Vol. 3, No. 90, March 31, 2018

3090 - Food and Family.

I had considered doing something more Eastery for today, but since it is National Crayon Day, I decided to keep coloring. Today’s drawings became collaboration collages; some of my 3rd grade students drew the pictures and started to color them. I finished coloring them, cut them out, glued them to card stock and added details such as the table and the shirts. The top picture is “Brothers and Sisters”, my student drew each picture and he colored the sister; I darkened the color of the sister and colored the brother. The bottom picture is “Foods You Don’t Like”. This drawing was a mega collaboration. I took the food drawings from 2 different students; they drew olives, mushrooms, soup, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, and peanuts. A third student drawing for this topic drew a large slice of pizza and a person saying “No thank you.” The pizza was too big for this collage so I left it off but I incorporated her person idea.

Vol. 3, No. 89, March 30, 2018

3089 - True Love.

I continued with my drawings for Dear Edwina this morning, focusing on True Love. Earlier this week, as a free choice activity, I gave my third grade students the option to draw a picture for me for the play. They got to choose the topic that they would focus on. I decided that I would either use these drawings as is for the play, or at least as inspiration.

Three girls decided to draw true love. One was just a guy, a girl, and a heart; it looked very nice, but was pretty plain. The next was a guy proposing to a girl, down on one knee with a ring in a box; romantic, but not really right for the show. The third drawing was of a guy and a girl sharing a milkshake at a diner. The idea for this picture was perfect, but the drawing was much too small for the play, plus she didn’t have time to finish. I used this drawing as my inspiration, drawing the scene as close to her drawing as I could. I love the third grade simplicity of it.

I included my student’s original drawing in the photograph as well.

Vol. 3, No. 88, March 29, 2018

• 3088 - Saving Money.

Today I was working on some more props for Dear Edwina. At the beginning of the show, they introduce each of the topics that will be covered. I thought I would be cute to hold up a picture for each topic. Today’s drawing is “Saving Money” which goes with the song “Put it in the Piggy”. So I drew a piggy bank.

Vol. 3, No. 87, March 28, 2018

3087 - Picasso.

My 3rd graders have been learning about Pablo Picasso; he was the founder of Cubism. We made our own Cubism style portraits. We started with a glitter glue outline. Then used oil pastels to color each section a different color. Finally, we added patterns in each section and the background. After 3 weeks of working through the picture with my students, I finally finished my portrait today. I had some help from a para; she had a light load one day, so she colored part of the base for me.

Vol. 3, No. 86, March 27, 2018

3086 - Flowing.

This afternoon I was prepping some papers to use for a drawing project for the play. The papers were white, but had a rainbow edge that I wanted to cut off. As I was cutting the papers with a paper cutter, I was noticing how the thin paper strips were curling. I was inspired to use these scraps, and ended up making an abstract card. I happened to have glitter sitting on my dining room table, so I added a little to the design.

Vol. 3, No. 85, March 26, 2018

3085 -  Silky Rose.

I finished knitting the scarf for the Littlest Miller the other day, and just needed to add the silky trim. I decided to encoporate a rose into the trim. It was all hand sewn, mostly because I don’t own a sewing machine. This meant it was slightly time consuming, but I love how it turned out, so it was worth the time.

Vol. 3, No. 84, March 25, 2018

3084 - Palm Sunday.

Today we begin on of my favorite weeks of the Liturgical Calendar, Palm Sunday followed by the Holy Tritium, culminating with Easter Sunday. To celebrate this Holy Week, I taught myself how to make roses from palms and then put them into a woven mat that I hung behind a picture frame in my living room. It took multiple attempts, but I finally got the roses just right.

Vol. 3, No. 83, March 24, 2018

3083 - No Show.

I spent a large chunk of my day working on props for Dear Edwina. After doing a prop scavenger hunt with my mom, we finished the puppet stand, assembled fake food on trays and made percussion mallets. When I got home I painted the base coat on 4 ukuleles and the details on 7 more.

When I glanced at the clock and realized it was already 10 pm I decided I had to get something figured out for today’s project. I considered posting ukuleles again, but that felt like cheating. That’s when I noticed the bananas on my counter and decided to do some more distortion photography.

Vol. 3, No. 82, March 23, 2018

 

3082 - Seems Fishy.

For lunch today I had a delicious fillet of marinated Northern Pike. However, as I was eating it, I found myself picking out little bones. When I was finished eating, I was inspired by the pile of bones,  and decided to make a paintbrush. So with a straw and some hot glue that’s what I did.

With my new brush, my fingers and neon paint, I created a slightly abstract fish. I love how it turned out, I only wish I had made it bigger.

Vol. 3, No. 81, March 22, 2018

3081 - Knit Together.

