Vol. 5, No. 145, October 10, 2020

5145 - Creative Sprint Day 10.

After a fun family day of shopping and dinner, took my after dinner mint and broke it apart. I arranged the pieces to create a pine tree.

Vol. 5, No. 139, October 4, 2020

5139 - Creative Sprint Day 4.

I took a walk this morning with my family, but they didn't want to stop to make art, so I made my project later at home. With Lil E's help, I created this pinecone collage. We built it in the middle of the sidewalk, so it didn't last long. However the pinecones were tons of fun to play with later.

Vol. 5, No. 073, April 7, 2020

5073 - Learning Together Apart.

As we delve into the world of Distance Learning, I have to write new lessons plans for my students. New lesson plans means new project examples. This week, my middle school students created found object color wheel. They were required to use at least three objects of each color. My 6th grade studens focused on primary and secondary colors. The 7th graders added tertiary colors.

Vol. 5, No. 062, March 18, 2020

5062 - Strange Toppings.

Today I was one of the few people working at school today. So while taking a break, I made an art pizza. It was a rectangular pizza modeled after a classic school lunch. My pizza toppings include shredded paper, glue sticks, scissors, pencils, and markers. It's not edible, but it is fun to look at.

Vol. 5, No. 061, March 17, 2020

5061 - A Robot Jumping Rope.

I dug in the junk drawer to find materials for this installation. I used a variety of batteries and lip balm for the robot. The jump rope was made from screws and a tape measure.

Vol. 5, No. 003, January 3, 2020

5003 - Color Switch.

I don't know that this is super creative, but my more creative ideas just didn't pan out today. I took a leaf segment off of my rose bush and stuck it in a glass with purple food coloring. The leaf sat in the dye for 7 before the after picture was taken. If you look closely, you can see a slight color variation. I continued to leave it sit over night, maybe it will be more purple in the morning.

Vol. 4, No. 338, December 4, 2019

4338 - Back In Action.

Tonight, for the first time this season, I helped the Millers with their Elf on a Shelf. I got in on the action quite a bit last year as I was living with them. This year, not so much, but as I was already going over there today, I figured I would put together an Elfie adventure...Reindeer Poop aka chocolate covered mini marshmallows. It has got to be the world's best tasting poop! As I was about to lay out the scene, I saw a dump truck toy on the table. I decided that was a pretty good way to serve up some free poop. Hopefully the Miller Littles like it as much as I do.

Vol. 4, No. 330, November 26, 2019

4330 - Snow Cute!

Tonight I brought Eleanor out for her first romp in the snow. By romp I mean that we bundled her up, then laid her on the deck and moved her arms and legs while she started to fuss because the snow was landing on her face. She was adorable in the process. Here is the result of her first snow angel.

Vol. 4, No. 324, November 20, 2019

4324 - Floral Fullness.

Now that my second quarter 6th grade classes got their flowers hung on the wall, I decided to post another pic of the Van Gogh Flower Vase. When I chose the location for this vase, there was not a TV. So we are working with it and expanding outward rather than upward.

Vol. 4, No. 319, November 15, 2019

4319 - Experiment.

Today one of my 7th graders asked how slip was made. I told him I just ground up dried clay and mixed it with water. Then he asked what would happen if you just stuck the dried clay in water. I told him it basically works the same way, it just takes longer, unless you have thin pieces of dried clay. I had some clay available, so I decided to demonstrate. I love how the clay starts to look like a topographical map as it absorbs the water. It is way more fun to look at in person.

Vol. 4, No. 318, November 14, 2019

4318 - No Show.

Today was a creatively busy day. I did a clay flower demo,  drew and started to color a self-portrait, and made some Sharpie art as I was testing the Sharpies. Yet when I got home from work, I had nothing to show for my efforts. So you get a picture of the newly laid floor instead. Over the last week, my dad and I, with scattered assistance from the rest of the family, have been laying the new flooring in the family room. My job is to choose the tile order while Dad puts the tiles into place. Then I inspect the work to make sure that there are no gaps in the tile. The floor is not quite finished yet, but we are getting really close.

Vol. 4, No. 300, October 27, 2019

4300 - Rainbow.

Today was the final show and set strike for Mary Poppins. As I was cleaning up the paint room, I found some stir sticks and arranged them to make a rainbow.

Vol. 4, No. 286, October 13, 2019

4286 - Food Face.

I attended a potluck at church this morning. All I had for leftovers was a partial piece of cake and some muffin crumbs, plus the wrapper. I fashioned everything into a smiley face, because you should always smile!

Vol. 4, No. 270, September 27, 2019

4270 - Line Dance.

