Please meet MR. BRUSH...

I never thought I could be so cheesy, but cheesy works for kids... When I am talking about proper use of a brush I introduce them to MR. BRUSH.

MR. BRUSH always wants his hair to go the same direction.

MR. BRUSH is thirsty so when using watercolors he needs to go into the water a lot.

MR. BRUSH will be nice to your art work if you are nice to him.

MR. BRUSH can get a head ache if you push him to hard on you paper.

A friend of mine, Leah Schultz, shared her experiences with MR. BRUSH several years ago and it really works. Now I have my students repeat after me, and talk to MR. BRUSH before using him. It stick in their head and my brushes can't thank me enough.

All in stitches...

This summer I have taught several classed through the Elk River Art Alliance. I called it Picasso Dolls. We first talked about Picasso and to free their mind up so they can design their doll anyway that they want. NO WRONG ANSWERS!

After that, we spent the first day creating a needle folder. As you can see they worked on stitches on a small swatch of material. This allowed me to see what level the students are at before working on the doll.

When finished they had a cover done with stitches, a added shape and a button. They had a second sheet with needles, pins, and a small pouch for a needle threading tool.

I sandwich a ribbon in between the wrong sides. Finally, I did a quick sew on the edges of the needle folder and they have a product in a couple of hours.

Garden Stones.

I taught a couple of summer course at the Elk River Art Alliance this summer. Here is one that I mentioned in an earlier post. Above is a couple of my students. I offered it for any age but I also it to parent (grandparents) and kids to take it together.

Here is my assistant (my husband:)) helping the students set the cement. We mixed a full bag of concert and it made 13 stones. We also added a little terracotta coloring to the mix to contrast the mostly cool colored stones I found at the dollar store.

As I mentioned the stones are from the dollar store, but so are the pie tins. I bought different shapes but mostly 9 inch pans (round and circles) work the best.

Students designed their stones with rocks, marbles, leaves, and handprints. I also had some letters they could press into the stone. When they are fully dry, the tin is removed by ripping it off. They turn out great!

The gift of art education...

Look at what has been inspired by bringing in an artist. As many of you have read, we brought in a artist in residence, Lisa Arnolds (of Minneapolis) to work with our school to make a mosaic in the spring of 2010. All students 2nd through 5th grade helped make the mosaic. One student the last week of school brought this in to show me. I love that something our school has brought forth has inspired young hands to work on art outside of the classroom. Isn't that our goal?

Write about your day...

Started my oldest Mini (4 years old) on a journal. We take time every day to write about what happened in the day. This is a picture of his sister running through a sprinkler. Yep, that is her belly button if you were wondering:). We also do a second page practicing a letter or a number. He calls it his homework. It is fun to take the summers off and put all my energy into helping my kids learn... they are my one and only focus. We do crafts everyday and learn so much! I love summer. What do you do with you kids in the summer?

After the rain...

Once and a while we are blessed with such a beautiful rain fall it can melt your heart. I can hardly stand staying inside... I need to go out and bring my little camera and try to capture the beauty. I never get close to catching the amazing beauty of nature, but I love to try.

Bee-autiful

Here is a fun little bee that my Mini made in preschool. Thought it was cute enough to show and perhaps an idea or two may spark from it.

Wear Aprons...

Need a new collection? I have the perfect one for you. I have been making and collecting aprons for the past couple of years. It is the perfect thing to have around as a art teacher. I have destroyed too many outfits in my short career. I started wearing a smock a couple of years ago but after baby number two, I thought... enough of the big baggy cover-up cloths... Let's get something pretty. Here I am now... obsessed with aprons. Anyone else in love with these cute coverups?

ReUse!

I brought my family to the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts in Minneapolis Mn this weekend. We got some really great ideas from and organization called ArtStart. ArtStart is an award-winning,non-profit arts organization dedicated to providing quality arts education for children and adults. They had a activity book with a great idea. Here is a way that you can reuse CD cases.

It looked as if they were using Elmer's Glue and a variety of beans. The one on the right also has a mirrored sheet of paper in it.

OK... I even made the big board out front of the school:)

There is more. I can't believe it. I really can't. I wanted to share this video because it is something kinda big in my world right now. I know I posted about it before but they District Office did a very nice job on the video. Thanks to all. Here is the Youtube from the DO.

I also have video from our local paper in Rogers... Mindy, a parent, an advocate and friend mentioned me and our schools good news in her weekly videos.

I made Rogers Elementary School news as well. Check it out!

This life is such a trip:)

How will I ever remember...

Image found at Vox

Jan @ Sippety Gibbet recently commented on one of my posts...

"I like this idea. I wish I could remember it when the end of the next school year rolls around"

I know what you mean Jan. I became a fan of blogging a year ago and ran into the same issue. This is my method of organizing all those wonderful ideas out there. I'm a huge mac lover so I'm going to be talking about the application on a mac, however I recently was introduced to a really cool filing system on Windows 7 that would work for this as well.

1. Find a wonderful post that you must try next year, like these wonderful dragon fly's found on Mrs. Smith's blog.

2. Copy the URL for that post. & paste it into Stickies (Mac thing) or any program that can take a paste. Then highlight everything, images and all. I like having the URL as the first line on the Stickie because this way I know who to site if I end up using the lesson.

3. Then go to File; Print; Save as a PDF. This way you can save it anywhere you want. I have folders on my computer that are titled with subject matter or concepts. This way next year when I need to find, for example, something on Tints and Shades I have several ideas to choose from.

