Starting Over

Well, I'm excited to say that this blog is changing!! 

This is no longer an art blog.
(Although, I will occasionally post art projects I use in my classroom) 

This blog is now dedicated to my 3rd grade class!! Yes, its true, I'm now a 3rd grade teacher. I've been waiting for this for a long time.

There is so much running through my head about what I want to do in my classroom. My goal this summer is to get organized. I want to start the school year with a bang. These kids have no idea what they are getting into. This is going to be one great school year! (Can you tell that I'm pumped?!) 

I'll be posting about different things I do in my classroom and share some good inexpensive, or even free, things to help make the classroom a better place. :)

{Looking forward to sharing some great ideas with you!}

Word Art

I loved doing this art project with my Jr. High Art students. We kinda cheated in that I had them use an overhead projector to trace the picture, but they turned out so nice. Each student chose an important person in our country's history and they came up with a list of words and phrases relating to that person. Then they used those words to make the picture of the person. This is a portrait of Ronald Reagan done by a 7th grade student. I think it looks great. I'm not teaching Jr. High Art next year and I'm trying to figure out how I can do this with my 3rd grade class next year. It might be a stretch. 

Ideas from the art festival

I'm pretty sure a kindergarten student made this. There is wire under aluminum foil and then colored with sharpies. It is quite stunning!

This project probably should have gotten a blue ribbon. I helped judge it and I feel guilty for not giving it a better rating. Not much I can do now though. The leaves are made out of paper towels and then I think they used water colors to add color. This one should be framed in someone's house! It was done by a 2nd grade student I think. 

I love this style of drawing! It is sideways, but you get the idea. :o) I love random drawings in black pen. They remind me of one of my very good friends from college. (Miss you Emily!)

I think I might try this one in my jr. high class next year. 

I'll post more from the festival another time. Have a great weekend!

Kites!

I don't have any pictures for this, but everyone should do this in their classroom. I did this last year too. 
Kites in the Classroom has awesome kites to purchase that you color or paint and then put together. The kids love this! Each student in my 1st-3rd grade classes received their own kite and colored it with crayons.  When we were all finished coloring we attached the poles and string. Then we looked at each person's kite and told them how they did a good job on their kite. It was great to hear the kids encourage each other. The  kids loved having others comment on their kids. All of the feedback was positive. 
A few days later we had a day when we flew the kites out on the playground. Those kites fly very well, as long as they don't get tangled up. :o) Thankfully that only happened with two of the kites. 
Check out their website and order some for next year! It is a great project! 
www.kitesintheclassroom.com/ 

Feeling a little sad

I'm feeling extremely torn. On one hand I'm excited and on the other hand I'm a little sad.
For the past two years I've been teaching elementary art at a Christian school here in Nor Cal. I've loved teaching art. Never thought I would be able to do it, but the Lord has helped me so much. This last year Jr. High Art was added to my schedule. That has been a huge stretch for me. I still don't feel very qualified to do it, but I'm doing my best. A few things came up at the school where I am working and Praise the Lord I have a job for this next year. My job is changing so much though! Next year I will continue teaching Jr. High Art. Along with that I will be adding a jr. high elective. That means I will be sitting in the computer lab while the students work independently with the computer program. Not too hard for me. :o) Then I will be the assistant teacher in a 2nd and 3rd grade combo class. Woah! That is new! The classes are so small for this next year that they decided to combine the classes. So I will be teaching more, but not be completely in charge of the class. I'm really excited about that. I went to school to teach elementary school, so I feel like I'll be using my education more. I'm totally happy about that! The thing I'm sad about is that I won't be teaching elementary art anymore. I've loved teaching elementary art. If I can get my act together I'll have some projects ready for the teachers at the beginning of the year. I have so many great ideas! I don't want them to go wasted.

So that's my story.


Now for some art projects!
I did this with my 2nd grade class before school got out. We spent one class time painting paper and using those wooden spoons from ice cream to make texture in the paper. The next class time we cut out the paper to make sea creatures. They loved this! Even the students who don't usually like the projects liked this one. :o) We talked about how Eric Carle does this kind of thing to make his illustrations for his books. It was very fun.

favorite

I was feeling like taking an artsy picture the other day. These are may favorite paint trays. Why do I like them? Because I don't clean them! They are plastic lids and I throw them away when I am done with them. :o) One of my least favorite things about being an art teacher is the clean up. I am so lazy! I would much rather throw things away than clean them. If only I could do that with the paint brushes too! :o) 

2010 Art Festival

I took a bunch of artwork to the ACSI Art Festival a week ago. It went really well! I was very excited! I still haven't told my students how they have placed yet, but I will soon. Here are a few of my student's pieces.