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A Joyful New Year


The tree is wrapped up and put away, now what?  

A year ago today I started this blog. I cannot believe the creative friends and resources it has generated for me. 20,000 visitors in a year, invitations to group boards on Pinterest and new follows by blogger mentors. This site has challenged me, but rewarded me in ways I didn't expect..... so now what?

Trying new things can be hard at my age....... 

I tried a new Yin Yoga class last week. Each class has a word of the day and Friday's word was Joy.
How to find joy and keep joy in your life.  I know as a child growing up, I found joy in Art. 
My goal at school is create a classroom environment that is stress free, 
but this year I am adding Joyful to my motto. 

Google the word Joy. A Joyful Life is a very popular subject. This site speaks to our crazy schedules in the art room, constant to do lists, deadlines, expectations galore. For me, I need to feel pause and feel joyful and not let my life overwhelm me. This blog has helped me in so many ways. As Art Teachers, we don't have other team mates on our campus and we feel at times like we are on our own. Thank you for connecting and refueling the creative juices that bring JOY to my life. 

North Texas Trees
Happy New Year!!!!!!





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Kandinsky Trees

My first graders really need help with their fine motor skills this year. After completing a very successful Kandinsky Concentric Circle painting lesson noted below, I followed up this past week with a tree inspired lesson. Once again, I found my inspiration from  Jen Draw the Line At  and I used her lesson suggestions for this very successful lesson. My student's used Crayola Metallic crayons instead of the Crayola Construction paper crayons and we used juice lids for some bigger circles in the stamping part of the lesson.  Day 1 On day two constructed the trees and circle leaves. I passed out a 12 x 4 inch piece of black paper and had two different sizes of  square paper for the circles. Yes, this was a challenge since we did not use pencil, but we drew with our scissors. Day 2 I will definite repeat lesson for next year! I will be displaying these soon.  Displayed artwork is posted  HERE ...
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Monet's Pond

The Dallas Museum of Art  has a wonderful   Monet Painting  in a beautiful gold frame which inspired me to create this lesson for our Big Art Day which is fast approaching in Texas schools.  For our Big Art day this year I have a Theme....Circle Art!  Themes are the way to go when organizing events.  I love this new lesson that was inspired by one of my favorite artists,  and two favorite bloggers:  Painted Paper and Cassie Stephen's who also use themes.  I ordered the 10 inch cardboard circle rounds for this lesson, the same size  Cassie used in her Dot Day Art .  School Specialty has various sizes. The kids loved painting on this canvas instead of paper.  We read about Monet's garden and look at prints of his masterpieces. I even show them some of my pictures that I took when I   visited his garden in France.   On day one, we painted the pond and the water ...
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Clay and Weaving!

I'm brave, I tried a new lesson again.... I can say as we are completing these clay frames that you have to follow some basic rules or you will have broken frames. We have had only 3, but I did make extras.  My 4th graders tackled this lesson with stoneware clay, and finished them with oil pastels, one color of watercolor paint and I painted modge podge on them when dry.   The texture is the key part of the coloring process! I have rollers and rubber texture mats.  At least pencil think and more than 2 fingers in width.  You need some lid tracers and a pin tool. Don't try to cookie cutter it.  I strongly recommend 15 or 19 holes punched with a straw. You must have an odd number!! If they go hole craze, pop out the clay from the straw and plug the holes.  I found the directions for weaving the warp threads here on Cassie Stephen's blog.   I am also doing her plate weaving at the same time with...
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