Vol. 3, No. 364, December 30, 2018

3364 - Draw With Me.

I was contemplating doing a year-end review and choosing some of my favorite projects from the year to highlight, but I couldn't decide which to use. Therefore, I was excited when Oldest Miller pulled out a coloring book and crayons. I asked her for a blank page and had her give me instructions to create a picture. We took turns, each of us giving the other instructions while also drawing our own picture. After we had each made 4 pictures, I told her we were finished. She had a blast comparing the two versions of each picture.

Vol. 3, No. 363, December 29, 2018

3363 - Champion.

In 2014, my family, consisting of some cousins, one uncle and some of my siblings, started playing fantasy football. We play for fun rather than money, which makes the trophy more important. I created a mini Lombardi Trophy using clay. The top and front is glazed while the back to panels are painted so that the winners can put their name on it. While I put in all of the work to make the trophy, I have yet to win. The trophy exchange usually occurs at our Christmas celebration. This year, after realizing I didn't have any pictures of the trophy, I took some. I wasn't necessarily going to post it as my project, but then I came down with the stomach flu today and didn't have the energy to do anything new.

Vol. 3, No. 362, December 28, 2018

3362 - Diorama.

When I got home this afternoon, Momma Miller was just gathering the Miller Littles for craft time. Thinking back to her school days when shoebox dioramas were a frequent project format, she decided to have the Littles make their own. I decided this would be a fun way to spend some Miller Time and get my project finished for the day. I decided to make a zoo. I painted the inside of the box blue. I used a toilet paper tube for the tree trunk, attaching green paper for the leaves. I used paper to make everything else. The clouds and sun are hung using fishing line. When I was finished I noticed a Lego man lying near by, so I decided he could be the zookeeper.

Vol. 3, No. 361, December 27, 2018

3361 - Giving In.

Recently, Oldest Miller has been begging me to do a craft project with her. As I was cleaning things up at school to get ready for break, I noticed the CD’s and Marbles set aside to make spinners. I decided this might be something fun for the Miller Littles to do during break. I let them use my large bin of Sharpies to decorate their CD, and then used glitter hot glue to attach the marble. They spin really well for something so simple. As soon as we were finished I left, I don’t know how much playing time they got, but it still gave them something fun to do on a Snowy, Rainy Day.

Vol. 3, No. 360, December 26, 2018

3360 - Family Tradition.

I made Potato Lefse with my grandparents for the first time when I was a teenager. I don’t remember making it frequently, but the whole family loved it when we did. The one time I really remember was when we were making Lefse the winter before Granny died. She wasn’t feeling well, so Papa and I did most of the work. We were using the electric griddle on the marble countertop. The high heat for an extended period of time caused the countertop to crack. After this I started making Lefse on my own, usually recruiting my mom to help.

We didn’t have a great recipe, so we kept trying different ones eventually combining several recipes to make what I called Hansen Lefse. Last year for Christmas, I received a Lefse turning stick and a pastry board, but never used them. After being prodded my uncle to make lefse, I took the leftover mashed potatoes from Christmas and put my new supplies to work. With only potatoes, butter, salt and lots of flour, Mom, Becca and I with a little help from Shawn, made 47 pieces of Lefse. This picture shows the lefse making process from rolling out the dough to placing the cooked lefse on a damp towel to cool.

Vol. 3, No. 359, December 25, 2018

3359 - Christmas Joy.

To show my appreciation of Miller Family, and the endless hours of Miller Time I have been able to enjoy since moving in, I bought the family some gifts. First, in the middle of the night I restocked the plastic baggies, paper towels, and napkins. Then I wrapped 3 gifts for under the tree, one for each Miller Little. The gifts were items for the whole family to enjoy with a note stating that I will do a fun activity alone with each of them. They haven't opened the gifts yet, but I am confident they will like them.

Vol. 3, No. 358, December 24, 2018

3358 - Challenge Accepted.

