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Raku Firing Day I posted in an earlier blog  that my New Year's resolution was to make more time for my art. I took the pieces that I created last month with raku clay out to Eric Orr's studio yesterday with my art teacher friends. We glazed and fired all afternoon. It was so much fun seeing how the   raku firing is such a surprise.  I am excited to build more slab pots, maybe buy a few of  Eric's bowls and raku away!

    We lived in the Houston area before moving to Dallas many years ago. I loved Go Texan Day . I think I liked it because I was new to Texas from Indiana. My husband worked for Levi Strauss, and we  attended the Houston Rodeo, which is a huge event the last week of February. One of my teacher friends shared this Kindergarten lesson with me a few years ago, so I worked it in to my plans and we actually finished today on Go Texan Day .   Day one of the lesson is reading Jan Brett's book, Armadillo Rodeo, and  we make the boots and hats. Yes, I do use tracers, and my little Texans need a lot of cutting practice this year! I usually assist with the gluing for placement.      On day two, I show them a power point with various western outfits, and we practice wearing a hat and bandana. I have the students draw with me using sharpies. We had no tears!! I let them color for the first time with Twistables so that the coloring was smooth and bright!   G

I pulled out an old lesson from the file cabinet this week for my 2nd grade classes that weren't effected by the President's day holiday and our early release day.  Maneki Neko, Good Luck cats, are very popular at restaurants and business in our area. I did a simple guided drawing with the students after I read to them one of the legends of the Maneki Neko cat. I also had a few worksheets from a Japanese Activity book with various characters the students could draw on the lucky coin. I also made a quick power point showing them the colors these cat are available in.  It was the purfect  lesson for and im purfect  week! Did you notice that I taught myself how to add a watermark to my photo's today????   I finally got my computer fixed at school and photoshop redownloaded. I searched YouTube "how to create a watermark" and found a great one that suggested using the brush tool to make one.  I feel so smart!

I am having a great day in the art room. We had a early release day which means I have time to get somethings crossed off my to do list. One item that I needed to address was a problem with paintbrushes!  I love my brushes from Royal Langnickel. I was having a problem with the bristles slipping down inside the handle while the kids painted. I contacted Dick Blick , and they are sending me a replacement!  I love them! My second item on my list was lesson planning. I have been visiting Jen's Blog, Draw the line at  recently and she has an amazing way of organizing not only her blog but lesson plans. I was looking for her idea on Pinterest and Lesson Planning to share with my teacher friends.  Was I in for a surprise. She has a new post mentioning 4 new art blogs, and I was one of them!!! Isn't it wonderful when someone recognizing the small things like paintbrushes and blogs? Thank you Jen!

    I love Hearts. I think it is my favorite shape. I can see why Jim Dine loved painting them so much. After looking at his art work, I used the directions from this awesome lesson from   we heart art!  Thank you Joanna! I followed her directions and did this in a two day format with my second grade class that is ahead of the other groups in my rotation. They gave the lesson a thumbs up today! I was so proud of their work I stuck some in the prepainted hall frames that are in my school's main hall today!              

I created this lesson many years ago after having difficulties with a clay Alamo lesson in my curriculum.  I had to use air dry clay, since I had no kiln, and many projects fell apart. Sad teacher and kids! ..... I was flipping through an Arts and Activities magazine (pre pinterest) later in the school year, and found a lesson on Metal Tooling. I recalled an aluminum Alamo plaque I purchased while visiting San Antonio. Light bulb moment........my Alamo lesson.                                      On Day 1, we discussed the Alamo and the missions they had preciously learned about in their Socials Studies class. I picked up from there and we discussed architecture of the past and present in Texas. They created a contour drawing of the facade on manila paper cut the same size as the 32 gauged aluminum. I encouraged them to make it their own interpretations.  On Day 2 we taped the drawing to the aluminum and discussed metal tooling. We used ball point pins to transfer