Field trips, fall, and what has been going on in the art room!

Hello all! I can not believe the 2nd week back from fall break has ended and I am just catching you all up on the great work the kids have been doing!

So - let me begin with the 1st graders and all their fun with KANDINSKY!

Last Friday we went to the Frist and the 1st graders did an AMAZING job being their creative, well behaved, loving, selves!!! I think they all did a fantastic job looking through all of the exhibit answering questions and discussing the art work. I have to tell you the docents at the Frist were impressed on how much the kids knew and how engaged they were! I was such a PROUD Art Teacher!!!

In class the 1st graders and I did a lesson from a book I bought at the Frist titled "The Noisy Paint Box." I read the story and talked about how Kandinsky painted not just what he saw but how he felt.
We then did paintings using our noisy paint boxes (of course!) and listed to some music as we painted to get into our channeling of Kandinsky. I have to say they really enjoyed the lesson and I was very happy when I was OBSERVED during Mrs. Gipson's class and Mrs. Miller loved the lesson too! YEA!!!! Check out one example of student work:

In class this 9 weeks I have decided 2nd - 5th grade will be doing art from various places throughout the world.

2nd grade is learning about Africa and for our 1st project we are making paper beads. The women in Africa make these into necklaces and sale them to make money for their family. The students are rolling the paper into beads and then we will use the beads to make our own snowflake ornaments!
(Yes, already thinking snow and holidays.....)

3rd grade started this lesson BEFORE fall break and is finally finishing up a project of weaving. We will be doing art from Mexico so it ties in. The students have been working hard on their fall trees! This guy decided to make his an apple tree!

 

4th grade is working on "stained glass." More on this later a part of it is a school SUPRISE! We are discussing Egypt BUT I must say I am considering a change of plans to lessons on Europe.... we shall see....

5th grade is doing art from Japan. We are making origami snowflakes for our 1st lesson. You know me I can not do things SMALL so ends up I am going to have about 125 really big snowflakes.... These will be used in the school somehow!!!   (ours are WHITE or BLUE)

My little Kindergartners - I did not forget about you! They worked on a little drawing and watercolor painting of a cute kitty cat! I am leaning more to "folk art" type things for them this 9 weeks with this group....

Here is one I really liked! Cute and yes, a little "Halloweenish".

That is it for the last 2 weeks! Be looking for 5th grade field trip December 2nd to Children's Theater with me! Yep - set design will be part of our 3rd nine weeks plans!!! :)

Last week before fall break!?!?

WOW! This first 9 weeks has FLOWN by!
 Teaching art (and all my other projects!)  has really been like a new career for me but I am loving it!

The 1st project that Art Club worked on is done and I am very proud of their work. They took part in the scarecrow exhibit at Cheekwood and decided they wanted to do Olaf from Frozen. Our scarecrow title is "Do you want to build a snow-crow man?"

Yes, I did start to freak out on more than one occasion with this thing - but in the end I am happy as it is cute, fun, and kid friendly. Here he is:

 

Next - I am doing a fun day with the teachers after school tomorrow and we are making an owl wreath! Afternoon of art and appetizers - I am looking forward to hanging out with some teachers and have some good fun and food while being crafty! (pics coming soon!)

 

In class, I am going to TRY and get all projects we are working on done before break. With days when we don't have classes some are behind so this should be interesting.... but I am going to do my best to GET IT DONE! (mainly because next 9 weeks I have so many other great ideas to do! LOL!)

 

I also have been working on TWO field trips. I am wanting to take first grade to see the Kandinsky at Frist! I know, you may think 1st grade at Frist? Yep - I am crazy but I do have a soft spot for those 1st graders! :)

 

Also - I am so happy I was awarded the ticket subsidy award to take the 5th grade to a play! Can not wait to see all the wonderful costumes and set design of James and the Giant Peach! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL DOT DAY (and a whole lot other stuff!)

Hello! Lots are happening around Stoner Creek Elementary as we only have THREE more weeks till Fall Break! WOW! It is flying by!

