My Mini's Piggy Banks

Here are the piggy banks that my two mini's made. Thanks to Ms. Nandory, I was able to learn how to teach these wonderful little piggy banks. Please see her blog, Art Bait, to learn more about the banks.

The one with the blue in the back was my three year-old and with my husbands help. I love the eyes she added and the wonderful tail:)

The green background belongs to my son. He made with only my verbal instructions. They made their mama proud:) They look really good in their new rooms. Thanks again Ashley for the great project!

I placed some felt on the bottom of the feet so the clay wouldn't scratch the surface of their dressers.

Reusing CD Case to make beautiful mosaics

The number one hit post that I have had on this blog is about reusing CD cases to make a mosaic. ( Check out that post for more info ) I did these with the 3rd grade the last couple of weeks of school. We did a review of what a mosaic is by visiting the AMAZING work of art we did with Lisa Arnold's the year before. Then I had them come up with a plan on a grid. I was amazed at how well they were able to follow the plan. These mosaics are using small tiles to create the image. These are tiles I had donated to me many years before. I really think you could use any materials that fit into a CD case. I have a lot of other ideas for these CD cases… just have to keep collecting away.

Imagine a Dot...

I know school is done for the summer (at lease here in the states) but I wanted to post a couple of fun one day activities I did with my young mini's the last days of school. I say last days because the specialist in my school are on digital days. This means we see all 25 sections of classes one a week. So we have 5 'last days' of school.

So moving on to the image you see in this post… These are first grade student all laying down and meditating after reading the book 'The Dot' by Peter Reynolds. I'm sure this is not a new book to many of you but it is one I use often for one day projects. Because this was the last day, in fact the last hour of the year these kids were bouncing off the walls. I read them the book and asked them to lay down. I walked them through a meditation, asking them to relax their bodies, starting from their toes up to their head. I asked them to imagine the dot, it's so far away… Look, it's getting closer. You love the color of the dot, you touch it (all the first grade hands go into the air to 'touch their dots'), you've never felt or seen anything like this before. The dot smells wonderful (once again, the kids sniff the air). You pick it up, it turns into water and drips into many different dot around your feet. The little dots make a circle and you are now in the dot. Well, you get the picture. I made this activity last at least 10 minutes before I handed their work back for the year, had them help a bit with clean up, and talked about the great adventures they will have over the summer.

LEGO art

My husband loves to work with wood. Wood is his medium. Matisse love to watercolor, her medium is paint. Sawyer, his medium of choice, LEGOs! I have been watching my boy put blocks together for years and with this new room, his OWN room, I wanted to help him make feel as if he belongs.

As you can see I bought a couple of LEGO bases. They are 10x10 inches. I had my husband cut a couple of 12x12 inch boards. I painted each to match the room and glued (with a strong adhesive) the base to the boards. I bought blocks to match his color scheme from the LEGO store at the Mall of America. If you look on the green, painted square on the right you will see 3M's velcro command strips. I have found out that the strips do not stick well to fresh paint so I think we are going to switch to framing teeth.

Anyway, I think these were pretty successful and I think Sawyer likes them too!

Don't adjust your screen…

… that is the color we he picked.

Sawyer's room is done now too! Well, the trim isn't finished but the room is livable. S picked the colors himself. He wanted 'neon' green. Found the material for the curtains, dresser, and table at IKEA. Love that store.

One of my favorite things about this room is his maps. Ordered them from UnCommonGoods.

Finally, I tried to give my kiddo a chance to use his favorite pass time, Lego's, to create art on his wall. I'll post more about this tomorrow.

My Matisse's room...

One room down… So many to go… This is Matisse's room (almost) finished. We are going to add white trim to the rooms later this summer, but M got her blue and white room, as requested. I had to try the hottest blogging tool… Cutting Edge Stencils. Love the look, but may not do it again. It was a bit of a process. Overall, pretty happy with the room so far.

Home Projects...

Matisse and Sawyer dreaming of our new home...

Not only have I been working a ton with Art Soup the last couple of weeks but we also moved into a new home. We are having fun making this place our own and I will be talking about our improvements a bit over the summer.

Another Art Soup

You may have or may have not noticed the lack of posting the last couple of days. I have been occupied with a WONDERFUL event we have in our small suburban town called Art Soup. I was in charge of the activity tent and it was a success! I posted earlier about the fun activities we were going to have. Oh, and it was fun! These two cuties in the first picture are showing off the fun jewelry they made in the tent!

We had people of all ages stopping by and creating wonderful works of art all for free! What an amazing opportunity!

Even the volunteers had a great time! I was a fun day shared by all, despite the rain… the fun must go on!

Getting the Art From Japan

It was so fun to watch as my 5th grade received their long anticipated trade from Japan. Earlier this year we created art work to share with a school in Japan. The subject was about our community. See previous post for more about our trade. The work was amazing and I have been waiting this whole year to give the kids their work. This week is our last week of the 2010/2011 school year and the art was returned. Watch as the kids talk about the art they now own.

To view more images of the Japan work, please see the following link...

Japan 2010- Japan Student work, a set on Flickr.