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I'm brave, I tried a new lesson again.... I can say as we are completing these clay frames that you have to follow some basic rules or you will have broken frames. We have had only 3, but I did make extras.  My 4th graders tackled this lesson with stoneware clay, and finished them with oil pastels, one color of watercolor paint and I painted modge podge on them when dry.   The texture is the key part of the coloring process! I have rollers and rubber texture mats.  At least pencil think and more than 2 fingers in width.  You need some lid tracers and a pin tool. Don't try to cookie cutter it.  I strongly recommend 15 or 19 holes punched with a straw. You must have an odd number!! If they go hole craze, pop out the clay from the straw and plug the holes.  I found the directions for weaving the warp threads here on Cassie Stephen's blog.   I am also doing her plate weaving at the same time with...

I haven't blogged in so long and I miss it!  I have had the most upside down year at school and it ended with a bang on last Friday.  The semester started of with a huge struggle in my classroom with a  recent student teacher. It took me the second nine weeks to rebound and get back on track. Our amazing office manger and principal planned many fun activities that involved twitter the last week of the semester  and a Sonic drink cart. Thanks Shelley and Jamey! Do you Twitter? I have had a door into my classroom with twitter for two years now and love it.  Check out my classroom @ skaggsart I began tweeting last year, but our school made it the IN thing this year. We have Twitter Tasks of the day that involve teacher and student tweets.  Here are a few #ttt from the week in our Photo booth. Each day had a theme....  Team Shirts  Christmas shirts Scarf day I had planned santa hat day for the last ...

I went way outside my comfort level and dressed up as a story book character on our Red Ribbon Dress up day last Friday. I posted my picture on Twitter and Facebook Art Teacher's group. I even went as far as sending a picture to Cassie Stephens . Soooo....... I need you to vote for me. You can vote everyday this week.  There are many other outstanding teacher on her site that you can vote for too,  and save ideas for next year.  Thanks so much!

I love my fall lessons, but we are running behind after having a student teacher the first nine weeks. These 4th graders should be ready to wash the soap outline off the black paper next week to complete their sugar skull lesson. The soap lines will reveal black outlines and the oil pastel stays put.  Here is a previous display! Yesterday was Story Book Day on Halloween. I decided to dress as my favorite artist PIGASSO It was a blast and almost all the kids Got IT.  We finished up the day with a few magic Pasta Pots after reading Strega Nona. This artist was dressed as Elsa! Metalic FX crayons make everyone happy! Three weeks and then a week off.....oh btw my Kiln is now fixed! Yippie

85 degrees and windy....A great field day, and I am so glad I ordered  Cardboard panels instead of paper for the Dot Day Painting Station! As the team leader for our specials team I wanted to find a way to  collaborate with my team on Field Day.  We delayed Dot Day in September, and had a two hour painting station in the field day rotation this afternoon. It was a hit!  Our wonderful PTA gave me a $50 budget to order cardboard panels and Paint.  (Prang from Office Depot) (24 x 36 inches from Office Depot) I have one panel per homeroom teacher. I thought the kids would rotate with their teacher, but it ended up being free choice, so we turned over the labeled panels and let the kids paint.  The wind really blew things around. I might use heavier cups next year....many kids just stayed with me, you know the ones that don't enjoy field day. It was a great way to collaborate in a different way.  I eve...

 We tried something new!  We love the clay Chihuly lesson that I have done for a few years, but it is always good to branch out. I also had a student teacher, and needed to find a lesson that wasn't my type of lesson but one he could manage. This lesson was inspired by a few teachers on the Facebook Art teacher's page and one that I LIKED on twitter and it was actually a Middle School lesson.  Thank you for sharing it since it was a good two day  4th grade lesson that works well for student teachers or new teachers. We used  these transparencies because I found a bunch of them at my school to recycle. We used sharpies and acrylic paint the first day to add color to the  organic shape. You just need a little bit of paint that is transparent! I also made this Prezi . We even added more sharpie lines and patterns on the back of the transparency on the second day. You need to have various forms for them to rubber band the ...