Kindergarten-The children are finishing their paper quilt blocks after learning about the ladies of Gees Bend, AL. They have also been learning about Eric Carle in their classroom. Mrs. Beyer followed up with a lesson about him and they will be working on an activity in the art room using painted tissue paper like Eric Carle uses. This is called cross curricular learning when teachers support each other's lessons as the children learn about a particular subject matter, in this case, Eric Carle.
First Grade- The children have finished their puppets and the excitement in the art room could be heard and felt! Not only were the children excited to be finished but they began to play with each other using their puppets. They turned out so well and some of children were so creative. Their artwork always surprises me! What a fun project! Each class with take an inventory of the puppets they made and write a puppet play featuring their puppets!
Second Grade- The children are in process of making their Bembe' masks using red, ceramic, clay. While I'm firing their masks they will watch a video showing what I do with their masks from the time they hand them to me cold and wet until I return their masks to them as a piece of ceramic clay. They find this video wonderfully interesting. After making this video I had a new respect for Martha Stewart!
Third Grade-The children are still weaving! Many of them have past the half way point. I think a couple of children may finish their pouches this week. Then they'll begin to finish like crazy!
Fourth Grade- Ron Burns is the topic of the week. The children are learning several things with this lesson. They are learning how to enlarge an image by using a graphing technique. There's math involved with getting their graph drawn out to enlarge the pictures they are drawing from. After graphing their papers they will begin copying one of Ron Burns' cats and dogs square by square. It is a week of proportion and measuring. They'll work very hard to duplicate their image.
Thomas Bland Sculpture of our Guiding Principles
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
February 21-25
Kindergarten- The kindergarten children have been constructing their quilt blocks like the ladies of Gees Bend, AL. This week we will put some of those blocks together to create a large paper quilt bulletin board! this lesson is about lines, patterns, and creativity.
First Grade-The children have finished painting the faces on their stick puppets. This week they will finish their puppets by adding ears, tails, and clothing. (All those items that are added on to complete their puppet.) Each class will write a play that includes all the puppets that were created. These plays have a crazy mixture of puppets but they make sense! I am always surprised by the children's ideas!
Second Grade-Second grade has been learning about masks from around the world. We are specifically talking about the Bembe' masks of Africa. We have drawn an image of our mask that we want to make and we have practiced some clay techniques using Play Dough. This week is the week we will model our mask out of red, ceramic, clay. It is almost more excitement than we can handle! While we are waiting for our masks to dry, the children will watch a video about the kiln and what happens between the time they hand me their wet, cold, masks until I return their mask to them a light orange and nice and hard. I hope this helps them to understand so much of the process they do not get to see.
Third Grade is weaving, weaving, weaving. Their goal each day is to weave as much as possible! Some children are nearly half finished! Their finished pouch will be large enough to hold the new DSI-XL. Not to mention many other treasures! Very cool!!!
Fourth Grade has completed their self-portraits and they turned out wonderful! I am so proud of their work! They will be displayed soon! We are currently working on a brief lesson involving the art of building a beautiful building, architecture! They saw a short film about Frank Lloyd Wright and leanred about his famous "Falling Waters". They were introduced to I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, and Antoni Goudi. Their assignment is to draw an image of our school which is built in Frank Lloyd Wright's craftsman style. Mrs. Sofiya Inger, our guest artist, will use their renderings to create an image of Maple Glen in her completed piece of art. This is so exciting and the children's drawings have been amazing!
First Grade-The children have finished painting the faces on their stick puppets. This week they will finish their puppets by adding ears, tails, and clothing. (All those items that are added on to complete their puppet.) Each class will write a play that includes all the puppets that were created. These plays have a crazy mixture of puppets but they make sense! I am always surprised by the children's ideas!
Second Grade-Second grade has been learning about masks from around the world. We are specifically talking about the Bembe' masks of Africa. We have drawn an image of our mask that we want to make and we have practiced some clay techniques using Play Dough. This week is the week we will model our mask out of red, ceramic, clay. It is almost more excitement than we can handle! While we are waiting for our masks to dry, the children will watch a video about the kiln and what happens between the time they hand me their wet, cold, masks until I return their mask to them a light orange and nice and hard. I hope this helps them to understand so much of the process they do not get to see.
Third Grade is weaving, weaving, weaving. Their goal each day is to weave as much as possible! Some children are nearly half finished! Their finished pouch will be large enough to hold the new DSI-XL. Not to mention many other treasures! Very cool!!!
