Prang / Ticonderoga product reviews

I was asked by the wonderful Dixon company to put their products through the ringer. Well, my students sure did do that. During the whole school year I used Ticonderoga / Prang products along side of some of my typical art supplies to see how they performed. 

Below is a picture of Prang markers alongside of my go-to markers Crayola. You already get two bonus markers in the Prang pack, Yippee!! 

I always purchase Crayola markers for the school year so I placed all 12 of the Prang markers in one basket and Crayola in the other 5 baskets. During lessons the Prang basket was always used along with the Crayola. During one of our sketchbook assignments one student wanted to use them both, and her experiment summed up our testing quite well. 

Below you can see how she divided her paper.

On the left side she used Prang markers and on the right Crayola. 

Prang markers provided a richer color. Though they do tend to bleed through… a lot. They also bled into other colored areas. Below you can see a picture of the back of the paper. The sketchbook paper is the same weight as my drawing paper at 60lb, so the bleed through is pretty ominous. 

If you want richer color and don't mind bleeding, go for Prang. I do think however that I will stick with Crayola in the marker department. 

The next product were the Prang Large Triangular Colored Pencils vs. my classroom choice Crayola colored pencils. 

I provided one table with Prang and the others with Crayola and Cra-Z-Art colored pencils. I never have to buy colored pencils because they are a required supply for our county, but our teachers don't use them much so they give them to me at the end of each year. 

Below is a color wheel review exercise. Students only used Primaries Red, Yellow, and Blue and mixed to create the Secondaries. 

Prang color wheel

Beautiful and rich color that mixed very well. Students loved the triangular grip and larger size. One student said, "They're not like Kindergarten big, but they're bigger and I like it."

Crayola Color Wheel

Color was not as rich and they didn't mix as well.

 Cra-Z-Art Color Wheel

Color not rich at all. We could never really get the secondaries we wanted. 

Cra-Z-Art pencils after one use.

 Crayola pencils after one use. 

 Prang pencils after one use. Best tips! 

Prang pencils come with their own sharpener in the box and it does an awesome job. Larger pencils equal larger lead and they don't break easily. Heck, they didn't break easily during use! 

I think I'll be requesting Prang colored pencils from now on. 

Next up we have the Ticonderoga pencils against regular Target brand. 

These pencils have held up great! Their erasers have lasted longer. They sharpen with little to no breakage in the process and they take the longest to dull. 

Below you can see that with the same pressure you get a darker color with the Ticonderoga (top) pencil then the Rose Art (middle) and Target (bottom) brand. I prefer Ticonderoga. 

(this picture was after 3 weeks of use)

Finally, the last product are the Prang (left) Watercolors against Crayola (right) watercolors. 

 I choose Prang watercolors over Crayola every time because of what you get for the price in class packs. Also if one of your paint wells runs out you can take it out (as seen in the bottom pallet below) and replace it with a new one. With Crayola you will have to replace the whole pallet or use two at a time when colors run low. 

 When you buy a class pack of Prang watercolors they come with refills. You can refill the whole pallet or one well at a time. I take all the refill wells out and separate the colors into empty oil pastel class pack boxes for better storage. 

Crayola watercolors are very neon which the kids do love, but red looks pink and black looks grey. 

Crayola painted onto Crayola Model Magic. Students didn't like how the color faded. 

Below are the Prang watercolors at their best. Nice rich colors.

Prang even works great on Crayola Model Magic! Wet or dried. 

That Little Art Teacher's final recommendation

Markers

Crayola

Colored Pencils

Prang

Pencils

Ticonderoga

Watercolors

Prang!

Simple K or Pre-K Spider Webs

I wanted something supper simple for Kindergarten to do for Halloween week. Can't get much simpler then an oil pastel resist. 

Art Center

Rainbow Spider Web

Setup: 2 students share tempera cake pallets, 2 brushes, towel, water bucket, and small tray with two black oil pastels.

I begin each K lesson with their name on the back and then whatever the first tool is that we're using in the air.

First, using your oil pastel (repeat that word back to me) draw a stand up line in the middle from the top to the bottom. 

Next, draw a laying down line through the middle. 

Then, two slash lines (how many?) Start one in the top right hand corner and slash it to the bottom left. Now, start in the top left hand corner and slash it to the bottom right. 

Circle time! 

