Ms. Motta's Mixed Media

Art in the News: Mona Lisa's Twin!!!

2012-02-04T09:37:00.000-08:00

Apparently there is a twin to the famous painting of the Mona Lisa said to have been painted by one of da Vinci's pupils.... Check out this article from NPR: http://www.npr.org/2012/02/02/146288063/painting-sheds-new-light-on-the-mona-lisa

I've been waiting for this day!!!! (AND THIS IS MY 100th Post!!!)

2012-01-25T06:08:00.001-08:00

Yesterday afternoon I was visited by UPS freight with a skid of clay donated by donors choose!!!! Don't go without supplies! Seriously get onto donorschoose.org and submit a project, you will be funded!!!

Frank Stella Inspired 3-d Paper Sculptures

2012-01-19T13:17:00.000-08:00

One of the third quarter curriculum requirements for 3rd grade is sculpture. I choose to have the students complete a paper sculpture inspired by great American artist Frank Stella. I also combined the lesson with Zentangle drawing. First I had the students draw organic shapes, and fill those organic shapes with zentangle patterns before cutting out the pieces. Once the pieces are cut, I have the students use a hot glue gun to glue down the pieces while twisting, bending, and folding them finally adhering them to a piece of matt board. I was fortunate to have a TON of matt board donated to me a few years back... Also the paper that I had the students use is cardstock, not just regular paper. Here is the link to the orignal lesson that I found. http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/Julie-design.htm

Here are a few of the results. Of course there are more examples on my artsonia link!

What to do with those Circle Weavings....

2012-01-05T06:47:00.001-08:00

One of my students came into school yesterday with this in her hair! She took her circle weaving from last year off her paper plate, stuck some Bobby pins in it, and wore it in her hair!!! It was really cute!

Lots of Landscapes!

2011-12-15T07:48:00.000-08:00

This past month or so we have been focusing on landscapes, in several different grades. Below are some examples of a few of the landscapes we have been working on...

1st grade Glue Resist oil pastel landscapes on black construction paper

2nd grade: Torn paper Landscapes using construction paper, magazine clippings, and mod podge!

1st grade: Torn construction paper winter landscapes

A new SPIN on Circle Weaving!

2011-12-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

I saw this on pinterest recently and I had to try it with my third graders. What I like about using the CD for circle weaving is that it is smaller than the paper plates taking less time, the students are even more excited about it because it is a CD, and the are neat looking when they are finished. The cons... the CD's do not offer a slit for the warp to rest in so the strings slide around making it more difficult to weave on then the plate. I then sent home the finished products with the students so that they could turn them into ornaments for their Christmas trees :)

Please Help!

2011-12-07T06:53:00.000-08:00

From now until Monday... Donor's Choose is matching dollar for dollar what friends and family donates to projects! When making a contribution the key word it SPARK and this will let the site know that you are a friend or family member. Help Shwab get some more art supplies! http://www.donorschoose.org/rachelmotta

Artsy Fartsy Turkey Story

2011-11-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

I have a few classes ahead of the rest due to some of my recent abscences, so I decided to make some fun turkey projects with my younger grades today. I always like to introduce the lesson with a book. My librarian, who is the best by the way... happened to hook me up with this story called A Plump and Perky Turkey.

This isn't your typical Thanksgiving story! In this book the towns people are searching for a turkey for their Thanksgiving meal when there aren't any turkey's to be found, they come up with a very creative plan! They host an art contest, a turkey art contest and hang posters in search for a turkey model! I won't tell you how it ends, but it is super cute!

El dia De los Muertos

2011-11-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

About 50% of my schools student population is hispanic, so this year I wanted to teach my students about the day of the dead! Second graders drew and painted a full figured skeleton or calaca, and completed them using oil pastels, sequins, and tissue paper. The third grade curriculum required for them to create a mask, so we made sugar skull paintings, again completed with oil pastels, sequins, and tissue paper. The results were pretty fabulous! Finally I had my fourth graders test their cutting skills while creating papel picado, cut paper banners. Unforunately I only could find one pattern for the papel picado lesson online. If you are reading this and know of other online reasources that provide more free templates please let me know, thanks! Enjoy :)

if only i had a smART board....

