Showing posts with label international dot day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international dot day. Show all posts

Sunday, August 24, 2014

What the Art Teacher Wore #111 and Dottin' It Up for Dot Day!


Feelin' Funky Monday: I wish I'd snapped a better photo of this skirt because it's straight up amazing. I scooped it up at the super fantastic etsy store SassySenoritaVintage (great shop, awesome seller!). It's completely hand appliquéd and so detailed. After receiving it, I thought I'd try my hand at the same appliqué method only to find that it's super intense! That's a DIY that might take a while. top and necklace: Anthro, gift from a friend; skirt: vintage, SassySenoritaVintageshoes: last season, Payless

Hey there, all y'all! Unlike last week when I wrote this post, this week zipped by at the speed of light. And it's kinda freakin' me out to think that we'll be in September before we know it. So much art making to do, always so little time! Story of every art teacher's life. 
This week I thought I'd share with you a lil sneak peak of our dot-inspired projects for International Dot Day! At first it was kinda tough coming up with dot-esque projects...and now I can't STOP coming up with ideas! I'm trying to force myself to save 'em for next year. I mean, we can't have every project this year be based around a dot...or can we?! I'll share the complete deets on these projects when the kids have completed 'em.

In other news: I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT THE APRON SEW-ALONG! I've loved seeing everyone's creations thus far (some of you have even finished your aprons, you over-achievers!), it's been so inspiring and super fun. If you wanna join along and see what's peeps be making, go here. This week, I'll share with you how to finish that apron off. Then I HAVE A SURPRISE in store for those of you that complete your apron! But you'll have to wait for the final apron-sewing installment to find that out, eee!

Also, can I just tell y'all how much I've loved hearing your stories of childhood memories that built the brick sh## house you are today?! I'm so inspired, happy, motivated-to-be-that-person-in-a-child's-life that you just don't know. You can still leave your story and be entered to win a Spiral Art Kit by August 31st. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Finally, can we talk about the neglected elephant in the room: The Artsy Book Club? This week I'm gonna show y'all the influence the Teach like a Pirate book has had on my first couple of days/weeks in the art room. I've tweaked routine/lessons/song-and-dance a little bit and I'm looking forward to sharing with ya what's worked and what needs more work, if ya know what I mean. 

