Teacher Time

Ok, so this isn't quite painting with a twist, I think it is even better.  

We used the lesson plan from a project that I do with my Fourth graders.  The administrators on our campus thought it would be a fun way to celebrate officially becoming a Lighthouse School, one of only 159 schools worldwide.

Elm Grove staff has been working the past three years on acquiring this title, which is a program based on Stephen Covey's 7 Habits, The Leader in Me.  

I joined the staff on year two of this endeavor. I love how involved parents, students, staff and even the community has been through this process. I personally use it regularly at home with my own kids.  

Anyway, this year before school started, we directed the teachers in painting their own lighthouses.  None of them look the same, each are unique.  And it was really wonderful to see the challenges that the teachers had to work through.

We saw problem solving at its best and they walked away with a great lighthouse painting and a deeper appreciation for what we do in the art room.

These were done in a morning session and some came back to finish in the afternoon.  Still, a few needed touch ups or a little extra help achieving what they wanted on their canvases after school started. 

We did, however,  have a couple of cheaters who weren't happy and talked friends or neighbors into redoing theirs (they think they are sneaky, but I know who you are!!).

I've heard mixed emotions about leading these for campus events, some art teachers hate it, some love it.   I personally didn't mind.  It was fun, it promoted the art program, and most teachers were very proud of their paintings-I think that would fit as Habit #4, Think win win, y'all know I had to throw that in there.

Each teacher came up with a vision for their lighthouse and had to come up with a plan.  And as art teachers know all to well, sometimes that plan works and sometimes it doesn't.  There was lots of discussion on how to achieve different effects and experimenting with mixing the paint.  

When these were finished, they were all proudly displayed outside each teachers' classroom.  

Stop... ipad Time!

So, right before school started, a little rumor was floating around at an art training that each of the art and music teachers at the districts 13 elementary schools would be getting a class set of 25 ipads.  Yeah, right!  So, we are hearing about these now, so MAYBE by the start of the 2016 school year we will see these ipads.  The very next week, I walk in to work in my classroom and this COW was in my room... with 25 ipads.  I'm really excited, and I have done a few things with my kids, downloaded a few apps and so forth.  But, I want to know from others, how do you use your ipads in your art room?  What are some apps suggestions?  Seems like many ideas for art apps that I've pinned are no longer available.  Thanks in advance for any educational advice you have for me here!!

You Scream, I Scream...

This is a project that I am working on with Kindergarten.  I first started with the background, where I asked them to fill with color.  For some kids, this is a big job, they think they will never get this completed.  At most this took one class period and 10-15 minutes of another class.  After they were done coloring with marker, I sprayed the paper with water to make it look a bit more like watercolor.

The next step of the project was to work on the paper for the cone.  We talked about the patterns they see on the cones and diagonal lines that create these patterns.  This was done with brown marker and then they used a small amount of water with a brush to spread the color.

On the next art day, kids were asked to cut out the triangle I had pre drawn on the back of the cone paper.  We talked about hand eye coordination and that I was looking to see who could cut right on the line.  This gets them to slow down a bit, and their cutting is much better.

When assembling the ice cream, we talked about overlapping, to create the right layering effect.  They were then free to add sprinkles with art sticks and a cherry if they wanted.

This ended up being a three day project.  I tore the paper for the ice cream and also cut out the cherry for them.  You may want to add another half class to the timeline if you want them to do those steps themselves.