army of gnomes

so the 6th graders are done making their gnomes....now they have to glaze them. we had a couple blow up in the kiln. what fun that was.

2 1/2 weeks!?

This weekend was awesome, I went camping with my girl friends! NJ was cold and wet, but it was still a blast. Just a nice time relaxing and enjoying each others company.  We couldn't see the full super moon, but thats ok, we wouldn't have been able to see it in MD either because of all the clouds.

So I only have 2 1/2 weeks of work left before my last day!! Wow.
I'm starting the clay gnomes with my 6th graders tomorrow. I'm crazy for doing clay with only about 5 more days with each group! Pinch pot, and slab...then fire and paint! I am totally going to "steal" the gnome drawing project from Mini Matisse. I think it will be a perfect sub lesson for the last 4 classes when I'll be out on maternity leave. I'm also going to have them make some Artist Trading Cards based on the things they've learned this year.  My 7th grade and 8th grade GT are doing simple collage/mixed media self portraits to finish up the year, so theres not so much stress there.  Though my regular 8th grade class just started making their plaster hand casts today....which didn't take long at all, and it went really smoothly.

I've already started cleaning and organizing my room for my last day for summer...but I still have a few things left to do.  I also have to get this yearbook distribution in order!! I am the yearbook sponsor and the yearbooks usually come out the last week of school...but since I wont be there, I need to make sure things are in order for an easy distribution for the administration because I normally handle EVERYTHING, they have no idea what to do. The plant that is printing the yearbooks has said they will be delivered the week of May 21st....so I'm really crossing my fingers that they are in before that Friday!! We ordered 700 books, so I have to organize them by homerooms, based off who purchased what, and how many! The end of the year with yearbooks is always the most hectic! I also have to get the back to school mailing ready for next year yearbook sales. I like to have them started the first of August, so that I know how many yearbooks we should print. We have about 1100 students in my school...so with only 700 being printed not every student gets one...but not every parent buys one for their students. The numbers have definitely went up since I've started sponsoring it though. Maybe cause the yearbooks are SO awesome now that an Art teacher is doing it! lol. 

Tomorrow is my last class for Art Forms in my Arts Integration Cohort!! It was fun, but I'm ready for a little break from being up at 5am and out till 8:30pm on Wednesdays!!

Thursday is the Very Special Arts Festival for all of the special education students in the county. I am going with my 8th grade GT student to volunteer at a make and take art station where they will be creating Alien Invasion Masks. The theme is "Out of this world".  So I've been busy prepping about 500 card stock masks. They need to be completed by the end of the day tomorrow!! I'm half way through!!  But at least Thursday will be a fun day, I will be outside at a beautiful park making fun art! Oh we also have our last doctors appointment for baby girl Element...we're switching from the hospital doctors to midwives! We are going to have a water birth....super excited!

Needless to say, things are CRAZY, and I'm nesting!! I want to organize and set up the baby stuff but I have no time or energy! Where is the time to write this post coming from!? haha. And I was having some strong contractions last night that woke me up! So maybe she'll be early...who knows. My first born was early but he was induced so I'm not sure exactly what to expect.

Well I hope everyone has had a great past couple of days!
Love & Light

the heART exchange...

There are so many wonderful things out there that I had no idea about! I'm super excited to find such an awesome community of creators!!

I recently found :
 


I've signed up and am SUPER excited!!!
I did the Pay it forward as well, but I still have no one to send art to!

So today is FRIDAY. How happy I am about that...I am going camping with my 4 bestest girl friends this weekend to Cape May. I have never been there and we are camping at Seashore Campsites which is near the beach. I'm ready for a nice little vacation. Lucky for me we have a blow-up mattress because my 8 month pregnant body can't handle sleeping on the ground!! We're leaving early tomorrow morning.

This weekend is the SUPER moon! So it will be awesome to see from the beach!

Yesterday my department chair was named Teacher of the Year for our county!! Pretty exciting day for her and for our department! I've been working with her for 4 years, and she's shown me a lot and has helped me grow a lot too. Its pretty neat having someone you know win such a big award.

So my students self-portrait drawings are almost complete. Once they are finished they will begin their final part to their last projects of the year. With May 25th being my last day, it makes for only 6 more meetings with each class, we see them every other day. I cant believe the year is almost over! I am actually already starting to get excited about next school year. Its weird...it seems like at the end of every school year I'm awaiting the start of the next! I guess that means I really enjoy what I do.

I am excited about this summer. I will have my baby girl Element...and some free time to relax with her and create. When I had my son I was student teaching, so I didn't have a nice break when he was born. I went right back to school about 2 weeks after so that I could finish on time and graduate, and then I had to apply and go to interviews and worry about if I'd find a job in the fall. So this will be like a new experience. First girl, first summer with a newborn, first chance to relax and just make art and not have to worry. Super excited. Not to mention my partner is super amazing and I cant wait to see him as a new daddy in action with his first little girl.

So I've been creating a layout a day in my journal, Its been nice...a little nerve racking beause I can never decide what to do...but I'm letting that go. I have small issues with deciding on things. Choosing what medium, what topic, theme, how, where, when....those things create anxiety in me. So I'm just letting go and doing what comes out. I think I'll take some pictures of my layouts and post them.

Well I hope everyone has a beautiful Friday!!

Love & Light

First day of May...Self Portraits

So my students are working on their self-portraits. I decided to try doing smiliar skill sets with 6th, 7th and 8th grade all at the same time. We just finished value, and observational drawing, now we are all on to self-portraits. It seems to be working well. The only down fall was that I had 300 observational value drawings to grade at once. But no biggie. Here are some pictures of their work...

 


6th grade observational block drawings

 

 


7th grade observational plant drawings

 




8th grade personal still life observational drawings









8th grade GT personal still life observational drawings





So now we're using those skills to observe our facial features, and apply some value (depending on grade) to our self portraits. 6th grade will be doing just contour drawings, but have the option to apply value they see if they feel comfortable with it. 7th grade will apply some values to their self portraits near the features such as the eyes, nose, mouth and under the chin to give a sense of form. 8th grade will be required to apply full value to their self portraits.

From here the 6th grade is going to be making garden gnomes from clay. I am going to shrink their contour drawings of their self portraits so that they can trace them onto the faces of the gnomes.

7th grade will be creating a background to their self portraits based off of who they are.

8th grade will be creating an identy "poster" which will need to include their final self portrait, along with a plaster cast of their hand....words, and images that represent who they are.

8th grade GT will need to create a final work of art that represents them as an artist and what art means to them, which must also incorporate their final self portrait some how.

Hopefully I will get all of this done by May 25th!!  Wish me luck!