For the beginning of school, I'd thought it'd be fun for the all of my students, K-4th, to participate in a community art project. I admit, I openly stole this idea from another art teacher's blog. But, it's such a good idea...
Our tree after the 3rd week of school.
Each student was asked to create a leaf/flower/acorn to decorate, cut out and place on our ART TREE. They could decorate it however they wanted. They wrote their first name on the front and then the 4th graders put one goal they have for the year on the back. At the end of the year, I'm going to let them take the leaf home.
My students got creative, of course! After a while, some asked to draw animals instead of leaves. I told them as long as they stayed with in their size and remained school-appropriate, they could make whatever they like. I have some very creative students at ORE, so now we have chipmunks, owls, worms, geckos...all kinds of lil' creatures in our tree. With my kinder students, I had them trace their hand, decorate it however they like and then cut it out. I also encourage my older kids to raise their hand as high as they could (without standing on their tiptoes) and place their leaf at that height. At the end of the year, they are going to see if they can reach any higher to see how much they've grown. :)
The kids so far are really excited about participating and donating their artwork to such a big, colorful piece of community artwork.
I've been working really hard on getting the artroom up and running for Monday morning. I hope you like all the changes I have made. In the meantime, please enjoy this video. A teacher friend sent it to me, and I love it. I might have to download it and play it on my Ipod while I finish up the room tomorrow to keep me motivated.
I am ready for you guys! Are you ready for a new school year?!
It is with a happy, yet heavy heart that I announce my move this coming fall. I have enjoyed 5 exciting years with the kids at Creighton, but I have an opportunity to work closer to home and take my little ones with me to the school's daycare, so I have now been adopted into the Oak Ridge Family. While I'll dearly miss my Creighton Cub family, I'm very excited about my future with the lovely Oak Ridge Owls.
IT'S GONNA BE A HOOT!
Hope you all have a happy and safe summer! See ya in the fall!
I was inspired by another art teacher website, and by my cousin's pending Greek Loggerhead Sea Turtle trip, to draw sea turtles with my 3rd and 4th graders. After learning more about them on National Geographic Kids, we practiced drawing them on sketch paper. We focused on PROPORTION and SHAPE to get our turtles just right. Then, we drew the final turtle focusing on COMPOSITION. The pencil lines were traced in oil pastel and the texture of the turtle's skin and shell were also defined with oil pastel. The students finished up their work by adding a watercolor wash over the top and sprinkling everything with salt. They turned out beautifully! More turtles are popping up everywhere.....
Here are some fun pics I took while we were doing PAPER SCULPTURE a while back. The guy with glasses is supposed to be Mr. Moran. "EVIL MR. MORAN" to be exact! I saw him walking through my lunch tables, threatening kids if they didn't behave. All they did was laugh at him though. Maybe it was his lack of body..... I'm not sure! :)
The New Plan
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I have decided that full TAB is not my style. Although I have loved the
deeper conversations the kids are having about their artistic decisions,
the messy ...
File Folder Books Revisited
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This is just a short post to remind you about this great project.
Grade 1 started their Penguin file folder books yesterday. It occurred to
me that thes...
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Summer is almost here! Remember to keep your "Pop Open a Good Book"
reading logs to record your summer reading. If you return it during the
first week of...
For the beginning of school, I'd thought it'd be fun for the all of my students, K-4th, to participate in a community art project. I admit, I openly stole this idea from another art teacher's blog. But, it's such a good idea...
