Giraffes Can't Dance Art Lesson

As I am working on organizing my elementary art curriculum for the new year, I got this overly ambitious goal of trying to create and have ready presentations or 'flipped' ready made and recorded lessons for each grade.  I know I am not possibly going to have every lesson for every grade recorded and ready for the new year but I want to at least try to have the lessons ready that I KNOW I will be using.  One lesson that I have used almost every year with first grade that is tried and true and yields successful results is the Giraffes Can't Dance art project.  It is based on an adorable picture book that I love reading and showing to the classes.  I decided to use Prezi to create my presentations instead of powerpoint because the powerpoint files are SO big and take up so much space and memory.  I also like the prezi flow and transition of the slide and the ease of adding multimedia content.

So here it is!  Hope you like it and feel free to use it in your lessons.  I also appreciate feedback so I can improve!

Art Supply Order- Watercolor Trays VS Tempera Cakes!

I am putting together and revising my art supply list for the year and wanted to get feedback about your art supplies!   I really have never used tempera cakes in art before but after several meetings this summer with other art teachers, they mentioned that they are a good alternative to the messy watercolor paint pans that I have normally used in the past.  SO I added them to make art order and I am hoping they are easier to clean, store and maintain.  My watercolor paint trays (I use the crayola type of tray because they can pop out and you can replace colors that run out)  are stored in a drawer next to the sink.  That drawer becomes a COMPLETE mess by the middle of the year.  So if anyone has any great tips or suggestions on managing water color or tempera cake trays, I would LOVE to hear it.  Thanks guys!

   VS


 Here is my list of supplies from Sax Art supplies that I will be turning in today.  :)

216643	Black acrylic paint pint				5	6.6	$                           33.00
zero zero 7863	Violet Tempera Paint- Crayola 16 oz				5	$            2.70	$                           13.50
351392	AMACO F Lead-Free Non-Toxic Glaze, 1 gal Plastic Jar, Clear Transparent F-10				1	$          48.99	$                           48.99
9-409880	AMACO Crystaltex Lead-Free Non-Toxic Glaze Classroom Pack - 2, 1 pt, Assorted Color, Pack of 6				1	$        107.99	$                         107.99
406469	Sax True Flow Lead-Free Non-Toxic Gloss Glaze Set, 1 pt, Assorted Gloss Color,...				1	$        112.00	$                         112.00
1452541	Dual temp glue sticks 20 pk				3	$            2.40	$                             7.20
224301	White bristle brush 3 inch				6	$            1.20	$                             7.20
224298	Brush 2 inch				6	$            0.75	$                             4.50
9-409052	Origami Paper				1	$          13.09	$                           13.09
9-085550	Assorted colors railboard 6 ply 25 pk				1	$          17.89	$                           17.89
9-1337118	Gallon Glue All				1	$          16.99	$                           16.99
373793	Sarget Chalk pastel set 144 sticks				1	$          31.86	$                           31.86
9086415	Markers- 400 st assorted				1	$          74.99	$                           74.99
9-085817	Dough extruders				1	$            8.59	$                             8.59
9-1469019	Rainbow ink pad				1	$            4.49	$                             4.49
9-248412	Soft block erasers 60 bx  small				1	$            9.99	$                             9.99
9-1299172	Royal clay cleaning tools value pack				1	$          40.49	$                           40.49
9-459173	Goldtone Foil Embossing				1	$          20.99	$                           20.99
9-409849	Wiggle eyes				1	$            3.99	$                             3.99
9-085819	chenille stems				2	$            2.09	$                             4.18
352730	Amaco Air dry clay white 25 lbs				1	$          22.52	$                           22.52
9-086007	Modeling clay earth tones				1	$            8.00	$                             8.00
9-086006	Modeling clay standard assortment 5 lb				1	$            7.99	$                             7.99
9-410712	Sealable art cups medium 125 pk				1	$            4.79	$                             4.79
9-1429061	Color power holographic Teaching unit				1	$          22.99	$                           22.99
9-404396	Chinese calligraphy starter set				1	$            6.59	$                             6.59
9-404588	Liquid Water color Magenta				5	$            3.99	$                           19.95
9-404583	Liquid Water color Yellow				4	$            3.99	$                           15.96
9-404589	Liquid Water color turquoise				4	$            3.99	$                           15.96
9-1294791	Tempera Cake Turquoise				1	$            6.79	$                             6.79
9-410947	8 well tempera cake Storage rack				1	$        139.99	$                         139.99
9-410808	Bamboo Water color brushes- 20 set				1	$          47.99	$                           47.99
9-410713	Art cup lids				1	$            5.29	$                             5.29

Pinwheels for Peace Art Lesson

I have been working hard to not only finish our Art Curriculum Maps for our county but also make a Year at a Glance or Scope and Sequence.  One of the first big school wide art projects that I have done for more than 3 years is the Pinwheels for Peace project.  It is an awesome and powerful school wide art installation project that I realized as I was going through the standards, meets a variety of expectations and learning goals in not only art but also science, social studies and math.  I made this prezi to present to students and also a socrativ survery to assess student learning during the lesson.  Feel free to look it over.  If you have never done Pinwheels for Peace, it is really a cool project that students can really excited about.
My Pinwheel Prezi

The Pinwheel for Peace Site for More info

My Socrativ quiz number 12185966 

One of the beautiful aerial shots that our pilot (the husband of one of our 1st grade teachers, Mr Palmatier) took from his plane.