1st - Bash and Dash fundraiser is still going strong and Friday is Bash and Dash day! Do not forget I am holding my own auction to raise money. You can read more about it in my last blog and that is where you can bid as well.

2nd - Donors Choose is up and approved! PLEASE take the time to check this out at:
http://www.donorschoose.org/project/i-see-my-favorite-books-as-a-work-of-ar/1347985/?rf=link-siteshare-2014-09-teacher_account-teacher_2519983&challengeid=20474653

If you do give, please add the word INSPIRE at check out and Donors Choose will match your contribution!

3rd - Tomorrow is International Dot Day! Check out the info here:

                                       http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/

We are going to have a fun week in art where we do lots of projects with DOTS as we celebrate DOT DAY and the book "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds.

Pictures coming soon! :)

BASH AND DASH BIDDING AND DONORS CHOOSE

At where I teach "Stoner Creek Elementary ROCKS!" (Ok, the name does not include ROCKS! in it... but it should) we have one major fundraiser a year called Bash n Dash. The kids raise money by running laps and people donate for how many laps they run. The kids also give money to wear silly hats one day, PJs one day, etc... WELL - the support teachers (that includes me!) try to do something to raise money with an AUCTION STYLE type of bidding for a prize. So - without more explanation - have you bid to paint with me yet???? HMM??? Cuz who would NOT want to, right? ;)

So here is the scoop in case you missed the info - check out my website here: (YES I do have a website TOO - honestly just cuz the school makes us and I really do not like it as much as the blog)

                          https://sites.google.com/a/wilsonk12tn.us/mrs-redditt-s-art-class/

Now, I had trouble on the "have to use this google website for school" on loading the pictures of what I choose to paint with the THREE HIGHEST BIDDING KIDDOS. So I am going to try it here. Now, if your kid just REALLY wants to paint something different then these 2 choices (which I doubt because these 2 choices are pretty cute) they can try to talk me into something else.

                                              See? They are CUTE! Good luck on bidding!



Now for the SECOND part of this post that includes money..... (it is 6:20 a.m. so forgive me) we had some guys come to our school and talk to us about Donors Choose which looks like an AWESOME way to get things we need for our classrooms. I have already set up a project that I would like funded. I will say I have to wait a few days for the Donors Choose people to look it over and agree. (which I know they will as it is all about BOOKS - my 2nd favorite hobby right after Art!) I have NO good Art books to read to the kids and there are some AMAZING ones out there! SO - - - -I made a list on Amazon and sent it to Donors Choose under the project name "I see my favorite books as a work of Art." Hope you can help me by donating a little (or a lot!) to some books for our classroom! THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO!

ART CLUB!

Thank you again to all the kids who tried out for Art Club! WOW! We had a large response and even though I only picked 15 - you guys made it tough! Keep working hard and keep creating! :)

Now - for the 15... CONGRATULATIONS TO - - - - - - (insert drumroll..........)

I have displayed these 15 students work on the shelves by the Art Room for all to see their entries. They did an amazing job and I am so happy to see such talent. I look forward to getting to know these 15 better this year.

 

 

Can it really already be September 1st?

WOW! I can not believe 4 weeks of school have already gone by! It has been a whirlwind first month as the Art teacher!

I know many are wanting to know who I picked for Art Club... but it is not Tuesday yet as I type this so you will have to wait! ;)

 I want to say I was amazed at all of the students who tried out for art club. We really have a lot of talent at our school. If your child did not make it please know all were taken into consideration. If your child is younger, keep working and know they are welcome to try again next year! If your child is a 5th grader and did not make it - - - I might have a few opportunities this year for some other things they may get to do. More details to come.....

Artsonia - Has your child brought a note home about this yet? (3rd and 5th have not but will this week) I am so excited at how many parents are already on here! I think we are already ranked  15th in the state! PLEASE take time to get on this site (www.artsonia.com) and give permission for your child's work to be published. The kids love it!

