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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Warm Color Tree Silhouettes - 3D Grade



We are in a creative firestorm this year! Third grade just finished up creating their Warm Color Tree Silhouettes and they are stunning in all their warm color glory!


It took us about three 30 minute classes to create them. Some finished in two and some needed the extra third to complete their piece due to absence and working paces...
We started by sketching out a simple tree with black paint. I demonstrated how to use their paint brush to do a quick, simple sketch of their tree and then go back and paint in the lines, spaces neatly. This saved a lot of valuable time not sketching in pencil first and the kids did just fine doing their initial sketch in dry brush.  This took one 30 minute class...


During the second class the kids started by creating a visually textured collage of leaves in the backgrounds of their piece using leaf rubbing plates and only Warm Colors.  Rubbing plates are super popular with my students from Kindergarten all the way up to my Fifth grades! In Kindergarten they think its magical how the patterns/pictures appear on their paper! Even as they get older and understand why the images appear the magic of the rubbing plates still appeal to them! 


The rubbings only took a few minutes to complete so when the kids were ready they started painting over the background with Warm color watercolors.  This was a great opportunity to discuss the concept of contrast in colors. We have been talking about contrast since our first project this school year so when they started painting some of the kids noticed that some of the rubbings were harder to see than others. "Why do think that's happening?", I asked. ( higher order questioning people! I've taken several workshops on higher order thinking/questioning recently...) I had the students offer their thoughts and they all began to conclude that it was because yellow watercolor over yellow crayon had no contrast and didn't show up as well as a red crayon rubbing would with a yellow watercolor over it, yay for contrast! They are making connections!  (Now to just get some of this to happen during one of my observations, lol... )


Most of the kids finished painting during the second class but several in each class needed some more time to catch up with their classmates so we used a third class as an "Art Ketchup" day.  I had several activities prepped for the kids to do if they wanted instead of going to the activity center and let the finished choose.  


 My Thursday Third grades are a little ahead of the Tuesday Thirds so tomorrow I am planning a collaborative circle painting activity for them that coordinates with our Peace week that is happening this week.  The kids know I have something special planned and are eager to find out what it is...








I can't wait to display these tomorrow! They are going to look beautiful together in a group!



I am enjoying my new IPhone 5 ( yeah, I know, I'm slow to keep up with technology... the Verizon dude thought I was nuts when I said I didn't want to wait a couple of days for the 6 ,but hey, that's me, I move to my own beat and it's usually not that of the popular crowd... ) I love how easy it is to take pictures with and they are nice pictures ( to me anyway ) most of blog pics since September have been from my IPhone. I got another new app ( new to me anyway ) last night,  it's called, Color Cap.  I wanted something that I could use to write words on my photos to make some cool visuals for my room.  I made the " Create" one last night from a pic of a watercolor set I had on my phone.  Some of you out there are really tech savvy so I know that it may not be too impressive to you, but for the technologically challenged "moi" ( me ) it's pretty cool! My son and daughter ( 21 and 15 ) are all "check out Mom" using technology and social networking! I'm slow getting there but I'm catching up!  I also put a couple of Flipgrams that I made recently on my Instagram page. You can access it from the link on the top right of my blog page.
 Hope your weather and week are going well! It's blustery, cold and rainy here today!  Came home early today because of a small vertigo spell but it's better now... the room no longer spins out of control when I move my head!  ( like my head isn't always spinning, lol...)

Mrs."C"  :)











Saturday, October 18, 2014

This Fall Weekend...




The trees are at or past their peak here... the leaves are quickly falling from their summer homes...


The Burning Bush off my front porch is starting to turn and it's loaded with red berries this year!


We had a visitor Friday morning... I had put a bag with a few ears of corn that we were not going to  eat on the deck the other day ( it was not the best, last of the season, a little tough... ) I was going to move it the next day and forgot... Mr. ( or Mrs. ) Raccoon found it before I moved it and had a corn on the cob feast! It was 5:30 a.m. and I was making coffee when one of my cats starting hissing and growling, thought it was a neighborhood cat at first, that's usually who the hissing is about...  when I turned the deck light on it was this chubby guy! He could have cared less and continued to feast! No, I don't leave my pots and pans out on my deck... that's the pot I do my Eco-Dying in.and the trays I mordant the fabric in... left it out after my last experiment... I need to try some of the Fall leaves and see what will print before they are completely gone for the season...  :)


He really did make a big freakin' mess... my fault for leaving the corn...  :)


I have a slew of projects going at the same time... since I don't have my SGO's to work on ( they are done and handed in! Hallelijah! ) and I am caught up on my lesson plans I am going to spend some time getting my house back to normal ( or as normal as it gets around here... my daughter's best friend said the other day," I love the organized chaos in your house... it makes me feel free! "  I was like, yeah, ok, thanks... and thought to myself, time to organize... )  With all the work I have been doing for school lately I have been putting a lot around the house on the back burner and doing just the bare essentials to keep life moving. When the dust bunnies start to resemble real bunnies it's time to take action :)


At the moment I am not moving too fast as I am enjoying my coffee and there is a cat on my lap...
I might even get those pumkin pies made today...

