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Open House is next week which involves a lot of planning and organizing the art work. This year in Texas, we are celebrating the Arts on March 6th which happens to be Elementary Open House night. The Texas theme is #BIGARTDAY and my art student's will be taking home the art works they created this year after displaying them on their classroom desks. Each student  will also have a "Selfie" on display. I am in the process of creating  4 Art Themed Photo Booth too.  Watch for that post  next week........   All of my student's made a super quick and easy portfolio this year in one class period, They loaded all their work inside. I ordered brown 18' x 24" construction paper for these. I put up the basic steps on the board. (I did prefold and staple the KDG and 1st grades portfolios.)  I love how creative some became..... I have them all organized by day to pass out before open house. I also noticed that  The Art of E...

My third grade students are finishing their Olympic self portrait figures this week.  We started creating our paper doll like figure out of skin toned paper a few weeks ago. (remember the oval people that are 7 1/2 heads tall?!) This was the part of the lesson that made me feel like I was giving Blood! I had to laugh out loud when I read Cassie Stephens Blog  recently about figure drawing and could so relate! We finally got the figures drawn in ...proportion and started adding clothes. Yikes. We spent some time reading Time for Kids and looking at various media and identifying  types of Olympic sports apparel. Did you know that Pop Tarts is a sponsor?  After the initial outfit was made, they had star punches, metallic pens,  and star stickers available for the details. I think we have enough stars punched for the year! I am going to laminate them so that they don't lose any limbs and display them for open ...

It was a fun day today as we celebrated Chinese New Year! First grade made Chinese Masks earlier this month in honor of the event.  This is a really fun two day lesson using paint, FX crayons and tissue paper. Here is a previous post from last year's display. I actually bought the school lunch today which was a special celebrations lunch.  Pretty good for $3.50! Happy New Year!

I have a super star new student teacher in my classroom for 7 weeks. She started teaching one of her own lessons this week titled, " Super Hero Self Portraits." She spent the first week here getting to know the student's and having the 2nd graders use the digital cameras to take pictures of each other in a super hero pose.  After editing, laminating and cutting them out, she introduced the lesson this week with a  great Prezi Presentation.  The student's were exposed to the art of Roy Lichtenstein and are are using similar elements in their work.  Next week they will be using Dot Dot painters for the benday dots and adding speech bubbles.  Having student teachers is a lot of work, but I really enjoy the lessons they create and watching how my student's react working with a different teacher. She is doing a great job as a Super Student Teacher.

I have created  Texture Shoe Print necklaces with my Kinder student's for 14 years.  I use stoneware clay and  Mayco Stroke and Coat Glaze . I got a few samples of it at the TAEA convention. I like using it for this lesson since you only have to fire one time. I use a straw to poke a hole and  I write their names on the back. I use a plastic string so that it doesn't break when they wear it home.  It's a keeper!!

One of my most popular posts from 2012 year was My  Favorite workshop at TAEA in San Antonio.  I taught this lesson this past November 2013. (Yes I am behind on my posts.) This was a very difficult lesson for my 4th graders. The original lesson was for 3rd grade. My student's objective was to draw a simple contour drawing of a Texas Symbol. Trace the drawing with soap and then paint the shapes with acrylic paint on 15 lb roofing felt from Home Depot. Keeping it simple as they  painted was hard. Oh the mixing.... It's important to make the soap lines thick and not to paint over them. Repeat, don't paint over the soap lines!! After the paint is dry, you wash the soap off to reveal the black outlines.  This is the wow factor for most of the student's if they didn't paint over the soap.  I did have some very successful pieces finished and have displayed them in our painted frames in the hallway. I submitted this last Mocking B...

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 jo...

 I love this book,  Totem Tale , the culture and images are wonderful and perfect for first grade artists. I also put together a power point showing actual Totem Poles in Alaska and Washington. There are many books available on the subject too on Amazon or in your library. On the first day the student's created the totem drawings. Each student got a 9"x 6" sheet of construction paper.  They picked two 4 1/2" x 6" pieces to glue stick onto the larger paper.  I pulled out all of my "How To Draw" animal and nature books and worksheets and let them draw any three animals they were inspired to draw. The animals are very symbolic in Native American culture.   We traced with sharpie and used construction paper to color.  On day two, they finished coloring and picked three fat wooden sticks.  They added pattern's to both sides of the sticks, after all it is a sculpture! I hot glued the paper to the paper towel tube...

   I am so blessed to be an Art Teacher and able to have two weeks off to be a mom and enjoy my family. Enjoy this time with your family. Relax, reflect, and get in touch with yourself!  I have recently started a Yin Yoga class and love the practice of  making time for yourself and your art of living. 

What a fun way to end the first semester. My KDG kids made Winter Crowns this past week to wear to our Winter Holiday assembly and party today. I made these years ago using 18 x 24 inch marbled paper. This year the kids sponge painted the pre cut crown on manilla tag board.  While the paint dried, we practiced cutting a simple snowflake. This was soooooo hard for some of them.  After gluing them on, I added some glitter..... it's all over my room still.. I am sorry wonderful custodians.  I sized and stapled ........ Very clever if I do say so myself. Happy winter break! 

. Sometimes my lessons are seasonally appropriate.  The ice in North Texas has finally melted but while it was here this week, I was teaching my 2nd grade student's about Fredrick Church's magnificent painting,  The Icebergs  which is in the permanent collection at the  Dallas Museum of Art . This was the view from our school this past week........... our icebergs. Burr.... using our new Prang cool colors , the student's painted  a frozen background landscape the first day. On the second day, we created icebergs on a separate sheet of white paper using texture plates and cool colored crayons. They cut out the icebergs, and the objective was to have  background, middle ground and foreground icebergs.  The last half hour was student driven. I had a station set up with Arctic animal drawing sheets, books, small cut pieces of paper, (proportion) glue sticks, colored pencils and fine sharpies.  ...