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And it is 70 degrees outside! School is out for two weeks and I am home today without a car. Its a good thing. I have gotten all the little things done and even have a clean house.  I am trying to get use to my new computer too.  I took down all of the fall displays before I left and added some winter themed art work. I put up this board with 3rd and 4th grade work inspired by  Paintbrush Rocket  and her friend  Painted Paper . The painted Alpine trees were a perfect one day lesson on a week of interruptions in 3rd grade. Thank you Laura for the great lesson.  I used two weeks with the 4th graders to created the Winter Bird lesson.  The kids painted and printed the 9x12 paper on the first week using cardboard and tempera paints. We also looked at the art of  Charley Harper .  On the second week they used oil pastels to create a bird. I also had shape tracers or they could use their device...

Remember the Alamo ? No not really! I am not from Texas and in 4th grade I took Indiana History... so learning about the culture of my now home state is really fun for all.  I came up with this lesson a few years ago after a TAEA conference host presented a lesson on creating the facade of the Alamo in Clay.  I tried the lesson with Air Dry clay, I had no kiln,  and it was a disaster.  I recreated the lesson using 36 gauge aluminum from Sax School Specialty. The student's did an observational drawing of the Alamo using pictures and technology. Since the structure is symmetrical I guided them with some simple contour drawing steps.  The manilla paper was 4.5 x 6 inches to utilize utilize the aluminum size.  I precut the metal on my paper cutter and taped it for them to the paper to avoid sharp edges.  They traced their original drawing with pen on to...