What we are doing in Art:

Kindergarten - Last week I was really amazed at how well they did this lesson. I taught them how we treat a paintbrush like a ballerina - "she dances on her toes." We then watched a video of a ballerina and looked at how she danced to "lines" we have learned. We also listened to the music and felt how the music made certain lines on our paper. After I showed them once how to do it while listening to the music and watching the video - the kids then used their paintbrush and made it "dance" to the music. I loved when they saw her dance like spiral, diagonal, and heard dot, dot, dot.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_f9B4pPtg

This week we will finish our paintings by adding the primary colors to our negative space. (white area)


1st grade - Last week we continued our lessons on Joan Miro and watched an animated video of the Garden. We looked at shapes and how he used the to make "animals/silly monsters" in the picture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDWPOkrJ0B8

We then drew our own "Miro inspired shape silly monsters." I love some of the pictures:

 

This week we will be making our silly shape monsters come to life with clay and pip cleaners!

2nd grade - They finished their Matisse inspired collage with their names. Photos were taken and put on Artsonia. I had a few not finish but I do plan to start a new lesson this week with them. (they can finish week of Sept. 15th) New lesson this week will cover the element of art - value. We will be painting "value rings" around the moon and then adding an owl silhouette.


3rd grade - We are not done with our name in radial symmetry BUT they WILL finish this week. (or will have to do it later as I will be finished this week...) Pictures will be taken this week of them and put on Artsonia. I will post some here on blog next week also.

4th grade - We finished our "hand art" and pictures are on Artsonia. (again a few not done who can finish later) We will be starting a new lesson this week on form. We will be watching a video on artist  Giacometti. We will be making foil shaped figures inspired by him using pipe cleaners and foil. I can not wait to see how these turn out!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48WFwpdc1DQ&list=PLzmFIgbBToK0YpDeYE4kBJfa3KouNpUcd

5th grade - We will be finishing up our Andy Warhol inspired art. Students will "frame" them and have picture posted on Artsonia. Here is one finished. Isn't it COOL? (Do people still say that???)

If time, we will look at our new lesson which extends our study of pop art and incorporates some language arts! These look like a lot of fun and I am going to be using BUBBLE WRAP for our dots! :) Sneak peek of what they will sort of look like:

Whew! On top of all of that..... be looking for news from me on INTERNATIONAL DOT DAY on SEPT. 15th !
http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/

ART CLUB + ARTSONIA

Hello parents! Well.... I hope parents read this blog since I am going to send home a letter this week to EVERY parent that tells them about me, my webpage (which will led to this blog), Art Club info and Artsonia. Hopefully someone is reading this! :)

Can I get a FINALLY! It took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r but I finally entered every single student's name into Artsonia. (I hope....) So here we go!

1.) Artsonia - cool website and fundraiser for my class. It will be up all year and at anytime you can go on there and see your child's work. I will take photos after each project is complete. You can then order items with your child's work on it. You will FIRST HAVE TO give permission for it to be uploaded and you will have to know your child's user name.... ALL that info is coming home this week with your child on the day they have Art. Well, I hope so anyway. I will give them the paper but what happens AFTER I give them the paper... well, we just hope it gets home.
ALSO - if your child goes to Art with ANOTHER teacher's class (1st and 3rd split, etc..) your child's work will be with homeroom teacher they GO TO ART with.
Here is link:
http://www.artsonia.com/

2) Art Club - I am starting an Art Club for SCE. It is open to grades third - fifth and I am choosing up to 15 kids. If your child is interested, please have them come to Art room to get form ASAP as I need form filled and a piece of their Art work by this Friday, August 29th. I will then look at papers and art work and choose the top ones. I will have Mrs. Miller announce who is in Art Club on Tuesday, September 2nd. All art work will be returned on that day as well.

Hope this helps!

Now on to what we did last week and moving forward.....

Kindergarten made "line sculptures". We reviewed lines we learned from last week and learned the PROPER RULES for using glue. Here is one I liked because she made an "angular line."

Here is Mrs. Marshall's line sculptures on display at school:

 

They did great!