Tonight after attending Mass, my family gathered at Grandma's house with my Dad's siblings to celebrate Christmas Part 1. We enjoyed a dinner of hor'devores. After dinner we just enjoyed each others company. While visiting some of the cousins started throwing around a balled up napkin. When it missed it's target, I was challenged to turn the napkin into a candy cane or a wreath. I started with the candy cane, but struggled. The wreath was much easier. I rolled the napkin, twisting it into a rope. Then I made a ring and tied it closed with a bow. When I was finished, I hung the wreath on the tree. I left it there to be found when the tree is taken down
 Who knows, maybe it'll appear next year.

Vol. 3, No. 357, December 23, 2018

3357 - Rapping Wrapper.

Today in anticipation of Christmas, in 2 days, I decided to help my parents wrap presents. Okay, I wrapped one present, then decided my dad was better at and had him do all of the wrapping while I focused on the bows. Regardless of who did what, they look great under the blue and silver tree. Because one sister is gone on a trip right now, we aren't actually opening gifts until January 5th, so really the wrapped gifts are just for decoration.

Vol. 3, No. 356, December 22, 2018

3356 - Goodbye.

With only 2 days until Christmas, my elf duties have come to an end. Here are my last 4 Elf on a Shelf activities. We'll start with the bottom right. I pinned Elfie to the bulletin board in a Miller Little room. The challenging part was that the bulletin board was above Oldest Miller's bed and she was asleep in it. Moving clockwise, we have Elfie in a candy cane box. I hid the 12 candy canes around the house for with a note for the kids to find them. Elfie stayed in the box for 2 days as the Miller Littles only found 10 candy canes the first day. Next, I used 2 of the candy canes, some string and a toilet paper tube to make Elfie a swing. I hung it from the rafters in the playroom. Finally we have Snowball Fight, Elfie vs. Barbie. Mini marshmallows and Magnatiles made this one easy.

Vol. 3, No. 355, December 21, 2018

3355 - Field Trip.

In First grade, students learn about prehistoric art, using the cave drawings in Lascaux Cave as inspiration. To introduce the lesson, I turned my smartboard into a cave by wrapping it with brown paper and adding paint and charcoal to give it a rocky texture and some animal drawings. Then I projected a video tour of Lascaux Cave. The kids loved it. I have one more class to introduce the lesson to after Christmas break, so hopefully the tape holds until then. Really the only thing that would have made this cooler is fi I could have made the projection full screen.

Vol. 3, No. 354, December 20, 2018

3354 - I’m Melting.

Last night Elfie used shaving cream to create snowmen of our family. It was a little bit messy, but it turns out that shaving cream is hard to draw with on a vertical surface. Plus, the shaving cream started to fall victim to gravity, so I added the paper towels and tape to save the window sill. I wasn’t sure how well the shaving cream would hold up, so I checked it before I left for work this morning. It looked fine so I left it alone. When I returned home tonight, 26-ish hours after having made the artwork, it looked as if it had melted. As it turns out, shaving cream is not a long term art form. When I appeared on the scene, Elfie was already laying down like that, but everyone was in bed so I have no idea how that came to be. Did someone touch Elfie? I didn’t know, so I just cleaned up the shaving cream and left Elfie where he lay.

Vol. 3, No. 353, December 19, 2018

3353 - Count Down.

Last night Elfie made a paper chain counting down the number of Sleeps until Christmas. In case you weren't sure, it's 6. Oldest Miller was challenged to make a paper chain for school, so Elfie left the supplies for all of the Miller Littles. It turned out to be a good way to pass the time as they all ended up home from school, sick. Fingers crossed that I don't get it.

Vol. 3, No. 352, December 18, 2018

3352 - Thank You.

As we enter the final week of school before Christmas Break, I decided I should begin making thank you notes. To show my appreciation to students (parents) who give me gifts, I made homemade thank you cards. While some of the designs are similar, each is unique. They even have matching envelopes.

Vol. 3, No. 351, December 17, 2018

3351 - Secret Santa.

