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Ahh .....I'm an hour away from arriving at my vacation destination with my wonderful husband. This is our first empty nest vacation! I am very excited to just do what we please for a week in Maui! Luckily, Miss Carter is manning the house and the animals! Enjoy a few of my vacation photos!

I always get a little weary the last week with my fifth graders. I asked some of my awesome artists what did they wanted to do in their last art class of elementary school. They said, "PAINT!" So I looked around the blogs for a one day painting lesson and found many sites that had students using line, shape, overlapping patterns to create an interesting composition with watermelon slices. We used china markers, and tempera cake paints on 80 lb sulfite construction paper . No pencil drawing, just drawing with the china markers. I told them to pick to complementary colors to paint with. They could add a background color if time allowed. Everyone was happy on the last week of school, which is a good thing!

I have always wanted to attempt to make a Raku piece of pottery. Our local art teacher association had a clay making workshop one day this summer. I signed up and went into this not knowing what to expect. I had a blast just seeing what would happen if you mix fire and clay! I will admit my pottery making was not my personal best, but I quickly created a few sturdy thick slap pieces with red stoneware I acquired from Trinity Pottery. We drove our bisque fired pieces out to Eric Orr's studio for the firing last night. I was only 107 degrees yesterday so.... I was really not looking forward to getting literally toasted. Luckily, he has an air-conditioned part of his awesome studio where we could glaze and cooled off! I learned so much and I am inspired to do it again! [gallery orderby="post_date"]  

One of my favorite new lessons this past school year was inspired by a longhorn skull we purchased at Trading Days in McKinney Texas. I used a print by Georgia O'Keeffe and my favorite book about her, My Name is Georgia . The students did a direct drawing of the longhorn skull using contour lines and value. The second part of the lesson involved weaving painted papers together for a rug effect. I loved the final lesson as did the 4th grade students!

I ordered these Royal Jumbo Paintbrushes this past school year and my students absolutely loved using them. We used them with tempera and watercolors! I plan to get more this year. They wash up very well and kept a nice point when they are wet!  My students refer to them as Mr. brush.

I had bowls of peeled and broken crayons from the last week of school. I use these to make crayon rewards for my treasure box. ( I am waiting for new silicone molds to go on sale to add to my verity of crayon forms.) I spent this afternoon "baking" my crayons at 300 degrees for 8 minutes. It's stinky and messy so get ready for a fun mess. The kids love them so it is worth it!!

During the summer break I love to look for a few new art books for my classroom. Jennifer Lipsey has a series of books call  My Very Favorite Art Book.  I found one of these at the DMA gift shop and have seen them in Crystal too. These are very popular in my class. I have all of the 1-5 students make a sketchbook the first week of school. When they finish early, they are allowed to draw in their sketchbooks and frequently grab one of these books.   

The sales have started! All teachers have to supplement their mini consumable budgets. I did very well at Staples today. With their coupon and one they honored for Office Max, I only spent $35!

I am cleaning up my hard drive and came across photo's of my favorite lesson that I have created. The 4th grader's draw a contour drawing of the facade of the Alamo, tape it on an 18 gauge aluminum sheet and transfer with ball point pin. We tool it again after the drawing is transfered. The final step it so trim the top of the facade and blacken with india ink and soap. Their favorite part is to buff with steel wool!!

I felt a little crafty this week. I noticed the cool 3-D letters at JoAnn's and did a little Pinterest research. I found Briana's blog  Back to School  with directions. They turned out so well that I made more for my new niece!

After school was out, I needed an adult break. The Dallas Arboretum has an amazing Chihuly exhibit until November! If you go, preorder tickets that include the evening concert! This is my favorite Chihuly sculpture at the Indianapolis Children's Museum in my home town.

We decided when planning our lessons for Summer School to include a clay lesson. Our inspiration came from Mrs Picasso's Artroom . The students told me this was their favorite lesson!

I finished up 16 days of summer school art today. We painted red, white and blue papers yesterday. Today we put them back together to make our own version of the Grand Old Flag! Thank you Painted Paper