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In the middle of our fast lives I  discovered this glorious sunflower field down the street from our house, and behind the Walmart at US 75 and Exchange Parkway here in Allen Texas!  Beautiful does not describe it! I keep waiting for my summer to slow down, but it has been fast and furious! In addition to starting summer school on Monday, I teach 6 year olds in a class called Art Fantasy World, I have been attending my district's SOL classes in the afternoon.   I came away with two websites that I wanted to share.  If you are feeling creative, its too hot outside,or you are feeling nerdy......go check out QR Stuff.com This is the code for my blog. I used Qrafter App on my Iphone to read the code I made on the QR Stuff website. We discussed ways to use this as a tool to communicate with students and parents. We also discussed how to have the student's generate the QR codes to connect their lessons to content online. The ide...

I updated a board in my room with tips from the book  The Art Teacher Book of Lists.    I am also excited about  a contest on Facebook to be a guest Pinterest Board collaborator on  the Container Stores' Pinterest site for teachers. The board is called   "The Organized Teacher Tips and Tricks.    You can find the board  Here .I was super excited to be picked as a guest Pinner!  (I think I may have already exceeded the 10 pins allowed per week.)  Once I get on a roll, I sometimes get a little carried away.  It should be a fun especially on the hot summer days here in Texas. Have a good week!  We have 13 more days until summer break.... then summer school art camp!  I wanted to update this post.  I received a generous gift card from the Container Store today as a thank you for Pinning! I can't wait to organize some of my work cabinets! 

They are all done. The kindergartners did a fabulous job making these for Mother's Day. I used up some dark green 12x18 construction paper. We practiced drawing lines and then using the paint scrapers to add more lines to look like plant stems.  I pre folded the paper lengthwise into 4ths then they refolded it in half and cut to the fold line on the fold.  You refold the paint side out and curl. Staple! You can and add a ribbon or in my case we reused painted paper scrapes with their names. On day two, we added flowers using a pencil with no eraser and pre cut tissues.  Happy Mother's Day!

I love our school librarian and she loves art. She returned from her conference and showed me this book she got for our school library. I just started my 2nd grade Rousseau tiger lesson so we read the book today. I have many other books about this artist, but this is an amazing book. The illustrations, and Henri's message of never giving up to be an artist is wonderful.  There are many historical facts and artist cameos spread throughout the book. I would highly recommend asking your school librarian to get this book for your classroom.   The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau  is also available on Amazon. My students are sketching their final copy from their thumbnail tigerscapes this week.  Can you believe the drawing ability of this student??? After we sketch, we outline in Oil Pastel, then paint with tempera cakes. Below is a previous example.  

I was so excited to get to school today and open the Kiln. I did the first firing of my Chihuly inspired  4th grade pottery pieces.  I used Trinity white and stoneware clays that the students rolled into slabs and cut organic circles using various 4 inch to 6 inch circle tracers.  We used pin tools to trace the circle and smooth the rim. They had a choice to put the slab in or on the back of a bowl that was in a plastic bag to prevent sticking. I added their names when the slab was leather hard.  I purchase the  Sax True Flow Colorburst Glazes  to resemble the Chihuly Macchia glass pieces. I can't wait to display them.The students are super excited to see them finished too.  I usually wait to do my super cool lesson at the end of the school year to keep students engaged, but I may have to do this one for our Art Night next year! 

I love this book about spring and art.     I introduced this lesson with the super cute book,   Butterflies for Kiri ,  to my first graders earlier this month to introduce Origami. On day one of the lesson, we enjoyed the book and made an symmetrical origami kite.   I used 6 x 6 inch white construction paper for the kite. I hot glued it to the corner of blue construction paper for them based on which hand they used to fly a kite.  The students could design the kite using any type of drawing as long as it was symmetrical.  On day two of this lesson we discussed what it was like to fly a kite and what the landscape would look like. I also found this quick video for students that have never flown a kite.  This lesson is also a great way to assess the basic landscape vocabulary.  I had the student's draw the horizon line and we worked together to draw themselves from the back flying a kite. They w...

My super art smart husband brought me some stamps from  Restoration Hardware  today.  I know my student's will love having them in the stamping center, but I may use them first!  I added some old stamps to a tote tray from my Stampin days.....  I can't keep enough ink pads for my early KDG and 1st grade finishers.  I need some ideas from my teacher friends!!!! Do you have stamps, and what type of ink?

 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!!