These methods have worked well for me. I have a whole years worth of ideas just waiting for me on my computer. It is the perfect way to organize my blog ideas. I also have a folder called my matisse's (for my kids projects), Holidays (for decorating ideas), & Crayons and Cocktails (a small group that of women that get together in the summer to try new crafts, you may hear about this group of party girls this summer a bit!)

Do you have a method? Write about it, let me know how you organize you blogging thoughts!

Memory Crowns!

I know the end of the year has come and gone but put this in your mind for next... I saw a posting on Artolazzi last month (or so) making these cool hats Artolazzi calls Happy Hats. I thought I would take the idea and make a one day project out of it for the last day of my 2nd graders. I took all the scrap paper I had from the year and cut it into strips. We 1st talked about the year and all the events, memories, and lessons they learned. Then I asked them to draw their memories on what would be come the band of the crown. Then the last 15 minutes of class (15 minutes is perfect so the hats don't get to crazy) they used the scrap paper, and almost gone glues sticks to make a beautiful memory crown. Plus I got to smile and the kids walking out the door on the last day with the cutest, silliest hats:)

Art Exchange...

Mrs. Schultz, at Twin Lakes Elementary in Elk River, MN and I decided we wanted to have our students interact and learn with each other at the same time. Twin Lakes 5th grade and my 4th grade learned about neutral colors. We each did a work of art learning incorporating this concept. Then we exchange the work. I sent her my 4th grades work and she sent me her students work.

1.

2.

Twin Lakes project (image 1 above) incorporated some aboriginal design. Rogers Elementary (image 2 above) looked at nature and blending of watercolors. I got the idea from Mrs. Puppe (also in our district)

When the exchange was made (on the last day of class for the year) my students worked on a diagram comparing and contrasting the two works.

I'm excited to be working with a school in Japan next year on a similar project. I am looking for more school to exchange with. If you are interested, leave me your email and I'll write you soon.

I'm so honored...

I am so excited to know that people think I'm doing an OK job:) I had the best day of teaching ever on our last day of school this year. I am so, so, so excited to be voted "Primary Teacher of the Year" for our district. How great is that to love your job and be recognized for it! The Superintendent came to our last hour of school. Our principal always has his band come in and they play a couple of songs. The kids think they are at a rock concert... it's really cool. Anyway, Superintendent Bezek stood in front of us and with out me knowing anything he announced the big news. I got the warmest applause ever from 650 of my favorite kids and 40+ coworkers! The feeling was wonderful! Thanks to all!!!

The 2010 Primary Teacher of the Year recipient is Art Teacher Nichole Hahn of Rogers Elementary School. Hahn was nominated by four different individuals, who note, “she uses visual thinking strategies as a tool to help students be successful,” "she encourages students to believe in their skills and believe in themselves,” and "she is a leader by example in our building.” Hahn actively volunteers with the Arts Alliance and teaches during the summer with Community Education.

Chopstick Rests...

3rd grade celebrates and studies Japan. They do a lot of activities in their homeroom classes but I try to support the lesson in art class as well. Here we did small chopstick rests. I had a coworker (from Japan) come and talk to my students about the traditional place settings when eating. It was funny to talk to her because she admitted to me that she had to look up the 'proper' place settings. I told her not to worry because I wouldn't know where a salad fork goes either:) The students used the rests when eating their foods on the celebration day the last week of school.

Remember Shrinky Dinks?

We took a little trip down memory lane with the 5th grade. As we are wrapping up the year, I asked students to think about the lessons, activities, and memories or the year. They came up with a lot of great ideas and I hear a lot of laughs along the way. They created the images on a sheet of paper witch was then transferred onto a Shrinky Dink. I used two toaster ovens to run the class of 35 through in about 20 minutes. Designs took a half hour to two hours, depending on the class, the student, and scheduling. The kids LOVE watching the shrink and it is a nice end of the year project!

I must love food...

Yet another food subject project. I do love food:) Anyway, I found this project on Art Projects for Kids, and couldn't wait to try it. It was REALLY successful! All students could be successful at this. I did this with 4th grade but I think I could have done it with younger grades too. I liked working with 4th grade on it because I saw some creativity that I didn't think I would have seen with the younger groups.

This is a two piece project. The bottom is a small ball of clay place into a silicon cupcake liner.

I also tried some plastic trays from the dollar store but I liked the silicon better. The top of the cupcake is a hand build pinch pot. Each artist had the option to decorate the cupcake with what ever fruit (no bigger then a quarter) on the top. I waxed the top of the clay cupcake liner. and the bottom of the frosting before glazing (as seen in earlier post) and they glazed away. I talked about molds, hand build, scoring and 'clay glue' (slip) and glazing doing this project.

Art Trading Cards...

I read about Art Trading Cards from School Arts Magazine. This last year I experimented on one 1st grade class. As a warm up, in the beginning of each class, students would get a trading card and look at the SmartBoard to see what the letter of the day is. They write the letter (capital and lower case) in the corner. They then would draw a small image to represent the letter. It took a whole year to get the notebook lesson completed but I will use it for all 1st grades next year. It was nice to break up the hour with a routine.

At the end of the year I handed back all the cards and the kid could keep them or trade them. It was fun and a great wrap up day!

Extraordinarily Tasty!

Minnesota is proud of our sculpture; Spoon and Cherry, by Oldenburg & Van Bruggen!

We learned that this team of artist loved to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary! The 5th grade did the same thing withe this paper cut out project. The assignment was to take a sandwich and make it extraordinary with the things they place inside, and the size of the sandwich. They were not allowed to use anything but paper and glue... No writing. Quite a challenge for this age level. Each sandwich had it's own personality.