Today was an exciting day in my art classroom. In October I submitted a request to Donors Choose for canvases for my second grade students. The lesson plan is titled "Landscape Escape!" For the entire year we have studied landscapes and how to paint and draw them. I am a major "recycler" and I wanted my students to be able to create a painting on a real canvas, instead of the cardboard and paper we have always used. My students create art on everything I can salvage and they have so much fun, but they need to know about traditional art supplies.
Fortunately, two different donors came through for my kids. Today I introduced the canvases to one of my second grade classes. What a successful project! I will be posting some photos soon!
Students wrote Thank You notes today after painting their landscape...they are beautiful!!
The day after the big snow!
I can count on one hand the number of snows I have seen here in the South, my home that I love so much! I remember the now historic snow of 1973, and recall several that did not make as much of an impact. Yesterday's snow will not be one of those snowy events...this one will be long remembered. I was to be off yesterday, my husband had some minor surgery, so the snow day could not have come on a better day. We went for his appointment, came home and nestled in to wait for the snow that was predicted. The snow that everyone said would not come. But come it did! What a blessing, what a joy!
I ventured out into the Southern style blizzard several times and each time I took photos and videos of the white fantasy land. It was very surreal to walk across my yard and hear the snow crunch under my feet. My sweet cats were very confused and I think my dog had enough within 5 minutes of setting foot in it.
I never would have imagined the scene in my neighborhood. I never knew snow would come down in big chunks...probably the one thing that amazed me the most. Some times it was falling in little sheets, like Bounce dryer sheets.
We enjoyed warming by the fire, watching movies and watching the snow. What a way to spend the Friday before Valentines Day! Enjoying the day with my husband.
This year's Youth Art Month Exhibit is now up and ready to be oohed and ahhed over. My students are really enjoying art this year, and it shows in their work. Each March to celebrate Youth Art Month or YAM the school system I teach in has a show of our students' art work at our local mall. Each year I am fearful I will not have enough student work to display and each year I have so many nice pieces I can hardly choose which ones to exhibit.
The primary age I teach does not quite understand what it means to have your work on exhibit...until they actually go to the mall and see their work up on the easel. Some come back to school so excited, some come back embarrassed and others return not surprised at all and with the confidence that they knew theirs would be there all along. Over the years I have had to change the way I display the work. One year to my horror some of the pictures disappeared from my huge display easel! The next morning at school several students came to me very pleased with themselves. They thought they were supposed to take their work from the mall...after all it belonged to them. Once I got over the relief that they had taken them, and got over being a bit angry, I cracked up to think they had stolen their own work. Why their parents allowed this I am not sure. So now instead of hanging each piece individually, I glue each piece to a large sheet of bulletin board paper. This makes it easier to hang close to 50 pieces of art, and no little hands can slip their art away from the exhibit.
Here is our display for this year and a movie of last year's show. This year's theme is Art Is... and last year our theme was eARTh...it has ART! Enjoy...
