Clay on Wheels...

Tip: I use carts for clay work. I have paper divided into section and as students come into the room they place their full name on a section. When they are done with their project they place it on their name and I can put their name on it when I works into my day. If I have a group coming in the next hour that is not working with clay, I simply wheel the clay works into the back room to keep little fingers off from the clay pieces.

Weaving Video

This is a great video on youtube to explain weaving! The kids really love it!

Eggs in a tree...

I feel bad because this idea I got off from a blog but lost the information as to which one. If it was yours, please let me know. Anyway, I did this with my K's recently to talk about recycling. We used magazine clippings for the nest. They loved it:)

Update: I think I might have found the link to this ideas... Thanks to Mrs. Smith! Check it out!

Update again: Katie from Art Teacher Adventure has a posting most like this project. She has some beautiful photography to go along with her lesson. Be sure to stop by.

Weaving Tip...

As I mentioned, I love doing a weaving with my 1st grade at the end of the year. It has worked out so well this year because of all the field trips, end of the year parties, and PE's field days and Music concerts... I see kids spastically. A weaving take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours, so if I see them 4 time before the end of the year or two, they will have a completed project.

Here is a little tip I learned from looking at weaving tips from many resources. I wrap the loom every other color. This way a teacher can tell a student, starting on the left, go under the color. Starting on the right, go under the white. In the picture above, this student was having a hard time remembering what to go under. I stuck post-it notes on his loom to help him remember.

Smashing Clay

My Mini Matisse is classic for smashing the heck out of clay. She wants to poke and prod the clay until it is so thin there is no way to fire it. I have students like this too in the older grades. I thought about experimenting with her. I placed the clay into a cookie cutter and gave her tiles and sticks and texture buttons... all the things she loves to destroy clay with. It held up well. They clay survived and the project is in the kiln now:)

Sunflower SEEDS...

Another wonderful artwork for early readiness students. This is a project most students would be successful at. The center of the flowers are seeds. Nice for spring.

House for Sale...

Student council sold the Volunteer Village Houses for $3.00 each at our carnival on Friday. The students brought in $168.50 that night. We still have some left so I expect that number to continue to creep up. There were so many ooohs and aaaahs over these sweet housed the 5th grade made. I can't wait to make the announcement today to the school.

Simple Sweet...

Sometimes the most simple directions create the most beautiful art. My oldest Mini created this in preschool. Just lovely.

Handprints always warm the heart...

Handprints ALWAYS warm a mothers heart. My mother-in-law made these with my kids so they could give it to me for Mother's Day. I guess they had a fun ('messy') time.

Glazed and ready to sell...

Volunteer Villages, Part 2...

Step 1

Decided to make a difference.

Step 2

Get the right people to help-- Student council to sell the houses, 5th grade to make the houses, a husband to baby sit while I glaze over 100 houses:)

Step 3

Enjoy the Oooohs and Ahhhhs as people take in the wonder of these sweet, tiny houses.

Tonight is step 4

We sell the houses at our school carnival. Not bad for a weeks worth of work:)

A visit from Matisse...

We are studying Henri Matisse's work to discuss overlapping. For my first 2nd grade class I told the story about Matisse in a wheel chair and how he drew with scissors. I explained that he use assistants in his studio because of his wheel chair use. The kids got it but I don't think they will remember it. I want them to let it sink into their brains that ALL people are artist no matter what their physical body looks like. For the next three 2nd grade groups I dressed up like Matisse (or put a some facial hair, glasses and a hat on). The kids loved it... in fact I learned that they listen better to Henri then they do to their Art Teacher:).

Weaving set up...

Tip: I learned from a friend that I should weave with my 1st grade at the end of the year. I love this practice because once the kids learn the set up, they relax and have a great time just doing the laid-back craft of weaving! Above is a way that I have found to help keep my room organized as well. Note that I have a sheet of paper telling kids how many scissors can be at a table. This make sure the scissors don't walk away from the table and get lost:). Tape on the table help the kids cut an appropriate length. tape of the floor keeps kid from crowding each other at the table.

We want to help!

We talked about you today Mrs. Rachel. You too, Mr. E from Tennessee. We heard your cry today Ms. Malone, and we're on our way!

Rogers Elementary wants to help. We are going are sad for the challenges Tennessee is up against with the recent floods... WE WANT TO HELP! Here we come with our tiny houses. We are excited to participate in Volunteer Village House. We have a school carnival this weekend and our Student Council is going to sell the houses we are now making in class. We're throwing it all together in a couple of days, hoping to make a donation towards your cause. People hear you. Thank you for BLOGGING about it!!!

Save the Date...

Tip: I have learned over the years that I always have to put the dates on all the products I buy. This way I'm sure to use the older product 1st. As you can see... I'm a little behind:)

Sobo to the rescue...

As I mentioned a couple of days ago... I tried a new clay texture bug project. Overall I love it! I do have to some changes I want to make for next time.