 

1st grade - finished up their Joan Miro inspired artwork by adding pastels in primary colors. These turned out really nice so... I am not showing you yet! HA HA! I want to save the for a display AFTER we do our Joan Miro inspired sculptures! :)

 

2nd grade - finishing up our collages this week and will be adding them to Artsonia. We will continue our study on Matisse with a pastel and tissue paper collage using "Goldfish" as our inspiration.

 

3rd grade - will also be finishing up their 1st projects of doing their name in radial symmetry. Pictures to come!

 

4th grade - pretty much finished our lesson on lines and colors with "hand art." I made this bulletin board using the hands from Ms. Priebel's classes work. Plan to start a lesson on form this week with pipe cleaners and aluminum foil to make people!

 

 

 

5th grade - will finish their Andy Warhol inspired work of themselves. Pictures of this will also be on Artsonia this week! Next week - we continue with Pop Art and do a lesson inspired with figurative language!

 

FIRST FULL WEEK FRENZY!

               Whew! I made it! First full week and all grades started        
                                    their first projects!

 I have already learned a few things:

1) Monday classes are the ones who have to tough out the "rough" spots till you figure out all the kinks of a lesson. (sorry 5th graders on Monday!)

2) Do NOT assume 2nd graders know how to cut well with scissors... ;)

3) When you tell Kindergarten we are going to have fun, some kids think that means "Are we baking chocolate?"

4) You will NEVER EVER sit down as an Art Teacher.

5.) Invest in GOOD shoes... for real.


So... now on to first week "What we are doing" - - - - - - -

Kindergarten -

We did my adaptation of the great Cassie Stephens Larry the line poster. Due to not having the kids all together before, we spent time on where to sit, rules, etc... before we met my Larry the Line. (aka - SNAKE!) He showed them how to do the "Ver-TICKLE, Diagonal (whee down the slide!) and the Horizontal (belt). Then the kids went off to make their very own Larry the Line snake. I think they enjoyed it!
Here is one group with their "Snakes"

See post of Cassie and her lessons below. I plan to do a lot of these lessons the 1st 9 weeks in kindergarten.
http://cassiestephens.blogspot.com/2013/10/in-art-room-unit-on-line-for.html


First Grade -

Our first project will be a 2 day assignment on lines, shapes and colors after we learn about Joan Miro. The kids loved looking for shapes and "what could they see" in Joan's work. Here is one of our favorites:

We then drew all kinds of lines and shapes. This week coming up we will add COLOR. More to come but here is a sneak peek at one.....
                                            
                                                           

2nd grade:

Oh the joys of CUT AND GLUE! We are doing a 2 day project using Henri Matisse as our inspiration. We looked at some of his works with paper cutting and then tried our hand at some! This week we cut out shapes that were regular and abstract shaped. Next week we are going to add more shapes and layer our own name into the project. Here is a glimpse of them just getting started:

                                                    

 

 

Third grade -  This assignment was a more listening and following directions than I would have liked for 1st assignment BUT ... I went for it. We are doing radial symmetry with their names. It includes patterns. lines, color.... I think the end result will be AWESOME!

 

Sneak peek for 3rd grade:

 

 

 

 

4th grade and 5th grade have no "Sneek Peek!" You have to wait! :) The THEME for both grades is:

 

"The greatest work of art is..... YOU!"

 

4th grade - is doing a line and color project where they trace their hands and then do patterns on them/design that shows something about themselves. SOME of the classes are adding another piece and will be writing about themselves as well.

 

 

5th grade - is doing an Andy Warhol inspired Pop Art piece with THEIR faces on it. I can not wait to see how these turn out!

 

 

**** Be looking for info soon on Artsonia website and Art Club!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Made it through the 1st day/This is how we roll!

After a few small hiccups, I was off and running for my first day as the... ART TEACHER!