A few years ago, I knit myself a scarf and matching headband. I have misplaced the headband, but continue to wear the scarf. This winter, the Littlest Miller has gotten quite attached to my scarf and every time she sees me she asks me to make her one. Since I have half of a Spring Break this week, I decided it was a good time to start knitting. I began on Tuesday, but I started it to wide, so I ended up unraveling the 8 or so inches I had knitted and starting again. The unraveling took place late last night, so I was pretty much starting fresh this morning. As you can see I got pretty  far, but I still have a ways to go. My goal it to have it finished, with a white satin trim by time I go back to school on Monday.

Vol. 3, No. 80, March 21, 2018

3080 - Tipsy Tuesday.

Yeah, you’re right, it’s Wednesday.  As I left for work I noticed how sticky the melting snow was, so I decided to build a snowman when I got home. My cousin, Kristina, had send me a Pin of a tipped over snowman. It was a cute idea so I decided to recreate it. I began rolling each section, starting with the middle, then the bottom, which was actually the top. I rolled the section too big at first and couldn’t lift it up on to the middle. I guess there’s a reason the biggest section is usually on the bottom. I kicked off some snow and was finally able to lift it. Then I had to get to work “skin grafting”, covering up the icky brown spots with fresh snow. I added the head then got to work with the extras. The feet were sculpted from snow and then rubbed on the bare ground to turn them brown, thus making them visible. Wood chip eyes, twig arms, berry branch mouth, cornhusk hair, and “flower” buttons finished up the snow man.

Vol. 3, No. 79, March 20, 2018

3079 - Spring Cheer.

Tonight I gathered with my mom and a friend to work on props for Litchfield Community Youth Theatre’s production of Dear Edwina Jr. The task for the night was to create pom-poms for the show’s 3 cheerleaders; this meant 6 pom-poms. We found instructions online and once we got the hang of it, the assembly part of it went pretty quick. The more time consuming part is fluffing each pom-pom as they are made from plastic table clothes that tend to stick together. In the 4 hours that we were working were able to get 6 pom-poms assembled and 3 fully fluffed.

Vol. 3, No. 78, March 19, 2018

3078 - Up Up And Away.

Today at art club, I decided to let the students do foam paint (shaving cream, glue, and liquid watercolors). Last time I did this, there was paint everywhere, walls, chairs, sinks. Today was much cleaner, just a bathroom covered in water.

Anyways, I decided to paint balloons. I was just going to do the balloons right on the first sheet of paper, but they didn’t look right; the placement was off. So I took the paper home, and when they were dry, I cut the balloons out and created a collage of black. Unfortunately as I remembered as I pulled the balloons from the car, foam paint isn’t lasting; it peals very easily. So my design looks alright for now, but it is probably going to be in the trash very soon.

Vol. 3, No. 77, March 18, 2018

3077 - Hola Lola.

Today turned out to be Set Work Sunday. For Dear Edwina, we need 12 ukuleles; turns out ukuleles , even toy ones, are pretty expensive, so we decided to make our own. Our awesome set designer cut them out of 3/4” plywood, which I got the privilege to paint. Yesterday, I forgot about them until I was almost ready to leave for the day, so I only got one coat of paint on them. They needed to a second coat in order to look good from my point of view, so I headed in this afternoon.

After getting a second coat of brown on all of the ukuleles, I began details on one. I had a student volunteer to paint details on the ukuleles, but she was unsure on what it should look like. I completed one, including strings, as an example. I love how it turned out; really the only down side is that you can’t actually play it because the strings are just hot glued in place.

Vol. 3, No. 76, March 17, 2018

3076 - Wood ‘N Lemons.

Today was another Setwork Saturday. I only had a few detail pieces to finish, so I was working alone. It ended up taking a lot longer than expected, but that’s usually the case. Today I was painting wood paneling on the front of one lemonade stand so that it matched the the paneling that was already on the other stand. I also added lemons to the sign and painted a sign that said “The Dear Edwina Show”. According to the director aka my mom, I made that look to professional, but we are going to use it anyways.

Vol. 3, No. 75, March 16, 2018

3075 - Mask Mania.

This week I was starting paper mache masks with my grade 4 students. In order to allow students to start on the shaping of their mask after they return from spring break, I did the base layer for students who were absent. That totaled about 10 masks between 6 classes. Today was a teacher work day, so I spent some of my day finishing the last 3 student masks and doing one last coat on my own mask.

We are using Art Paste and newspaper on a plastic mold.

Vol. 3, No. 74, March 15, 2018

3074 - Beauty Beware.

Today as I reviewed emphasis with my third and fourth graders I realized I didn’t have a good example of a rose. So while my third graders were painting, I painted too. We talked about showing emphasis by making things large, centering it, and using some form of contrasting colors; we were using warm and cool colors.

Vol. 3, No. 73, March 14, 2018

3073 - Perfect Pi.

