UPDATE: I'm an Empty Nester

Well that day has come, I'm officially an empty nester.  Everybody has flown the nest and have made a new home for themselves somewhere.  I'm yet to find out where, but I certainly hope they come back to visit.

Oh, what did you guys think I was talking about?  If you're confused rightfully so, but check out my previous post and it might make a little more sense.

These guys grew so fast in the mere 10 days that I knew them.  Thank you Rocky and Hermie for letting me be your friend.  You know watch you grow up.  You were pretty ugly at first, actually really ugly at first, but once you sprouted a few feathers you weren't so bad.  I still don't understand why you wouldn't eat the worms I chewed up for you, it did kind of hurt my feelings, but I guess it's okay.

To you Momma Robin: I'm glad to see you go.  You gave me the stink eye as if there was no tomorrow.  If looks could kill, you got me good.  You pooped everywhere and made the front porch a mess.  I only wanted to participate in the growing up of your children so swooping down at me was not very nice. 

      

Fly free Rocky and Hermie.  I'll catch you later.  But I am glad I can open the front door again.  Come back to visit, as long as you bring me back presents. 

(In other news my Summer School class has been learning all about Art in Motion updates on that shortly, you know after I share some of the end of the year projects and get over my bird depression.  Do you think if I'm sad enough I'll inflict Bird Flu on myself?  Just a thought) 

Things that Fly

1st graders last projects of the school year were all about balance and symmetry.  We started off by talking about the asymmetry of kites when it comes to the patterns and designs.  

 The borders around our kites were just a combination of leftover scraps from the year--never let anything go to waste!  You can tell the students who just threw on random colors and those that took the time to sort through all the colors to create a pattern.

Next up we talked about the symmetry of butterflies and created these simple crayon, watercolor & salt, compositions.

Speaking of others things that fly, as of late I've become quite the birdwatcher.  If you follow me on twitter you might have noticed my obsession as of late with ornithology.  Well guys, it's real.  This bird just HAD TO make a nest on the wreath on the door and torment me.  

I almost died taking this picture.  In order to make this picture a reality I 007-ed and Mission Impossibled this like there was no tomorrow.

Check ya, later peeps. Only 9 more days of summer school and REAL summer begins!

What Does A Feeling Look Like?

Believe it or not this lesson creation was inspired by my 3rd grade students.  When we were doing this Georgia O'Keeffe project we watched a Brain Pop video that discussed how she was inspired by colors to express her feelings and moods.  I had some really disappointed 3rd graders when they found out they wouldn't be painting their feelings.  Thus, the creation of this lesson.

To start class we discussed emotions and came up with a long list of different ones, then I went around the room and gave each student an emotion from this list assigned at random.  3rd graders only job was to paint their emotion using only colors, lines, and shapes.  I didn't give the students any restriction of what colors to use, but they had to have at least two and no more than five.  The students loved it, I was so impressed at the thinking involved as students really wanted to portray their emotion.  

The next class we came back and each student picked one color of construction paper that they felt went along with their emotion and did some paper weaving.  The original plan was to have students paint two conflicting emotions and weave those together--but with the end of the school year we simply ran out of time!  Instead, students further embellished their paintings with puffy paint and construction paper.

I absolutely loved this lesson--it was a home run--the 3rd grade crowd went WILD. 

Joy

Excited

Anger

 Calm

Confused

 Depressed

Fear

Gloomy

Happy

 Sad

Surprised

Am I the only one who sees the seahorse on the bottom left?

It's officially summer for me (except for 15 days of summer school--but that's nothing!)  Hang in there as your school year winds down!

Tie Dye, Psychedelic Donuts, & Ojo de Dios

There are 4 days left of school...I REPEAT 4!!!!!!  

It's no secret that I'm a tie dye lover, and my students know it too.  In fact, they BEG me to do it with them.  HOW I WOULD LOVE TO DO THIS, but I'm still trying to figure out the logistics, like ya know getting white shirts that fit everybody.  Maybe I'll start small and try it out with my summer school class.  This one time at summer camp we had an auction, the campers bid on items (aka counselors) with the payment of pine cones.  I'm not kidding.  Well I decided I would put myself on the chopping block and who ever was able to pay me the most pine cones would get to tie dye with me. NEVER AGAIN.  Needless to say, thirty 8 & 9 year olds and tie dye had me going  extremely a little crazy.

Moving on......

