Near the end of the school year we had the lovely opportunity to have the grandfather of one of our students come into the classroom to teach us more about clay. He is a ceramicist in the area. He showed the kindergartners how to form a clay slab over a styrofoam dome form. Leaves were pressed into the dish before forming the dish. Aren’t these beautiful? Three little balls were rolled and pressed on the bottom for feet. The dishes … Read more…
While on vacation, I read the book Columbine, which is about the school shooting in Colorado. I’m interested in psychology, schools and kids. A depressing and heart wrenching read, but a thoroughly comprehensive look at the psychology of the kids, how the school and community responded and how the survivors dealt with the tragedy. It makes you think about how you would respond in a similar situation. The book was written by Dave Cullen who has extensively reported and studied … Read more…
Once a year, a local art store hosts a Re-Art Swap where anyone can drop off old art materials and then pick up things they want. All for free! Today, I volunteered for a few hours at the swap and had a blast. It was like Christmas for an art teacher! Here is a big box of stuff that I donated. It felt so good to clean out my art supplies. Little did I know that I would come back … Read more…
Oh, how much fun was Disneyworld! We had a blast. We drove to Florida from Madison, WI which took us 2 1/2 days of driving. Then we went to the different Disney parks for 6 days. My daughter Daria had a blast with all the rides and meeting all of the characters. I have tons of pictures from our trip and will show you a few of them here and there. The heat was shocking to my system! Holy cow … Read more…
How do you organize your handouts for school? When I started teaching I thought it would be best to organize by unit or by grade level or in binders… I tried all sorts of things. But it was always hard to remember where I filed things. I asked for advice from my friends and someone just suggested, ALPHABETICAL! DUH! So, no more separating handouts out by grade level, but everything is in a gigantic cabinet organized alphabetically… all of the … Read more…
What is better than drawing? Bringing in your favorite stuffed animals from home to draw, of course! Allowing students to choose their subject matter from things that are important to them will spark interest and excitement. Allowing students to share their stuffed animals with others to draw is a great way to foster interactions and positive connections in the class. Don’t forget to have extras on hand in case some kids forget! Send an email to parents or a note … Read more…
I saw this on Donna Downey‘s blog who saw it on where else, but Pinterest, of course! Doesn’t it sum up why most of us blog? One of the reasons I started blogging was because I discovered that there were so many good art teacher blogs out there and I was getting so many good ideas from them, that I thought I should share some of my own. When I was going through college and first started teaching, the internet … Read more…