Today was the first day of my work gift exchange. Each staff member who wants to participate puts $1 in the pot and wraps a $10 gift. Gifts are placed outside of your room on Monday morning and remain there through the end of the day on Wednesday. All students and staff are allowed to switch any gift with any other gift at any point during the day. One of the gifts in the rotation is all of the money that was collected. Since kids get to help switch gifts, I decided to wrap my gift in a large box with Disney Princess wrapping paper. I figured if the princesses didn’t attract students, the size would. Sure enough within minutes of placing the box outside my door, some student had snatched it up and replaced it with a different gift. I will have to wait until Thursday to open my gift ant the Christmas Breakfast. In the mean time, I get to enjoy the gift switching.

Vol. 3, No. 350, December 16, 2018

3350 - Christmas Creations.

As my family gathered at my parents house to celebrate my sister's Birthday, we also decorated. I was able to skip out of the tree, but got assigned to  the  foyer. This meant turning the regular band scene into a Christmas scene, as well as hanging the garland and stockings on the banister. I opted to keep the foyer simple, with some assistance from my dad and Becca, I hung icicle lights and Granny's beaded garland. We finished it off with 2 small topiary-ish plants, some bows and a Christmas Gnome.

Vol. 3, No. 349, December 15, 2018

3349 - Catching Up.

My 6th graders just finished an Abstract Art project. The project was based on the work of Wassily Kandinsky. They incorporated feelings and music through lines and color. Each student followed the same set of instructions for the drawing and then chose their own color scheme. I used an analogous color scheme, using red, red-violet, violet, and blue-violet.

Vol. 3, No. 348, December 14, 2018

3348 - What’s Up.

My Elfish Creativity has struck again. I had borrowed some old marshmallows from my mom the last time I was home and was saving them for an Elf activity. Tonight, I pulled them out and let Daddy Miller choose the scene; snowball fight or weight lifting. He was curious about the weight lifting so that’s what I did. I stuck a regular size marshmallow on each end of a short straw and then used rubber bands to hold Elfie’s hands around the bar. Next I built the weight bench from a graham cracker and 4 marshamallows. The cracker broke in the displaying process, so I placed a painted rock under it for support.

Vol. 3, No. 347, December 13, 2018

3347 - Season’s Greetings.

Next week my work gift exchange starts. To prep, I started working on my gift and tonight I made a little card to put with it. It is a fairly simple card. Really the hardest part was signing my name. I may have spelt my last name wrong and had to change the lettering to fix my mistake.

Vol. 3, No. 346, December 12, 2018

3346 - Volunteering.

Once a month, I volunteer 2 hours of my time to be a Religious Education Leader for my church. I lead a small group of K-2 graders while their parents attend a meeting. I usually only have two kids, so it is an easy gig. Today we gathered with the older kids. We sang Christmas Carols, decorated Christmas Cookies and then played a game. I snapped a picture of the finished plates of cookies; nothing amazing, but we had fun.

Vol. 3, No. 345, December 11, 2018

3345 - Breaking Bread.

A while ago, I made a clay breadstick to go with my spaghetti so that I would have a completed example for the 8th grade clay food project. Each student needs to make 3 foods that go together. I had spaghetti and a beat that I had made when still at Holy Tininity. Today I finally got around to painting my breadstick. While it is slightly darker than I was hoping for, I love it. I used a mixture of gold, brown, yellow and white to achieve all of the layers of color. It was a great example to show my 8th graders today as they are painting their projects. I was able to show they how they can layer colors to make their food look more realistic.

Vol. 3, No. 344, December 10, 2018

3344 - Ornamental.

In Kindergarten, students make paper mache ornaments for Christmas. It is a huge collaboration between student and teacher. First, I labeled each cup with every students' name and class code. Then students spent 2 class periods applying paper mache, which meant I handled each cup 2 more times, scraping off extra paste and smoothing paper. Next after they were dry, I took each ornament off the form, transferred the name tag, trimmed the edge and attached a string for hanging. I prepped all of the attachments. During the next class I lead students through painting their ornaments and attaching the details. I had to insert all of the deer antlers myself as it required a sharp needle tool to make the holes. Really if you think about it, this project is 75% my work. I did even more for students who missed a day during the 3 weeks of the project. I may need to rethink this one in the future.