Our banner we made to hang near the soccer fields

My Giant Poster Pinwheel

Everyone wore white during our Peace parade but of course I had to sport my sharpie 'tie dye' apron!

Socrativ

Take Care Of Your Paintbrush!

So I used the 'Scary Movie'  iMovie trailer on the iPad to make this video because so many students do not take the time to wash out and put away their brushes correctly.  I spend SO much time washing brushes....but I think maybe this trailer is too scary for the little ones.....so I think I might be making a less scary version.



:)

Another Gimp Photo Alter with poem

After watching this video and thinking about a very emotional dream I had about my dad the other night, I got inspired to alter this photo using Gimp.  It is really a great program.  Here are the tutorials I watched that really helped me get started.
Gimp Tutorials

 

Art Room School Website-

I've been working a lot to get my school site ready for me to use next year.  I have had an art school web site for several years now, but it wasn't until last year that I really decided to start organizing it to really help me with my lessons and instruction.  Most regular classroom teachers use their site to post lessons, homework and to communicate with parents.  I used to think the main purpose of my site was to have parents, students and my principal see what we are working on.  I got the impression that I was checking my site more than anyone else, so I decided that it would be my 'hub' of lessons and resources so that during any given class, I could click on my webpage and have all the things I needed to teach that lesson in one place.  So that is one of my many goals this summer; to have my website organized as my curriculum map and use it to help me with lessons, instruction and planning.  ;)  Here is the link.  Feel free to browse and give me some constructive feedback!  Thanks
http://teachers.stjohns.k12.fl.us/wardley-j/art-links-to-my-favorite-web-resources/?preview=true&preview_id=54&preview_nonce=ec2a04fea7

MY NEW FAVORITE ART SONG- Art - Small Potatoes - Disney Junior Official

MY NEW FAVORITE ART SONG!!!!!!  i LOVE It more than Art is everywhere.....OMG I am embedding it in my back to school powerpoint!!!   <3  <3

Art Show

                                             
Our Art Show was great this year!!!  Artome is a fundraising company that facilitated the art mounting and set up.  They sell the framed artwork to parents on the night of the art show.  This was our first year trying it as a fundraiser so we only sold around 50 frames.  Hopefully next year, we will sell even more!!

Here are some photos from the show, including my Starry Night Dress that I painted the night before!!!!

 

 

More Digital Art - Flippy Flops

In an attempt to 'catch' up with a lot of happenings that I just did not have time to blog about at the end of this school year- one of the digital art projects that turned out really well was the digital flip flops using the Elements of Art.  Some students even did theirs on paper.  Basically k-2 used the free and awesome Sketchbook app to draw two 'bean' shapes for their feet.  Then they drew the straps.  After that, I asked them to choose an element of art to focus on as their design for their flip flops.  Of course we had a lot of Minecraft designs but there were also some very creative ones as well.  Here are some digital and paper versions as examples

 

 

Digital Elementary Art!!!

Name Design using Gimp

This summer has been so busy but productive.  I began my St Johns County Leadership Internship with our Arts and Foreign Language Coordinator.  I assisted him by working with other high school arts, music, and dance teachers to develop their course curriculum maps using a new template.  It was great to work with other arts teachers but the part that had the most impact was talking to and going through the curriculum and standards with the middle school and high school digital arts teachers!!!  Since I began teaching at the first digital school in our county, I have been striving to incorporate more digital art on the the elementary level.  I have acquired many art lessons using iPads, but starting last Decemeber, our 3-5 students began using laptops instead of iPads.  The only program I even attempted to use was Microsoft paint, which is very limiting and frustrating.   The middle and high school teachers, of course use the Adobe Suite and Photoshop programs, which I know would not be in my art or school budget.  So I started playing around with some other programs and really got into using Gimp.  I went through several tutorials and made some great projects that could be adapted to elementary level but I was not sure about getting permissions to actually download the program.

My son- with text and custom brushes

Then I discovered Paint.net, which virtually does everything Gimp does with a few exceptions (grow/shrink layer option)  and it is a program that is already accessible to my students!!!!  So I am SOOO excited to have students start using the program next year and have decided that I am going to try to have ALL students keep a DIGITAL portfolio in addition to a real paper one.  And I was going to request that students bring a spiral notebook to keep in class as their art journal (and technology back up plan- you ALWAYS need a tech back up plan:))

So here are some of the digital art projects that i played with.   Please comment below about how you use portfolios or if you have successfully integrated digital art into the elementary curriculum.

Name Design using Paint.net

This one is a little creepy  - its the Frozen look from a Gimp Tutorial