This is a collage we made at our church a number of years ago, using faces cut out of magazines.  I’m doing a similar project with one of my classes and wanted to post these photos so I could show them to them at school.

I did, I did, I did think I thought that.  What I thought was that I would have lots of time to update my blog over Christmas break.  For some reason, it didn’t happen.  So, here I am.  Grades are done, work day is over, and classes start first thing tomorrow.  I have new seating charts (at least for tomorrow’s classes) ready to go.

I haven’t updated in so, so long, so here are some photos of what’s been happening in my art rooms.

We made Chrismons at the Catholic school where I teach. I put them on the wall ala Andy Warhol.

My public school students all made polymer clay ornaments. Second grade made penguins. They were SO CUTE!

These ornaments were awesome when they were finished, but a huge endeavor!  Thanks to my colleagues who have done them year after year for giving me lots of support, encouragement and instruction!  Just getting them baked without losing track of which student they belong to is a big deal (I have nearly 300 students at the school where we made them!).   Huge job but very worth it.  I know I cherish the ornament my own kids made, and I know most parents that received these ornaments will cherish them too.  If you’re interested in trying something like that just leave me a comment or send me a message.  I’d be glad to pass on what I’ve learned.

Each one was unique

Kindergarten made stars.

Snowmen hanging on the drying rack after being dipped in glaze.

First grade made teddy bears, third grade snowmen and fourth grade santas.

I'm also doing art birthday parties at the local rec. center, where everyone paints a real canvas painting.

This party was for a little boy turning 5 (his painting is the green "shark" whale).

And here is the finished community Christmas card. They took it down today.

Happy New Year!  I resolve to update more often!!!

Not quite done, but here’s an updated picture as of yesterday.  Finishing T.O.D.A.Y.!

But, I’ve done the math, and here it is.  Next week is Thanksgiving, I guess we can all agree on that.  But, the thing that is troubling me isn’t Thanksgiving. I see each of my 22 classes once per week.  And I’m off on Fridays.  Anyway, stick with me here, I do have a point.  My point is, that my Wed. and Thurs. students have 3 and 2 more art classes, respectfully, before winter break.  Monday and Tuesday kiddos have 5 classes.  My poor Wed. and especially Thurs. kids.  Seriously.   That makes me very sad.  And then, THEN, the school year is half over.  How does this happen?????  I really want to know (that sounds like song lyrics).

Here is what we’ve been working on this week. One of my schools makes a large community Christmas card that is displayed by the library.  That was our focus on Thurs. and Fri. this week (yes, my day off), and I will be going in this weekend to finish it so it can be put up next week.  I’ll be filling the dove with colorful shapes, and adding more words.  This is the card “in progress”.  I’ll post finished pictures next week.

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I really want to post more than once a month.  No excuse but just busy.  Here is a taste of what’s been going on in my art room(s).  We have moved from the element of line into color for most grades, moved from cave art to Egyptian art for 4th & 5th grades, and started our studio art in middle school.  An amazing note, I talked to my older classes about right brain/left brain activities and told them that when we’re being creative it’s best to work in silence because if we start talking, our left brain takes over and it’s harder to be creative.  They worked in complete silence.  It was amazing.  And most of them agreed that it did help them be more creative.

Here are photos of a line sculpture project I did with Kindergarten.

They had so much fun with these!  It was awesome to watch.  And now they are hung in the hallway and look really cool.  I’ll try to get a pic or two.

And  a few Egyptian Cartouches in progress:

They will be painting their hieroglyph name on them next week.

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

yeah.  Things have picked up.  Why does this time of year always seem like we’re at the top of a really steep hill, starting down and picking up speed?
It’s not a bad feeling, necessarily.  Just a little crazy.

Oil pastel & black tempera scratch art

I’ve start my art history unit with 4th grade.  So far, so good.  Actually, I’m teaching a class at the local rec. center and am testing out the art history projects there first.  It’s kind of awesome!  So far we’ve covered cave art, Egyptian art, Grecian art, and are moving into Roman & Chinese art next.  In school we just started cave art, and the kids seemed really receptive to it.

We’ve also worked on fall self portraits, monochromatic self portraits (all-school, see below), elements of art through leaf exploration, and learning about line.  I feel really positive about what we’re doing in art, but I can’t believe the first quarter is nearly gone!!!

Monochromatic self portraits. This year, staff made them too! More photos coming soon.

And here is a project that I saw on pintrest (and in the Art is Fundamental book) and had to try.  It’s awesome!  I’m excited to make it with some of my older students (maybe 4th grade, but definitely middle school).  I did it fast so it’s not the best execution, but you get the idea!

Happy October!

Not really a slow start, but a slow start getting art to take pictures of (my baby turned 12 this week, and I made another fun birthday cake, so the photos are of that!).  Both schools are working on Monochromatic Self Portraits like this.  I’m hoping to get them put up at both schools before fall Parent/Teacher conferences, which start in about 2 weeks.  It’s pretty labor intensive to put them all together, but so worth it.I’m also working on my more organized curriculum for this year.  I’m starting out with all classes (except Kindergarten) doing pretty much the same beginning stuff.  Then I will move into the curriculum, which I am mapping out like this:

K – Kindergarten has their own curriculum, but we will move through the art elements, starting with Line

1st-3rd – Moving through the elements, using the book Art is Fundamental, years 1-3 respectively, as a starting point.  I won’t use all the same projects, but will move through the elements also, beginning with line.

4th – Art History: Prehistoric through Modern, focusing on artists as well as the elements and principles.
5th – Art History year 2: Prehistoric through Modern but different artists and techniques.  Also focusing on the elements and principles.

6th – 8th – Studio Art.  One medium per 9 weeks, beginning with Drawing, moving through Painting, Printnmaking, and 3-D.  I will give them more freedom to be self-directed within the medium, expect them to take responsibilty to set up and clean up independently.

I’m excited about having a more organized curriculum, but it takes a lot of time and mental energy to get it all together!

So, the year is back in the swing fully.  Schedule changes, new activities, it’s starting out pretty busy — but good.  There have been some not-so-great moments in my art rooms already (and honestly, I wrote this a week ago, and I can’t even remember most of the not-so-great moments of which I wrote!), but I’m not going to focus on those, because I decided that it’s really all about the JOY!  The moments of pure joy that happen in an art room every single day.  And we haven’t even painted yet!!  I’m going to list a few, just to share!

• Singing the ABC song. loudly, after reading Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM.
• Learning the “Oh I Love to Come to Art Every Week” song.
• Being amazed at the Magic Art Class book, and then figuring out how they did it!
• Laughing uproarously when someone in the class tooted loudly, then laughing even harder when the teacher (me) said yes, it’s funny, but everyone does it! (the idea of everyone tooting is hilarious, in case you didn’t know that!).
• Remembering from last year which colors are warm and which ones are cool!
• Remembering the Primary colors AND the Primary Colors SONG!!!
• Remembering the rules of facial proportion, even if we don’t quite believe that our eyes are really in the middle of our head!

• Finding out that I have pictures from my blog on Pintrest!!!  And not ones that I put on there myself.  That is very exciting (ok, that didn’t happen in the art room, but it’s still exciting).

And that’s just in the first two weeks!  Wait until we get to mix the paints together!!  Talk about JOY!

And then I’ll move on to the art at hand!!!

First off, when I made my lesson plan books, I used a free font that I downloaded from www.fontdiner.com.  I love the retro look of their fonts, free or otherwise.  They have bunches of free ones!  Check it out.

And in other organizational happiness.  This summer I got this awesome mini notebook (thanks to the heads up about them from my friend Amy!).  I make my lists in it, and take it out of my head, which makes me much more relaxed and happy!

I make pretty little lists like Amy does too, and they look so happy it makes me want to do the things on the list (well . . . sometimes).

And then, I got this free file box last spring from another teacher who wanted to get rid of it!  And I got pretty rainbow file folders for it (one color for each of the 9 grades I teach!), so I can color code my lessons!  I haven’t started yet, but I’m excited about it!  I am really wanting one of those fabric bags that has hanging files in it to carry to my schools with my art lessons/papers.  Maybe that will go on my birthday list!

So, next week I will post on art projects being made!  I promise!  Happy weekend and happy art making!

I made my own lesson plan books this year.  Regular lesson plan books just don’t lend themselves to art class planning, at least not the way my schedule works.  This makes me so happy!  The colorful covers are so fun.  I’ve very visually stimulated, so the pretty covers makes me want to get them out and plan lessons!  I made one for each of my two schools.

This is what they look like on the inside.  You can’t really see it, but it has each of my classes listed on each day, and then a seperate column for supplies, etc.

This is the entrance into Art!  (That inside door is the door into my office, store room and kiln room).  Our school theme is The Wizard of Oz this year, and our end of the building is the Emerald City.  I decided my room is Somewhere Over the Rainbow!  Working on a rainbow on my big window (but it’s not done yet!).

This is my Art Room Jobs bulletin board.  I’ve never done jobs like this, and am excited to try it. I got the job ideas here, and I made a powerpoint using some of the other ideas from this slide show, but made them fit our school.  So far, the Handout Helpers and Material Collectors have gone the best.  As we get messier, though, I’m expecting some of the other jobs to get more exciting!

 

I’ve wanted to do this since I started teaching.  It’s in the hall outside my room and it’s the “Masterpiece of the Month”.  I’m going to do a different artist/work each month and put little tidbits of info around the outside.  The little word bubbles say Piet is short for Pieter, which is the Dutch form of Peter and His most famous works use only the colors Red, Blue and Yellow.  Do you know anything special about those three colors?  I plan on adding a few more tidbits as the month goes on.

That’s my organizational fun for today!  I’m not organized by nature, but I’m working on it.  I find I am so much happier when I’m organized.  Who knew?  It only took my 50 years or so to figure it out!!  How is your year starting out?  What is making you the most happy?