Weekend Work

My classroom is silent except for the air conditioner.  I'm trying to take it all in, because this is the last bit of total silence this room will have for quite awhile.

It's nice.

I'm here putting the last finishing touches on the art room and the first week of plans.  The room looks like a hot mess, but it's better than in looked on Friday.  The cleanliness won't last too much longer, either.  Once the creating starts, the room will be back to it's normal, paint-filled, colorful self.

Progress

Thursday night we had Meet the Teacher (after a very long day of convocation and working).  I saw several new, smiling faces and some returning faces that I had missed over the summer.  I was very excited to see all of them.  This year I hope that we all get inspired by something or someone to do our very best.  We are a team of artists and learners and as a team, we must work together to encourage each other and stay positive.

I was inspired by a tweet I saw from the Metropolitan Museum in New York.  A fabulous collection of children's artwork in the NYC area.  I want to share that with you in hopes you will be inspired by the creativity of the young mind.
P.S. Art 2015: Student Artworks

See you Tuesday!

Back to School

     The summer is dwindling down and all the teachers are getting into "back to school" mode.  Scrambling to get our rooms together, get our lessons together, and investing in all the coffee humanly possible.

     To get us back into teacher mode, we had our first official art professional development days last week.  It's always good to get together with the other art teachers in the district and learn (and play).  I was unable to attend the PD on Monday due to traveling, but Tuesday was such a blast.
     We had a speaker come in from Trinity Ceramics and give us a wonderful clay workshop.  He gave us so much information on different types of clay, how to properly bisque fire and glazes.

Mrs. Yannis prepping her clay

Then came the fun part: making clay rattles. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to make some rattles with my little artists! It was super easy to start, rolling tiny clay spheres to put inside the rattle, then making two pinch pots. After the two pots were made, we wrapped the 10-15 tiny spheres in a small piece of tissue paper, then scored & slipped the pots together.

Mrs. Mock took a photo of all the different designs

      Then the creativity came into play.  Everyone made their rattles look different!  There were animals, toys, and abstract rattles. This definitely helped me get back into the swing of things.  I'm really excited for all the learning and creating we're going to do in the 2015-16 school year!  Did you create anything this summer?  I'd love to hear about it!!