At its simplest, paint pouring is the mixing of paints with lower density and viscosity liquids and then pouring them onto a surface for an aesthetic artifact. Using active art as a teaching tool, middle school students were engaged in a paint pouring activity to study the influence of the interdisciplinary combination of chemistry and art topics…

The United States has a visually stunning history of documenting its natural lands. In the late 1800s, Hudson River School painters captured national parks in the west (National Park Service, 2017). Ansel Adams is famously known for his rich black-and-white photographs of Yosemite and other national parks from the 1920s. In the 1930s, the Works…

Background: Researchers interested in more playful literacy practices often abandon school-related contexts to instead follow young people to after-school settings, community spaces, social spaces, home environments, and online hangouts. However, play also makes itself visible, even (and sometimes especially) in more formalized learning spaces.…

The educational needs of young adolescents require that curricula include a more expanded set of multiple integrative approaches, including new literacies, and that it be "challenging, exploratory, integrative, and relevant" (National Middle School Association, 2010). Although educators are now focusing on the addition of digital formats…

This article describes a chemistry/art activity that originated in an National Science Foundation--funded two-week STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) academy for grade 4-6 girls. The authors recommend using this investigation in conjunction with other activities focusing on chemical change as a step toward fulfilling the…

Art-based reading instruction and interventions for elementary and middle school students are growing in popularity despite scant theoretical rationale and empirical research support. This study explored the degree to which painting comprehension processes map onto text comprehension processes in this population. In particular, we used think aloud…

(Purpose) The purpose of this paper is to describe visual literacy and an adapted version of Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) and its value to enhance students' inferential thinking. (Methodology) An example of a middle school VTS, art-integrated lesson is described as well as reflections of a middle school language arts teacher about what she…

Every year, the author's eighth-graders do some projects on color mixing and color schemes. In this article, the author gives a twist to the basic color wheel. Using rough-draft paper the same size as the paper they would eventually work on, students were to figure out a way to divide it into six spaces. They were not limited to basic rectangles,…

Inspired by a beautiful bookmark one of the author's students made for him as a gift, he began a lesson exploring the vibrant bark paintings popular all over Mexico. The majority of his students have Mexican ancestry, so exploring the arts of Mexico is always popular and well received. Amate paintings can also be a great way to introduce the…

Having an answer to "When are we ever going to use this in real life?" is important to middle school mathematics teachers. The activity described in this article awakened sixth graders' understanding of how artists use mathematics. By exploring ratio and proportionality in different paintings, students realized the use of proportional…

The house paintings of the South African Ndebele people are more than just an attempt to improve the aesthetics of a community; they are a source of identity and significance for Ndebele women. In this article, the author describes an art project wherein students use the tradition of Ndebele house painting as inspiration for creating their own…

Many painters use lines to express powerful emotions. Both Vincent van Gogh and Jean-Michel Basquiat had difficult lives filled with hardship, and died at a young age. They both used art to deal with their emotions. It seems like the stronger the feelings were in them, the faster the strokes were put down in their work. In this article,…

Romero Britto is a wonderful artist for young students to study when learning the building blocks of art and design. Colorful, linear, and full of bold patterns, Britto's work blends a contemporary cubist style and pop art commercial appeal. Themes of this contemporary artist's work include animals, flowers, still life, and people in joyful…

A great start for the semester, this pinwheel project provides a good dose of art history, and a variety of media and techniques. It also teaches students how to clean up and store things properly. Five artists are introduced, each with a different art medium and technique. In this activity, students are expected to: (1) study works by five famous…

This paper explores the relationship between the natural world and its potential benefits to the art classroom environment. In particular, it considers the following research question: Can natural sound foster creativity? The study investigates the role of natural sound on creative ability in girls' intermediate schools (12 to 15 years) in Jeddah,…