I fell in love with Pi Day in 11th grade when my pre-calc teacher served each us a slice of pie of our choice. We could choose any kind we wanted and she bought it for us; I choose Banana Cream Pie. Since then, I have been making my own pies on Pi Day. Some years it was simple like pudding pie and other years took some time. Today’s pie was a little on the time consuming side.

Last year, I made Sweet Potato Pie for the first time. It was delicious, but my family didn’t appreciate it, so I was left to eat the entire pie myself. Wanting Sweet Potato Pie again, I got smart this year and found a recipe for Sweet Potato Hand Pies, cute little pie circles that I can freeze and eat for weeks to come.

I used store bought dough because it’s faster than making my own. Rolling it extra thin because I don’t like a lot of crust on my pies, I then cut out circles. I filled half of the circles with the sweet potato mixture, which consisted of sweet potatoes, butter, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Then I laid on the top crust and used a fancy Pampered Chef press to seal the edges. I cut in a Pi symbol on the top of each pie, gave it an egg wash, and sprinkled them with raw sugar. Twenty minutes in the oven and I had delicious mini pies!

Vol. 3, No. 72, March 13, 2018

3072 - Distracted.

As an elementary art teacher for two separate school districts, sometimes my days are crazy. Today was one of those days. I spent much of the day feeling, for lack of a better term, distracted or maybe disjointed. I don't know but everything was just a little off.

I got to work on time, okay maybe I was a couple minutes late, but really only a minute or two, so it shouldn't have been a big deal. However, it felt like I was rushing all morning. Yesterday I began paper mache with my fourth graders. This meant that today, because I didn't plan far enough ahead yesterday, I was mixing paste and cleanWiing room in my storage room so that the masks have room to dry. These tasks, plus getting ready for my third grade class took all of my first prep.

I spent my second prep finishing preparing for 4th grade. After yesterday's class, I learned of some kinks in my paper mache system, so I was fixing. I washed all of my supply trays and then covered them with foil for easier clean up at the end of the unit. I also put my paste into Cool Whip containers with lids to save it from one class to the next. In no time at all second prep was over and there were students waiting impatiently at my door.

By the end of two fourth grade classes, it seemed that there was paste everywhere. Fortunately the last class cleaned up fast enough that I could make them re-wash and dry the tables so they weren't goopy. As they left, I began setting up my display tables for Parent-Teacher Conferences.

I ate a quick lunch and headed to my next school where I had to prep quickly so that I had time to meet with my principal for a pre-observation meeting. During this meeting, I was informed that my position would be terminated at the end of the year due to budget cuts. I had been given warning ahead of time, so I wasn't surprised, but the unknowns of next year began to weigh on me.

I headed back to my room with a few minutes to spare before a noisy bunch of first graders entered my room followed by my principal for my observation. The lesson didn't go quite as well as I had hoped it would, but I got through it. My principal gave me a couple quick notes and was on her way. giving me a couple minutes to reset for Kindergarten.

Kindergarten went slightly better than first grade, but it was still crazy and when they left I let myself take a quick breather before jumping in the car to head back to the first school for conferences.

One of the best part about being a specialist is that very few parents actually visit you during conferences. This means that you get three hours of almost uninterrupted work time. Slightly unfortunately, I spent the majority of this work time with the other art time, "shopping" for supplies. I was glad we had the time and were able to get finished, but it meant that I didn't get as much other stuff done in my classroom. One parent who did stop in the art room was the high school/middle school art teacher. She confirmed rumors that I had been hearing that she would be moving to the high school full time next year thus opening up the middle school position. So while I haven't been offered the position yet, I know that there is a real possibility of being almost full time next year.

As soon as 7 pm hit, I headed to my car to drive back to Litchfield for Litchfield Community Youth Theatre rehearsal. One great thing about Daylight Savings Time is that I got to watch the sunset on my drive tonight. It was gorgeous, so I stopped to take a picture.

When I got to rehearsal, I immediately began sorting t-shirts for distribution at the end of the night which was only 45 minutes away at this point, so I had to work fast.

After rehearsal, I had to make sure everything was cleaned up before heading home. As I drove I realized two things. One, I never did my post-observation reflection. Two, despite starting four masks, coloring part of a Picasso Portrait and drawing 8 emotion portraits, I didn't have anything for my daily project.

I had a few options including: draw a quick picture in the smooth layer of snow on my patio that I've been hoping will melt soon'; take a distorted vase picture; or do something else super quick and not very good. I decided to keep it simple and use the picture of the sunset that I took on my way home.

So with my project chosen and this long saga dictated all I have left is post to social media and do my post-observation reflection. So hopefully I will be in bed by midnight, putting this crazy day behind me and looking forward to a slightly calmer day tomorrow.

Vol. 3, No. 71, March 12, 2018

3071 - Salty Bubbles.