2011-11-15T12:21:00.000-08:00

I am lucky enough to have a projector in my room! None- the- less this website would be way cooler if I had a smart board! So if you do I urge you to check this out and have your students play with this while you are learning color mixing. On this website you can help Curious George mix paint and fill in a pre-drawn picture. It is very cute and pretty handy!

http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/mix_and_paint/mix_and_paint.html

Homemade Watercolors...

2011-11-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

Simply take dried out markers and place them in cups of water over night. Enjoy your homemade liquid watercolors!

Pumpkin Patch by kindergarten!

2011-11-09T14:36:00.000-08:00

This week our kindergarten, 1st grade, and pre-k students all visited a pumpkin patch for a field trip! Part of our MNPS curriculum is to teach our kindergarten kiddos landscape. So I read a fabulous story of "Pumpkin Town," which the students loved, and then taught them a step by step drawing lesson on creating their very own pumpkin patch. We started with a brown crayon in drawing a horizon line and a wooden fence on that line. We next made a "spooky tree" without any leaves. Next I had the students draw their pumpkins, inside the patch including squiggly green vines. Finally we ended with the white moon and yellow stars. The following class I had the students use my home-made watercolor paints to complete their artwork with a blue sky and a brown ground. The students loved this, and it is a festive way to teach landscape!

Still Wild about Warhol!

2011-11-02T06:16:00.000-07:00

Probably the last Warhol project for a while, second grade completed an assignment similar to one I did at the Frist this summer. I had the students cut out their own flowers out of tissue paper, and I helped them with squirting water on them to make a print from the bleeding tissue. The next class the students used a sharpie to outline and draw details on the flowers. Finally we used a green and a black oil pastel to create the grass around the flowers, similar to that in Warhol's flowers. Below is one of the many examples I showed the students, and the rest are the students work. Of course you can find more in our artsonia gallery!

On the road...

2011-10-20T16:46:00.001-07:00

On my way from Nashville to Dallas I stopped along the way at the Arkansas Art Center. You never know what you might find...

Short on Funding?

2011-10-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

A super wonderful resource that I learned about this last spring is Donor's Choose! Teacher's can post projects online for donor's to choose, just as the name says, to donate money too. Last week I posted a project that would help to fund my kiln shelves, clay, glazes, kiln wash, etc. Totalling $700 and change.... You choose the items that you want from website such as School Specialty/ Sax, and once you've reached your goal amount, the website places the order for you, and ships it to you! On Saturday I noticed that we already reached $549 of our classroom goal, and that is only from one donor! Big thanks to the Emma Email Marketing from Nashville!!!!

Wicked awesome New Eric Carle book!

2011-10-06T06:15:00.001-07:00

This morning my school's wonderful librarian brought me a copy of Carle's brand new book "The Artist who Painted A Blue Horse." It was so sweet of her! Piper is not just a fabulous school librarian but a great friend. Check out that book! It rocks!

Warhol Identity Cans

2011-09-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

After taking a trip to the Frist this past month, 4th grade students have been diving into a variety of Warhol inspired lessons. This one I borrowed from another fabulous Metro art teacher here in Nashville, Ms. Tina Atkinson. In this lesson we discuss the concept of identity in relation to labels, specifically a Campbell's soup can. Labels at the grocery store help tell us what is inside the packages that we are buying. The first label we are given as babies is our gender, then our name. Students use their last name as the identity of the brand name, and their first name as the "flavor." Example: I am Motta soup, Rachel flavored. Here are the results, again check out our artsonia page for more examples...

Starry Night over Nashville!

2011-09-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

Part of our districts art curriculum is to teach first graders about architecture. I found this lesson on Deep Space Sparkle Blog and gave it a Nashville twist. What better way then to relate it to what they know, here in Nashville that is the Batman Building!

Before constructing their own batman buildings, the students looked at Van Gogh's Starry Night and painted their own starry night backgrounds for their cityscapes...

