Houses

I have been busy painting our new school crests. There are to be hung up in our main entrance.
Recently our school leaders attended the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georigia.  They came back with some amazing inspiration and ideas.  We just divided our school in to 4 houses based on similar model from Ron Clark.  4 houses equals 1 school family.  If you are not familiar here is the link to The Ron Clark Academy.  I also happy to share that I get to visit RCA this coming May with my other colleagues! I also posted the YouTube video of  The Story of Ron Clark.  It's a great watch and very eye opening as an educator.  Thanks for reaading!

Clay Pizzas-2nd Grade

This week my second graders began to make some clay pizzas.  I got a a similar idea from the Clay Lab book that Cassie Stephens wrote.  The book is amazing and a must have for an art classroom.  The students started with ball of clay, tapped and flipped to make a slab, I cut the pizza slice shape with my pintool and then they used the extra clay for their toppings.  Once they are dry I will fire then and then I plan to have the kids mix colors and paint them.  Stay tuned for the final result! 

Hi Blog Readers!

Hi readers! I am back with a few new blog posts.  It's a new year and with that, I've signed up to get my Master's +30 at Fresno Pacific University.  I am taking a class called "All Things Google" and am really gaining some great information from it.  One of the tasks we are supposed to do is create a blog.  I knew I had already created this lovely blog ages ago but with the world of Instagram sharing, I've neglected it severely.
One thing I'd like to put out there is the true purpose of this blog.  When I started this blog I did it for art teachers to share ideas, comment, and connect.  There were so many great art blogs with great ideas that I wanted to share my own.  My target audience is art teachers or those who need ideas when teaching art to students or their children.
I hope all my readers are doing well.  I had a share this funny picture with purple handprints I found on a Friday during a crazy Kindergarten class.  We were doing a printmaking project with various objects.  Somehow my printing analogy  "a handprint is like printmaking" was taken very seriously by these little darlings and someone printed on the floor.  I still chuckle at this project and it's a good reminder of how kids take things so literally.  Enjoy the weekend!    

Happy Summer

The last post of the school year! I just snapped a few photos before I took down all the art & handed it back to students. Happy summer! 

Spring art!

Here are some things my students have been working in this spring!

Exploding dots hanging from the ceiling-idea from Pinterest - can't locate the original- group collaboration

The great wave off Kanagawa- Hokusai - reproductions grade 4

Matisse inspired fish bowls- kindergarten 

Collagraph prints by grade 3-idea courtesy of mrs. Knights smartest artists

American gothic parody- grade 5

Seahorse collage- kindergarten 

Cityscapes- grade 2

George Rodrique style blue dogs-grade 2

Neon weavings- grade 1

Chihuly inspired winter chandeliers

I decided to do something new for my hanging art winter display - so we looked at Dale Chihuly's art and went from there. Many of the students had seen a Chihuly sculpture out and about before, there are a few displays in St. Louis. We painted paper towel rolls white (or 2 toilet paper rolls taped together), and a grouping of 6 spirals glued together- each chandelier used 6-7 groups of spirals. 

November projects

Hi all! Here are some projects up and around the hallways these days. 

Kandinsky trees using printmaking & overlapping. First grade project working on cutting gluing & tracing tree template.

Paul Klee 'castle & sun' third grade project using oil pastels, color schemes and watercolor resist.

Kindergarten gum ball machines looking at Wayne Theibauds ' three machines' - students practices cutting skills, placement & filling the area.

Sunrise fall trees- by grade 4. Students worked on tints & brush control. I saw a painting similar on Pinterest so I modified it for elementary.

City skylines but grade 4. This project was the follow up from mixing tints in the sunrise to making shades in a sunset. The kids really enjoyed the control to mix their own shades.

A little bonus activity for students who finished early! I found this how to draw page at ' art projects for kids' thanks! We also watched a short clip in the importance of Thanksgiving and took a virtual tour of the Mayflower. 

By grade 3