Window Expo Neon Markers!?

Ok have these just been out for a long time and I am JUST now discovering them??? I know they were $8 for a pack of four but I just HAD to get some! These are absolutely fascinating to me for some odd reason. I have big windows in my room but not a good view at all. We get to stare at concrete walls all day since we are down here in the "dungeon" floor.

I guess I really shouldn't complain, I've had classrooms where I have not had any windows whatsoever. YUCK.

So I decided to do a little experimenting and draw some Van Gogh style clouds to match the theme of my classroom.

You can see my MUCH amazement.

What little I got done till my 7th graders walked in for class. Will definitely finish and post pics of soon!

Sketchbooks

I started giving sketchbook assignments last semester. I'm a big believer in students having their own sketchbooks. It gives them something they can take out of class to have and remember their experience by. Sketchbook assignements are also a GREAT thing to assign so they have work to do after they complete their assignments for the day. We get about 4 sketchbook assignments a semester. They are to complete them IN class when they have free time. Surprisingly, they are able to get them all done without having to take them home (minus a few slackers :))

I know several teachers who are able to buy cheap sketchbooks for their students. I know SaxArts has some for as little as $3. However, I have 280+ kids so we have been making our own. They really enjoy learning how to make them and we have a lot of fun making them together. I hope in the future to bring in lots of goodies for them to decorate their sketchbooks with-- scrapbook paper, stickers, beads, etc.

Here is the kind of stitch we do --- the pamphlet stitch. We do it a little differently, instead of cutting the tops and bottoms, we poke just 3 holes in the spine and we stitch it together with bobby pins and yarn instead of ribbons.

Happy sketchbook making!!!

School already?!!

WHAT? WHERE did the summer GO???? I feel like the older I get the faster my summers are!

I tell ya, the beginning of this school year has been SO busy that I have not blogged yet??? DANG. Not to mention, my teacher license is expiring next August. I discovered that I will need to do 45 professional development hours this year in order to be able to get it reissued to me. Whew, what a year this will be.

I can already tell this year is going to be a great year. I have a lot of familiar faces in my classes this year which makes the year a lot easier when you already know a lot of your students.

There are several changes this year, including my schedule. My new daily routine is:

A DAY
1st Block- 7th Grade
2nd Block- 8th Grade
3rd Block- Planning, Lunch (2nd Lunch Duty)
4th Block- 6th Grade
5th Block- 6th Grade

B DAY
1st Block- 7th Grade
2nd Block- 8th Grade
3rd Block- Planning, Lunch (2nd Lunch Duty)
4th Block- 6th Grade
5th Block- 7th Grade

The past few weeks have consited of us playing games to get to know each other better as well as doing several drawing activities to show what level of skill they have. I am doing a more tidious job of teaching procedures in the classroom. I had WAY too many "where do I put this? Where do I turn this in?" last year. NO EXCUSES this year!! We have gone over and gone over our areas of the classroom till I have been blue in the face!

I would LOVE to post pictures of my classroom today buuuuuuut, it's still a big work in progress. I will say, that I have some amazing and great things planned for it though. I can't wait till it's done so I can show my kids :)

We are all starting our first projects today. I will be posting some images of their classwork drawing assignments later in the week.

Until then, see ya lata!

-Mrs. G

More Summer Camp

Camp is continuing on proud and strong so I thought I would share a few more moments. I am growing to love elementary kids more and more every day, especially the kindergarteners. (I know right!?) I will definitely do this again next year, and I am quite confident that I will do a much better job now that I know the ropes of it all. It's really amazing to me how little it takes to entertain these kids. Not saying at all that it's a good reason to slack, but I would just rack my brain and rack my brain over thinking up of great and powerful lessons but in the end, what they love is the simplest things. It's such a great age!

Here is some of what we have done thus far.

Paper plate fish made by our 2nd and 3rd grade groups.

We had a coloring contest with each group. All winners won a bag of candy, 2nd was $5 cash and 1st was $10 cash. In heart of the opening of Monsters University opening up, they had to design their own Sully monster. Here are the winners. So creative!!

We finished our clay unit for K-3 grades. I can not stop making these hilarious fishies. They're the best!

