"How to Stitch"

My kinders spent the better part of a month learning how to thread a needle and stitch on burlap.  I can barely thread a needle myself anymore.  Can you imagine trying to teach 18 five year olds how to do it en masse???????  But we got through it and by the end of the experience, all 70 of my kids went home with a stitched design.  I think they were pretty proud of the achievement.

One of the kindergarten teachers told me that she had her class write a "how to" book.  The one thing they agreed on that they all knew how to do was to stitch.  (Score!)  So that's what they wrote the "how to" book about. 

It made me proud.

Ten Year Old - Contour Drawings

After the fifth graders left, and I got a chance to really look at their drawings, I was floored.

I never learned contour drawing until I took my first art class in 11th grade. 

These kids are probably better artists at 10 than I was at 17.  I'm happy for them that they have such a wonderful opportunity to learn art at such a young age.

Teaching Kids Contour Drawing

I absolutely adore teaching kids how to do contour drawing.  This skill is taught in fifth grade in my county. 

Even though they have had minimal experience of looking at something and drawing what they see, they are all game.  It's not even a question that it might be difficult to do.  They accept that this is a skill that everyone can do, and that you get better with practice.

I decided to buy the kids sketch books this year.  Up until now they have always used the big 12"x18" sheets of drawing paper.  My thought was that the sketch pads would give fifth grade art experiences more of an air of importance by using a means to collect and save the pieces.

Watching the kids focus intently and quietly as they make their hands follow their eyes along the contours, is so satisfying for me.  During these exercises, the kids are totally silent.  They take these experiences seriously.

And they take this job seriously, even if the subject matter is a bit silly.

Paintbrush Song

A preschool teacher just appeared at my door asking if I minded her teaching the kids my "Happy Paintbrush" song.  I forgot I even made up that song.  I need to collect these things!

If you're teaching preschool or even kindergarten, you might sing this ditty to keep those brushes from the dreaded "pencil hold."

Sing to the tune of London Bridges…and demo the position a "happy paintbrush" would take...

Happy paint brush stands straight up

Stands straight up

Stands straight up

Happy paint brush stands straight up.

All day long.  

This song will make you nuts….haunt you in your dreams….but the kids love it.

Mona Lisa and I...

I am spending my afternoon transferring files from ancient floppy disks to my laptop. These files are so old that I am finding many things that aren't familiar to me any more.

I got a kick out of this assignment. Evidently, I had kids add on to a line drawing of Mona Lisa. They had to write what they and Mona Lisa were doing together.

Waldorf Finger Knitted Flowers

I am posting this to both my personal blog and my art room videos blog. Kids LOVE finger knitting. I used to do it with my lunch time group of fifth graders. They did little scarves. This is a little fancier than that. I'll be excited to try it myself. jan

So Much Papercraft........

Make that paperwork.

It DEFINITELY hasn't been papercraft or anything remotely creative. All I've been doing lately is bubble in grades. (Which, by the way, reminds me of punch cards. Isn't that a bit antiquated???????) I teach 400 plus students and that's a boat load of grades with a boat load of bubbles. I also have three classes in which I have to enter their grades on the computer for a pilot grading program. This has all put me into major procrastination mode for EVERYthing. My creative juices have been sucked dry!

I did stitch some paper together yesterday for a future 3D papercutting but nothing has happened creatively since then.

At 35 pounds down, and 6 weeks post op, I'm trying to reboot the fitness juices. I'm back on the bike trying to increase the miles. We did 22 on the W&OD trail yesterday.

Today I did 10 along the C&O Canal.

That's a dirt ring above my ankle; not a tan line.

This is our last week of school. My hope is that once I am done with everything educational, I can begin restoring my creative juices and get back into shape.

My Favorite Art Lesson of the Year

My favorite elementary art lesson is one of the last ones I teach in the year. Clay gargoyles. Our county has us teaching this lesson to fifth grade. Every one of them turns out wonderfully.






I'm so sad to see them leave the art room, but it does make me happy that this is one art product that never ever ends up in the trash can.

