What I Did Last Summer

Actually, what I am doing this summer, but "What I Did Last Summer" sounded so much cooler. Finished cleaning the two art rooms at school, had family visiting and a trip down the shore and am now back to artwork, working on my room, hanging out with friends and school prep. 

Probably have a list of about 15 things to do in my room. So far I have painted my room, bought new window treatments, painted my closet which meant emptying my closet--huge task that involved sorting clothes and parting ways with 5 bags of clothes and shoes.

Today's project was re-covering my piano bench. Below is the before pic. I had painted it a few years back and covered it with this green and pink fabric.

I went to Joanne Fabric and bought these two fabrics.

Went with the more classic piece. Had a friend advise on this. Will use the more contemporary fabric for pillows.

Here is the finished piece. Can see my wall color: Clear Skies from Benjamin Moore. Still need to do trim and doors. Don't mind the linoleum floor. Room has been measured, just need to pick my carpet. Hoping to use a remnant to save some money. In my dream world the floor would be wood but that isn't in the budget. Cost for bench is $5- fabric plus staples. Bought the wire baskets at Marshalls. They were $18- total.  I'm not sure what I'm putting in them yet. Possibly magazines?

Elementary School Bulletin Boards

Just a few bulletin boards. African crowned cranes from 3rd grade. This board is just outside my door and has terrible lighting but with light backgrounds on the artwork they show up pretty well.

1st grade roosters on the rails. Have started using boarders to decorate the rails. Sometimes I put up background paper but this is much easier and adds some style.

Kindergarten Eric Carle birds and houses.

This tree was painted over the summer to communicate our core values to everyone who enters. Used it as a background for some of the bird houses.

4th Grade Birds

The last of the birds. 4th graders could choose any bird that I had a photo of.  We practiced the bird in our sketchbooks and then created a final drawing on drawing paper using colored pencils for color.

3rd Grade African Crowned Cranes

3rd graders looked at photographs of the African Crowned Crane and we discussed how to step by step draw this bird.  We used 12x18 paper so that we could draw large, like this bird is.

Students could choose to use colored pencils, crayons or oil pastels for color.

They were asked to pay attention to detail and texture.

It always amazes me how different each piece of art is; how each person sees and interprets things differently.  I also notice who hears what I say and who chooses to go their own way. I know as an artist sometimes that works and sometimes that doesn't. As a teacher I struggle with that "freedom" for my students.  I can't grade on natural ability so most times my rubrics are about following directions.  When you put creativity as part of the rubric it gets lost in how you interpret that.  Anyone else struggle with this?

1st Grade Roosters

 I started class with a step by step of how to draw a rooster. Once students had a good drawing they outlined everything with oil pastels. They used liquid watercolors to add the bright colors. I saw the same idea on another blog but cannot remember which one.  Do you ever do that?  I look at 10-20 blogs for ideas and then can't remember where the one is that stuck in my head.

Our backgrounds were made from black construction paper and tempera paints. Students could use up to 3 colors for this and were asked to create a pattern.  

Students cut out their roosters and glued them down to be framed by their patterned border.

2nd Grade Owls

2nd graders spent the first class learning about owls and looking at pictures of them.  They drew owls on tagboard with pencil and outlined them with permanent markers.

In our second class students used paint, yarn and feathers to add color and texture to their owls.  They created a background on black construction paper using oil pastels and glued their owls down. I love how each one is different and reflects a bit of the child!

Kindergarten Birds

Spring!!  Have done birds with every grade in the elementary school. For kindergarten we looked at Eric Carle's books and had fun painting papers the first week. I set up a color station at each table the the children rotated around the room to paint with each color.

I got this idea from Painted Paper.  

The following week I had templates for the children to trace and cut out the parts of the birds.  I had envelopes with their names on them to store all the parts. They created their bird houses using construction paper, rainbow twistables and a strip of painted paper.

The third week we glued it all together. I love these projects and they really brighten up our school hallways. Definitely going to repeat this next year.

Kindergarten Cardinals

I just love Kindergarten!  It's taken me a long time to say that.  When I first started at the elementary school I had such a hard time coming up with lesson plans for these 5 and 6 year olds.  Now I set up stations to keep them moving and busy.  They have a short attention span and are still developing their fine motor skills.  For these cardinals I demonstrated a step by step drawing and also gave them a step by step handout at the drawing station.  They outlined everything with crayon to create a resist for the watercolors at another station.  I set up two other stations, one with a coloring page and the other with puzzles.   Every bird is unique just like my students.