Good Reads: Planting (and Picking) a Rainbow.

Today, this beautiful story

inspired these little fingers

to pick and explore

and (help) create this herb and flower bouquet.

Friday Favorites: Summertime Sailing.

Okay, so far we're 2 for 2 in an effort to blog more regularly.  Here's a glimpse into an end of the year project that was the result of a morning drive to work and realizing I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM TEACHING MY FIRST CLASS...IN 45 MINUTES (because I am running late...always).

We used a limited palette for this one because it was the end of the year and I wanted to use up what we had. So the Third Graders used the primary colors and a tint of white and a shade of black to create these beautiful boats.

Before diving into the project though, we did check out many examples of Monet's paintings featuring sailboats and the kids made some pretty astute observations about the colors he used and how his paintings changed as his eyesight changed.  One kiddo even remarked, "Monet didn't give up painting. He PERSEVERED."  Darn tootin', my friend.

We painted in the following order to make sure we got a good reflection of our boats in the water: water, boat outlines, sky, and finally the insides of the boats and sails (or as one student said, "the boats' guts").

After painting the boats' guts, we folded our papers in half to capture a reflection and BAM, smooooooth sailing!

Friday Favorites: 'Merica.

So turns out, having a baby takes up a lot of time. I haven't been able to keep up with the blogging as often as I'd like. But, time with Little French Fry is really important and I keep telling myself I'll get to blog when she naps (which lately is for 15-20 mins tops and seriously cuts down on the ability to do much, other than down a coffee cup). Thus, in an effort to blog more often, I'm going to aim to do Friday favorites as frequently (or infrequently) as I can. The posts may be shorter (and not necessarily sweeter), but without further ado, here goes Friday favorite number one.

Every year, my school celebrates our military children during Month of the Military Child.  I like to work on projects that tie into not only celebrating our patriotism, but also connect to my art curriculum.  This year's project involved the Fourth graders studying Peter Max's many versions of Lady Liberty and the Fifth graders working on some pretty rad op art flags.

The Fourth Grade Lady Libs were large tempera paintings (24" x 24") and we used matboard scraps to create the blended backgrounds (channeling our inner abstract expressionist).  Each student then added in text that summed up what the military means to them.

 

 

And my fab Fifth Graders used a limited color palette to create their own op art-inspired waving flag.

 

 Annnnnnnd that's all she wrote, because I hear a baby beckoning for me.  Happy Fourth of July!