Vol. 5, No. 147, October 12, 2020

5147 - Creative Sprint Day 12.

We the people of Annandale Elementary School collaborated to create a Drip Mural inspired by the work of Contemporary artist Jen Stark.

My part of this mural was small. I taught about the artist to my 4 classes of first graders and hung 5 classes worth of drips. A shout out to my co-worker who prepared the lesson and hung the rest of the drips. It is so fun listening to the kids walking down the hall talking about their drip and the artist.

Vol. 4, No. 266, September 23, 2019

4266 - In Awe.

After school, my co-worker Mrs. Ski and I set to work hanging up the Annandale Elementary School Collaborative Project. It was a process to get this far. First all students in first through fourth grade made one paper quilt square inspired by the work of Libs Elliott. Each class was assigned a color scheme, allowing the squares to flow nicely through the rainbow. Next Mrs. Ski and I glued the squares from our respective classes to black backing paper. Then I attached 3M heavy duty double stick tape the the back of every section. This portion of the project took about 3 weeks to complete.

The next portion of the project was to hang the art. After much deliberation and measuring, we found the perfection of wall, up high in the cafeteria. This central location would insure that all students would get to see it every day and it would be out of reach, which hopefully means that it will stay up for a while. Once the location was secured, we needed to get the consent of our trusty custodian to use the tall ladders to hang the art ourselves. The custodians were hesitant, even offering to hang the art for us. However, not wanting to take them away from their job or give up control on how the mural was hung, we opted to do the work ourselves. The custodians checked in on us multiple times to make sure we were still doing okay.

Within an hour, with the Kids Club kids oohing and aahing over our progress as we went, the 50ft mural was hung. Bonus, no injury came upon either of us!

Vol. 3, No. 299, October 26, 2018

3299 - Add It Up.

DAY 26 Make a chart or a graph of something you wouldn't typically explain in this format.

It took me a long time to figure what to do for today's project. Then it hit me; today was the last day of the first quarter. So I used my 6th Grade collaborative murals to create a chart depicting the progression of the school year. Starting with just a vase and filling to having approximately 70 flowers per vase. I would have liked to include 4 stages, but apparently I didn't take pictures after the first groups added their flowers.

Vol. 3, No. 267, September 24, 2018

3267 - Transitional Lines.

This year Annandale Elementary School added one section of Transitional Kindergarten. This class is for students who are old enough to be in kindergarten, but who are not quite ready. They have a different classroom curriculum than the other kindergarten classes and move at a slower pace. Because these students will be in kindergarten next year, I decided to do some different lessons with them in art so that they don’t have to repeat everything next year. Out first branching out lesson was on Lines. After a guided practice line drawing worksheet, I presented the class with a large piece of paper filled with dots. I gave each student a different color of marker and had them draw different lines by connecting the dots. Of course, I had to demonstrate and get in on the action as well. After school, I took their collaborative mural down to their classroom and hung it on the wall in the hallway.

The mural is so long that I couldn’t fit it all in one picture, so I layered it in a collage instead.

Vol. 3, No. 256, September 13, 2018

3256 - Today's The!Day.

Today's the day in which all of my hours of drawing patterns, gluing hearts, coloring letters and rolling pieces of tape pays off! After school today, Mrs. Pawelski, the other art teacher, and I met to create our school's collaborative mural. Together, with help from a handful of eager volunteers, we hung 149 pattern hearts, 32 letters, 12 smaller hearts and 6 signs. Next week I will have 20 or so more pattern hearts to hang, as the kindergartners weren't finished with their's yet. With approximately 9 pieces of tape on each piece of paper, we are hopeful that the mural will stay up for a very, very, very long time. This picture shows the full mural on top and a close up of the word section on the bottom.

Vol. 2, No. 283, October 10, 2017

2283 - Public Art.

DAY 10 Create in a public place and leave it there for others to find.

Conveniently I am a public school teacher and today I needed to put up another wing display like the one I used for my project a few weeks ago. I work in 3 schools and all of my students in all of the schools did the same project, learning about Kelsey Montague and making beautiful and unique feathers. This meant that I needed to make 3 wing displays. With conferences on Thursday, I wanted to get the second display up today, so I couldn't have asked for a better prompt.

Today's wing display is right inside the front doors of Winsted Elementary School. I like the shape of these wings much more than the first set and I can't wait to see how the 3rd set turns out. One thing I don't like about this set of wings is the placement. The best spot in the school, where it would be seen by the largest number of people was right below the fire alarm, which meant that I couldn't hang the paper all the way to the ceiling and the wings couldn't be as tall.

Vol. 2, No. 263, September 20, 2017

2263 - What Lifts You.

I was extreamly excited when I completed my first set of wings. All of my students in all three schools are creating a feather that will be combined to create a wing mural inspired by the work of Kelsey Montague. I finished the 3rd and 4th grade mural in Annandale. It was a time consuming process and I am not in love with how it turned out, but the kids and staff love it; I have been getting tons of complements. In the coming weeks, I will be creating at least 2 more, possibly up to 3 more, sets of wings. Now that I have one under my belt, I have a better idea of what to do, so the next ones should be easier.

If you were wondering about the assembly process, I taped black roll paper to the wall with LOTS of masking tape. Then I used hot glue to attach colored "base" paper and the feather. I used a low temp glue gun, so I never got burned, but I still got a blister from pulling the trigger.

The top picture just shows the wings on the wall. The bottom picture shows what it could look like with someone standing in front of it. Thanks to my Bitmoji for posing for the picture!