Kindergarten Sculpture with Toobers and Zots

My first day back at school was pretty good. And how about the fact that I am still awake beyond my bedtime! And making videos! Yea!

Hugs and Eggs

My classroom neighbor reads Patricia Polacco's book, Rechenka's Eggs, to her students every year. The egg craft done by the main character in that book is the same one that I am learning to do, so my friend asked if I would do a demonstration for her second graders.

Now, last week seemed to have been truly horrible for most every teacher I know. Many kids were naughty, to put it politely, and teachers were pooped. Everyone was ready for a break. I was no exception. During more than a class or two, I had to pretend to be happy and excited. That pretending gets me through the toughest classes, when really I have not an ounce of happy in me.

But my friend's class is not a tough one and I was curious to see what they thought about me bringing in art supplies that involved fire, dye and goopy egg innards.

Excited at having art class #2 for the week, her kiddies came into the room all excited. I heard one child tell another "this is the best school day EVER." I'm not sure what else they did that day that was out of the ordinary, but I was happy to have made some contribution. As I was sitting at a table showing the kids the magical moment when you wipe the wax off the egg and the design emerges, someone gave me a big hug from behind. I tell you, that was a memorable teaching moment. I'm not even sure I know who the hugger was, but it meant a lot to me.

Over the next two days, several thank you notes appeared and little ones, on their way to the restroom across the hall, stopped and thanked me again for showing them my craft. A little appreciation goes a long way with me, and that sure carried me through the rest of the work week.

The pysanky Easter eggs for my daughter, granddaughter, neices and nephews are almost done.

I'll get the last two done tomorrow and then mail them all out on Monday.

These are far from perfect, but maybe by the time these young 'uns are grown I'll have the craft down.

Taotie

My third graders study Ancient China in their classrooms.

In art we do lots of lessons that tie in to that. This lesson was based on the mythical taotie found on ancient bronzes.

Our kids are so lucky to get the opportunity to experience such a variety of media.


(Sorry for the wonky layout.  Blogger is about to make me lose my mind at the moment.)

Squirrel Nutkin and Deja Vu

I was reminded today of those movies where someone dreams an event and then it happens. This time, however, it centered around a kindergarten lesson I taught.

This week we read Beatrix Potter's "Squirrel Nutkin."


Do you know the story about Squirrel Nutkin? It's the story about a squirrel who instead of gathering nuts with the other squirrels, spent his time pestering a wise old owl. Eventually he pestered the owl so much, the owl pulled off Squirrel Nutkin's tail.

So here's the deja vu part. M and I were out in the yard today picking up sticks. I got to a spot where the ground was oddly dug up. I wondered what on earth had happened there.



Then I saw this.

Poor Squirrel Nutkin. I guess our resident barred owl had him for dinner.

Knitwits

My Wednesday lunch partners joined me today in the Art Room. Before winter break I had taught them both to use knitting towers. The plan was to bring in the knitting tubes they had made, and we would turn them into something else today.


Unfortunately, for various reasons, the knitting towers did not make it to lunch, but the kids were still excited to make something. Somewhere, in the deep recesses of my brain, I remembered watching a YouTube video of a kid finger knitting. Though I didn't watch it close enough to learn how when I watched it, I figured it out for myself today. The kids got a chance to practice, but didn't have enough time to really make anything. Next week all the Knitwits have to do is bring their fingers and we can get started.

This length of knitting was done in about ten minutes, and that includes the amount of time it took for the process to click in their brains. Next week we will get started early and try to make a respectable scarf.

Holiday Busy-ness

Here's what I'm doing these days:

More babuska note cards and Christmas cards for sending and for Etsy.

Here's what "my" kids are doing:

Fifth graders - paintings of before and after natural disasters
My second graders painted patterns on paper and used them for animal collages.
My third graders are studying the architecture of ancient Greece. They planned contemporary buildings using Greek elements and then created them out of cut paper.




There are lots of clay lessons happening in the art room, as well as painting.

In Snippyville there's lots of drawing, snipping, selling, and planning. Busy, busy, busy.