Beyond the Shore

Somewhere beyond the sea, in a small elementary school, the students on my campus have been enchanted by the underwater ecosystem in our saltwater aquarium. This inspired an even larger aquatic unit than usual, with second grade taking on close up paintings of our new fishy friends. Here is a look at the our finished products.

Day One: was all about drawing and painting the water.

Day Two: was detailing our fish. Each class voted on a different one.

Day Three: was creating the environment. Classes painted coral, seaweed and topped it off with some bubbles!

We are slowly transforming the entire art wing in to an enormous aquarium!

Just Keep Swimming,



Just Keep Swimming,

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...

What do we do?

We Swim!

Swim!

Swim!

The Bottom of the Big Blue Sea

Just finished a swimmingly, sweet project with my little 1st graders that was inspired by a song and the Blue-Green Chromis schooling fish in our aquarium

Day 1: Students started with a gradiated sea. I assigned each class a different color. We started with white paint and added a drop of our paint color, till we reached the true tone.

Day 2: We added fish, using different cool colors.  I wanted the students to practice perspective, changing the size of the fish as they got farther away. 

Day 3: We finished up with some overlapping silver fish and bubbles!

"I don't want to be alone, I want to be a stone

I wanna sink to the bottom of the ocean

And lie there with you til I'm gone

At the bottom of the big blue sea

Just you and me." -Bob Schneider

Happy Friday!

A Sky Full Of Stars

Vincent Van Gogh said "what is done in love is done well".

Well I love Van Gogh and on his birthday I decided to take a look at some of my favorite lessons inspried by that love, and that were done very well...

Every spring my 1st and 2nd graders take on Sunflowers.

In 1st they create a paper collage made out of different colors and shapes of paper.

Once in 2nd grade we revisit the Sunflowers, and create a painting more in the style of Van Gogh, I usually send these home for Mother's Day.

Starry Night, which is most dear to my heart, has become what I'm know for as a teacher because I doodle it everywhere.

I have taught it from Kindergartners in the art room,

 to adults at a ceramic studio...

Happy Birthday V.V.G! I love thee...

YAM 2016: Painted Deserts and Missions

Every year my school districts hosts an Art Show. We as teachers have the very hard task of choosing a dozen plus pieces to represent our whole campus, and this year, my 3rd graders earned that honor!

With one week left before the shows closes, I thought I would share a few pics, and give ya'll a closer look at the painted desert project that accompanied their clay missions.

I took 12 paintings, and six 3D pieces.

The day of set up was a bit crazy, since I had my two year old with me!

Before the pieces moved over to the show, they had been transforming our school's walkways into a mini Big Bend.

The 3rd graders worked on these while we waited for their clay missions to dry and be fired.

The final results were equally as impressive as their clay sculpture!

Pulled from Pinterest: Totem Spoons

So I do what every art teacher does when I'm tired of all my lesson plans and fresh out of ideas, hit up Pinterest.

Usually within second my brain has kicked back into over drive and I'm filled fresh energy, becoming inspired by all the innovative art teachers, and the work their students are producing.

Most of the time I take the inspiration and remold it to meet my students interests.

But other times, I borrow straight from above! Taking a lesson meant for middle school or high school and give it to my little ones and see what they can do! 

Here's my 4th graders take on Totem Spoons.

We built them with recycled clay, hence the dual color.

And painted them with tempera cakes, water colors work too.

And as an extra incentive I let the kids "spray paint" their finished product with a fixative!

Nice for a first try!