Saturday, October 11, 2014

This Week at School...



Things have been super busy in the art rooms at school this week!  I have been creating some new visuals for around my room ( 3d-5th )  I love how this one came out... it was one of the "Happy Friday" quotes a fellow teacher places in our mailboxes on Fridays... I just added a little colored pencil, borders and laminated...


ALL the kids, K-5th are loving our new colored pencils this year! They are the Prang large triangular colored pencil 12 pack set. Each pack comes with a sharpener with two size sharpening spaces. I have put them into small containers and leave them on the tables for the kids to sharpen their own pencils. It has reduced the traffic since there is no need to go to the sharpener.  At first it was a novelty, but that has since worn off. At the end of the day I have one or two of the kids empty the shavings from the day.  


Kindergarten started painting their Shooting Star lines...


 First grade finished up their Shape /Line animals and started working on some Fall Leaf pictures with textured backgrounds... they will add line details next week...




They are using these recycled tissue papers that were the product of Second grades tissue paper print backgrounds for their Jack-O-Lanterns...


How cool are these? I love how they are coming out and the kids were beyond excited when i said we were going to paint Jack-O-Lanterns on them yesterday! Halloween fever has begun! :)


Third grade started to add their Warm color/Leaf Rubbing backgrounds to their Silhouette Trees on Thursday... (I forgot to take pictures yesterday before I left, I'll post them next week...)


Fourth grade is painting in their Patterned Pumpkins, which are looking AMAZING! They are all so proud of them! :)

Fifth grade is finishing up some Still Life sketches that they have been working on... ( forgot the pic's of those also, lol...  will post about them next week, they look really nice... )


This was the sky from my front porch yesterday ( Friday ) morning when I stepped out to go to work around 7 a.m.  It looked so cool... little did I know then what a hectic day awaited me!


Every single one of them, from Kindergarten to Fifth grade today... wowza... unless you teach or work with kids you have no idea...


By the end of the day I felt like this...  I split out the door at 3:45 p.m. ...  all week I didn't leave before 5:00 p.m.  tying up loose ends,  prepping for classes,  putting up displays, etc...  I was done...


I have my SGO's to finish writing this weekend... they are due in my district on Wednesday...  I'm partially done... just some wording and tiering I have to work out... ( sigh )


Here sits all my data... under crochet and quilting projects all week... kept trying to get to it this week after school but by the time I would get in, make supper, do laundry, have a life out of school,  it would be around 9-10 at night and I would be falling asleep...  so here it sits, patiently waiting for me to stop procrastinating... 


( just insert SGO for term paper and it says it all... )

Every time we were told we would be able to use "x" time to work on our SGO's something or somebody ate up that time and we didn't get "x" time to work on them or collaborate on them... we having been grabbing each other in the hall for advice,  ideas, etc... e-mailing each other documents to look at, etc...  well, I suppose I should go make breakfast, get dressed and buckle down and get these SGO's finished... 'cuz come this week there is NO WAY I want to be having to deal with the paper work... we got's CREATING to do :) 
I leave you with some quotes I found on Pinterest this week...

I have a Kinder who is always putting EVERYTHING in their mouth... yuck...




( my favorite...)









Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Kindergarten's Shooting Stars !!!



                                Kindergarten started painting their shooting Stars today! Yay!


We started the class on the rug in front of the Smartboard to watch this video from Youtube. It's Roy G Biv by They Might Be Giants.  The kids love this one! At the end I pause the video and we talk about what the letters in Roy G Biv stand for.


From there the kids moved to their tables for directions on how to use the watercolors and our new "artist" brushes.  This was the first time they were using the watercolors in the art room this year. They already knew how to go get their smocks from their Color Wheel Sunflowers...


When I gave them back their Shooting Stars they could get up to get their smock and begin to paint...




When the kids finished they put their paintings on the drying rack, put their smock away and if they had time got a free time activity.  Since our art time has been reduced to 30 minutes this year there is very little time for free time activity ( much to the disappointment of many of the kids who are used to having 5-7 minutes to free create... ) (As second grade finished up designing the backgrounds of their leaf prints and filling out their A.R.T. Splat ( Art Reflection Time - self reflection sheet) today I let them have the rest of their art time to free create today... they were over the moon! Some were done but a few needed about 10 minutes to tie up loose ends. I debated starting the rest of the class on our new project but thought it would be too crazy, chaotic and rushed... I'm happy the 2nd graders got the time to create freely and so were they :)  As they worked I went around and sat with each table a bit and talked with them about what they were making, what they are going to be for Halloween, etc... They even did a great job cleaning up when they were done :) 












Monday's classes have to paint their's yet but that won't be for a couple of weeks as next Monday is Columbus Day and the kid's have no school but I will be at school for a day of professional development.

Well... since my lesson plans don't write themselves and I think I've procrastinated enough for one evening,  I will leave you with this thought...