After their paintings were dry, the following class students drew on black construction paper with white crayons to outline their buildings silhouette, cut them out, and paste them onto their beautiful paintings. Finally we also added some colored construction paper clippings for windows. Here are the results...

Find more on our school's artsonia site!

RIAEA

2011-09-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today I got an email from the Rhode Island Art Educators Association about an update to their links of resources page on their website. I was excited to see that I am on their page as a lesson plan blogger! I'd like to thank them for including me on their site!

Check out this list! They really did a great job :)

It's Been a while...

2011-09-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a while! My appologies! This school year though has been pretty awesome so far. I'm loving my new classroom, I love that most of my kiddos have returned, and my new principal! Here is a quick little tip that I got from her...

I'm sure like me, many of you probably have an older paper cutter that has a wicked dull blade! I asked my principal about this and she suggested that I take sheets of aluminum foil and cut them with the dull blade. I had never heard of this but it worked great! Thanks Ms. Prentis!!!!

With a new classroom, I have more space to organize my stuff! Here are a few photos of my classroom and closet space!

A new year, A new LOOK!

2011-08-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

So this year I am actually moving classrooms. Long story short, last year I was in a regular sized classroom, this year I'm in the room that is intended to be the art room. Last year it was under renovation from the Nashville May flooding. Anyway.... so there are these windows in my room that look out into the cafeteria. Going into the room I know that this will be a distraction to my students. Currently there is an exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts on Andy Warhol.... here is my solution to my windows!

Here's a thought...

2011-08-04T18:52:00.001-07:00

Using Shout Color Catchers for watercolor painting.... I haven't tried it yet, but I surely will be soon!

Warhol Tissue Paper Flowers

2011-08-03T18:56:00.000-07:00

Inspired by these Warhol prints...

One of the projects I did for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts summer camp was a tissue paper print. In this instance I had pre-cut tissue paper flowers, had the students arrange the flowers on their white drawing paper and spray them using a water bottle. Once the papers were sprayed, the students pealed their flowers off of their papers, leaving the stain from the colored tissue. *** Make sure when doing this that your art tissue paper is the type that is bleeding.
Day 2 students go back into their artwork with a sharpie marker to draw details around their flowers. There are so many other things you could use to add grass and I do plan on altering this lesson some before bringing it into my classroom this fall, but I very much enjoyed the results! Also the students didn't much care for the outcomes of their works until the next day when they added the details- or at least I got that comment from one student that I remember... not every lesson is fabulous until it's finished!

Wigging Out Over Warhol!

2011-07-31T14:26:00.000-07:00

So this summer I had the privilege of teaching at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in downtown Nashville. I had such a blast, especially since the most recent exhibition to come on display while I was teaching was Warhol Live. This gave me the opportunity to explore some fun Warhol inspired art lessons. I think my favorite was the Warhol Portrait lesson that I did...

First I took a photograph of each student, then using photoshop, I turned those photos into black and white, elevated the contrast, and finally posterized. Then I printed out 3 photocopies of each kiddo, and one copy on a transparency. The students got to color these photos first using the crayola get fx markers, then using crayons with watercolor, and finally they got to chose their own media for their third. I know coloring isn't the most artistic thing to do with the students, but these were 5-7 year olds and it gave them the opportunity to see the different types of media and the marks those media can make. Lastly on the transparencies, the first week's group I had them use acrylic paint on the back of the transparency, so the image still faced the same direction as the rest of the photocopies. I wasn't all that impressed with the results, so the second group I tried having them use oil pastels, and I liked the results better.

Teaching this summer was a great opportunity for me to experiment and inspire me to create lessons for my kiddos this fall. Here are some of the results!

Color Wheels on a budget

2011-06-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

I know that many art rooms, like my own, are on a very tight strict budget. I will have enough liquid tempera paint to have a class or two complete one painting, but not enough for them to also mix a color wheel. One of the greatest materials that I use in my classroom, are not only convenient to distribute to the students' tables, but is reasonably priced, and will last you the entire year! Tempera Cakes! I love tempera cakes- they are used similarly to watercolors but have a greater concentration of color. The downside of tempera cakes is that often times students will paint right through the paper, so warn your students about painting over the same spot on their paper over and over again!