Fourth Grade has completed their self-portraits and they turned out wonderful! I am so proud of their work! They will be displayed soon! We are currently working on a brief lesson involving the art of building a beautiful building, architecture! They saw a short film about Frank Lloyd Wright and leanred about his famous "Falling Waters". They were introduced to I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, and Antoni Goudi. Their assignment is to draw an image of our school which is built in Frank Lloyd Wright's craftsman style. Mrs. Sofiya Inger, our guest artist, will use their renderings to create an image of Maple Glen in her completed piece of art. This is so exciting and the children's drawings have been amazing!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
January 31-February 4
Hello Maple Glen Families!
I apologize for the delay but my Google account sent me a suspicious message and I was forced to change my password. After talking with our tech-man Mr. Grogan, he told me that someone was probably fishing....phishing?..to intrude into my computer space. I was not able to access my blog from school but I am able to access here from home today! Yeah! I thought it was completely gone! I'm home today because of the weather so already our week is changing. Here's what our week has the potential of looking like...lol!
Kindergarten-The children have been introduced to the women of Gees Bend, AL. They will be starting their own paper quilt block using fat lines and many of their scraps. Their goal is to create a pattern as they assemble their block. The women of Gees Bend saved every scrap they had to make their quilts.
First Grade- The children prepared their puppets for being a person or an animal by having arms and legs glued to their puppets. They also drew the faces on their puppets. They will start painting and applying the hair, ears, tails, etc. this week. I can hardly contain their excitement as they enter the art room!
Second Grade-The second grade has finished their tropical birds on Amate' paper. They are currently displayed on the bulletin boards by the cafeteria. This week they will review texture in art and begin making an accordian folded fish. They will add a dorsal fin and a tail along with a breast fin to their fish.
Third Grade-We have started weaving on our pouches! The first day of weaving is always the most difficult. Many children still want to weave without paying attention to that first warp thread however, they will work all the "bugs" out of their weaving and it will be "smooth cruising" from here on out!
Fourth Grade-Our self-portraits are finished and they are amazing! They will be displayed very soon. I had planned on moving right into the Ron Burns' lesson however, the fourth grade is responsible for drawing the school on our all school art project with Sofiya Inger. To prepare for that task, we will be working on a very short lesson about architecture, as an art form, learning about Frank Lloyd Wright and his "craftsman" style. After all, Maple Glen is a craftsman style school!
I apologize for the delay but my Google account sent me a suspicious message and I was forced to change my password. After talking with our tech-man Mr. Grogan, he told me that someone was probably fishing....phishing?..to intrude into my computer space. I was not able to access my blog from school but I am able to access here from home today! Yeah! I thought it was completely gone! I'm home today because of the weather so already our week is changing. Here's what our week has the potential of looking like...lol!
Kindergarten-The children have been introduced to the women of Gees Bend, AL. They will be starting their own paper quilt block using fat lines and many of their scraps. Their goal is to create a pattern as they assemble their block. The women of Gees Bend saved every scrap they had to make their quilts.
First Grade- The children prepared their puppets for being a person or an animal by having arms and legs glued to their puppets. They also drew the faces on their puppets. They will start painting and applying the hair, ears, tails, etc. this week. I can hardly contain their excitement as they enter the art room!
Second Grade-The second grade has finished their tropical birds on Amate' paper. They are currently displayed on the bulletin boards by the cafeteria. This week they will review texture in art and begin making an accordian folded fish. They will add a dorsal fin and a tail along with a breast fin to their fish.
Third Grade-We have started weaving on our pouches! The first day of weaving is always the most difficult. Many children still want to weave without paying attention to that first warp thread however, they will work all the "bugs" out of their weaving and it will be "smooth cruising" from here on out!
Fourth Grade-Our self-portraits are finished and they are amazing! They will be displayed very soon. I had planned on moving right into the Ron Burns' lesson however, the fourth grade is responsible for drawing the school on our all school art project with Sofiya Inger. To prepare for that task, we will be working on a very short lesson about architecture, as an art form, learning about Frank Lloyd Wright and his "craftsman" style. After all, Maple Glen is a craftsman style school!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Our students have been busy working with Mrs. Sofiya Inger, our guest artist.
If you would like to see more of Mrs. Inger's artwork she currently has a display at the Jewish Community Center Art Gallery. Her work will be displayed through February 25th.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
January 24-29, 2011
Kindergarten has completed their lesson about Piet Mondrian and this week they will continue to learn about fat lines when they learn about the women of Gees Bend, Alabama. Gees Bend is an isolated island in AL where the women made quilts out of every scrap of fabric they could save. These quilters and their quilts were discovered about ten years ago. Their quilts are amazingly artistic and comtemporary! The children will learn about these ladies and how they saved every scrap they had to be creative. They will use fat, colored, lines to create a quilt block that I will display as a large, paper, quilt.