I have to admit by 11 a.m. I was emailing my hubby and Dad to tell them... "I like this art teacher thing!" HEE HEE - they told me to get back with them in a month and see how I still feel. :)

It was a crazy whirlwind of in and out - the classes only have 45 minutes from beginning to end. I tried to do a QUICK all about me (why are YOU the Art teacher, what happened to other art teacher, why are you not teaching 1st grade anymore???) THEN, on to the rules of the class: (looks like this but this is not mine)

                          

 

 

 See how it spells ARTIST? I kept trying to think of rewards for behavior and came up with after FIVE times the class is good, we will have an "AWESOME ART" day. Little do they know, they still do art! LOL! I was telling the 5th graders (who surprisingly was a delightful class) that maybe we could do something with duck tape. They LOVE that stuff! They are always making things with it anyway so, why not? This led me asking if they had seen the duck tape prom dresses, which they had, which led to them asking if WE could make some and have a fashion show with them??? We shall see about this one...
I also was told by the OLDER CLASSES playing with shaving cream and play dough were good ideas. Who doesn't like play dough?

SO - - - - after my adventure of the 1st day I had to go buy folders for portfolios. At Walmart. On a Friday after school. On TN tax free weekend.

Let me just say - - - not my idea of fun. THEN, once I get there, I ask a customer service person to help me because I need 500 pocket folders. You think I would have said a dead body. They looked at me like I was CRAZY! (which is probably true) So next thing I know everyone is on their walkie talkies asking do they have enough folders, who would want 500, must be a crazy teacher... THEN, ready for this????
                                                                               They made me COUNT OUT ALL FIVE HUNDRED.
                      Yep, one at a time.                   
                         Oh the joys...

            So what did I do? I took a picture of it titled:
                 "This is how we art teachers roll!"
                                               
                                                           

At this point I was so TIRED and CRAZY I did something I NEVER do:
I took a selfie. I needed one of my 1st day and I had forgotten to do it that morning. WHEW! What a day!

Can't wait for the adventures next week when we include.....  
                      kindergarten.
                             

                 

TN Arts Academy week!

Whew, am I tired! This week I have attended for the 1st time the TN Arts Academy and I can tell you it is worth every penny. It has been an inspiring and exhausting week! I have met so many people, made art, stole ideas for lessons, met all kind of contacts, heard beautiful music, seen all kinds of talented people --- and ate a TON of food!

This is the kind of in-service I dream of. Artists of all kinds sharing their talents with one another. I have been pushed and pulled in so many new ways...some things sound familiar and some things are so new to me that it is a wild ride for this new art teacher. I find myself trying to catch everything and coming home with my mind in a whirl.  At the same time I am refueled and ready each new morning to do it again because this is where I belong.

I go again tomorrow for the last day and I can tell as I type this I am wiped out tonight but also felt the need to write this so I do not forget all the wonderful people, ideas, and creativity.

Just a few pictures of what I have been doing:

 

Family Tree (we had to hurry on all of these projects and this is one I wish I had more time on)

 

 

                                                     Top left is my Picasso inspired art.

                                                            

                                       Our tiki men were used as centerpieces at the TAA luncheon.

Dreams do come true!

Wow! I have to say it again, wow! What a week it has been! On Monday I found out I passed the Art Praxis and on Wednesday it was official that I am the art teacher at Stoner Creek! So excited but also so overwhelmed! The big one for me - - - 

         THAT KILN LOOKS SCARY! 

It will take me awhile to use that thing on my own!  

So- in all of the glory of a major adrenaline rush of ideas and things to do.... Here are a Few pics of the already done projects. Which brings me to another note: 

ALL MY PROJECTS CAME OUT NOT EXACTLY RIGHT! 
Does this happen to you too? Not sure if it is the rush to see them done or it is just me
 and my faults. Oh well...

Had to do above one first! Love this quote and needed above my desk immediately! :) 

Cork board from Goodwill. Spray painted in hot pink. Like my sticker on it?

                
                        

The YOU was already done above door but I saw this quote on Pinterest and thought OH that's perfect! 

There is a bulletin board by room and office that is "mine" to decorate. Figured I would as that is way more fun than cleaning out the closet like I should be doing......

Inspiration Number 1

Hello all! Welcome to what I hope will become a place where you and I together can find inspiration from one another.  Looking forward to figuring out this whole "blogging thing."

So - in honor of the 1st post, here is the 1st inspirational quote: