Trolling for lessons...

So now that my student teacher is gone, I know have to get back into the swing of things, and start teaching again. This last week was my first week back, but we had practice TCAP testing two days, and it was also the last week of the 9 weeks, so I was grading everything they did with Ms. Cupp. So this is a great time to plan for the next 9 weeks. One of the ways that I like to look for lessons is to cruise some of the other art teacher blogs out there. I usually head over to my friend's blog, http://artwithmre.blogspot.com/ and check out his blog roll on the side (I also sneak a peek to see where my blog is on the list, usually at the bottom the last couple of months!). I found 2 really interesting lessons that I think I will use for my 4th and 5th graders. The first one is at http://dolvinartknight.blogspot.com/ (also known as Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists). While glancing through her blog, I noticed this picture

I love this project! It is eye-catching and I am tired of teaching one point perspective using buildings. It is also a great way to add in some tips on shading. I think that I am going to try this lesson with my 4th graders, using complimentary colors. I will post pictures when we are done with them.

The other lesson I found very interesting is from http://artiswhatiteach.blogspot.com/ (For the Love of Art)

I really like the visual texture that is created with the designs in the squares, and the fact that this projects incorporates technology, which is always welcome, even in a room that doesn't have a lot of technology. My 5th graders will be trying this lesson out, and hopefully they will have as much success as these students did!

On a side note, I have decided to add a blog roll to my blog, and if you would like me to add your blog, just add your link in the comments, and I will add them. This way it helps us both out, your blog will have another place to be seen, and I won't have to go far to troll for lessons! :)

(both pictures on this post are not my own, but have been taken from the blogs listed, to read more about these lessons, please click on the links above)

It's been two months...

I know that I haven't been blogging lately, as my friend Ted has reminded me over and over (see Ted, I'm doing it, so back off :P) but there are a multitude of reasons, the biggest one is that I have had a student teacher since January. I have been very lucky that Tanya Cupp had been assigned to me, and while she has done some amazing lessons, I felt that I didn't want to "steal her thunder" and blog about her lessons. That being said, I do have one item about having a student teacher to share with you. If you don't know me, I am very mischievous (in a good way, that is!) I love to play harmless jokes on people, and many times I get the kids to help me pull one over on their teacher. In the past, I have gift wrapped a desk, taped a doorway, hung keys from the ceiling, and so on. All in the name of good fun, I will not play a joke on someone who will not be a good sport. Back in January, when Ms. Cupp and I were getting to know one another, the subject of gnomes came up, and she offhandedly remarked that gnomes creep her out. Well, I filed that little nugget of information away and waited for the best time to use this in a moment of mischievousness, which came on her last day at Lakeview. One of my best friends, Lori, has a four year old that is in the Pre-K program here, and with her permission, I borrowed him for a few minutes. With the help of scissors, construction paper, pipe cleaners and hot glue, I had a do-it-yourself gnome that was perfect for holding the little cake I had gotten to give to Ms. Cupp as a going away present. You should have seen the look on her face when she walked in the door!

I should also note here that I have gotten permission from my friend Lori to use her son's picture on my blog. This is a must if you are posting pictures of children on the internet.

I have an idea...

Outside of my school, there is this area that is unused. It is a pentagon-ish shape surrounded by sidewalk and covered walkway. There are some bushes and trees growing there, as well as weeds. In different years, people have tried to plant flowers and other greenery, but unfortunately, it is very hard to find someone who can consistently take of the plants, so they always die. The grass grows really tall and the children run through the area in the morning. I was planning today for my 4th graders. I am planning a unit using the artist Joe Sam, who paints as well as creates sculptures.

Seeing his sculptures, it got me to thinking about turning this unused space into our own sculpture garden. We already have one sculpture there, the Chihuly inspired chandelier, which I keep putting off taking down.

So I am considering proposing this to my principal. I really want the related arts that we offer at Lakeview to be the main focus, since we are so often left out. I have been researching ideas, and have gotten some good ones, like this sculpture created from sports equipment

So what do you think? Any ideas or suggestions for possible sculptures?

Paper Pulp Ornaments

I don't know about you, but every year, my scrap paper box gets really full, too full in fact, and eventually I resort to throwing some away so that it doesn't overflow. Last year I came up with a great lesson that uses up lots of the scraps, keeping me from throwing it away. I had my kindergarteners create paper pulp ornaments.

We took the paper and separated it by color, and then ripped the paper into little pieces. Next, we soaked the paper in water overnight, and then ran it through a blender. Once it was pulped, we used cookie cutters as molds to create the ornaments. with the cookie cutters laying on a towel, the students piled the pulp into the middle, forming whatever patterns or designs they wanted. Next, we used sponges to press the pulp together and soak up as much water as we could. After poking a hole in the ornament, we put the still-wet pulp on the heater to dry overnight. You can add peppermint oil to to the pulp before the students use it if you would like. This helps in two ways. The first is obvious, it makes the ornament smell good, the second benefit of this is that it helps retard molding of the wet paper pulp if you need to store if for more than a few days.

I'm totally cheating!!!!

So, I have a confession to make... I love to create bulletin boards, but I hate cutting out letters for my boards, and refuse to spend money to buy punch out letters that I may use once. My school has an Ellison machine which punches out letters, but it is in another part of the building, and is sometimes a pain to get to, and we only have 2 font options to choose from, and they are each 4 inches big. Once in a while I can talk my friend Ted into cutting out letters for me, but not all of the time. So what did I do? I used some fundraiser money to buy a Cricut machine on clearance at Walmart. What is a Cricut machine? It is a handy machine that was created for scrapbooking.

With the purchase of a variety of cartridges you can cut out thousands of shapes and letters. Now the cartridges can be pretty expensive, but if you look for clearance sales or on ebay, you can get them pretty cheap.

I use the Cricut for bulletin boards and other signs that are needed around school. I can change the size of whatever I am cutting out from 1/4 of an inch to 5 1/2 inches. I have the smallest Cricut, but with the largest one, you can make pieces up to 23 1/2 inches. Here are some of the things I have created with the Cricut for the art show and bulletin board outside of my room. I used the snowflakes to make the border for the bulleting board.

Snow Day!

So we had a snow day here in Nashville. See? Snow.

So what did I do on this fabulous gift of a snow day? I spent it at school preparing for the first grade music program/art show that is scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday). I know, I'm horrible, and should be flogged for wasting a snow day, but I didn't want to lose a whole day of work time. I had a lot of work to do for this art show. Anyways, my first graders created chalk pastel snowmen, using glue to outline the snowmen and chalk to color them in. I sprayed the chalk pictures with 3 coats of hairspray, but for some reason it was still coming off on my hands, so I resorted to the last thing I would ever recommend for a child's art project...lamination. I never, ever laminate children's artwork, as you can really mess up the art, and with the amount of artwork that I deal with, I would go through thousands of dollars worth of lamination. But since this was chalk, and I didn't want their artwork damaged, I relented and spent an hour laminating their snowmen, and another hour cutting them out. After that, I hung them up in the hallway. What do you think?

Now for the kicker... I spent all day getting ready for the art show and guess what happened? They canceled school again tomorrow (Tuesday) so the music program/art show is canceled until further notice. Serves me right for wasting a snow day!

Crazy Fun!!!!

The beginning of the school year is always a stressful time, and being the secretary for my school's PTO just adds a little more responsibility to my already crowded plate. A couple of weeks ago, we had the Lakeview Design Center's PTO Fall Festival. We had a dunking booth, lots of games, and many baskets and other prizes to raffle off. One of the prizes was a chance to pie yours truly in the face. I think that my student had fun, don't you?