Point to the middle of your web and draw a small circle, then a medium circle around it, and finally draw draw a large circle around that. Put the pastel in your tray and we're ready to paint. 

Always demo before they begin to paint. I have them hold their brush in the air while they watch me. Don't paint the whole thing while they wait. Just two color changes worth, and don't take forever. 

Swish, wipe, blot! Before you paint and when you change colors.

You may paint your webs. 

These turned out so beautiful!

 

Once the Art center was on a role I walked over to the play dough center I asked students how to make a spider. 

How many legs does a spider have? How many body parts? 

I had no requirements at the lego table, but many of them built spider homes. (sorry no pics)

Put a Cap on It

I love the pump lids that come with many gallon paints, but good GOSH I can't stand how much they clog... I even stopped using the pumps for a year because I was so tired of sticking a paper clip in there. Alas, I also did not enjoy tipping the gallon over to poor into my smaller paint bottles. 

Smaller paint bottle

I always wondered why someone could not come up with a stopper for the paint like they have for the Elmers glue pumps... Maybe they have, I just haven't found them yet. I don't spend my days googling paint pump stoppers. 

One day it finally hit me. I needed something I could mold to the pump to stay and fit perfectly...

MODEL MAGIC! Why had I not thought of this before? I just rolled a ball and stuck it on there and it fit like a glove.

This little cap comes off easily and is a perfect fit.

I've used it for a month now and no clogs! Thanks Crayola!! 

To Dump or Not To Dump... That is the question

Hello fellow art teachers and followers,
   I have a question... When painting do you let your students "dump" their water when it gets too dirty? Or do you have them keep the same water all through class?

I hate having dirty water when I paint so I wanted my kids to be able to have clean water for as long as possible. My first year teaching we used these cups that would only hold about 1 1/2 cups of water. Students were having to go to the sink constantly. Especially when we used liquid tempera or acrylic. 

Now, I use huge buckets of water for painting. They are used dog treat buckets which hold about a quart of water (we fill them halfway). The buckets never tip over because of their size, they are still easy for kids to pick up, and they may have to be refilled once during a lesson. I used to ask kids to raise their hand for me to check if the water was too dirty and tell them to "dump" or not. That became too much. So now I tell the kids to dump their own water when it turns to mud and they can no longer see their brush when pressed against the inside of the bucket. 

This water needs changing! 

So, my fellow teachers, what do you use as water containers and when do you "dump"?

Art Test

   The end of the year was fast upon us. 1st grade had one more day of art class before the "Good Behavior Art Party" day. Should I have them watch a movie or free draw.... Neither.
   I decided to see what my little 1st graders had learned from the year. In 1st grade we begin to apply the "basics" to projects that reflect around the Elements and Principles. We concentrate on drawing with pencils, coloring like an artist, painting, and collages. So I decided to test them to see how much they had retained. Will they remember to draw lightly? Swish, wipe, and blot? Let's find out...

Students were told that this was a test. I wanted to see if they remembered elements, principles, procedures and processes we had worked on all year in class. 

Create a flower: Any kind. Real or imaginary. 
You have 3 choices of how to make it: Drawing and coloring with crayon, Collage with scissors and glue, or draw and paint. 
All students were given 9"x12" white paper. All materials they needed were out and ready. The rest was up to them. 

Tracing the drawing with a black crayon to make it "POP" when it is painted.

Some students made two types and wanted to turn in the best one. Here you can see paints and crayons out. 

Correct paint procedure setup!

When I asked this student where his sky would stop he said, "All the way to the ground SILLY!"

Me: "Why is this flower so much bigger?"

Student: "It's in the foreground!" 

This student went on to paint the rest of the sky blue and leave the clouds white. It made the cloud shapes more organic. 

One student creating a collage and another one coloring. Notice how her petals are in a stack. She stacked the papers together and cut them all at the same time. "Why did you do that?" I asked. "Because I wanted them all the same." she said. 

Many imaginary color choices!

This little girl pointed out to me that she let one color dry, painted something somewhere else, and then came back to paint beside the first color. She remembered that the colors may bleed together. 

Paint setup for two. You can tell that they did some good blotting on their paper towel.

I was very pleased with all the results. Only 2 students forgot a couple of things. I believe I will now give a test at the end of the year similar to this for all grades. It was a HUGE SUCCESS and the students loved showing me what they learned. One even told me that this should be on the TCAP!