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I have been working on cleaning up my computer and trying some new websites this week. Have you ever used Canva ? I uploaded the app on my ipad a while ago but didn't use it. I began using it this week to create banners for twitter and a few wedding ideas for our upcoming daughter's wedding.  I also began following them on twitter after I noticed our technology department was using it to design posts for chats.  Well, I  switched over from the ipad to the computer site.  It is much more user friendly and I created the above banner free today.  I had a few problems with the sizing. I used the preset size and only had half of my header with my banner.  I did a little searching and found out the Blogger heading is 1060 x 288 pixels . I then noticed on the Canva site in the right corner and noticed it lets you create size you want.  You make it and save it as an image.  In the Blogger layout page, you click on the header t...

Hot enough to melt crayons rewards for back to school incentives in my treasure box.  The rain finally stopped and the sun is out in North Texas. We have had our yearly amount of rain as of now. I will say my garden is pretty dry finally.   I managed to create this pinterest project with my cucumbers today from my little garden. I decided to try to melt my peeled crayon in my molds on the drive way since it is almost 100 today. They do tend to stink up the house when I do them at 300 in the oven for 8 minutes.  I did this a few years back when it was 105 outside successfully.  It hasn't been 100 yet which may explain some of the issue I had with even melting. The cool colors which were a mixture of construction paper and metallic FX Crayola  crayons melted pretty smoothly today.  All in all outside it took about 6 hours in full sun to melt. The pinkish warm colored crayons took a while longer. I got impatient and...

If you watch the news then you know we have had record rain here in North Texas for the month of May. The gardens are growing in and outside of the classroom, but enough is enough! My fifth graders just finished these amazing one day pinch pots.... They used Sax underglaze with a clear coat to finish last week.  It is hard to get the clay to dry out and find a non stormy day to run the kiln this month! We have had 3 inches of rain on Saturday.... not to mention the amount falling right now.  my little garden is lush... but  it needs some sunlight to ripen the tomatoes.  Third Grade is working on their last project.... We looked at Rufino Tamayo's   paintings and drew repeated slices with oil pastels. 12 x 18 white sulfite paper Sax tempera cakes love these...I know I pinned this idea from Pinterest but can't find the pin.. Thanks to whoever originally posted this...

Kindergarten's annual Mothers's Day bouquets are blooming from the April Showers.  We had a record amount of rain here in North Texas last month.  The lakes in our county are finally full. Hopefully the drought will go away.  The kiddo's have not been out to recess very much,  but a garden has bloomed in the classroom and my personal garden has too.  I even have tomatoes! We have created Mother's day flower sculptures. We have Painted flowers in first grade....check out Laura at Painted Paper  for fabulous ideas.  We have also created Clay pinch pot flower vases. Second grade students are studying plants so these sunflower collages and pinch pots worked well cross curricular.  Check out Mrs. Knights site for more of these awesome creations. I had enough clay left in my cabinet for 5th grade to make a second project. I can't wait to see how these turn out...  Stay tu...

The #YAM and #BigArtDay art show is hanging up . The 3rd graders have been telling me this was there "most favorite art project." Who knew painting on 12 inch cardboard circles from School Specialty could be so successful?  I was inspired by a post over at Cassie Stephen's site for Dot Day  for this lesson and came up with my own twist on her successful lesson. Thanks Cassie.  My kiddo's did have an art history starter to this lesson looking at the   circle paintings by  Kandinsky  and learning his importance in Art History. Then using black oil pastels we took a line walk on the white side of the cardboard. No pencils!  The conversation started like this.... 1. Draw a straight line 2. Draw line that intersects the first line 3. Draw a curve line 4. Draw a zig zag line........and so on Then we review the primary and secondary colors. 1. Paint one shape yellow 2. Paint one shape orange etc. Any l...