Nutcrackers

Our school has a tradition of putting on the Nutcracker performance every year! Here are some Nutcrackers and a VERY simple draw a long that can be used by any grade!

Floating on to ___ grade!! End of the year project!

IF you are like me, you are looking for FUN, yet simple projects for the end of the school year!! I got this idea from this fabulous blog called The Lost Sock

I found these great videos to show the students before they get started!



Bubbles from baris parildar on Vimeo.




First we talked about the properties of bubbles. I blew some bubbles for the kids to look at (with their hands in their laps...pure torture) but I really wanted them to use their eyes. What shape is the shiney? Where is the light source? For example a window will make a window shaped shiney! What color are the bubbles and why do they start as a clear liquid and then turn rainbowy?

1 First students traced as many different circle shaped objects I could fine!!
2 They added at least two shineys to each bubble
3 Then colored the bubbles using oil pastels, and making sure to leave at least part of the bubble black to make it look transparent

So, first the students started drawing bubbles individually...

 Then, one student suggested that they put their papers together and connect their bubbles. Within a few minutes, I had an entire class on the floor connecting EVERY one of their papers to make a huge bubble mural! They were SO excited and I loved the conversations I heard as they ALL worked together as one giant group!!

The end product was a masterpiece and the kids were SO excited!! 

Some classes drew bubbles together to form words. You can see the words " Pie is Good" at the top of this class' Art!

The great thing about this project is that its fun for ALL ages! My four year old (below) drew her own bubble artwork (all by herself) and included herself blowing the bubbles in the bottom corner! She had fun searching for circles in the kitchen. There are Tabasco bottle circles, and salt shaker circles, coffee can lid circles, a soda can circle!

So get out your oil pastels and go create some Bubble ART to kick off the SUMMER!!!!

The great thing about bubbles is that they are inexpensive and fun no matter what age you are! My daughter got a bubble blower last summer that blew small bubbles inside large bubbles! We took this picture last August!

Fall is HEre!!

I'm back!! I have been so busy this year, I cannot believe its already October and I have not updated since MAY!!! We had an amazing summer, it just flew by so fast!

                                     This is our newest family member, "Bunbun" that we got this summer. He's the cutest bunny alive!

So many things have changed and I am now teaching at a new campus.  We are doing SO many fun things in the art room so I will continue to post for a few days until I catch up!! Today for my first super long post, I wanted to write about some of the fun Fall projects we have going on! Students have been learning about pumpkins and creating some beautiful Fall pumpkin patches and scarecrows! We even started some cool glow in the dark spider webs today!

Third grade made these watercolor pumpkins that turned out beautifully! They also used glow in the dark paint for the stars and moon!

That had to draw 3-4 overlapping pumpkins and we gave them value and made them look shiney!

Fourth grade made these "Pumpkin Piles"

They used chalk pastels, and glow in the dark paint for the stars

 Kindergarten and first grade made these awesome scarecrows! They all turned out so cute and different! We added straw for the hair and buttons. First we talked about how to make the face happy, sad, mad etc. They started with black crayons doing a draw along,

Then they used oil pastels to color the shirt, corn, crow, eyes, nose, and grass lines.

 Then they painted the sky, grass, and the hat with watercolors

Kindergarten and First grade made these squirrels last week. We did a draw-along first, and then they colored the pumpkin and squirrel with oil pastels. Next they glued a white acorn on him and painted it gold. They painted the tail gold too. I made little arms that they glued on and added some fur. The kids added details that reflected themselves. I love how this student added a chef's hat because he likes to cook!!

 Bunbun is ready for HAlloween, are you?