Welcome back! We spent the week getting back in the groove after being on spring break. We picked up right where we left off and kept chugging away at projects.
3rd graders added legs, arms and bodies to their perspective portraits. These extra large projects force me to get creative with seating.
We are done with the looms, so I spent some time photographing them to upload to Artsonia. They aren't uploaded yet, but I will get there!
Kindergartners mixed some primary colors by folding and smooshing. I am sure there is a techincal term for this, but for now fold and smoosh it is. I pulled out my old paint holders for this project and forced students to share ONE brush for one paint for one table. The paints survived the week without someone sticking the wrong color in the wrong bucket. If you use these paint jars, don't ever, ever fill them up, paint gets all over the handle of the brush and if the wrong brush lands in the wrong paint you've lost the whole thing.
Folding and smooshing.
Every kiddo made 3 of these, 4 if they got to add white and a color. We used 4x4 squares, they wrote their names on the back and triangle folded them. To save my sanity I let them dry on their spots and loaded them right into their ziploc bags once dry. Read more on how to use zip top bags in the art room here. I happened to not need the tables for my following group as we were doing floor/mat work. So that worked out amazing...I mean I planned for that!
This is what kindergartners hands looked like afterwards. There is no way to avoid this mess, but it is worth it. Later that day a sweet second grader said this adorable quote (which I later found out is from the Magic School Bus) so I had to combine the two.
I started a new project with second graders this year. I have been wanting to do some aboriginal dot paintings or sand paintings and just needed some space to squeeze it in. We just finished a very time consuming slab box project so I wanted to change gears and do a quick project. And by quick I mean 3-4 days. We painted silhouettes of snakes, lizards or turtles. Next year, I will not being doing snakes. I thought it would be a good choice for some of those who struggle with drawing, but it is difficult to tell what they are. Turtles and lizards are much more successful! We looked at and discussed aboriginal paintings and then watched a little video on someone creating one. I let it play in the background while students worked because it had some digaredo music!
Then a couple 4th graders saw my teacher sample on the board and wanted to make one too. They came down during their recess and started making them. I may do this project with them at the end of the year too! Project jealously is a real issue in my school. I had a 6th grader ask why they didn't plant flowers in their kindergarten pinch pots.
There was no way I was going to remember to water the kindergarten plants each day so I sent out an email requesting some helpers. This little lady comes down each morning with a giant smile and waters the plants for me. She just loves this special job. We have a few pea plants starting too which is pretty exciting!
I would like to note that my 4th and 6th grade students are working on their clay pots. My hands are covered with clay so there isn't any photos of them working but they are! I promise!!
5th graders spent time in the computer lab working on our MC Escher inspired tessellations. More on that next week!
And in case you don't follow me on Facebook, or Instagram (which you should). You may have noticed I took a little unplanned trip on Spring Break. A fellow teacher friend and I bought last minute tickets to Orlando to get away from the bleak and miserable weather in central New York. We bought the tickets Sunday and flew out on Monday night. We both are pretty insane planners, preppers, to-do list makers so this was quite spontaneous for the both of us. We spent 3 glorious days in the sunshine by the pool. No. Seriously, that is all we did. Lay at the pool, swim, lay out, swim, figure out dinner. It was incredible and I highly recommend a spontaneous trip to everyone.
How did you spend spring break? How are your students when you get back from a vacation?
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