ART WITH MR.E WORKSHOP 2016: DAY ONE

(SORRY...JUST NOW POSTING ABOUT MY SUMMER WORKSHOP!)

June 20-22 the first ever ART WITH MR. E WORKSHOP took place!  I had been thinking about doing such a thing for many years...but the past couple years my wife really had been encouraging me to "JUST DO IT".  I hear from so many teachers they do not have access to face-to-face hands-on professional development!  Online is WONDERFUL...but there is something about being with your peers working through ideas, sharing experiences, and creating together!  I have always said  "WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER"....and these three days proved it!  We had 15 teachers from 5 states in attendance that represented K-College/University!!  I loved the diversity of our group because it provided for such wonderful conversation.  I'm going to break the workshop into three posts so that I don't totally overwhelm you!  So stay tuned for the other posts.  If you missed out this year....it looks like we'll be trying to do it again next summer!!  Many of those in attendance asked me what the dates were for next year!! ha ha  LOVE IT!

DAY ONE

So thankful for my principal & custodians working with me to get things ready!  I wanted to set my room up as if it were the start of the school year....which meant it had to get waxed first.  I didn't get everything totally start of the year ready...but close!!  That will be wonderful in a few weeks when school starts!

(THESE TWO?!?!? ha ha  Two of my fab former student

 teachers that now work in the same district as me!)

We kicked DAY ONE off with fibers & fabrics!  One of my new favorite lessons is soft sculptures.  I usually use SmartFab(which I do love), but because of time...I went to Wal Mart and found something similar.  It was about $1.50 a yard & came in amazing colors.  If you want to go the SmartFab route ....you can buy a bolt on AMAZON for a great price.  Go in with other teachers and then split it up so you can have a variety of colors!!  

Soft Sculptures are great!! They really can go from K-College!!  I loved seeing the variety in the creations.  This project captures the attention of students when they are allowed to design their own "creature".  It usually takes students about 3 class times, but could go longer if you have the time!  

    

They used felt & craft glue to finish their soft sculpture creatures.

To squeeze in a clay project I came up with this crazy idea!  We hardly ever address carving in the elementary classroom....but I may have came up with a way to do it!!  I pre-pressed these clay patties the last week of school so they'd be dry for the conference.  Each teacher drew an image, design, or landscape into the clay.  They then used pencils, clay tools(plastic), and scissors to remove clay to create relief sculptures.  Clay dust was a minimal issue...you just have to remind students NOT to blow the dust off!! ha ha

The last two projects we created during day one were our Sharpie projects.  We used glazed white tiles(less than 20 cents each), and colored them with Sharlies.  We then flooded the surface with 91% rubbing alcohol, and allowed it to dry.  The other project was tie-dye.  You rubber band your fabric (or whatever method you choose) like normal tie-dye.   You then color the fabric with Sharpie.  You then either mist the fabric with the 91% rubbing alcohol or dip it in a small container.  Allow the fabric to dry over night.

WHAT A PACKED DAY WE HAD!!!!  We also had a guest speaker about art advocacy(my former director  & friend..Carol Crittenden).