A Full Moon Rising

How could a tell today was a full moon? By the wonderful odd children that poured into my classroom today. Here are some of our full moon characteristics:

• My classes produced beautiful work today....actually more beautiful than normal.


• A child was stung by a bee today...while in the art room with windows and doors closed. When I asked if he was allergic he responded, "I don't know. I've never been stung before." Excellent.


• A kindergartner strolled into my art room 20 minutes late because he was "lost". (He wasn't actually lost. He was in the bathroom when his class left for art. So he decided to wander the school to look for his class.)

Everyday is an adventure as an art teacher.

Dias de los Muertos

4th graders at Whitehouse Elementary are enjoying creating skulls in honor or the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. We are learning about distortionl, symmetry, line, and colors. This is one of Whitehouse Elementary's first paper mache projects. I think these are turning out beautiful. Check back for the finished result.

Fall Leaves

Last year I did the same lesson with Kindergarten and it came out great! We are create fall leaves which will be displayed as one large tree in the cafeteria. This year we are only using fall colors and the shape of our leaves are different per class.

1. Pass out leaf template. Have students trace around. Cut out leaf.



2. Next, pass out colored tissue paper. Have students tear the tissue paper and place the pieces one by one on their leaf until there are no white spots.



3. Finally, have students use watered down liquid starch to make the tissue paper adhere to the leaf.

Go Away Big Green Monster!

Kindergarten is reading "Go Away Big Green Monster!" by Ed Emberley. (Thank you Ms. Reed for providing me this book!) Afterwords, we are creating our own monsters. Kindergarten is learning:

• Color
• Blending
• Outline
• Shape
• Space
• Background

Some of these are turning out great! Students are really getting creative and learning which oil pastels blend the right way to make beautiful colors.