Thursday, November 8, 2012

Trees - Inspired by Liz Tran

Today, the 3rd and 4th graders drew their trees and the 1st and 2nd graders colored the drawings they made yesterday.

They're awesome! Take a look for yourself:
2nd grader - Liz Tran named her paintings. The students were encouraged to do the same, although they did not have to. This student named her art work "happy, happy, happy, happy, happy" Love it!
2nd grader - although difficult to see, this student was the first one who had patterns within the stripes. He did an awesome job recreating this feature. The circles inside circles represent a cloud :)
2nd grader - this one is a great example of the many types of circles found in several of the tree paintings we viewed.
1st grader - great example of patterns within the stripes!
1st grader - I love all the dots in this one. It reminds me of a tropical paradise somewhere :)
1st grader - Love the colors in this one :)
1st grader - Great patterns in the stripes and a fabulous background!
1st grader - another great example of patterns within the stripes. The other students were highly impressed with this version. They kept complimenting the student on a job well done. It was super cute!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Movember = Mustaches

My students and I made mustaches for Movember today :)

One of my first graders loved her mustache so much that she kept holding it up to her lip and saying mustache over and over again in a funny little accent, so funny! After telling her dad about it the next day, he told me that she had played with it all the way home in the car and all evening at home! He was quite amused by it too :)

Here are some images I printed for them to use (images found on Google images):
 
This is the one that I printed and cut out to use as the right size. Then I used some of the following ideas and others that I can't find now along with the sizing of the first one (width-wise). The students LOVED them!



At the end, I connected pipe cleaners as a stick so the students could hold them up to their faces. After some trial and error, I found that if you cut a small piece of paper and wrapped and glue it around the pipe cleaner, then glue the paper to the paper, it's much easier and stays in place faster. Pipe cleaners don't like to be glued to things!

Here's a simple step by step of how I eventually decided to apply the pipe cleaners/sticks:

Creativity Journal

Creativity: to create something novel and appropriate to the situation (see post: "What is Creativity," December 11, 2009)*

1. Create something out of the word simcha (joy/happiness/festivities/celebrations/etc)

2. Finish my chairs (See post, "Update: My Chairs")

3. Pottery

4. Start a children's Art class

5. Teach Art at a Women's Correctional Facility

6. Come up with assignments for the American Arts packet

7. Change the assignments in the Drama Costuming packet - the students will create 4-5 female and male costumes from the 11 time periods included in the packet, plus the final instead of only writing (copying and pasting) info about each time period.

8. Create a book exchange/book club for illiteracy/aliteracy

9. Learn Art in a foreign country

10. Write a book

11. Start a children's magazine for children by children and publish it on the web.

12. Create trees and hands (not necessarily together, but maybe?)

13. Blog book - only novel in the sense that it's my own writing!

14. Create a chess set (even though I don't personally play chess, lol!)

15. S'mores with a twist

16. 3D art - I admire other forms of art, but I personally only truly enjoy the physicallity and manipulative quality of 3D art. There's something truly living in 3D art that I miss in 2D art.

17. Sign language hands (alphabet/words)

18. Hands of twisted metal coils

19. use different types of materials to create imprints in clay (wire mesh)

20. A shelf/centerpiece holder (a couple of bricks on the bottom, long, thin wood, 12" width laying on top, block (thicker than the bricks on the bottom - 6"?) in middle, and a short piece of wood on the very top).

21. vase (fill baggie with rice and seal the bag, wheel thrown then carefully squish).

22. 3D collage out of meaningful paper.

23. Babushka doll style vase with side cutout (possibly put a piece of glass in the side opening)

24. Babushka dolls - make smallest one first, with side opening and something inside(?), then the next biggest - place small one inside next biggest when done with the bottom of it and secure the two together. Continue this process with side openings in each so that you can see all the way through to the inside "jem" in the smallest one!

25. atlas - split into pieces and reassemble into something new - mobile? encase each piece in between glass sheets, hang as a put together puzzle.

26. paper dolls & scenery out of different types of paper, paintings, collages, maps, etc.

27. A storm cloud with a silvery lining (mobile?) ceramic/paper mache

28. "baby ducklings" for each child, somehow uniquely different somehow, name and date of birth.

29. "stained glass" with veggies/fruits & other natural things. Lacquered and soldered.

30. Men's dress shirts with faux cuff links printed onto the cuffs or fancy/fun buttons to replace the buttons on a standard dress shirt. button clips? a button cover-up to go over existing buttons without changing the button itself.

31. A pottery wheel bat that has form attachments in order to create smooth indentations in the "bottom" of the piece being thrown.

32. "Quilt" of the six-day-Christian-creation-period.

33. A dollhouse book for paper dolls! such a cool idea!!

34. print your own fabric using a large "rolling pin" stamp?

35. Cloth nesting dolls

36. map topography - cut out all of the countries and continents and islands, layer then largest to smallest hang them slightly apart. From an actual map? or traced out onto something else?

*Please be creative and use your own ideas and not mine. Although if you are inspired by my ideas and the inspiration and not the idea itself is used, then by all means, use the inspiration!!

About Me

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I love visiting with family and friends, reading, teaching, art, and day dreaming about world travel, especially going to Ireland someday. In 2009, I earned a MAED in Elementary Education. In addition, I completed both the Reading and Elementary Math Endorsements during the 2013-2014 school year. Currently, I teach first grade and love it!

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