Kinder pumpkins, spider webs, and the lil’est punkin!

Ok for some reason, I have never made jack-o-lanterns with my art classes. Don’t get me wrong, we make LOTS of pumpkins, but never painted them with faces because of the whole Halloween deal, but we did it this year. They were big, beautiful, sparkly, shiny, and probably their favorite project all year! If you’ve noticed from the past few posts, I am sort of going through a phase with the tempera varnish. It just makes the artwork shine! I LOVE it!

can you find my example? The kids drew the pumpkin with a black crayon, and painted the first day. Then outlined with black oil pastels, added leaves, cut out, and glued on the purple paper the next class… AND of COURSE, the varnish which only took five minutes with BIG brushes. They dried quickly and were able to take them home after the second class period.



Don’t you just love that kid that does it completely different, doesn’t follow directions, but it still looks fabulous and is one of your favorites because of it’s out of the box design…that is my little friend who made the pumpkin below…it looks like a wrinkly, glitter covered,version of the nightmare before christmas dude! LOVE it!




second and third grade made crayon resist spider webs with tiny yarn puff spiders! So much fun!

Friday was our Fall Festival, in which every year I get the privilege to paint like 400 faces for three hours straight, don’t even think about a water break because the 50 people in line who have been waiting for over an hour will break into panic filled fits of rage…it’s intense!
Anyways, I got to sneak a few pictures in my classroom of one of my student’s little ten day old punkin brother, Juan Pablo, before the festival! The cutest lil punkin around!! I just love all my students and their families!

could you just eat him or what!! Happy Halloween Everyone!

Vincent Van Gogh Report

If anyone knows me, they know I have a special love and fascination with Vincent Van Gogh. He had an incredibly sad life battling mental illness and the loneliness associated with his inability to fit in. His passion for painting and brilliantly individual style make him one the greatest painters of all time.

starry starry night cupcakes anyone?

The other night I saw an interesting 60 Minutes report on Vincent Van Gogh. I absolutely love this painter and cry every time I listen to the song, Starry, starry night by Don Mclean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipFMJckZOM

Please take the time to watch this Amazing report that brings a totally NEW LIGHT into everything you once thought you knew about Vincent Van Gogh.

Just click the link below to watch!!

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7384904n&tag=fdEmbedTooEarly

Thank you!

I was so excited to get an email from a reader, Karla, who was inspired by the photo of my daughters and all their cousins with their pumpkins. She made this painting the very day after I posted the photo!! I just love it!

Thank you, Karla!

Thank you also to all of my followers for all of your sweet comments, it lets me know that there are people out there reading and enjoying the blog!!

Pumpkin Carving…

If you’ve never carved a pumpkin, I highly recommend it!

cut out lid, empty seeds, draw a design, cut, and then light up with candles for pure awe and wonderment! Do this EVERY year! This was our annual cousins pumpkin Party!

An Art teacher’s paintbrush…

…never dries out!

I LOVE my job!!

Pumpkin Batik and Leaf prints

I LOVE Fall! I get really giddy when it comes to Fall art! Last year we left a pumpkin on the front porch until it was no bueno and we had to dispose of it. The pumpkin left behind a friend in the crack of the stairs on the front porch that grew into a massive pumpkin plant this summer! We loved our pumpkin plant and even named her! (Raspucia) We tended to her with such care through the drought in hopes of a pumpkin patch by Halloween! Sadly a pumpkin grub recently got inside the vine and completely hollowed it out. I got a text from my neighbor the day we cut her down…everyone was quite fond of her.

I even used my beautiful “Raspushia” as a backdrop for a newborn photo-shoot looking all like the Great Pumpkin in her Fall Harvest Glory!

Every Year I paint pumpkins with at least a few grades and this year we are making a Pumpkin crayon batik! I played around with different ideas for the background. I modified this lesson from a Paul Klee Fish Batik I got from my friend Haley Ann, an art teacher in my district!

First, draw a pumpkin and color very hard with crayons

Then crumble it up

Paint with India Ink

Rinse in the sink

And Voila!

I managed to save some of Raspucia’s leaves for my Fall projects!!

LEAF PRINTS!!! One of my favorite Fall activities! Fun for ALL ages! Last year we made leaf print turkeys! http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/search/label/leaf%20print%20turkeys

My daughters made these leaf prints with their friends a few weeks ago!

For the Batik background we used construction paper and magazine squares to create an interesting pattern background

Outline with black chalk

And paint Tempera Varnish on top

We glued pieces of cardboard under the pumpkin and leaves to create a 3d effect

I cannot wait to post more of our Fall Fun projects!

TeacherMonuments (continued)

These are the finished product of our Teacher Monuments from a previous post..http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/search/label/Monuments

Students worked in groups and wrote a note on the back of why they chose each teacher.

Here is my lovely Monument to me!! SO SWEET!!

The note reads, “We respect Mrs. Wagenspack because she is nice and fun and she help us do art and she is very smart at doing art. Thank you Mrs. Waggenspack. She help us make a moon and fuyer fruys (Fire flies) I Love Mrs. Waggenspack

Below are our principals! Snazzy!