The kindergarten group making their pinch pots.

Some of the fish that turned out. Haven't gotten to paint them yet. AREN'T THEY GREAT????

If there is one item next year I will buy tons and tons of it is yarn. We have done SO many projects with yarn and the kids absolutely LOVE working with it. I have even had to hide it so some kids wouldn't steal it :/ We have made bracelets and even paper plate weavings.  

LFC Camp so far.

I just now finished my second week teaching art and Langford Farms Club Summer Camp(one of those weeks I was on vacation, more of that to come later :)). I get four classes a day:

The Commanders (Grades 2-3)
This is probably the SWEETEST group! I forgot how much I really love 2nd graders, they are always wanting to please you and it really brightens their day when they get to be your helper. SUCH a great group right here!

The Captains (Grades 4-5)
I really enjoy this group because they can actually do a LOT at this age, way more so (I feel at least) than the Commanders group can. This group is over run with girls so they have loved anything and everything involving yarn and making jewelry. I've definitely been making hundreds and hundreds of bracelets here lately!

The Lieutenants (K)
This is probably my very first experience actually teaching kindergarten. When I did student teaching it was only grades 3-5. And I have to say, you kindergarten teachers should get paid as much as doctors! WHEW! They are all so adorable, but they are very very needy and they require a whole lot attention (which is not necessarily their fault, its just their age). I also deal with the most tattling with this group, hahaha. BUT... I love their passion for art and how much they LOVE coming to class every day.

The Admirals (Grades 5-6)
This group gets the worse reputation in camp as being the most difficult to deal with. It's over run by BOYS, 6th grade boys. So because of that, they can get very rowdy and bounce off of each other. Since I spent an entire year dealing with JUST THIS, they really have not been very bad for me at all! Loud and rowdy, yes, but that has been easy to manage and deal with by giving them projects they really enjoy.

Overall my thoughts of teaching elementary is, it really is a whole lot of fun!!! There are times where I have had to stop and remind myself "Don't get mad and impatient, they're way younger here" since I spent the last 4 years dealing with the much, much older ones. My first week I was absolutely exhausted and wondered how on earth I would be able to survive the summer, but once I got the hang of what they can and can't do, it's really been a blast! :) I look forward to the rest of the summer, and definitely coming back next year!

Here are some snapshots of our summer together so far:

Started things off with good ole Op Art. 

The Lieutenants wrote their names in cursive (well, WE did) with black paint, folded it to create a symmetrical image and turned it into "aliens". They really enjoyed this one!

Here were some of their finished bubble paintings!

The Captains had a blast with bubble painting!

Luke is HILARIOUS. And he LOVES Iron Man!

The Captain group making bracelets. THEY LOVE IT. 

We had Halloween Day where the kids got to dress up! Yay for superheroes!!!

Some of our finished Q-tip Monsters we did during Halloween Day. I take it they are all pumped for Monsters University???

Lieutenants did paper weaving this past week.

LOVE this little girl!!! Sweet Charley! :)

Spring 2013 Art Show

Well I survived my first art show EVER! and WOW was that an exhausting Friday! Just to tell you how exhausting it was, I hopped on the scale as soon as I got home late Friday night and I had dropped 3 lbs from that morning. Not bad..!!! But that just tells you how much running around I did!!! WHEW!

I decided to wait and not hang up the art work during the day and hang it up after school right after the show. Which means we had a total amount of 2 hours to get everything hung up and presentable. It was absolute madness. Thankfully, I had about 15-20 students that stayed after school to help me hang up everything. We got it all done in an hour and 15 mins. BOOM. I was so happy to have them help me and I don't know what I would have done without them.

I really wished I took more pictures during the show. If you plan on doing an art show, take as many pictures as you can. Possibly, assign someone to take the pictures for you. My problem was I wanted to talk to all my parents so I ended up not snapping enough shots. But here are a few of the shots I did get.

We had it in the cafeteria after much speculation over whether it should be there or in the hallway. I am glad we had it in the cafeteria because after hanging everything up we had SO much work.

Definitely things I could have done differently but overall, we had a very successful night! We had about 75 parents/teachers with their kids come out so I am a very happy lady!