PSYKO!!!!

Quick note: here's an AMAZING site: psykopaint I have had so much fun creating away! You have to check it out yourselves!! Here's the one I spent until midnight last night working on!


Also, I think most Art teachers have found this one.. The Google Art Project but it's always good to put it here, so that I can remind myself of it!

Pink Day.. anti-bullying and .. FLAMINGOs!!!

Tomorrow is Pink Day at our school, and indeed the district. It's when we all where pink shirts with anti-bullying messages to remember a boy who was bullied for wearing a pink-shirt.. Here's MY boy wearing HIS (ok, well, my old) pink shirt..
I thought with all this pink going on, it's the perfect time to implement the lesson I've had in the works for a couple of weeks.
Every gym period, for the past month, I've looked at this big wooden flamingo that's sitting on the top of a bunch of lockers on the stage of the small gym. Random? Yes! It's been the inspiration for this project, that and some lovely beverage napkins!


Yesterday, we did a drawing of our new feathered friend, using chalk on grey construction paper. We looked at this giant wooden beast (I think it used to be used as a planter? - and I'm sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it!) as well as pictures on google images. We then used pastels to colour it in. Most of the class used oil pastels, and some of the more gifted students used chalk-pastels. When students were finished, they worked on the palm tree fronds and tropical flowers that I used around the border. I really liked how this turned out.. it both gave students something relevant to do while they waited for others to finish, and I love how fabulous the display looks with the extra foliage (and foliage I did not have to make!) I'm going to do this again tomorrow with my other class, when we do birds of paradise.. I'm trying to beat the winter blues by imagining a tropical holiday!
I love how each flamingo has a unique personality:


They really ARE fabulous!!!!!

100-Day - Le 100e Jour d'Ecole

In the February Scholastic book order I found TWO FRENCH books around the 100e jour d'ecole theme. I was excited about them and ordered them, and then when they arrived, I was estatic to find that they were both really good! People who teach in the regular program have no idea how hard it can be to get resources like this, especially ones that you find are good and language-level appropriate!! One was a cute story book with tons of potential spin-off activities, and the other was a book for teachers with activity suggestions "Le 100e jour d’école : Célébrons-le de 100 façons! " . One suggestion in the activity guide was to do a self-portrait of when you're 100 years old.
The kids and I had a BALL imagining ourselves. They did a great job following my instructions about proportion, and I even dared to talk about womanly curves! oh my! (well, it is a French immersion class after all!) haha!

Grade-Wide Quilt

I teach Art to most of the grade twos at my school. I have a sweet deal where the reg. program (English) gr 2 teacher takes my kids for PE while I teach his kids Art. I decided to do a project where every child in grade two was included, and a grade-wide quilt seemed like the perfect project. I was initially inspired to do some paper weaving after going to a Math workshop where teachers had to make a few manipulatives to use during the workshop. This huge box of lovely long colourful strips of paper destined for the recycling was located next to me. It was an opportunity I couldn't miss, so I asked to take them home, and proceeded to transport them by ferry and car back to Port Alberni!
After teaching the kids how to weave, I borrowed this silhouette idea from someone else recently (I'm sorry, I can't remember who!) We talked about symbols and shadows.

I'm very pleased about the unifying presence this quilt has in the primary wing of the school. Especially when there is often divides between our two programs, once again, Art provides an opportunity for equality and unity.

Groundhog Day - Jour des Marmottes

Yes, I realise that this is completely late in being posted, however, it will be labeled, so hopefully someone next year might find it useful!
This is a simple project, but effective.
Supplies:
-light-blue construction paper or card-stock
-white construction paper (1/2 the size of the blue)
-1 popscicle stik
-1 groundhog (I found a cute template in an old Mailbox magazine which I printed onto brown construction paper - you may also find one you like if you do a google search for "groundhog colouring sheets", then just size appropriately.
-pastels
How to...
-Cut the top of your white paper into an interesting line, appropriate for snowy-drifts.
-Cut a line, horizontal to the "snow," where the groundhog will pop-up and down.
-Use the cut-out groundhog to trace a shadow on the snow. colour and smudge with pastels.
-Glue (or tape) groundhog to the stick
-Decorate the scene with pastels
-Slide the puppet through the slot.
See how he can be moved up or down? :)




Quick and easy, especially when you're battling those seasonal bugs!