Butterflies for a great Beginning

I start each year with a something for the student to design (color). This year I gave them butterflies and spoke to them about the artist David Kracov. I started to hang the butterflies in the hall to say We ♥ Art. The math guy thought it should say We ♥ Math, another teacher suggested our school District, which I decided was the way to go to. It turned out awesome!!

 I used Twisty wire to make some of the butterflies pop-out. 

Every Child made a Butterfly, at open house the kids had a great time showing their parents which butterfly they made. 

Pinwheels for Peace

This is the second year we have participated in Pinwheels for Peace.

Last Spring I came across some old overhead transparencies, I had trying to think of a way to make our pin wheels water proof. We have an accu-cut machine, with a pinwheel die cut. So I cut them out, before they decorate them. So I tried colors on them with Sharpies. So that is what I gave them to color we had time crunch because we don't start school until after Labor Day. To assemble the pinwheels we punched holes in drinking straws, wrapped twisty one end around the straw and the other through the hole, then put free end through the middle of the pinwheel and layered the corners on the wire on topped it off with a bead to hold it in place. The students slipped the straws over skewers that we had placed in ground in the shape of a peace sign,

They looked beautiful glittering in the sun light I left them out for about 5 days, the students said they brought family over to see theirs over the weekend, it was a nice project.

My Favorite Color? or favorite neutral?

My personal favorite color is

RED.

A teacher stopped me to relay this story:

The teacher gave the students a beginning of the year survey.

One question was "what is your favorite color?"

A child raised his hand and said "I don't have a favorite color!!"

"OK" she responded

then the child said "but I could write my favorite neutral-Black"

"That would be just fine" she replied.

Then relayed the story to me. 

And I thought hey they listen to me!!!

Math+Art=One Rockin' Lesson

Due budget issues last year I team taught math with one of our kindergarten teachers. We came up with this project that blended art and math. I showed the student Jasper Johns work and we reviewed number formation. Then we talked about line vs. shape, and numbers as shapes. We used oil pastels and fluorescent tempera cakes. (I love my fluorescent tempera cakes)

This is the display in the hall:)

Musical Clay Busts

Every year our sixth graders research composers, musical artists, songwriter's and other people connected to music for an oral report. For the past couple years, we have had the students must a clay bust of their musical person.


I know this one had a faint mouth, it did not show up well in the photo, I love the necklace!! They are not realistic but they do capture the feeling of the person and the students love them.

Kindergarten Patterned Turtle Puppets

 At the beginning of year, the kindergarten teachers are working on shape and color recognition, plus patterning. This turtle's shell is a paper plate with a design created with pre-cut shapes. We cut the feet and tail from green construction paper. The heads are socks, we have collected, then we added eyes.

Pop Up Cards-Art Club

 

 We looked at America the Beautiful by Robert Sabuda and I showed the students some of the techniques from his web site, http://robertsabuda.com/
 The students had a great time, and were creative for the whole hour and fifteen minutes. They were amazed by each others ideas.