You know at the end of the year when you have all those nearly empty paint bottles?  You try to combine them, dilute them a bit to get the paint of the sides, keep them upside down, and you still feel like you are wasting paint when you throw them away.  I've got your solution--if you're in to tie dye.  I hit up the travel section at target and bought a bunch of those little 50 cent travel hairspray type bottles.  Water those paints down--like a lot--as long as you can see the color your golden, pour them in the bottles and you're all set for some magic.

2nd graders took on fiber arts for this lesson.  We started off with talking about the history of the Ojo de Dios (God's Eye) and the culture of the ancient Pueblo People.  We sat all kum ba yah on the floor (me included) and we got to work on our Ojo de Dios.  

The next class we made our "tie dye." I showed students a couple of different ways to fold their fabric, you don't need to use rubber bands, and then they used our spray bottle of paint to color the fabric.  When they were finished I had them clip it to our makeshift clothesline.  

If you don't have fabric you can do this with a sturdy paper towel, just make sure to soak it in water before hand.  Some classes ran out of time so we had to do a different version of tie dye.

To finish this off, I'm going to leave you with these psychedelic, rad donuts, that only one class who had a little extra time were able to do.  We learned a thing of two about our friend Wayne and made these beauts. Donut you just love them?  

Summer's so close I can taste it.

Blooming Clay Flowers

I LOVE teaching clay.  As a personal artist, I'd consider myself to be a painter and don't get me wrong I love teaching painting lessons, in fact we do it a lot, but there's something magical about clay.  I'm excited about it, the kids are excited about it...life is good.  There's a different type of creating and learning that happens when students have clay in front of them.  An application of building and a different type of thinking is certainly evident when students are hard at work.  Isn't it amazing how much better they listen when that clay project is on the line?  There's always an exception, but most students LOVE clay.  

I still have all of my clay pieces (as well as all my other artwork) from when I was in grade school even my squished, freaky little dinosaur in kindergarten to my first time throwing on the wheel in 6th grade.  These past three years I've been kiln-less.  At times it's a total bummer, because let's face it air dry clay just isn't the same.  As a child, seeing how glazes work is one of the most magical things EVER! I've worked really hard these last 3 years to find ways to make air dry clay more like the real thing.  I've definitely learned a thing or two.  If you find yourself struggling because you're living in a kiln-less world (say that as if your singing Don't Stop Beilievin') sign up for the AOE Summer 2015 Conference, I'll be sharing some air dry clay magic! 

In the mean time, look at the shine on these beautifully created flowers by 4th graders that were made for Mother's Day.  Aren't they just awesome?  I vote for more clay gardens--think of all the time we'd have (cough, cough, MOM)! 

But then again, fresh tulips are always nice.  

Meowing at Midnight: Kindergarten Edition

Kindergarteners sure loved this lesson.  We were inspired by this print by Nick Gustafson.  I mean WHO DOESN'T like a cat with crazy patterns? But really, the kiddos were more concerned that the moon was yellow and not silvery gray.  With that we got a impromptu lesson on moon phases and the harvest moon.  But aren't these guys cute?

Disclaimer: No cat tails were harmed in the making of this project.  Seriously--those are some tricky shapes to cut around and maybe 2 lost their tails.  I'll take that any day.  Maybe our cutting endurance is paying off? 

To go along with the lesson we read Cat's Night Out, it's filled with rhyming wonderfuls and counting by twos. 

CAKE, CAKE, CAKE, CAKE

Have you ever had a class who hasn't liked learning about Wayne Thiebaud? I certainly haven't.  However, after that first day of looking at his work some students do look as if they could kill me with their eyes---No, sorry guys I did not bring all 170 4th graders a slice of cake! Sorry not sorry.  But they get over it....kind of.   

I've done a lesson about Thiebaud every year with 4th graders, but it has certainly varied from year to year.  Check those out here and here.  This lesson is a combo of the two.  Thiebaud's work is a fantastic example for students to see the difference between geometric shapes and forms, and of course we hit on repetition, shadows, value, edge of page, composition, and balance. Really, it's a loaded lesson.

I'm totally biased, but I think these 4th graders created some pretty fantastical stuff.  It's rad.  Speaking of rad, check out my rad sweatshirt.

OH EM GEE when the kids realize what painting is on my sweatshirt, THEY FREAK OUT.  Have you guys heard of this company, Rad?  It's the greatest.  They take paintings and put song lyrics over top of them, it's an artistic mashup so to speak.  Some of them are just straight up hilarious.  I'm thinking about getting this one next.  

Well, now I'm off to eat the only thing that I can bake---tie dye cake.

 

PSA: EAT CAKE FOR BREAKFAST
This one time at summer camp (circa 2010) I did and it rocked. Best day of my life.