In the art room...#9- Glazing, St. Patrick's Day and Arts Fest

March has been insane. There are so many school and art events happening- it's awesome, but super busy! I can't wait for spring break!

So that being said, we had three days of art this week. 

More on that later, but first let me tell you what we got done in those three days. 

First, I spent Monday morning at a mandatory professional development on Effective Direct Instruction. I had no idea who my sub was, but fortunately she had art ed experience and did an awesome job! The PD was helpful, but I really hate being out of my room-especially on this wacky week!

Leprechaun traps needed to be set out on Monday afterwork. This is an intense process that involves cutting doors, adding footprints to the stairs, adding stairs to the trap and stapling them. My awesome sub did a big chunk of this since she got my planning period (I was at the PD during planning so I didn't get one). 

Lots of glazing was happening this week. I manage to contain this disaster to just two of my six tables. It looks worse than it actually is. First graders do a two color glaze. First layer is a dark color that is sponged into the designs and rubbed away. Second layer is a lighter, different glaze that goes over it all. The results are beautiful and their cute designs are enhanced with this method. Sponges make getting the glaze in the deep designs easier too! 

Second graders were glazing too! The mess is not as bad as it looks. Really. 

Not shown is kindergarteners. They glazed too. It was an easy prep for the afternoon (All my kiddos glazing at the same time? This will never happen again!) 

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and this happened. He was working, that's all that matters. 

I cleaned my demo table. Something about clean tables that make me feel like I have my stuff together (even if I don't). 

And while I was at it, I might as well do the paper cutter too. This makes me the happiest. 

Tried some aboriginal dot paintings with my second graders. More dots to come. I used tempera, which I have little of and am not a giant fan of. The white, which looked great wet, dried clear -ARG!! 

I fired the kiln a few times this week and remembered to do a before after shot! 

Thursday was a no day. Music and art are canceled and students head to the gym for ARTS fest. Yes. Cancel music and art to practice for an arts festival? It happens. Don't get me started. 

The 6th graders practice their routine. 

Second graders (the ones who made those awesome slab boxes) did a cute rules rap on Thursday night's performance.  

Friday was a Superintendent's Day. Our school is a focus school and we need to work on improving our status. So we spent the day with our tenet groups working on that. It was an all day event of data crunching and evidence seeking that was fortunately made a lot easier by being in a easy going group. We made a ton of progress! 

That was followed by a 2.5 hour drive to Albany for a Board of Trustees meeting for NYS Art Teacher Association. I'll be spending all day Saturday working with amazing art educators from across the state. 

See what I mean about it being a crazy month!! GAH!  

I have 4 more days and then it's a loooong spring break. Whew.