Kiln firing, Perspective and Still Lifes

First full week of school and we are super busy!  My first hour Ceramics class has finished and dried out their Zentangle slabs and they were firing in the kiln when I left Friday.  I loaded that baby Thursday night, got in early Friday, started it at 8 and when I left at 6:30 it was 1580 degrees!  I found our Custodian and let him know, he wasn't leaving until later and said he would keep an eye on it for me.  So super nice!  Fingers crossed that we don't have any blow-outs!  So this week, we get to glaze our Zentangle tiles, finish our Coil pots and Intro pinch pots.  We had discussed the history of Ceramics and I let the class vote on which culture/time period they would like to explore further for some Art History.  Surprisingly, they picked Mesopotamia, Modern and Native American!  (I think they just wanted to see if they could spell Mesopotamia!)  I can't wait to get in there and open the kiln  in the morning!

6th grade students are learning about Linear Perspective this week.  We practiced 1-point and 2-point and then I let the students pick which one they liked the best and complete an artwork using our process of horizon line and vanishing points.  Here's one in progress.

7th and 8th grade students learned about Still Lifes, skulls and Stippling.  (I really want a skull now for my classroom, so ya know, if you have one laying around...) Here is a still life in progress.

I am also working on a painting for our lovely Ms. Janda in the front office.  I feel really bad because it's totally overdue but I do appreciate that students get to see their Artist-Teacher working on her art as well!  I think it gives me Art Cred with my kiddos.  

Stars, Hoots and Kahoots

Our first few weeks (days) have been a success!  We have reviewed the Elements of Art and finished our first masterpieces!  All but one class has reviewed the Elements and created some 3D pop-up Stars for display.  I found the template here.  I printed one for each student, showed them my example and then let them be creative in how they depicted the Elements in each area.  We cut them out, fold on the lines, glue the tabs back on construction paper and there you go!  Students really enjoyed this activity, the folding and gluing it down was a bit tricky, but I was impressed by the support and assistance from other students!
(sorry the images are slightly fuzzy, my son took the pictures)

My 6th graders practiced continuous line with our Owls and then colored in the spaces.  We always play a game of Simon Says as I lead and I never tell them what we are making!  They really enjoy it and ask for other animals!  I think we will display some of these with a book display in the library featuring the series "Guardians of Ga'hoole".

We are working our way towards 1 and 2 perspective drawing this week.

Our sketch this week was of Gary the Octopus practice foreground, background and shading.

Something that I tried this week for the first time and absolutely LOVED it was utilizing Kahoot! for formative assessment.  My 8th grade Ceramics class reviewed vocabulary with this digital game and it was awesome!  Everyone had fun, students were learning and it had everyone engaged!!  Definitely a keeper and going to use again!!  Check it out here.

2015, In the beginning

Our 2015 school year is already off to an amazing start!  I can't begin to describe how humble, blessed, excited and honored I am to have my dream job in such an amazing school!  Since school started for our county this week, all of the teachers started back with a PD at a local ropes course on Monday.  If you have never challenged yourself with a ropes course.... I highly recommend it!  It was great to have adult playtime and try something new, but also to experience the encouragement and teamwork outside of the school setting is something nothing short of incredible!  You get to know people in a different light; you laugh, cry, scream, squeal, clap, holler, gasp,..... just about every emotion comes out!  And that was just on Monday.

Me (on the left) with Ms. Thomas just chatting away... 40 feet in the air.

Tuesday was an exciting day of Faculty meetings, binders, paperwork, new behavior systems, PTA lunch and about 50 fire alarms.  Which by the way, you can tell we are all teachers because when the alarm sounds off and we know it is nothing serious, we don't flinch!  We just keep on working!

Wednesday.... here they come!  I love seeing the smiles, hugs, hellos and all the growth spurts!  Seeing the laughter, brightness and future in these young adults is exciting.  

Beginning of the Quarter brings syllabus discussion and our Element and Principle practice and review which this year we are making 3D stars for some school-wide decorations.

The template for the star can be found here.