DIY Mod Mobile and Table.

Is that a watermelon under your dress or are you just happy to see me?

Well arties, it's true. It isn't a watermelon under my dress, but it is a growing Little French Fry, due December 25.

One of my 2nd grade classes has started to come up with names for Little French Fry and every week before I gather them on the rug, they can't WAIT to share their baby names.  For example:

Student 1: How about Princess?
Student 2: No no, Princess Sparkles!
Student 3: How about Ruley, Mrs. Donelan?
Miss FF: Ummm, Ruley? Why?
Student 3: Ruley, like RULES. Because you like RULES so much Mrs. Donelan!


Ya got me kid.  Ya really got me.

I've been having lots o' fun decorating the nursery for Little French Fry and finding thrifted stuff to decorate it up.  A few weeks back I picked up a table from Goodwill for $2.50 that definitely had a modern vibe about it.  The crazy thing seems to be made of broom handles for legs.  The top was really chewed up and water stained though.

But, it was nothing a little sanding and a can of glossy spray paint couldn't fix!  Perfect for a mod side table.

And as for the mobile.  I've made mobiles for my gal pals in the past (see here and here) and really wanted to make one for our dear little French Fry.  I had my eye on a few through Etsy, but when one of them didn't pan out, I gathered my energy and got to work!

I bought a bunch of bright colored cardstock from Michaels and used my die cutter at school to whip out a bunch of different sized circles.

Then, while multitasking and catching up on some Homeland, I got to work threading the circles together to get a random assortment of sizes and colors.

And below is the final product in baby French Fry's room.  The hubs tied on a fishing swivel so it could spin around (like a record baby, right round, round round).  It is truly mobile-y; the slightest breeze gets this baby moving! 

More photos of baby French Fry's room to come.  And I'm sure, more awesome 2nd grade names for baby French Fry to come as well...

Warm and Cool Colors with Kinders.

In my most recent post on Warm Trees, Cool Breeze with my Kinders, I told you I'd be sharing the quick little learning game I used with my little artists.

I've really been trying to incorporate quick assessments more and more often this year and this game was definitely one of those.  Can you say cornerstone assessments, oooo ooooooo!

I flipped over our "I Can" board and turned it into the COOL and WARM board.

After reviewing our cool and warm colors using my giant color dots, I pinned them to the board and told the young artists that we were going to be doing a quick game of "Smartest Artist."

I borrowed flashcards from the Kinder classroom teacher and would reach into the pack, pull out a card, and ask, "Smartest Artist?"

Then, I called on and "interviewed" the Smartest Artist (or in this case, a student with their biscuits on the floor and super silent hands) so they could share their answer.

The correct answer cards were then placed into our baggies.

Everyone was SO excited to participate and this game was a great way to reinforce how to participate in classroom lessons appropriately (raised hands, safe seats, etc.).  And who doesn't love talking into a LIGHT UP echo microphone?!

It took us no more than 5-7 minutes to play this little game and the kids LOVED it!

Warm Trees, Cool Breeze.

Here's today's favorite Kindergarten quote of the week.  To introduce it, I have little Andy Warhol banana signs near my sinks reminding students to count aloud and prevent little sink and soap hogs...

Kinder girl 1:  Juliette, did you forget to count your bananas?!

Kinder girl 2: No, I was counting quiet bananas in my head!

And now in a not so smooth transition, we're moving from bananas to leaves!  We read Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert to introduce this lesson.  

This story is AWESOME.  The illustrations feature hidden creatures, use warm colors (one of the objectives of our lesson), and each page features a different sort of cut line at the top of the page.  The story is seriously an art grand slam!

We started out by making painted papers, half warm and half a cool green.  Some students even used the bottom of their brushes to make little white dots for leaves.

I love making painted papers, but man oh man, that mess every time is rough!

This lesson ended up being a 3 day-er, because next class we started to work on tearing out our green hills, cutting out our warm trees, and then gluing everything down.  So, I demo-ed and then we practiced using our scissors safely as this was the first time cutting for many many kiddos.

The next class also happened to be the day that our new district superintendent popped into the Art Room to check out what exactly happens in my room.  Before he came in and witnessed the madness, I  pulled him aside, and said something along the lines of...

"Look, I just want to prepare you for what you are about to see.  You are visiting on the very first day of Kindergarten cutting.  So be prepared."

And as we know, there is no way to adequately prepare someone for Kindergarten cutting madness, so some tears were witnessed, (no digits were severed), a massive mess was made, but all in all, the class went well (and the superintendent left my room paint and glue-free....can't say the same about my clothing that day).

We also wrapped up with a really fun way to reinforce warm and cool colors too.  I'll show you that another post.

And on the last day, we finished up!  Adding trunks, branches, and a final frame to finish up these fantastic little fall scenes.

They've definitely got a sweet little Scandinavian vibe to them.  Or a little Orla Kiely-esque inspo perhaps?

Happy October everyone!