Today at Art Club, I had the students draw with glue and cover it with salt. Next time we will paint it with watercolors. For my example, I drew a cow and surrounded it with a bubble background.

Vol. 3, No. 70, March 11, 2018

3070 - Twisted Toast.

Today I kept it simple and photographed my breakfast of French Toast before eating it.

Vol. 3, No. 69, March 10, 2018

3069 - Set Distortion.

Today we celebrate yet another Set Work Saturday. Okay, yeah, you’re right, it wasn’t so much a celebration as a mandatory good time. Either way, it happened and we were starting painting, so I had to be there. I planned ahead and brought some vases with me and before washing brushes, I quickly took my picture for the day. I think it may be one of my favorites so far.

Vol. 3, No. 68, March 9, 2018

3068 - Propped Props.

This afternoon, I was hanging out in the LCT Prop Room, collecting props for the Youth Theatre show, Dear Edwina Jr. As I worked, I came across some clear vases and decided that I could just do my project here instead of waiting until I got home at 9. After filling the vases, I searched for a fun prop to distort, and found a typewriter.

It took some maneuvering and propping to get good reflections, but I am excited about the finished product. I am pretty sure I forgot to put the typewriter away when I was finished.

Vol. 3, No. 67, March 8, 2018

3067 - Orange Ya Glad.

I replenished my orange stash when I bought Oreos, so when I finally got home at 9 PM and saw them sitting on the counter I decided that they would be my subject for the day. I placed the oranges in a blue ceramic bowl that I had made on the wheel last year. I used the flash for this picture which happened to distort the image even more.

Vol. 3, No. 66, March 7, 2018

3066 - Icy Distortion.

Today is National Cereal Day and I planned on photographing a bowl of my favorite cereal. However, as I was walking in the door after school, I noticed the wall of icicles above my head. Melting in the bright sun, the icicles were to beautiful not to photograph. Thanks to the burst function on my phone I was able to capture a picture of a water droplet as it was about to fall from the icicle. If you look closely you can see a distorted view of my garage.

Vol. 3, No. 65, March 6, 2018

3065 - Dissected Oreos.

Today we celebrate National Oreo Cookie Day. I made a special trip to the store to buy a package of Oreos and then used them in my distorted photography project.

Vol. 3, No. 64, March 5, 2018

3064 - Discord.

Today I continued my distorted photography project, choosing a ukulele as my subject.

Vol. 3, No. 63, March 4, 2018

3063 - Distorted.

While perusing Pinterest a while ago, I saw a pin where they photographed objects through vases of water. I immediately loved the idea. Conviently my sister had a collection of clear cylinder vases from her wedding. Since she was coming home this weekend, I asked her to bring me some vases. So this week, who knows maybe I’ll extend it, my theme will be distortion photography.

I wanted to photograph oranges today as on this day in 1792, oranges were first introduced to Hawaii. However, when I went to grab my oranges, I found the bag to be empty. So I searched for something else, finding my flowered clutch from my sister’s wedding.

As the days go on, I will have to play with vase arrangements and lighting, but this is a good start.

Vol. 3, No. 62, March 3, 2018

3062 - Diaper Duty.

Today I attended a baby shower for my cousin and we decorated diapers that can be used to make late night diaper changes more fun. Yeah I don’t understand the concept, but I decorated one anyways. The fact that there were Neon Sharpies made it more fun. I kept it simple and drew a little flower.

Vol. 3, No. 61, March 2, 2018

3061 - Clay Week.

I have always hated doing clay projects with my elementary students. Clay is sort of a touchy material to work with; if you don’t attach pieces correctly, they can fall off; too thick, it can explode; too dry, it can crack. All of these factors make it clay with kids a challenge. I was thankful that I was able to keep clay to one week this year. This made for a very busy, slightly stressful week, but I made it through. Today was the final clay day and I made sure to take a couple minutes to make a project for myself. My Grade 4 students were making coil candy dishes in an interesting shape. I decided to turn my candy dish into a doughnut. It’s definitely not the most creative dish that was made this week, but I was rushed for time; even more so than my students who only got about 25 minutes to actually build with clay.

With all 290 some projects labeled and drying, I left for the weekend. Leaving abruptly (to get to my next school) means that on Monday I have a clay-dust covered classroom to clean-up.

Vol. 3, No. 60, March 1, 2018

3060 - Remember.

Without a theme, I struggled to come up with a project and time to make it. In school I made a couple of talking rocks with my third graders, but in the rush of going from one school to the next, I forgot to take pictures of them. At the next school, I made flower drawings, but how many times can I use essentially the same project? So I got to play practice and was searching Pinterest for an easy project that didn’t require any special materials. With the help of CC, I decided on an origami elephant. I kept it simple choosing an easier model and using a discarded sheet of notebook paper.