Vol. 3, No. 343, December 9, 2018

3343 - Elf Update.

I have been helping with Elf On The Shelf a lot, but sometimes my placements just aren't crafty enough to be a solo project. I decided to save these smaller undertakingings and post them in groups. Here we have Hanging Elf, Toliet Elf, Tree Elf, and Nail Polish Elf. I did all of the work on the first three. Mommy Miller wrote the note for the last one and painted Daddy Miller's toe nails, all I did was place Elfie, the note and the nail polisb.

Vol. 3, No. 342, December 8, 2018

3342 - Gone Fishing.

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been enjoying this whole Elf thing. I love having a purpose behind my creativity and making something other than just project examples for school. Today the Millers went shopping and the Miller Littles each got to choose a type of candy for movie night. Oldest Miller chose Swedish Fish. I was disappointed because I don’t like the candy, but as she was snacking, I came up with a great plan, I was going to take Elfie fishing tonight. With a box and it’s plastic insert, some blue envelopes, a wooden skewer, fishing line, a stick pin, a felt scrap, some clear hair ties, and of course a large handful of Swedish Fish, I was able to create this fun fishing scene. The hardest part of the project was getting Elfie to hold the pole upright.

Vol. 3, No. 341, December 7, 2018

3341 - Ready, Set, Go.

Tonight the Miller Littles participated in the Pinewood Derby. In preparation I was asked to assist with painting their cars on Wednesday night. Each of the Miller Littles had their paints chosen and painted the base coat themselves. I help Littlest Miller with a few touch ups and then painted a design for her. She chose a flower and insisted that it had different colored petals. She meant that she wanted each petal a different color, but my heart was telling me no. So I just made two-tone petals. She was happy with it in the end. None of the Miller Littles brought home a trophy, but they had lots of fun.

Vol. 3, No. 340, December 6, 2018

3340 - Thrice Fired.

Yesterday was my last time of running the kiln for the quarter, so I decided to get my projects glazed. I reglazed the large bowl for the 3rd time. To try and counteract the bright green of the last firing, I went with a brick red this time. As I pulled the bowl out of the kiln this morning, I decided the color of the glaze was okay, and then I saw the giant crack. I'm not sure if the clay had just had enough or if I opened the kiln too soon, but either way, the bowl had met its end. After snapping a quick picture, I smashed the bowl in the garbage can. Let me tell you, it was rather exhilarating!

Vol. 3, No. 339, December 5, 2018

3339 - Hands On.

One of my 6th grade classes got really far ahead of the other, so I threw in an extra project. They traced their hand and then put Zentangle designs in it. It looked like so much fun and so relaxing that I wanted to make one myself. It took me nearly 2 weeks to finish it, working only during my free time in class.

Vol. 3, No. 338, December 4, 2018

3338 - Selfie Too!

I was so excited to finally get my paint markers that I couldn't wait to fill one with India Ink and start drawing. I tested the marker out by drawing a self-portrait. I cam't wait to use these with my students!

Vol. 3, No. 337, December 3, 2018

3337 - Selfie Flop.

I was attempting to create a  printmaking self-portrait project for my 6th graders. I didn't get it laid out the way I wanted, so I am putting that project on hold for another couple days.

This picture is the printing plate that I started.

Vol. 3, No. 336, December 2, 2018

3336 - Glazed.

A couple years ago, I made a large ceramic bowl. I glazed it, but it didn’t turn out very well. I was giving it to my brother for Christmas and didn’t have time to re-glaze it. I told him that if he wanted me to, I would take it back to fix. He said he liked it as is, so I left it. Fast forward to this summer as we were packing up our house. He decided the glaze job was awful and he didn’t really need the bowl anymore anyways. So I took the bowl to school and attempted to re-glaze it. I chose what I thought was a mint green glaze. Well maybe the glaze was old, or I fired it wrong, I don’t really know. Regardless, it is now worse than before, with the exception of the cute little elephant shape that appeared. I will attempt re-glazing once more, but this bowl may have just become a planter.

Vol. 3, No. 335, December 1, 2018

3335 - Happy Holidays.

