Oh, The Things Kids Say! :)

Maybe life has got you down. Maybe the holidays are hitting your stress button. Maybe you spilled your coffee. Worse, maybe you ran out of coffee. Sit back and enjoy these anonymous quotes. Life is too short not to laugh. I will update this periodically. Check out Mrs. Herman's P.E. blog for more entertainment.

"Ms. Hatch, I feel dangerous when I use duct tape"

Ms. Hatch, I feel mature when I use Sharpies"

"I'm tired of turkeys. It's turkeys, turkeys, turkeys, all day long" (around Thanksgiving time)

"My glue bottle is sick" (It was clogged up)

"Ms. Hatch, can I get you anything? A glass of water?"

"Why are minivans called mini when they are bigger than most cars?"

"This color is DELICIOUS!"

"I am a MESS." (Yes. Yes, I know how that feels)

4th Grade Clay Masks

We learn about a lot of different cultures in 4th grade art. We've been studying Native American masks from the Pacific northwest. We learned what theses were made of, how they were used, and discussed the designs we saw on them. I asked students to talk with their teammates about how masks are used in our own culture, and we made a list on the board. Our most important question for this lesson:  What do masks tell us about a culture? Students then sketched their own mask design, and begin to build their mask in clay. They learned three methods for clay-building:  slab, pinch, and coiling. They are still in the process, so more photos to come!

Here are some finished masks!

1st Grade Self-Portraits

First Grade are finishing up their self-portraits. We looked at all different kinds of portraits-paint, clay, drawing, collage, to understand that a self-portraits can be made out of many materials. I guided the students in drawing the accurate shapes and sizes for facial features, and we even used mirrors to help us along. They were colored with markers, and the background was created from another paper that we printed (or stamped) on with different objects. Most of the students made patterns with the printing, some created a frame around the self-portrait. Here's a few to enjoy, more will come soon!

3rd Grade Snowflake Collages

Winter is coming! Winter is coming! Where are those snowflakes? Well, if they don't come soon, it's okay because we are going to be creating them in the Art room. Third grade is learning how to identify all those color groups, like warm, cool, primary, secondary, and neutral. They are using liquid watercolors and a color group to create a painting and even adding salt to add "frost". The salt absorbs the liquid color and leaves frost-like shapes. Next, students will learn to fold and cut snowflakes, which helps us understand symmetry and radial design.The last step will be to arrange and glue the snowflakes, but we aren't quite that far yet!

Kinder Texture Rubbings

Kindergarten has been learning about texture in Art. I showed students pictures of objects and animals and asked them to tell me how that particular 'thing' would feel on their fingertips. We learned the four 'staples' of texture: Hard, Rough, Soft, and Smooth. Next, we folded a piece of paper three times, traced the fold lines, and began to create texture rubbings with texture plates and crayons. Finally, I encouraged the kinders to explore textures in the room and find objects and areas to create texture rubbings from. It was a blast!

Happy Dia de los Muertos!

Happy Dia de los Muertos! (Day of the Dead). Art class is a great opportunity for learning about other cultures. If you're curious about all these skulls you might be seeing, these are calaveras, which is spanish for skull. We have been looking in particular at sugar skulls, which are a popular figure of Dia de los Muertos. We've been learning about this holiday and creating calaveras in different ways for the grade levels: 2nd grade painting, 3rd grade mask-making, 4th grade permanent marker drawing, and 5th grade printmaking.