Alrightie, kids! I'll be back soon with more apron-age, a visit to my art room and a brand new DIY (er, finally! It seems I got a little distracted by Orange is the New Black marathons. My bad.). Chat soon!
Second Grade Reversible Abstract Paintings: I'll share the complete lesson with ya when these bad boys are finished. But for now, lemme give you the short version: listened to a variety of musical instruments (my gong, rain stick, and this thing called a spring drum that I'll share with you this upcoming week) and painted a variety of lines. Our influence was Kandinsky and how music influenced his work. Once the lines were painted, we've started adding color. Some kids have decided to also embellish further with pattern. I'm hoping by next week or so we'll be ready to start on the other side of this pizza round (purchased through School Specialty for $16/100 rounds).
Tacklin' Tuesday: Sometimes I get the question: How do you stay clean in the art room?! Well, I usually don't. Nor do my students. We're almost always in aprons but there are the occasions where we forget, there's a paint spill and clothes receive an unfortunate makeover. I had a sweet first grade student spill paint who FREAKED because she thought her skin would be permanently stained ("I can't be paint splotchy for the rest of my life!"...y'all, I tried SO HARD not to laugh). I thought we'd cleaned up the entire spill when a third grader came up to me later with the very same paint on her skirt (there'd been a blob hiding on the table, just waiting to attack). I felt so bad! But the next day, she came in with a bag of chocolates for me and a kind note from her mother telling me that "this happens, no worries." Gah! Such kindness. And chocolate! top and shoes: thrifted; skirt and necklace: Anthro
First Grade Concentric Circles and Radial Designs: For the dots in first grade, the kids painted their plates with a concentric pattern and then added detail in tiny brushes with black ink. Once complete, we created those painted papers (one side textured the other side dot-stamped) which we'll use to enhance our plates. This is gonna be for a great big hairy group project that I just can't wait to show you! Deets to come, y'all. 
Dang! Can you believe some of that detailed first grade painting?! I mean, these kids are 5 years old, y'all!
Maxi Wednesday: This is my Art Teacher from the 1970's ensemble. You like? I'm into this whole bright color/ethnic pattern thing that I'm seeing everywhere and it's totes influencing my outfit choices. dress: vintage, Buffalo Exchange
Sparkly Relief Dots by Third Grade: So my third grade kids cut out a circle from a styro plate and then added smaller styro circles on top of that. Once complete, we hit it with some spray glue, covered it with foil and they went to town creating their designs. They're kinda like round zen-tangles. I really like how they are turning out...but I'm uncertain just who we'll present these to the world. I'd love to hear your thoughts...should we simply mount them on a piece of construction paper? Maybe continue the line design on that background paper? Or perhaps create a design on the reverse and hang them mobile style? I'd truly love some input, y'all!
Thursday, Already?: This week seemed to zip right by for me. And next week will be the same as we have a half day on Friday and Monday off. Then, it will be SEPTEMBER! How in the world did that happen?! dress: vintage, Buffalo Exchange
Because I love them so and didn't think the first photo did 'em justice, I thought I'd share some close ups. 
String Art in Fourth Grade Land: When I was in fifth grade, we did this really fun string art project that I still have. I thought it was the best thing ever...and decided that my fourth grade should experience that fun-ness too. So we've spent the last couple of art classes decorating our boards (with a lil texture combin' and splatter paintin...since I was an 80's child, splatter paint seemed appropriate). The kids also had to start punching the correct amount of holes into the board and practicing their design ideas. Their fingers are itching to start stitching...and I'm excited to say we'll begin next week!
A Friday with Balls: Holy crap, when I saw this crazy ballsy outfit at Anthropologie recently, I knew I had to have it in my life. Of course, I waited around until the sucker was on double markdown (I just cannot stomach purchasing full price in that joint or even first markdown for that matter). I did learn something interesting with this purchase: if they don't have your size in the store but have it online, you can purchase it in the store and they'll ship it FOR FREE to your house. Which saved me like $10 in shipping. everything: Anthro
Speaking of shipping, there was some serious happiness in my mailbox this week! Artist and art teacher Daniel Langhans sent me those awesome CareBear stickers along with that rad card...and that envelope! You can find more of Daniel's awesomeness here: TiltedEarthStudios.com. I can't wait to enlarger that envelope on the copier and make it into a sign for my art room!
And another art teacher buddy of mine sent me this gems she'd recently printed (Kelly, I LOVE THEM!). You can find handmade items by Kelly here: etsy.com/shop/jkmartinstudiosThese prints totally put me in the mood for my fave holiday. I already have a place for them on the wall in our living room, I just need to get them framed. Funny thing is, both these awesome artists are from Arizona! Thanks guys!!







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Sunday, August 17, 2014

What the Art Teacher Wore #110 and First Full Week of Skool!

 Maniac Monday: Some crazy man (aka Ginger Jesus) decided to photobomb my outfit posts this week. During my first photo attempt, I was outside snapping pics. When I scrolled through the photos, I noticed that SOMEBODY was in the background pressing his large white belly against the glass window. So I decided to snap some pics inside and he found his way into this picture. I'd say he should do a daily What Ginger Jesus Wore but it would just be a repeat of the previous days as this dude is always in head-to-toe brown. If ever I have to file a Missing Persons it will be "Sasquatch Man Last Seen in Brown". on me, top: garage sale; skirt: etsy; shoes: Target, last season; bangles: gifts; palette hair clip: made by me. On hubs: t-shirt: army surplus; shorts: thrifted

Well, hello friends! I'm proud to say that I made it through my first full week back in Art Teacherin' Land! It was a super fun week and I can't wait to share with y'all what we've been up to. Howeves,  if I learned one thang this week it's that I have to let go of my late nightin' ways. No more hitting the hay at 11pm only to rise and shine at 5am. Cuz ain't nobody shinin' when they crawl outta bed looking like a drunken zombie. So! Lesson learned. This week my new bedtime is 10:59pm.