This morning I attended a Christmas Card making class at with my mom at the library. During the class we each made 2 gift tags and 2 greeting cards. One thing I learned is to always check your fingers for ink before toughing anything white.

Vol. 3, No. 334, November 30, 2018

3334 - Student Taught.

It was a rough week for me. I started feeling chest congestion on Sunday night, and by Tuesday I had started to lose my voice. On Wednesday, I couldn’t talk enough to project over my students, so I handed my lesson plan over to the students in my 7th grade class. It was challenging, but the students enjoyed it. The lesson was day 2 of the blind contour self-portraits. They were drawing their final portrait. Not everyone was understanding the instructions, so I made a drawing as well. Mine is a little smaller than I would have liked, but I did it in Sharpie, so there was no making changes.

Vol. 3, No. 333, November 29, 2018

3333 - Lost But Not Forgotten.

It was a sad day at the Miller house today. The Miller Littles woke up and searched for Elfie before school. Oldest Miller was the only one awake before I left for work, and after a quick sweep of the house, she asked me if I had seen Elfie. Wanting her to work a little harder, I lied to her and said no. The Miller Littles continued their search until it was time to leave for school. Oldest Miller was so distraught about having not found Elfie that she asked Mommy Miller to call school if she found him during the day. Of course Mommy Miller did not such thing, but she did give them a little bit of guidance when they got home from school.

So where was Elfie? On a window sill, slightly hidden behind the high chair in the dining room. Last night, Elfie was going to sit on the window sill that was more in view, but opted for the other because it ad a better view of the neighbor’s Christmas lights.

Last night Elfie AKA me, made the Miller Littles a wishlist notebook to write their Christmas lists in. I had some small notebooks with blank pages, but the covers had advertisements on them, so I needed to make a cover. I decided candy canes would be a great Elfish cover, but I couldn’t find any red paper. The best. I wold find was the gray and white stripes. I grand a red sharpers and began marking all of the white stripes. Although I was slightly skeptical at first, I love how it turned out.

Vol. 3, No. 332, November 28, 2018

3332 - Bombarded.

I wanted to make sure I had a project for today, so I made one at school. Then I got home and Oldest Miller made me go downstairs with her and then she lead me with my eyes closed to the fireplace. She was so excited to show me the snowflakes. She asked me if I knew how to make snowflakes with names in it, because mom, dad and I each need one. She suggested that I make them for my project for today.

Then as the Miller Littles were getting ready for bed, they took turns talking to Elfie and telling him what they wanted for Christmas. One of the things that Littlest Miller said she wanted was paper to write her list on. This was the perfect oppertunity for the next Elf On THe Shelf craft.

I decided to post the snowflakes today and save the others for future posts.

Today's snowflakes were made on white paper, which is what I had wanted yesterday, but couldn't find. I love they way they look so much that I am tempted to remake the other 4. Today I also wrote the names from the outside in, which I also like better. I guess you c ou ulled say that revisiting and revising my work was beneficial.

Vol. 3, No. 331, November 27, 2018

3331 - It’s All In The Name.

Elfie was busy tonight. He cut out a snowflake for each of the Miller Littles. The design pattern spells out their names. I, I mean Elfie, started the names in the center of the snowflake, which makes it a little harder to identify. It will be interesting to see if they can figure out which snowflake it theirs. To help them out, I left a hint in the scraps, by putting their initials on the scrap from the center of their snowflake.

Vol. 3, No. 330, November 26, 2018

3330 - Follow The Leader.

This past cycle, my 1st graders made follow along drawings. Everyone heard the same instructions, yet each picture is unique. Here are my last 3 examples. They are similar because they used the same instructions and I made all 3, yet they are all different.

Vol. 3, No. 329, November 25, 2018

3329 - So Excited.

The Miller Littles were so excited to get to play with my drawing tablets and do crafts with me this morning. I got up about 9:30, expecting the Miller Littles to have made their initial signs, but the flowers were still on a trail on the floor.

