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We are finally finishing up our Oil Pastel Sugar Skulls in 4th grade this week and learning about the Mexican Holiday Dia de los Muertos On week one I introduce the lesson with books and videos such as this one below. We used chrome books and ipads to learn to draw skulls using this awesome site:  http://www.art-is-fun.com/how-to-draw-skulls The student's drew the skull big on Tru Ray Black  that I cut into a 9 x 12 size of construction paper.  Good paper is the key to keep it from falling apart in the water at the end. They traced all pencil lines with a small piece of white hotel soap.   The lines appear gray.  Then they begin coloring all the white first with small circular strokes being careful not to go onto the soap line. It takes about two class periods to color. here is a picture of the small chunks of white hotel soap bars. Put the paper into a tray of water to wash away the soap. I dry ...

I have spent the last few months just being a working mom.... The school book I am ready, "Teach Like a Pirate" talks about passion outside of the classroom...I have been working on finding my mom time and not so much on the computer.   My eldest daughter, Ashley, recently got married. I made it my mission to focus my time on her and art making for the wedding. My youngest, Emily, who is my artsy side kick joined the action with her art creations. I made place cards for the reception.. using labels, chalk marker and wine corks. We photoshopped old family wedding pictures for the reception. I also got to spend quality time with my parents who live in Indianapolis. We enjoyed three lovely showers this summer. I made these Marquee letters for the Bar at the reception.  They are the Heidi Swapp  Letters at Michaels. Emily and I also made the Photo Booth props. Some were the wooded prop...

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...