Speakin' of this week, I'm super excited to announce that the Apron Sew-Along starts this coming week! Yippie! So many of you all have shared your fab fabric choices and I cannot wait the finished results. In this first week's Apron Sew-Along post, I'll share with you how to create your own pattern, cut your fabric, stitch a pocket and attach that bad boy to your apron! You can follow along with me if you wanna or create an apron design all your own. I'd love it if you'd join the Apron Sew-Along page and share your progress with the rest of us.

In this here post, along with my Back-to-School attire, I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of our first couple of days in art class and just what we've been working on. Teacher buds, did any of y'all head back this week? What are your lil artists creating? More deets on this projects soon. In the meantime, have a great week and I'll see you at the Apron Sew-Along!
Have y'all heard of International Dot Day? It's a celebration based around the Peter H. Reynolds' book The Dot. This book is a fantastic beginning-of-the-school-year book as it celebrates a young artist who once thought she was not. International Dot Day is September 15th and kids all across the globe are creating dots in celebration. We celebrated last year and got a great response from both the kids and adults. So we're back at it again this year. I'd love to hear if you and your student are celebrating and what they are creating in honor of Dot Day.
My first grade kids started painting during their first week of art. No sense wasting any time, right? These guys painted many a masterpiece in kindergarten so we didn't have to use too much time chatting about painting dos and don'ts. That totes had this. Instead we painted about our artist inspiration: Wassily Kandinsky and made concentric circles, aka circles that hug each other! More on what is to become of these paintings soon.
Cat's Butt Tuesday: If it's not the hubs doin' the photobombin', it's the cat. Here she is showing you her better side. top, shoes and skirt: vintage, thrifted; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing
In second grade land, we are making reversible paintings on pizza rounds. I know, right?! I decided that we'd also use Kandinsky as our inspiration and remembered there being a REVERSIBLE KANDINSKY painting featured in the movie Six Degrees of Separation. And I was all I'M A GENIUS! Check out this clip:
Guess what I learned after doin' a wee bit of homework? Kandinsky never painted a reversible painting. GAH, what?! A movie LIED to me?! What'll I find out next, that there is no Wizard of Oz?! Aw, well. We're still making reversible paintings. Humph.
Kindergarten Wednesday: We had an invasion of the littles on Wednesday. I had two 45 minute classes of the just-turned-five-10-minutes-ago set and they were amazing! Seriously! We took a tour of the art room, learned the Word of the Day (deets to come), found that we are artists and that we were gonna create a sculpture! What I love about these little guys is their enthusiasm. It's like pure joy. I wish I could bottle it. Like, seriously, sometimes, I wish I COULD bottle it and put a cork in it but on this day, it was precious. sweater: thrifted; heart top: Target, last season; skirt and shoes: Anthropologie
Every the kids heard the word of the day, which was artist, we all gave a "whoop-whoop!". We took a ride on the art train, chugged around the room admiring everyone's sculptures and proclaimed each kid to be an artist...after which they received a "whoop-whoop!". Trust me, after 45 minutes of "whoop-whoop!" was I just about whooped out. Er, wiped out. Whatever.
The base for our sculptures were, you guessed it, a dot!
Thursday!: Did I tell y'all that I now have my 3rd and 4th for an hour after YEARS of 30 minutes?! You guys, it was amazing! In one fourth grade class we learned our word of the week, chatted about Kandinsky, played instruments, danced, painted, SPLATTER painted, cleaned up, read a book, played a game. Seriously. Every time I looked at the clock I was like, wait, we have more time! skirt, shoes and top: thrifted
Y'all aren't gonna believe this but I got all sorts of techie this week. Suriously. I showed a couple of Prezis (so fast, fun and easy to create! I use the art gallery template), played music via Pandora (after I complained that my CD player was broken, a 3rd grader said, "um, use your computer!" Duh.) and I made these super fun signs on recitethis.com. Y'all gotta check that out, it's the jam.
Fried-Day: Totes. I ain't used to this 5 days a week biznatch! Time to up the b-vitamin/caffeine/sugary-cereal intake. art supplies blouse: DIY here; pencil-y skirt: DIY here
Oh, well, lookie here. Don't worry, this didn't happen in the art room but in our kitchen on Saturday morning. I had this grand idea that I'd bake banana bread even though 1. I don't bake, I start fires (obviously) and 2. I don't even like banana bread all that much. Especially when it looks like chewed-up-spit-out meatloaf (which meatloaf already looks chewed up and spit out but I digress). When I opened the oven the flames were actually huge. I quickly closed the door and ran for my camera. As I ran by hubs who had this "what's that smell?! why are you running?!" look on his face I told him, "I know you smell smoke but don't worry. It's just breakfast. And the fire is self-contained". 