Oldest Miller was so excited to show me what “Elfie” had set up. She wanted me to the letter, but I decided she needed the practice. So she said “You’d better sit down, it’s a long letter.”  When she finished reading, I asked her why they hadn’t followed the instructions that Elfie had left. She said that she had wanted to show it to mom and me.  I convinced her to start cleaning up the flowers and make the signs while I got dresssed.

By time I had finished getting ready, all three Miller Littles had their signs completed and were ready to tackle the crafts. We (mostly I, with a little bit of help from Oldest and Middle Miller) assembled the Bumble Bee and then Oldest Miller and Middle Miller followed me as they assembled their own fliers. I told them that we would go outside later to fly them, but I it is cold, so we might not make it. Littlest Miller was pretty content just drawing on the tablet while we crafted.

Vol. 3, No. 328, November 24, 2018

3328 - Elfie.

Elf-On-The-Shelf, a toy designed to tempt kids to behave and to torture parents. The Millers decided to get an Elf-On-The-Shelf. The Elf “arrived” a couple weeks ago, when they set up the Christmas Tree. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite, if not my most favorited holiday, so I am anti-Christmas until Black Friday. Therefore, I would not participate in the relocation of the Elf. Tonight, the Millers returned from their Thanksgiving Vacation, and I hadn’t done a project yet, so I offered to take care of the Elf.

I am going to be home all day tomorrow, and I had some little crafts in my art stash, so I decided that I would do one with the Miller Littles. I didn’t want to be woken up at the crack of dawn, so I decided to make waiting a little game. When the day is done, they will all have 2 crafts made.

After prepping everything, I posed Elfie (the Miller Littles originally named him Freddy, but Elfie seems to be the name used most often), with the scraps from cutting out the flowers. This creative process was pretty time consuming, but hopefully worth it in the end. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Vol. 3, No. 327, November 23, 2018

3327 - Christmas Cookies.

It has sort of become a tradition for my family to gather Thanksgiving weeken to bake Christmas cookies. This year was jo different. With the 10 of us working together, we baked Monster Cookies, Snickerdoodles, Peanut Buttter Blossoms and Pecan Tarts. Then we made chocolate dipped pretzels and Oreo Bonbons.

Vol. 3, No. 326, November 22, 2018

3326 - Reminisce.

Today, I gathered with my family and a few friends to celebrate my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. After a delicious meal, we spent the afternoon playing games. One family favorite is Mexican Train Dominos. As we played, a friend reminisced about how we use the dominos to build a turkey for my project last year. She suggested that this year, I use pie to make something Thanksgivingy, such as a pilgrim or a turkey. Shortly after, she grabbed a piece of pie; it happened to be slightly mooshed when she got it. With just a couple scrapes of her fork, she was able to mold it into this turkey. I very briefly considered just using that as my project, but it didn’t feel right. So I grabbed my own piece and some whipped cream and with my sister’s help, sculpted a pilgrim. It’s not perfection by any means, but it tasted delicious!

Vol. 3, No. 325, November 21, 2018

3325 - Getting Cozy.

As my 6th graders finish their crazy coffee mug paintings, I finish my example. We began this project by walking-through how to draw a mug on a table. Then each section of the picture was painted with a different color. Next different patterns were added to each section. Finally, everything

Vol. 3, No. 324, November 20, 2018

3324 - Play Time.

I have been gone so much lately that whenever I am home the Miller Littles are begging for attention. When I got home today, Oldest and Littlest Miller were playing with Play-Doh. After Littlest Miller “fed” me a cupcake she made,  I decided to join them. Her cupcake was just a flat piece cut with a cookie cutter. I decided to step up the game and made a 3-D cupcake. Oldest Miller cut that one with scissors. Next I made a chicken leg, a biscuit, and a baked potato. As soon as I took the picture, Oldest Miller was more than happy to destroy those as well.

Vol. 3, No. 323, November 19, 2018

3323 - Abstract Design.

While waiting for their clay turtles to dry, my first graders are learning about abstract design. Today, I gave them instructions, one at a time. They were to follow my instructions without looking at anyone else’s paper. This is the example that I made with my second class of the day.