Tip:

1. I think I will have the kids put a little more pressure on the 'bodies' when 'stomp' it. I don't want the legs to get too thin and break off but I also want to make sure the bodies adhere. About 8 out of the 100+ projects that I did had the body pop off, that is where the SOBO comes in. The bodies were a quick and easy fix by placing a bit of SOBO on the clay work. Now I will have to paint rather then glaze.

Tip:

2. This project takes up more space then most of my clay projects. I didn't have the open storage space for the drying projects so I put some in the Kiln to dry. Turns out the bottom two shelves were not dry after a week... so this happened:(

I want to show you everything in this blog... The good and the bad... Here is the bad. We will be redoing the project for this class. I'm always learning... ALWAYS!

Clay Texture Bugs

So far so good... This is the first time I am trying this bug project. I learned how to teach it off from 'The Clay Lady's DVD. We are drying the bugs right now... I can't wait to see them out of the kiln and finished.

Student needed a clay mat, (I use plastic bags so we can toss them out after used, I'm allergic to cay dust and this cuts down on old dust in the room) 1/18th of a 25 lb. bag of clay, and a wooden clay tool.

The kids take their piece and split it in two. They slap the two balls of clay into slabs to the thickness of a double stuffed oreo (clay lady phrase). I wish you could hear the noise of the whole class banging their slabs down.

The kids cut the clay into the shape of their hands. Their hands are bigger then the clay so they don't have to fit their whole hand on the clay. Just get the fingers. With the scrap clay they put it back into a ball and slap it back into a slab. Hands are placed together (they must overlap) and the new clay slab set on the hands. They bring this part back to me to 'stomp on their bug'.

Here is the kids 'stomping the bugs' by me so I can watch he pressure. They then place it on a disposable bowl.

The 'legs' have to all be sitting on the edge of the bowl. I place the names on one of the legs before it was dry.

A BIG thanks to Danielle McDaniel or 'The Clay Lady'! This is off from her lesson plan DVD. There is a lot great ideas and new ways to think about clay on this DVD!

Zoo from my Boo...

My oldest little artist wanted to make a zoo for his 'special' art frame in our house. I thought this was pretty good being a 4 year old who struggles to stay in his seat for more then 2 minutes. He drew the elephant and tiger and outlined it with sharpie marker.

We added the bars on his zoo by sewing string on the top of the image. He had a lot of fun with this. I was really proud of his mad sewing skills!

Letterpillar

My Mini Matisse is loving his preschool and I am too. This cute Caterpillar was delivered to my room today. Each paper plate has a letter of my 4 year old name. The cute face makes me smile every time I look at it.

Fruit Fractions

Day 1

Students first learned about what a still life is, why artist make them, and looked at a variety of image to put in their visual library. Then game each table 3 pieces of fake fruits. Student 1 arranged the fruit and I played a song for about 5 minutes as they drew the still life in from of them. Then I gave each table 3 more object (block) and asked student 2 to arrange them. I repeated this process until all students at the table were able to arrange the still life.

Day 2

Day two was so much fun! Students were asked to bring in apples, banana's or oranges. I gave a brief lesson on fractions reenforcing fractions (which they are working on in class). After dividing a long sheet of paper into 4 sections, the students looked at the fruit and drew it as a whole in the first section. Then I asked them to each away about 1/4. They loved this! I gave them music prompts again to let them know to draw the 3/4 fruit in the second section. The students repeated this process until getting down to 1/4 of the apple. If student had time I asked them to outline the image with sharpie marker.

Tip: Have a cutting board and knife on hand... remember these are 2nd grade students and many of them don't have their front teeth:)

Day 3

Tip: I drew one and made copies of it so student who were gone on day two would not be behind. I only grade students on the work they complete, the coloring in this case.

We did a quick review of fractions and still lives. Students worked on a worksheet creating the four fractions we talked about last time. I often have students do a worksheet.

Tip: Ask students to glue their worksheet on the back. This way parents know what students learned with this wonderful work of art they are being presented.

Student worked on coloring their work. I suggested they start with their fruit and then if they had time, move to the background.

Students placed a background to boarder the edges of the work, they glued their worksheet on the back and placed it on the drying rack. It was fun to watch student so excited about the Mathsterpieces they created:)

Thank you ART FOR SMALL HANDS for the great idea!

Finished with LOVE...

We finished our mothers day cards. I had each kid create 'Why I love my Mom' worksheet. We glued them into the inside the card. Tip: I made sure all the students had someone they call mom in their lives before doing this part of the project. On the worksheet I asked students to write/draw about what they loved about their mom. These turned out great!

The good with the bad...

Tip: I like to take pictures of both excellent works and works that could be improved. If/when I use the lesson again I often put both images in to my notebook lesson (or power point, whatever you use) to talk about what is good about these... and what could be improved. I always make sure names are NOT visible.