Looks like you'll never have to worry about finding any cooking posts on this hear blog, eh? I'll just stick with the stitchin' and teachin', thank ya vury much. Until next time, get that apron fabric ready, kids! And we'll chat soon. 
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Sunday, September 22, 2013

In the Art Room: The Dot

Hey there, long lost friends! I've finally recovered from what I dubbed The Longest Week of the Year and I'm ready to share just a bit of it with you. I'll spare you the passing-out-at-7:45pm-after-an-insane-Open-House//waking-up-in-full-makeup-and-school-clothes-at-5am-the-next-morn//consideration-of-simply-putting-on-shoes-and-going-to-school-in-aforementioned-slept-in-attire. Because that would just make me sound pathetic. 

What I've got for you today is just one of the three displays Rebecca, some super sweet volunteer moms and I prepared for Open House. This here is our The Dot display created for International Dot Day which I blerged about here, in case you need a refresher. For our contribution, we hung all of the coffee filter dots the children created (details on that shortly), hung the collaborative oil pastel dot designs created by the fourth grade and wrote out an abbreviated version of Peter H. Reynolds' story. I was so thrilled with how this all came together, I just had to show you!

This here is the long slide of a hallway to the art room. Dude, you don't even know how badly I wanna get my mitts on some skates and disco boogie down those ramps. On the right is my art room door (you might remember The Great Wave painting I created from this post). As you can see, I've got a ton of display space outside my room. Sadly, I'm kinda sucktastic when it comes to putting up art work. I tend to hoard it all until the end-of-the-year art show. This time, we took full advantage of our space.
Here you can see the backgrounds our 4th grade created. Each of the six tables in my room was covered in black bulletin board paper and prepped with a tray of oil pastels. The kids were already using the oil pastels to finish off a separate mural project (which I cannot wait to show you this upcoming week!) so this was a good transitional project. After reading The Dot, we chatted about the variety of dots Vashti created and set to creating our own unique versions.
I have two 1/2 hour 4th grade classes back to back. So when the next group of kids were seated, they were looking at the previous class' dots...which stumped them a bit. They seemed to only want to create their own dots so a chat about enhancing the dots and working collaboratively was muy importante.
This palette was a different collaborative project from last year that we had in the front lobby for the art show. Because the kids have created a new display for the lobby (soon to make an appearance on el bloggo), I moved the palette to outside my door.
By writing out the story, I thought visitors would have a better understanding of our display. I did notice several families reading the story at Open House which made me pretty happy. I've also noticed some big time hallway loiterers reading the story as well. And I just don't have the heart to holler at 'em to get to class.
I used the kids' "messy mats" as the storybook paper. At first I thought I could write out the entire story...but the cramping of my hand told me otherwise. So, sorry, Peter H. Reynolds! I did what my wimpy ole painting hand would allow.
When I was reading this story to one 4th grade class and we got to the very last page where is says, "Vashti stared at the boy's squiggle. And then she said..." one of the kids ventured a guess and said, "IT'S TERRIBLE!" Which, I ain't gonna lie, I kinda thought was funny. BUT I didn't tell him that.

In case you are wondering how these coffee filters were hung, it took some thinking. Yes, seriously. Originally, I thought we could simply just paper clip them together without putting holes in the filters. However, the weight of the chain of filters prevented that from being an option. So we resorted to puncturing them with one clip, connecting the second and puncturing that through the second filter. Easy.
If you've never done the painting-coffee-filters thing, it's simple. Because the kids are eventually going to be using these as kimonos in an upcoming project, they were using colors that reminded them of their favorite seasons. We left the center blank so we could see their name. Once colored in with water soluble markers, the students placed their filter on a styrofoam plate and painted it entirely with water. From there, they brought them to Rebecca who removed them from the plate and placed them on sheets of plastic.

