Introducing Japanese Culture

October is the month of Japanese Arts and Culture in the Bert Raney Elementary artroom. The librarian at BRE showed me this book after I had asked her for some Japanese introductory resources (my projector bulb went out so now I'm teaching without technology until the replacement bulb order comes in!) The story is written in Haiku and has great illustrations. An amazing resource for those of you planning on doing Japanese Units over the course of this school year. 

More Reefs:)

I'm in love with how all of these turned out. The trick to success I think is painting with tissue paper. The colors remain really vivid and the mixing is very controlled because of the limited number of tissues they can use to cover their picture (6 squares total and three have to be of the same color). The salt adds another special touch to make all the paintings really unique! 

Watercolor Coral Reefs

As a class we first discussed what makes up a coral reef. Watching videos really helped get the visual across. We talked about the struggling state of some reefs and what is being done to prevent their extinction. (The movie "Finding Nemo" was a good resource to use when asking the question"what do you already know about coral reefs?")

Great Barrier Reef

Coral Gardening

Forst their sketched out our ideas on a 1/2 sheet handout. We drew what we saw from videos and also created "undiscovered" corals, plants, and fish to stretch their creativity.

Then students created a fina; pencil sketch on watercolor paper. This is where we talked about overlapping and how to use it in a drawing. I gave them a few tips.

Next step was to trace over all pencil lines very hard with a crayon. We then used tissue paper dipped in water to drag colors over our drawings, first in the sea and then over the coral. I sprinkled salt over their reefs right before being placed in the "coral garden" drying rack. The salt added a nice sea water texture to their final art works!

Student pencil sketch

After crayon, tissue paper water color, and salt. 

BRE in the NEWS!

PINWHEELS IN THE NEWS!

Our pinwheels made the news, a full color article! YAY! 

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:) 

Organizing... The quick class switch

Preparing for the quick transition from one class to another in the art room takes a quick brain and some organizing strategy. One organizing technique Im trying this year is giving each grade an old computer paper box lid where I store the resources I will be using for each of their lesson. Each box contains project samples, handouts/sketch pages, light project materials that are not in supply bins, and any other small materials that are unique to that particular lesson. Because I see each grade level once a day I need a quick place to drop off the previous classes handout and pick up the next classes project sample. This organizing technique prevents the "desk paper shuffle" dance I tend to do if I misplace a handout.... This dance also takes place when Ms.L sets down the cup of pencils and does not remember where she put them... What are some organizing techniques you use to make the quick transition from class to class?

"Pinwheels for Peace"

Pinwheels are coming out my ears!!!

Bert Raney Elementary is taking part in Pinwheels for Peace this year! I have always wanted to do this project with a school so I'm very excited to get the chance. We will have 400 pinwheels spinning on September 21st on the front lawn of BRE! Well 95% will be spinning... some causalities went far beyond repair for the Kindergardeners (I would like you to know that no tears were shed... thank goodness). It's projects like these that really show the community what an art program can bring to a school. The art specialist position has only been active for three years here and this is my first year at this school. Lets just say I plan to make my presence know, starting with the inspiring display of BRE students beautiful pinwheels!