Artist~Teacher... tishalou

Our guidance councelor put together a great program to celebrate our diverse heritage. Each of the specialists teachers taught special lessons that week to tie everything together. Here is a little preview of what went on in the art room...
Here is the bulletin board I put together to show off my student's hard work.

Trying to get mentally ready to head back to school tomorrow. I had a great 5 day break and did a lot of crocheting and crafting inspired by my Pinterest boards (more on that later).
I was just cleaning off my camera and remembered that I took some shots of my room before I left on Tuesday - this is what I have to look forward to tomorrow...
My drying racks were full to the brim and overflowing onto the counters.

Kindergarten is working on Cardinals in the Snow.

4th Grade is printmaking with Collographs inspired by music.

1st Grade is finishing up their Aboriginal Dot Paintings. 2nd grade is working on Chinese Brush Painting.

As promised here is my VAEA Presentation
The Artful Power of Children's Books
Thanks so much for the wonderful feedback I got on this presentation. Going to conferences is always such a great motivator! Virginia is for Art Educators!

Here is the link to the Audio for There Was an Old Monster.

We have finished our first two weeks of school here in Fauquier County, Virginia. Our first week was interrupted by a little 5.8 earthquake and our first weekend was filled with wind and rain from Hurricane Irene! I borrowed a great first day project from Natalie at smART Class.
Every student created a monochromatic self portrait on a 4x6 index card. Students received thick markers, thin markers, colored pencils, regular crayons, and construction paper crayons all in different shades of the color of their tables.
I usually do not have any artwork ready to hang in time for back-to-school night because first we decorate our portfolios and next we create artwork for the Original Works fundraiser. Who says the portfolio has to be the first thing we do??
Here is is in the hallway - I made sure it was done before I left on Friday and luckily as each panel went up there was a helper walking by!

One of my resolutions is to blog more often! So for day 1 at least I am sticking to it. Today was my first day back and I am proud to say I did everything on my list which included starting new lessons, dropping my son at Tae Kwon Do and going grocery shopping and making dinner. So far so good! Usually I wimp out and put things off as long as possible.
For Kindergarten I ease back in with a simple crayon drawing lesson where we talk about drawing from memory. They get a chance to tell me what they did over break and what they got for Christmas, because they will tell me whether I want them to or not! I wish I was able to record some of what they shared with me when I went around and asked them to tell me about their drawings... hmmm I could record it on my camera. Perhaps I will try that with the next class, record the student telling about their picture and I could post it as their artist statement on Artsonia. See this has paid off already in a great idea.
Here are a few of the gems from my Kinders today.

Dream House Using Shapes

First we talk about shapes. I describe each shape and see if students can guess which one I am talking about. I have big laminated shapes with a magnet on the back that I put on my white board as the students guess them. I throw in one harder one - Trapezoid - to see if they get it - sometimes they do!

Next class - students sit together and we read "The Big Orange Splot" by Daniel Pinkwater (LOVE HIM). It is the story of a man who gets orange paint dropped on his house and instead of returning it to it's original look to keep a 'neat street' he paints it like all of his dreams! One by one each neighbor is sent to convince him to change it back but instead they also change their house to look like all of their dreams. I like it because it talks about being original and not fitting in with everyone or everything else.