I begin each session with a series of collaborative exercises, in which students work together to create a single drawing or series of drawings. In this activity, students sit in a circle and pass their drawings around. Everyone starts by drawing the shape of a face, then passes their paper to the person on their left. They draw eyes on their new paper, and pass it again, continuing until every face is finished. When they were done, they returned to the tables, where they had the option of coloring their drawings or using liquid watercolor and straws to make crazy hair!

Visual art is often looked at as the work of a solitary genius. I aim to show my students that at its best, art is something a community creates together.

Students who finish early or don't feel inspired by the day's project can choose from several "provocations," which are available for them to work on independently. This is one of the most popular: Students choose a pre-cut photo from a basket, glue it to paper and complete the image .

4-6 year old students examined images of Claes Oldenburg's food sculptures, and talked about what makes them special--the materials, textures, and especially their size. We used newspapers, paint, construction paper, and yarn to make our own giant pizza.

7-10 year old students looked carefully at Pablo Picasso's cubist drawings and paintings. They then worked with a partner to closely observe and draw each of their partner's facial features. Finally, they combined their individual drawings of each feature into a cubist-style collage.

Making pop up books teaches geometry, physics and creative problem solving. 7-10 year old afterschool students used their new skills to make these amazing mother's day cards.

Young children often feel freer to express themselves using toys or puppets than they do with their own voices.

4-6 year old students in our summer Music & Art camp made and decorated cootie-catchers, then decorated cardboard boxes with tissue paper and used them as a puppet stage.