firmer, sticky texture.

Drew our "B" with white crayon for the body, off the side of the page (perspective).

Smoothed on the snow with small spoons and then topped with glitter. The snowflakes were made with q-tips and white paint.

Then stuck all the details into our snowman.

I always love to incorporate literature into fun projects like this. Just as simple as reading a book before doing the lesson. This would even be a fun project to do at home with preschoolers.

Here's some great recommendations for snowman books that would go well with this project.

I was very pleased with this lesson...cute results, the kids had a blast, and it was a fun way to incorporate a lot of different learning ideas. My daughter's class just finished studying the weather so this tied in with their unit perfectly.

WARNING: This project is VERY messy : )

A Thank You to my Top Referring Art Lesson Blogs

I wanted to wrap up 2011 by thanking all the wonderful art blogs who not only inspire, challenge and help me, but send me new readers my way each day.

Thanks so much to my top referring blog buddies!  Here's my countdown (drum roll, please). Be sure to check out these great blogs if you haven't yet, or if it's been awhile:


6) Deep Space Sparkle Art Lessons for Kids. This blog has wonderful pictures, tons of lessons and great PDF lesson tutorials you can purchase for a minimal price-believe me they are worth it. I love her art and literature lessons!

5) Lines, Dots and Doodles  has a variety of creative lessons ideas from elementary students.

4)Mary Making features highlights from Mary's elementary art classes, and is one of my favorites with innovative and original lesson ideas.

3)Painted Paper In The Art Room has fun, colorful and original painted paper projects, art and literature lessons and more!

2) Teach Kids Art gives great photos and instructions with almost every project post! Great site with a variety of lesson ideas for parents, art teachers and home schoolers.

1) And my TOP referring blog friend is....... Art Projects for Kids has class tested lessons for K5 and beyond. Kathy's blog is organized, easy to navigate, packed with lesson ideas and she has wonderful mural PDFs you can purchase.

Thank You again soooo much! I am so honored that each of you would list me in your side bar and send your readers my way.  My best wishes for a wonderfully artistic year in 2012!

My First Blog Award!!

Thank you to Hannah at Art. Paper. Scissors. for the Versatile Blogger Award nomination! I couldn't find who started this award, or what it was really for, but none the less, I was honored to received it, and excited about all the new visitors I've had to my blog because of it. Once I started the "awardee process" to nominate others for this award, I felt kind of guilty because it has taken me sooooo long to complete this post--so please don't feel obligated to "pass it on" if you don't have time. I did, however, have a lot of new blogs I've been reading over the past few months so I wanted to regcognize them. Hope you enjoy learning about some great new blogs that I've discovered!

Awardee Steps:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link them back to your post.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Pass the award fifteen recently discovered bloggers. (Most of mine are recently discovered, but very well deserving!)

4. Contact these bloggers and let them know they've received their award.

Here's my 7 "Very Random" Facts About Me:

1. I have been married 16 years.

2. I have three children, one cat and two dogs.

3. I love, love, love fresh flowers-especially tulips, peonies and gerber daisies.

4. My life verse from the Bible is Hebrews 12:2

5. I love decorating (on a budget) and looking at decor magazines/blogs.

6. I'm a huge harmonizer and avoid conflict.

7. I'm great at starting new projects constantly, but can never seem to finish them.

15 Bloggers also deserving of the Versatile Blogger Award:

Flying Years

My Heart's Desire

The Yellow Daisy

Red Ted's Art Blog

Absolutely Beautiful Things

Daily Paintings By Elizabeth Blaylock

Smile Monsters

Boots McBlog

European Paint Finishes

June Pfaff Daley

My Work At Home Mom Blog

A Brush of Whimsey

KPInk

A La Mode

Lines, Dots and Doodles

Art Journaling

What to do when you hear "I'm done!"

The ART of Journaling

I know I've seen a couple of posts lately on what to do with students when you hear, "I'm done," and you still have 15 minutes left in class. I've tried several different things, but I think by providing each student with an art journal you can not only "kill time", but teach them the invaluable skill of expressing themselves through art and experimenting with new mediums and styles of art.

Start at the Dollar Store-they have great hard back books for $1 each (Remember I teach a class of 6-7), but I'm sure if you have a big class you could find old books for free or really cheap at a garage sale, or even bring a old book from home.

Start by letting the students decorate the outside of their "journals" decoupage style and do an introductory lesson on Art Journaling. Explain to them that there will be a station set up each week for them to add to their "art journal" if they get finished early.

Set up a new station each week or let them try different techniques with leftover supplies from that day. We always have leftover paint, paper scraps, etc. Set out stamps, sponges, a variety of brushes, rollers.

Create art on small paper scraps and then glue into their journal. Cut out magazine pictures for inspiration and glue into journal.

Let them gesso some pages, or paint a wash over a page, paint a page black and then doodle on it later with gel pens or oil pastels. Divide a page into sections and try different techniques on the same subject.

The possibilities are endless! There are tons of sites out there with art journaling ideas-try Tammy's Daisy Yellow out for starters. I love her site!!! She has just about all the tips, recommended supplies, ideas, prompts, book lists, etc... you will need to learn about art journaling:

Check out here article on art journaling for teens and tweens here.

Personally, I'm using this book right now and it has really helped creatively. I also love Art Du Jour with Martha Lever-her journal entries are always inspiring! I'd love to hear some of the ways, posts, or tips you have on art journaling and how it works with kids.

Art and Literature

Like many of you art teachers out there, I follow Deep Space Sparkle, Out of this World Art Lessons for Kids blog. Last spring I ordered one of Patty's Art and Literature PDF lesson plans for just $5.00. I finally got around to using them this fall in my daughter's kindergarten class, and I was totally impressed with the lessons, and the results! It was well worth the $5.00. The lessons are perfect for younger children; they have easy to follow directions and templates; and they incorporate great, age appropriate books. Plus, the kids LOVED them-in this particular lesson they went crazy over getting to decorate their hats! We had 13 children and about 45 minutes to complete the project. Most students finished except for gluing on the hat. We had a few that finished up the next class day. Here's some pics. You can click on the link below to get to Patty's blog and here's the link for the specific PDF that I ordered.

All of the supplies needed for the projects were already available in the classroom except for the items needed to decorate the hats. I just brought some leftover ribbon scraps, yarn, buttons, etc., from home.

Can't wait to do another one!

Van Gogh Clay Plaques

Here's another great lesson that I got from Dick Blick Lesson Plans online. I've done this project with students(ages 2-6th grade) several times and I always get great results. It's a great lesson to introduce Vincent Van Gogh and landscapes, basic clay and painting techniques and texture.

The above pictures are actual photos of Vincent Van Gogh's work-I show several of his landscapes to the students and let them pic their favorite to create. I'll let the pics explain and you can refer to the lesson plan on Dick Blick for more details. One tip is that I do encourage them to work on one small section of the picture at a time.

I thought their art turned out amazing!