FREE ART BOOK GIVEAWAY!

We all can use a little inspiration, can't we?

I have some WONDERFUL news to share: SIX art ideas of mine have been published in the book "500 Kids Art Ideas" by Gavin Andrews published by Quarry Books! 

This soft-cover book is chock-full of great ideas that will really get your creativity going! There are eleven different chapters in the book that show full color pictures of a variety of art media and projects created by a wide range of ages. There are great ideas for working in felts, fibers, paper and book art, sculpture and 3D, technology and more!

It truly is a beautiful book! Each of the 500 projects has a full color illustration along with a quick list of materials used. While there aren't step-by-step directions for each project, there's enough information to get you started and art teachers, homeschoolers and creative kiddos will be inspired none-the-less.

Author Gavin Andrews is an art educator and artist who is currently employed at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. I love what is written about her on Amazon (on the "About the Author" section for this book), "She is dedicated to the role of art and creativity in people's lives, especially those of her two children, and strives to have people understand that everyone can be creative." I couldn't agree with her more!

Want a copy? Well, I have one right here for you! I'm giving away a FREE copy of the book "500 Kids Art Ideas" by Gavin Andrews published by Quarry Books in my first-eva giveaway! Here are the details:

If you would like to be entered in the drawing to receive a copy of the book, leave a comment below with your name, email address and let me know what book YOU can't live without in your classroom or one that you've read that inspired you. 

I will choose a winner at random on August 31st, 2015. Sorry, only those in the continental United States are eligible for this giveaway.

So, get to writing that comment below to enter! Good luck!

My SEUSS-ical Bulletin Board

Here's a bulletin board I created for the PTA at the local Middle School. It's my first bulletin board ever (given my art-on-a-cart status), and I'm pleased. I tried to choose Dr. Seuss quotes that would inspire middle school students and catch their eye. Hopefully it works and we drum up some interest in the PTA play coming in April and the cake decorating competition the PTA will be having--so fun!

I won! YIPEE!

So, it's no great secret that I LOVE MaryAnn Kohl's books, as a few of my lessons have been inspired by those in her books. Her book, "Discovering Great Artists" is one I constantly reference in my lesson plans. You can check out her website to see more of her books at www.brightring.com. Her website also has a section with free art activities. These are samples from her various books and are worth a look.

She also has a monthly newsletter she sends out with timely art projects and activities to do with children. I've been subscribing to her newsletter for a while and this month's Valentine's crafts are great!  One activity she suggests is having a Valentine tea time ready for when the children get home from school. I've done this before with my first son, but I had totally forgotten about it--it's on the agenda for Valentine's Day this year--I think my boys are going to love that!

So, on to my *bragging*...

Every month, MaryAnn has a contest where one newsletter subscriber is chosen at random to receive one of her books, and, TA-DA! This month I won! I won "Science Arts: Discovering Science Through Art Experiments." The book is 140+ pages, organized in the same way as her other books, with great indexes and icons that allow you to cross-reference the different types of art and science components used throughout the book.

The chapters are:

• Water & Air
• Light & Sight
• Motion & Energy
• Reaction & Matter, and
• Nature & Earth

Each activity has a material list and clear directions as well as a list of variations. There is also a blurb with a brief explanation of the science that is going on in the activity. The activities really straddle the line between art and science, and some of them seem like they'd take minutes to do, but are open-ended enough to provide hours of experimenting...

Even if you have MaryAnn's other books, you will be pleasantly surprised with all of these great projects. And this book is not only good for the art classroom, core classrooms can use use this too. I envision grabbing this book frequently during those long winter (and school vacation) days when I'm hearing choruses of "I'm bored!"

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I received this book for free, since I won it as part of a randomly generated contest. I wrote this post not because I received a free book, but because I think it is a book worth reviewing. Please check out my other posts and you'll see I do this from time to time with other books I've borrowed from the library and/or bought myself from various booksellers.**