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 Action figures inspired by the artist Miriam Shapiro.  Schapiro, Miriam (1923) I'm Dancing As I Can I think this is my favorite printmaking lesson. I haven't done this lesson in years, but this was the group to do it with! I love these creative kids! They are so motivating.   Instead of just drawing themselves in proportion, we made printing plates with printmaking foam.   On day 3, we made background papers and refered to the art work of Miriam Shapiro . We used ink and texture brayers. I have some really old ink I am trying to use up! I also have some construction paper that is old and faded that worked well. Today, we printed one of two prints. I had to post some of these and will update as we go. The students got very excited to use the tools!  I need to remind the second group to slow down and make quality prints.!   It was very exciting but very messy!! I know they w...

  I always love seeing the student work displayed in our hallway for Art Night during our school open house. This year I was really fond of the 4th grader's art work that was displayed together. I go back and forth each year about what looks best and how it should be displayed. I think the Texas Art work really looked nice, and the black paper the PTA mom's picked really made the artwork pop! I may rethink the other grade level's art work choices next year! Now onto the last nine weeks!!       

All elementary teachers in my district are being required to add ESL to our  teaching certification by next January or not have our contracts renewed. I have had many sleepless nights and stressful days in my attempt to pass this test.  I took the ESL test once in November and was unsuccessful. I cried and felt like a loser.  I decided to get a better attitude, work with a tutor and come up with a plan to pass!  I just wanted to get it over with. I studied my &$@& off for two weeks, and took the test on Tuesday morning. I am on spring break this week so I felt pretty rested! My stomach was doing flips and it took me 3 hours to take the 70 question test. I finally got the email today that the scores were posted and I passed!   I cried and felt sick as I tried to open the testing site from my IPhone while my husband was driving. Thank goodness it is over. I can now concentrate on the last 9 weeks of teaching ART and cooking the recipes...

I found this lesson years ago on Artsonia. I originally taught this lesson in my Kindergarten classes, but thought I would use it with my first graders this year. I wanted the display to be up for YAM and open house too.  I have gotten so many complements on it, I think I will teach it again next year.  I started the lesson off by having the kids look at art prints that show self portraits by artists. We also read "I am an Artist." We discussed professional artist tools and I had visuals and vocabulary words to go with them. I included them on my bulletin board too. On day one of the lesson the kids drew their full self portrait. I folded the small piece of paper in half for the middle of their body and we drew a pant and skirt version of a kid together. I had mirrors on the table for them too finish off the self portrait with their likeness. They did such a good job!! We traced with a fine sharpie and used crayons to color. I ran the pictures thru the lami...

Lesson Update.....I did this lesson last year, but had some great drawings finished for our art show this week. ............... July 2012 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 a value study. The second part of the lesson involved weaving painted papers together for a rug effect. I had the students paint a cool paper 12 x 18 inch paper, and warm 12 x 18 inch paper using paint scrapers for a woven look. This lesson allowed the 4th graders to safisfy many of our Texas State requirements.      

My wonderful PTA gave each team a cash gift to buy items for our classroom. I was able to purchase some fun brushes, fish and ink for my stamping center.  I just opened the boxes that arrived today from  School Specialty . I am excited!! I know some kids will be too! 

(I am trying as I get ready for Open House) My art teacher friend Renee, created this great note for her YAM bulletin board that has a QR code. She was nice enough to shared it with me. (Ok, now I need to figure out how to make one of those too!)  I copied her idea, and I am having my CTA make a poster on our big poster maker printer for our Open House.  Don't you love it when Art Teachers share! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Does your family have plans for Spring Break? Visit the Dallas Museum of Art!! The Dallas Museum of art has may activities planned for Spring Break.    As of this January, the Dallas Museum of Art now has FREE admission for EVERYONE!!   While you are at the DMA, look for the C3 (Center for Creative Connections). It is a hands on area designed for children to look at and create their own art that they may take home. http:...

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...

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!