Once on the plastic, the filters were sprinkled with coarse salt to give it that groovy speckled look.
Our largest display is in front of a bank of windows.
And there you have it, our Dot-tastic display!




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Monday, September 16, 2013

What the Art Teachers Wore #77

Dot-Tastic Monday: Okay, I gotta admit, it was by total accident that I wore this polka dotted dress on Monday...which proceeded to inspire my wardrobe for the next coupla weeks. All for the love of The Dot. dress: vintage, Wasteland in San Francisco; shoes: Swedish Hasbeens, Anthro; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; necklace: Target
Have ya'll read the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds? Well, I have. And so has Rebecca. Like, 24 times. Once for each class we see. And, I gotta admit, I never tire of the book. It's that great. So when I found out that there was something called International Dot Day, I knew we had to participate. Rebecca suggested we hang the kids' painted coffee filters (created for a future art project) and, viola! We dot-a-sized the entire school. More details on our project later this week.

For the occasion, I've decided to wear a polka dotted outfit until our school's Open House this Thursday. Which means, when all is said and done, I will have worn dots for 10 days. At first I didn't think I could pull it off and thought I'd be doing some dot-tastic DIY's but, as it turns out, this hoarder's wardrobe is just full of dots. It's a little nuts. Someone might have a problem. Just sayin.

But back to the dot. All week, we've been stressing the theme of The Dot which is to inspire. Without ruining the plot, an art teacher inspires a student who then inspires an aspiring artist in return. During deep convo about this theme with my first grade students, this happened:

Me: So! What do you think would happen if this story continued...?

First Grade Dude: That little boy in the story will be expired.

Me (without correcting him because I'm dying to see where this goes): Oh yeah? And what do you think will happen when everyone sees our dots on display for Open House?

F.G.D.: Then our family will expire, our friends will be expired and, well, everyone will expire!

Yeah, so. Let's hope nothing that dramatic happens. I'll keep you posted. Until then, I hope your week is dot-tastic!

Dontcha love this dress? Girl traveled all over Europe this summer and picked this dress up in Stockholm. How many people get to say that? "Oh, this ole thang? Stockholm, baby. Stock-I'm-a-World-Traveler-holm."
Not read The Dot? Why not let youtube read it for you?
1960's Does Dots Tuesday: There's this little thrift store I rarely go to and on the day I do, I find this sweet 1960's two piece. What you can't see is the sweet bow at the neck and the delicate buttons down the back. Can you tell I love it? shoes: vintage, thrifted; daisy necklace and earrings: gift from a friend

I love those sandals. They will more than likely come up missing from her closet. Don't tell her.


Art teacher buds, have you ever participated in International Dot Day? This was my first time...and I loved it! I can't wait to share with you what else we've created to celebrate this awesome book.

Dotted Window Wednesday: Chaining these coffee filters together took some trouble shooting. I'll have so spare you the trouble and show you are secrets this week. dress: thrifted; sweater: ebay
Not gonna lie, this colorful window makes me pretty happy.
Picture Day Thursday: Yay! Nothing like remembering it's Picture Day until you are walking out the door. So I just stuck a palette in my hair and called it a day. dress: Target; belt: Plato's Closet

Oops, he forgot "Be Expired!"

PANTS! Friday: Seriously. I have more students make comments when I wear pants than any other day. It's kinda craycray. blouse: gift from a friend; jeans: Target; shoes: Anthro

Guess who got her hairs did?! I love it, don't you? When it's straight, she's got an Ariel vibe and when it's curly, she's totally that girl from Brave. The kids love it. And check out that awesome hair bow. Her mom created that for her when she was a kid...the kids and I love it's sparkly awesomeness.

And, in celebration of a good book, it's Book Fair Week at our school! This year the book fair has an Egyptian theme (where were they two years ago?!). So to kick it off, we dressed a lil crazy and caused a ruckus on the school's morning announcements. That's one of my dear teacher buddies wrapped up in toilet paper. She's such an awesome sport.
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