First grade has completed covering their puppets with paper mache' and they are now painting their puppet heads white to cover up the newspaper and give their colors a nice undercoating. This week they will draw the faces on their puppets and begin painting the face. It will be an exciting week!
Second grade is beginning to finish their tropical birds on their Amate' paper. The final step is adding white accent strokes and dots to their birds. We are talking about "stroke work" when we use our brushes in small strokes rather than as a tool to fill in color. The handle end of the brush is perfect for making small dots! The strokes and dots add beauty to our birds. This is one of my favorite projects I teach!
Third grade has finished warping their looms and they will begin weaving this week. They will be weaving for several days! You can almost feel the excitement as they enter the room. I have found that children absolutely love to weave! It is instant gratification. They immediately see their progress and they end up with a usable item. Weaving is also very relaxing. They talk and weave and talk and weave. Rarely does anyone get into trouble! We love to weave!!!
Fourth grade is going in different directions right now. I have two classes who have finished their self-portraits so they made origami boxes this week. The other two classes will finish their self-portraits this week. We'll begin learning about Ron Burns and his colorful cats and dogs. Ron Burns is an artist who also acts as the spokesperson for the Humane Society. The children will be copying one of his pieces of artwork but they have to enlarge the picture by graphing. They will copy his artwork box by box which allows them to draft an image in an easier way than just trying to copy an imgage on their own. This skill can be used when completing any project they may have in the future. They will add color using oil pastels in a painterly manner.
First grade has completed covering their puppets with paper mache' and they are now painting their puppet heads white to cover up the newspaper and give their colors a nice undercoating. This week they will draw the faces on their puppets and begin painting the face. It will be an exciting week!
Second grade is beginning to finish their tropical birds on their Amate' paper. The final step is adding white accent strokes and dots to their birds. We are talking about "stroke work" when we use our brushes in small strokes rather than as a tool to fill in color. The handle end of the brush is perfect for making small dots! The strokes and dots add beauty to our birds. This is one of my favorite projects I teach!
Third grade has finished warping their looms and they will begin weaving this week. They will be weaving for several days! You can almost feel the excitement as they enter the room. I have found that children absolutely love to weave! It is instant gratification. They immediately see their progress and they end up with a usable item. Weaving is also very relaxing. They talk and weave and talk and weave. Rarely does anyone get into trouble! We love to weave!!!
Fourth grade is going in different directions right now. I have two classes who have finished their self-portraits so they made origami boxes this week. The other two classes will finish their self-portraits this week. We'll begin learning about Ron Burns and his colorful cats and dogs. Ron Burns is an artist who also acts as the spokesperson for the Humane Society. The children will be copying one of his pieces of artwork but they have to enlarge the picture by graphing. They will copy his artwork box by box which allows them to draft an image in an easier way than just trying to copy an imgage on their own. This skill can be used when completing any project they may have in the future. They will add color using oil pastels in a painterly manner.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Covered in Snow!
Hello Blog Friends,
This week I was surprised to awaken to my alarm rather than the district "all call". I thought for sure that we would have a two hour delay and I was very surprised by our early dismissal on Tuesday. Then my drive in to school on Wednesday morning was during a heavily falling snow! The weather really played havoc with this week! This was a very LOUD week in the art room. I'm sure the snow was an influence and I think NWEA testing also left the children feeling a sense of relief after their testing sessions were completed. They get really squirrely during their specials time. Let's add that to an approaching three day weekend!!!! Oh my goodness! I am really looking forward to this three day weekend. My daughter and grandson are coming to visit and I will be celebrating my birthday with them and my son and daughter-in-law. It should be a wonderful weekend.
Here's what is happening in the art room next week!
Kindergarten-The kindergarten children will be completing their Piet Mondrian lesson by adding fat, black, lines to their primary colored squares and rectangles. Their artwork will look so much like a painting by Piet Mondrian! Their next lesson will be about collage. I will read them a short book about snowmen and they will cut out three, white, circles to create a snow person. They will add embellishments to create a snow person collage next week.
