March 30, 2011

Fabric Weaving - 2nd Grade





Mr. Ito, one of my practicum students, taught fabric weaving today.  When he first started coming to my room, he had never done a weaving before!!  As art teachers...there are often on the job trainings in the beginning.  There is no way college can prepare you for EVERYTHING we teach.  Anyways...he did a wonderful job!!!!  Mr. Ito is originally from Ecuador, and brought in items from his home country that were woven.  The kids truly enjoyed hearing about Ecuador, and learning how to do fabric weaving from him.  GREAT JOB ITO!!

March 29, 2011

Clay Pinch Pot Fish - 1st Grade


This semester I have practicum students from MTSU.  I've never taken on practicum students...I've only had student teachers.  It's interesting because this is truly their first experience teaching real live students!!! One of my practicum students decided he'd like to try a clay lesson with my 1st graders.  I thought that was wonderfully ambitious, so I gave him the green light.  Usually I do a pinch pot lesson with 1st grade, but as we talked through the lesson...we decided to spice it up a bit.  I had seen teacher do the pinch pot fish before, but had never tried it myself.  It reminded me a lot of the book.. The Pout-Pout Fish(so funny if you've not read it..great lesson ideas).  So the practicum students only come on Mondays & Wed....I'm left to teach the lesson the rest of the week.  These are some of the results from todays 1st grade....LOVE THEM!!!  Totally gonna be a new yearly lesson!!

March 28, 2011

Ideas???

Ok people...I need some ideas!!!  I just received a BIG BOX of envelopes. 
I hate to say no to something like this(though I am not a pack rat like some art teachers..ha ha).
Do you have any fun ideas for art lessons involving envelopes?!?!  I can't say I've
ever done a lesson using such a thing.  I am wide open people...throw me the crazy, amazing, awesome ideas that I know you all have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(and thank you in advance)

200 FOLLOWERS!!!!

At Thanksgiving this year, I was hoping that by Christmas I'd have around 100 followers(not sure why I was hoping for such a thing...but I like to set goals!).  By Christmas, I had well over 100 followers.   How exciting!  I'd probably blog no matter what.  I love to communicate in all forms...and I feel blogging is a great form of communication!!!  So now today I hit 200 followers.  That is just crazy to me!!  I hope that I can continue to post pictures, stories, ideas, information...wHatEvEr?!?!...that will be an encouragement/inspiration to others!!  I feel extremely blessed...and want to be a blessing. 
I am so thankful for our blog community!!!

March 24, 2011

Art-al-Sol at Tulip Grove

All the information for Art-al-Sol is online!  If you are(or your child is) 8-10 yrs old, you enjoy art, and you like to hang out with others artsy kids...this camp is for you!  Check out the link below...and as always...feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions!! 

March 19, 2011

My Spring Break Projects

This past week we were on spring break.  Didn't go anywhere..just enjoyed relaxing with the family, and getting a few odds and ends done around the house. 
Now we have about 10 weeks or so left of school!(I think?)

Eli is our son..who is presently an inny baby.  I made these letters for his bedroom(matches his bedding).

This crazy bird picture is just something I had in my head...had to get it out.  Makes me laugh.

March 16, 2011

Patterns - 1st Grade



I usually have my first graders do a self portrait with patterns after looking at Matisse's Purple Robe.  With our alien/space theme going on..I thought I'd change it up a bit.  I LOVE THEM!!!  I feel like the kids did a great job with the patterns/color.  They are extremely fun & lively!!!

March 14, 2011

Art Show, Aliens, & An Odd Day!

WHAT AN ODD DAY!!!!  We are having a make-up day for one of our many snowdays, but today was suppose to be the start of spring break?!?  3 weeks ago they(the powers that be...whoever they are) decided that this would be how we'd make up one of our days.  Then they tell teachers...you need to be their and your students need to be there...no excuses.  Spring break trips are often planned at the beginning of the school year when the school calenders come out.  So as you can imagine, there are a ton of teachers & students across the district who did not come today.  I heard we have 140 students absent(out of 520).  My classes have been small...so we have been prepping some things for the upcoming art show(April 7th).  I decided to create a mother alien to go with my 2nd graders bottle aliens.  It will go in the main lobby of our school with all the baby aliens around it....holding a sign that says..."TAKE ME TO YOUR ART WORK". 
 I crack myself up!

The start of Mama Alien.


She's pretty cute!

 
MAMA!!!
 
Gosh I love my job!!!!!!!!!!

Art with Mr.E featured on edReformer

Ever Google yourself?  I do ever few months.  I like to see where Art With Mr. E posts are falling on Google searches.  The other day, I found that another website had posted something about me, and it wasn't an Art Ed blog?!?  I clicked on the link and it took me to http://www.edreformer.com/ .
What is edReformer?  I had to find out myself!!  This is pulled from their website.

"Welcome to edReformer, a community of advocates, entrepreneurs, educators, policy makers, philanthropists and investors seeking to promote excellence and equity in education through innovation.  EdReformer serves as a catalyst for innovation in education by encouraging and  promoting public and private investment in new learning tools, schools, and platforms."

Here is the surprise post about me & Art With Mr. E!!

I contacted the author of the post and thanked him for such a nice review.  He asked if I'd be willing to participate in a question and answer post.  I'm not one to pass on something like that...so of coarse I said yes!  Here is the link for that post!

It is wonderful to have someone outside of our Art Ed circle notice the work going on here!! 

Thanks edReformer!!

March 09, 2011

Alien Water Bottle Angel -2nd

This sweet little angel had to be shared!  

Self Portraits - Kindergarten

 

We're over half way through the year, and I like to revisit self portraits a few times in Kindergarten.  Today we talked about how shapes make up our body & what parts connect to what(though I still had one student tell me after his head came his foot?!?! ha ha).  I loved what my kiddos came up with!! Some of them really added a lot of interesting details. 
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I have a student in this same class that I really want to help, but I'm at a loss of what to do?  At this point of the year, she is still not even giving me a head with arms and legs coming out.  I just don't think she's developmentally ready.  Any thoughts?? 

Here is the image that she gave me.