For this assignment I had the students cut a small shape out of a piece of oak tag/ index card and trace it 12 times on their drawing paper in the shape of a wheel. They do have to paint their wheels in correct color order, but if they do make mistakes they are able to re-draw the shapes on their paper before cutting out their wheels. Once they complete their paintings, I had them cut out their shapes and paste them onto piece of black construction paper to eliminate stray marks and create a clean complete look! This lesson was also from Ms. Peggy Flores and was demonstrated in one of her Crystal videos on color.

Kaleidoscopes

2011-06-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of the year, while some students are still wrapping up some projects from the end of the semester, others were begging for something more to do. During one of the Tennessee Arts Academy session last year I learned so much from Ms. Peggy Flores. If that name sounds familiar, it is because Peggy has filmed many art instructional videos for Crystal Productions- hands down she is absolutely fabulous! My students really enjoyed her video on color/ the color wheel. One of the projects though that I did with my 3rd and 4th grade students was her Kaleidoscope lesson. These following examples were done using a template that she gave us which I will post photos of on here at a later date...

Mexican Yarn Paintings

2011-05-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

After completing circle weavings with third grade and loom weavings with fourth grade, I was left with all kinds of scraps of yarn. I remembered a friend of mine showing me her students yarn paintings that she did with kindergarten that were so cute! So I did some online research, came up with an introduction to the lesson, and taught this activity with all grades. All the students enjoyed doing this and they came with some really creative results. Check out more on our Artsonia page!

Check out this link for more information on this lesson plan!
http://www.dickblick.com/multicultural/huichol/

Shwab-bee Art Show!

2011-05-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

May 12th many momma's, dads, and students come to back to school to view the student Shwab Art Show. It was a huge success and the students loved every minute of their time in the beautiful halls! I found that the best way to hang work was to place a strip of tape on the back of the artwork, then hot gluing over the tape and pressing it against the wall. It stays on the walls the best, is easily removable, and does not harm the artwork. I was a proud art momma that night and the show was up for a week. Next year I'm hoping to plan on an earlier date so I can leave the work up longer :)

Cover Girl! Of a Teachers Magazine!

2011-03-28T17:41:00.000-07:00

So the secretary from the King's Daughers' School (my first teaching job,) texted me today that I was on the cover of SEEN magazine. I thought it was a joke, but knew she wasn't the type of kid around like that. I responded, huh? South Eastern Education Network Magazine! Didn't even know it existed until I found out that I am currently on the cover! It isn't the most flattering photo ever, but I do really cherish it, since I do after all still have a copy of it hanging in my current classroom. In the magazine there is an article about making residential schools feel like home, and wrote about KDS. Here is the link!

http://seenmagazine.us/articles/current-issue/issue-13-1-2011-spring.aspx

NAEA Seattle and the Chihuly Boathouse Studio!

2011-03-19T00:11:00.000-07:00

Some teachers go to Florida on spring break, seeking out warm weather, beaches, and relaxation. Next year the NAEA convention won't overlap with my spring break so perhaps I will have the chance to do the same... For this year though, I packed my bags, plus an extra empty one for supplies, and headed to Seattle Washington!
I have been here since Tuesday, saw the market, and several of the sites. Even had lunch at the space needle on Wednesday! Yesterday I had the incredible opportunity to visit Dale Chihuly's boathouse studio here in Seattle, and it was even more awesome than I imagined!
I watched gaffers' blow glass, got to gawk at Chihuly's many extensive collections of all kinds of things, and awe over his amazing glass creations. Below are just a few photos of what I was able to experience!

Indoor pool, with clear glass bottom- housing his sculptures in the bottom!

Eric Carle Paintings AND Collages!