First Grade-Is still working on creating a stick puppet. One class is two lessons ahead of the others. This happens because of snow days, convocations, or absences. When my grade levels are on more than one lesson it can become very confusing so I work very hard to keep my classes on the same lesson. When I have a class that is ahead, I have what I call "Bandaid lessons". These lessons are related to what I am teaching at the time and align with state standards. This week some of the first grade classes watched The Snowman by: Raymond Briggs. This is an Oscar award winning, short, animation film. It tells the story of a boy who builds a snowman who then comes to life. The movie tells the story using only pictures. It is a feast for the eyes! The other first grade classes will be viewing this movie after they catch up on their puppet lesson. That means they will have applied the paper mache' to their puppet's head and prepared it for painting.
Third Grade-Third grade is beginning a weaving lesson. The children will be making a draw-string pouch that is big enough to hold a DSL-XL. This week they learned about Diane Itter who was a wonderful weaver from Indiana University. They learned that weaving is a skill that has been practiced since Biblical times. We really don't know who the first weaver was but we do know that weaving is practiced by many cultures all over the world. The children made their looms this week!
Fourth Grade-The fourth grade is learning about the art of the written word, calligraphy! This lesson is being taught to support the efforts of our visiting artist, Mrs. Sofiya Inger. Because our fourth graders are the first group of children who have attended Maple Glen from kindergarten through fourth grade, they are being given the task of adding the Guiding Principles to the art installation. This means their hand writing needs to be beautiful.........or at least legible! They have seen several examples of beautiful, American, calligraphy including John Hancock's "John Hancock"! We talked about the history of written communication and how much the importance of handwriting has changed from the days when beautiful handwriting was a skill that was cherished till today when some schools are no longer teaching cursive writing! The final assignment will be to copy the Guiding Principles using beautiful handwriting.
This week I was surprised to awaken to my alarm rather than the district "all call". I thought for sure that we would have a two hour delay and I was very surprised by our early dismissal on Tuesday. Then my drive in to school on Wednesday morning was during a heavily falling snow! The weather really played havoc with this week! This was a very LOUD week in the art room. I'm sure the snow was an influence and I think NWEA testing also left the children feeling a sense of relief after their testing sessions were completed. They get really squirrely during their specials time. Let's add that to an approaching three day weekend!!!! Oh my goodness! I am really looking forward to this three day weekend. My daughter and grandson are coming to visit and I will be celebrating my birthday with them and my son and daughter-in-law. It should be a wonderful weekend.
Here's what is happening in the art room next week!
Kindergarten-The kindergarten children will be completing their Piet Mondrian lesson by adding fat, black, lines to their primary colored squares and rectangles. Their artwork will look so much like a painting by Piet Mondrian! Their next lesson will be about collage. I will read them a short book about snowmen and they will cut out three, white, circles to create a snow person. They will add embellishments to create a snow person collage next week.
First Grade-Is still working on creating a stick puppet. One class is two lessons ahead of the others. This happens because of snow days, convocations, or absences. When my grade levels are on more than one lesson it can become very confusing so I work very hard to keep my classes on the same lesson. When I have a class that is ahead, I have what I call "Bandaid lessons". These lessons are related to what I am teaching at the time and align with state standards. This week some of the first grade classes watched The Snowman by: Raymond Briggs. This is an Oscar award winning, short, animation film. It tells the story of a boy who builds a snowman who then comes to life. The movie tells the story using only pictures. It is a feast for the eyes! The other first grade classes will be viewing this movie after they catch up on their puppet lesson. That means they will have applied the paper mache' to their puppet's head and prepared it for painting.
Third Grade-Third grade is beginning a weaving lesson. The children will be making a draw-string pouch that is big enough to hold a DSL-XL. This week they learned about Diane Itter who was a wonderful weaver from Indiana University. They learned that weaving is a skill that has been practiced since Biblical times. We really don't know who the first weaver was but we do know that weaving is practiced by many cultures all over the world. The children made their looms this week!
Fourth Grade-The fourth grade is learning about the art of the written word, calligraphy! This lesson is being taught to support the efforts of our visiting artist, Mrs. Sofiya Inger. Because our fourth graders are the first group of children who have attended Maple Glen from kindergarten through fourth grade, they are being given the task of adding the Guiding Principles to the art installation. This means their hand writing needs to be beautiful.........or at least legible! They have seen several examples of beautiful, American, calligraphy including John Hancock's "John Hancock"! We talked about the history of written communication and how much the importance of handwriting has changed from the days when beautiful handwriting was a skill that was cherished till today when some schools are no longer teaching cursive writing! The final assignment will be to copy the Guiding Principles using beautiful handwriting.
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