Creative Corner

When students finish a project early I usually will give them odd jobs or have them help me with a task around the classroom. If there is nothing to do, or they complete the extra task ahead of time, they are allowed to go to "Creative Corner". I have a back corner in my room sectioned off with book shelves which are filled with drawing books, activities, blocks, puzzles, creative challenges, etc. All activities challenge creative problem solving skills.

The pictures below are from a 2nd grade class. EVERYONE finished 15 minutes early (im thinking I forgot to review something...) Anyways, they have been craving "Creative Corner" for weeks now so I thought letting their minds wander for a bit in the world of unbridled creativity was just fine for me:)

Black lounge chairs available to those want to read a book
(I try to change the books and correlate them with what we are doing in the classroom).
These students are attempting to decode a "minds eye"!

This is a "creativity challenge".
The drawing paper has two lines  printed on it and the student
must finish the drawing being as creative and original as possible.
She has chosen to make a clown:)

Four students working together to unblock a "traffic jam"

The smaller foam shapes were used in a challenge to
create robots that do your homework for you:)

Todays challenge with the large wooden blocks was to create a time machine
for Ms.L to travel back in time to meet Vincent Van Gogh:)
Sadly they only had time to build the planet and not the worm hole...

Art Historific!

WHY ART?: A Timeline Story of Art History(Part One)

So great! Would love to try something like this some day in my classroom. We have acted out concepts before but never at this scope and never across ALL age groups! This is what learning looks like...

Part Two! 

Teachable Moments :)

The month of October at BRE is the month of Japanese Art and Culture. I have Koi Fish, Gyotaku, Sumi, and Scrolls coming out of my ears! 

While preparing the paint for the K-1's cherry blossom tree scrolls I realized that I had a teachable moment on my hands. Along with looking like a sunny side up red fried egg, the paint trays also looked a lot like the Japanese flag. As a class we all took a moment and soaked in this fact before swirling the paint into a marbleized tornado of cherry blossom pink:) 

Lets Take A Trip: Google Maps

My 3rd Graders recently took a trip to Australia, and it was not sponsored by Oprah... Actually google made it all possible! Using goggle maps I chaperoned my students on a costal trip of eastern Australia and the Great Barrier Reef to supplement a coral gardening mixed media drawing lesson we are working on.

I displayed my computer screen onto the smart board and students were able to explore the region of the world we are learning about by "car" up close.  Some comments during the trip included "wow!", "is this a video game?", and "how much did this cost you?"

As you zoom in on goggle maps and find a place you want to visit you click your cursor on the little yellow figure above the "zoom in, zoom out" icons and drag it where you want to explore. Wherever there is blue highlight on a road is available for travel. A blue highlighted dot represent a photograph from that location on the globe.

You can travel from Versaille, France...

To a Greek escape without all those planes and ferry rides:)