Vol. 3, No. 322, November 18, 2018

3322 - Fruity.

Wanting to teach my transitional Kindergarten class about mixing colors without using the same project they will do next year in Kindergarten, I created something new. Students used finger paint to paint printed fruit shapes. Then they cut the fruit out, gluing it on a basket in color wheel order. Then they used construction paper crayons to decorate their picture.

Vol. 3, No. 321, November 17, 2018

3321 - Ho Ho Gnome.

Today I attend my second needle felting class, and this time I brought Becca with. We made Santa gnomes. I felt rushed, so I my finished project isn’t as good as it could be, but it was still a good experience. I am even considering buying more supplies on my own. My gnome is the one with the green trim on his hat.

Vol. 3, No. 320, November 16, 2018

3320 - Mouse Paint.

After about 3 weeks of work, teaching and demonstrating, I finally finished my Mouse Paint Color Wheel. My Kindergarten classes learned about the color wheel by reading the book “Mouse Paint” by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Then they used finger paint to mix their own paints creating a color wheel. The shapes that the painted were turned in to mice by adding ears, eyes, and tails. This color wheel took a long time as I only did one mouse per class as my demonstration. The students aren’t quite finished with theirs yet, but they are turning out very cute, and the piece of cheese in the center is like the cherry on top.

Vol. 3, No. 319, November 15, 2018

3319 - Mamma Mia!

Today after a full day at school, I rushed home and jumped in the car with my parents for a 2-ish hour  car ride through rush hour traffic to see a friend perform in White Bear Lake Area High School’s “Mamma Mia”. The show was fun and the sets were beautiful, but what made the trip worth it was seeing B’s face when she spotted us in the crowd after the show. As per my show tradition, I brought with a handmade flower for B. This flower is an origami rose folded from metallic paper. It is actually a 1.5” flower inside of a 4” flower. The stem is a giant q-tip, wrapped with metallic paper. To make it look like a fancy rose from a store, I rolled the flower in plastic and tied it with a ribbon.

I asked B if set work was adults or students. She said it was mostly adults, but she was one of the few students who helped, and was the only one who knew how to paint, thanks to my guidance in previous shows.

Don’t forget to vote for my student’s, Eleanor756,  art work. You can vote once per day per web browser per device. https://www.artsonia.com/museum/aotw/vote.asp?group=1 Thanks for supporting the arts!

Vol. 3, No. 318, November 14, 2018

3318 - Textured Turtles.

My first graders are doing their clay unit this week. They are making small turtles and adding texture to the shell. The entire project only takes one class period which is great for me as I am not a fan of teaching clay. This is my turtle example from today.

On another note, this morning I got an email saying that one of my 6th grade student is one of 12 finalists for Artsonia’s Student of the Week. If Eleanor756 wins, we will both receive gift cards to buy art supplies. Help us win by voting for Eleanor756.  You can vote once per day per web browser per device. https://www.artsonia.com/museum/aotw/vote.asp?group=1 Thanks for supporting the arts!

Vol. 3, No. 317, November 13, 2018

3317 - Order’s Up.

Today I demonstrated techniques for hollowing clay for my 8th graders as they start their food sculpture project. I used pinch pots to make the potato-ish piece. The apple was a solid piece, that I cut, carved, and pieced back together. And the burger was hollowed from the bottom. Obviously these aren’t finish pieces, but they were great for the demo.

Vol. 3, No. 316, November 12, 2018

3316 - Meditate.

Tonight, while sitting in a meeting, I took some time to meditate, aka doodle on my paper, creating a Zentangle flower. The process is so simple, but looks so complicated and elegant every time.

Vol. 3, No. 315, November 11, 2018

3315 - Saucy.

Today,  my parents and I collaborated to prepare 4 batches of homemade applesauce, with came out to be 2 dozen jars of applesauce. Dad ran the Peeler/Slicer on the Mixer. I cut the apples and placed them in the pan and then filled the jars after the sauce was cooked. Mom cooked the applesauce and filled the canner.
This picture is of the last batch of applesauce, right before I filled the jars.