My Kinders are in the middle of a unit on lines. This rotation, students traveled to stations exploring lines in different ways. One station had rocks with lines painted on them. The first step was to sort the lines by type, straight, curvy, or both. When they were finished sorting, students could connect the rocks to make a long crazy line. I wanted an example for the board, so I did the center on my own.

Vol. 4, No. 263, September 20, 2019

4263 - Bountiful Blooms.

While the flowers were hung about two weeks ago now, I finally made it up to the front of the school to take a picture. The rule for placing flowers was that it had to touch another flower. The vase got a little full on the right side. Hopefully next quarter we can balance it out a little.

Vol. 4, No. 261, September 18, 2019

4261 - Tech Savvy.

At one of our Back-to-School Meetings, my principal announced that the art department would be receiving a classroom set of new iPads. This was a welcomed surprise; last year I had graciously accepted a set of old iPads that were going to be disposed of if no one claimed them. They served the purpose of uploading art to our online art gallery, so I wasn’t expecting anything more.

When the new set of iPads arrived the cart was a mess. There were cords everywhere and some of the stands weren’t securely in place. After two weeks of ignoring the problem, I had to do something about it. So during my prep, I pulled out all of the iPads, and started rearranging the cords so that they were in the designated cord holders. I quickly discovered that my job would be much easier if I took out the shelves. This was easier said than done, because the shelves were screwed in and I didn’t have  the appropriate tools on hand.  So I shoved everything back in, and brought in a power screw driver the next day. After two more prep periods, I finally had all of the cords in the correct place, stretched out to a manageable length and the shelves back in place.

Last week in my frustration, I had Snapped a picture of the disaster that was the iPad cart to a friend, but I didn’t save it. So, all I have to show is the after picture. You will have to use your imagination to guess what it looked like before.

Vol. 4, No. 246, September 3, 2019

4246 - Lost.

One thing that I have struggles as a lower elementary school teacher is letting students leave the room to use the restroom without fear of them getting lost or taking three times as long because they trek all the way across the school to go the the restroom that they know. Last year I came up with a plan, a line on the wall that the students can follow from my room to the restroom. The year came and went, and I never set anything up.

This afternoon, while I was relishing in my extra 1.5 hours of prep time because Kindergarten doesn’t start until tomorrow, I remembered my dream of not worrying about students making it out the restroom. I decided that rather than the string line that I had thought up last year, I would create a dotted line. Raindrops for the restroom and medical crosses for the nurse. Now all I have to do is show students the card that they need to follow and they should have no problem finding their way. I also made a point to tell the music teachers about the path as their room is right next door and they have the same problem.

Time will tell if my path is successful!

Vol. 4, No. 241, August 29, 2019

4241 - Never Ending.

Today my co-worker and I cut the paper for our first project of the year. At the elementary school, we start the year with a collaborative that involves most of the students; because of scheduling the project will be completed by students in first through third grade. This year’s collaborative project is going to be a rainbow quilt (made out of paper). As we cut the paper squares for the quilt, we laid them out on one of the tables. Surprisingly, they fit perfectly, creating a never ending rainbow loop.

You can look forward to seeing more posts about the quilt process and completion in the coming weeks.

Vol. 4, No. 209, July 28, 2019

4209 - Goodbye For Now.

Today we closed yet another theater production. For the final show my father suggested that we add more petals to the rose dome during intermission to better correspond to the line about the flower losing petals at an alarming rate. When he mentioned it, I happened to be standing in front of a vase of wilting roses left from Grandma’s funeral. I swiftly grabbed the head of each of the 5 roses, pulling the petals off of the stems. At intermission, I carefully transferred them to the rose dome.

You may think that this isn’t a very creative endeavor, and I would agree. However, after a full day of preparing the flower, ushering for the show, organizing the strike of props and cleaning up the paint room after the show as well as helping to clean up the theater after the cast party, I was exhausted. I couldn’t think enough to come up with a different project, let alone actually completing one.

Vol. 4, No. 088, March 29, 2019

488 - Sheepish.

Day 29: Take a 10-minute walk with no destination in mind - set a timer - make something with what you find wherever you end up. Bonus: leave it there for someone else to find.

When I got home from school today, I had enough time before play practice to take my brother’s dog for a walk. I set a timer and when we reached the 10 minute mark, I tied Ziva to a pole and started looking for materials for my project. There was a lot of dead leaves, gravel on a driveway, twigs and a small pile of some kind of fur. I arranged all of the pieces to create a small sheep. While I was looking through the pictures I took to see if one of them was good enough, everything except the sticks blew away. I took it as a sign that it was time to turn around and head home.