Triple word score!

 It's okay to share my personal momentous occasions with all of you art educators right?

Well- last night by the light of my magenta, turquoise, purple, and lime green decorated Christmas tree and on the first night of Hannukah my amazingly wonderful boyfriend proposed! Wahoo! I'm getting married!
I mean we had already been planning on it and I designed the ring- but still- he managed to surprise me by waiting in the pitch black living room for me to get home from work and now it's real! We never did actually light the menorah last night come to think of it.

I HAD to share my ring with y'all.... rose gold and the small stones are from my Nana's engagement ring placed with a new rock from Bob. Durable enough for an art teacher's hands (which was my main concern).

 *Bonus- today is my last day at school and I am off until January 4th- wahoo!
Wishing everyone a wonderful vacation week, wonderful, magical holidays, and a happy, healthy New Year!

Art Work to-go... grocery bags

I owe my co-operating art teacher for this one!

I made these big portfolios with my younger grades which took a large chunk of time and labor- and then she mentioned she was thinking about using handled grocery bags. 

I'm sending home my fifth graders work this week so I decided it was worth a try. 

I stopped in Trader Joe's last week and they hooked me up with a large stack. 

This worked out fantastic for sending home a pile of work!

(Fits 12 x 18 papers perfectly.)

Snowy Self-portraits!

I've done mitten projects a few way the past couple years: fabric collaged and watercolor strung ones.

My timing was a little skewed this year starting these projects- I think due to the non-winter-like weather we've been having! 

My KINDERGARTEN students made these super cute snowflake mitten and ear-muff self-portraits! 

(snowflakes were printed with cardboard scraps after practicing with pencil on worksheets)

3-D paper sculpture

 My fifth graders (and then my first graders actually) went on a very successful field trip to the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston with me recently. We had a wonderful trip- my kids blew me away with their ideas and interpretations and use of vocabulary! The lobby of the ICA currently houses a large mural by Swoon. There are amazing intricate paper cut stencils streaming from the mural across the ceiling as well. 

 This lesson was a one session group project that was a follow-up from their Stencil and Spheres oil pastel project. The students used the SAME STENCILS that they used for tracing and overlapping in their previous project. This time though they traced the stencils and cut out the pieces. 

Each table was given either all warm or all cool colored materials. The group could use anything that was on the table and divide up the process and responsibilities as they wished. 

The only requirement was that all the pieces must be attached into one collaborative and 3-dimensional piece when they were finished. 

 The students worked really well together, dove right in, and made really interesting pieces. My first class made really abstract pieces and my second group made really literal ones- so funny how that happens. 

They are really colorful in our stairwell window (but hard to photograph)!

Mountainous Sunrise (or Sunset)

First grade mountain landscape collages!

I based this lesson off of one I did last year with second grade 

but I love the sunsets and sunrises we added in this time.

1. We discussed what mountains "really" look like like (instead of triangle mountains).

The kids cut a mountain horizon out of grey construction paper and dapped white paint for snow caps. 

2. The kids are studying liquids and solids in their science curriculum.  

We did glue drawings of a setting or rising sun with extended sun rays. This was a great connection because of the liquid glue turning into a solid and a textured drawing.

3. We drew with yellow marker first...

then painted with water first and added on warm color water colors (yellow-orange, orange, red).

 4. We put them together! Then we added on a strip of brown construction paper at the bottom and strips of green tissue paper. 

I think we might add on another element next week before we call them "finished" but I wanted to share because they are so beautiful and the kids are so excited!

so sweet...

There was a contest in Massachusetts for 3-5th graders based on what they want to be when they graduate from college. I did not have time to do this as a lesson in my class however I wrote up a sheet about the contest with tips for how to approach it and make a successful picture and I offered to mail them for the kids if they brought them to me. To my surprise 17 kids outs of 48 did it all on their own at home! I was even more happily surprised by the quality of work AND their hopes and dreams though.
I HAD to share a few... especially this first one...

Finally some finished ones...!

Some of my fifth graders have (finally) finished up their Beatriz Milhazes-inspired projects. 

I was a little nervous they may not follow through all the way to the end full steam ahead - but here are are a few that definitely did not disappoint with their complex compositions! 

more giraffes :)

Couldn't resist posting some more giraffes....