2011-03-15T23:10:00.000-07:00

So in honor of the great Eric Carle and his wonderful children's illustrations, I introduced his art making process to the 1st and 2nd grade students through the movie "Picture Writer." The 1st graders just completed an assignment where we made drawings of planets, so it made since to connect them with the book "Draw me a Star." I also was inspired by Deep Space Sparkle's Carle butterflies. Check out what they have been up too!

We started off painting papers just like Carle would, only rather than working with tissue paper we used drawing paper.

Students collaged butterflies on drawing paper, then cut and pasted those butterflies onto a piece of colored construction paper.

Those working on star collages, first used oil pastels for the background, then cut out their stars.

Kinder- Kandinsky's

2011-03-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

Kindergarten has been practicing mixing their primary colors to make secondary colors. They did a great job of demonstrating this in their versions of a very recognizable Kandinsky painting. The students used tempera cakes for this assignment. A little tip- go to the dollar tree, and buy up all of their muffin tins. They make wonderful containers for those tempera cakes which are easy to pass out, but often come in plastic trays that crack and fall apart!

Teachers' bargaining rallies held at Tenn. Capitol | The Associated Press | News | Washington Examiner

2011-03-05T18:52:00.000-08:00

Teachers' bargaining rallies held at Tenn. Capitol | The Associated Press | News | Washington Examiner

This is what I did today... I went and rallied for my teacher collective bargaining rights in the state of Tennessee in downtown Nashville. Thousands of teachers and supporters came from around the state (and Tennessee is a BIG state.) Step up and speak out for your rights as a teacher! E-mail your local and state representatives, make phone calls, write letters, and even pay them a friendly visit. Don't let your state's government take away your teacher benefits!

In regards to the turn out of us in the rainy weather, one speaker commented "we have bus duty in worse weather than this!" So true! I don't know to many other groups of people who wouldn't let the rain get in their way. After standing in the rain, soaking wet for 3 hours, I would and will do it all again.

2nd Grade Shading

2011-02-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

It is truly amazing what 2nd graders are capable of!

In teaching my students value, we are kinda working backwards, or maybe it is in the right order, I'm not sure. My second graders I taught them what tints and shades were, and we made three of each. Now I recently placed a softball in front of them and attempted to teach them about value and shading in it's practical application- rather than in a design. I was really amazed with some of their little pencil drawings.

Of course not all of my students works turned out this fabulous. See all of them in our artsonia gallery!

1st Grade Matisse Collages

2011-02-12T21:52:00.000-08:00

After a short power point about the artist Henri Matisse, students were instructed to create an abstract collage without using pencils to draw out their shapes before cutting. Students were also instructed to create a border which framed in their central image. I demonstrated how they could make cut outs in their paper by folding their paper scraps over- it was like I taught them a magical secret! Here are the results!

4th Grade Hero Portraits

2011-02-08T21:11:00.000-08:00

Jumping off of Martin Luther King day, I spoke with my fourth graders about heroes, what makes a hero a hero, who are their heroes, and what adjectives can be used to describe their heroes, (incorperating a little bit of language.) In this lesson I also gave students the opportunity to chose the materials that they wanted to work in. Students could chose from colored pencils, markers, crayons, water colors, and/ or tissue paper with mod podge. The requirements were to create a border that allowed space for them to write their adjectives, (which also had to be writen in cursive!), a portrait of their hero, and to fill the space with color. We had also completed a portrait lesson earlier in the year which the drawings were done fairly well, but the painting did not turn out so great. These portraits are much better, and only one of three classes have completed this assignment, so hopefully more are to come! * See below the first portrait is of me! I'm my students hero- yay!

Lesson Flop? Help!

2011-02-08T20:54:00.000-08:00

So this happens all the time to all of us, especially those of us who are still fairly newer teachers; we teach a lesson that doesn't turn out as well as we'd hoped. This lesson I did with Kindergarten kinda turned out this way so suggestions are welcomed and appreciated!

I began the lesson by reading the book "What did you put in your Pocket?" in discussing textures and describing those textures. Next we learned about the magic of color mixing, which is always a crowd pleaser! I had the students make their own secondary colors using tempera cakes on a paper divided into thirds. When those papers were dry the following class the students traced a pocket shape on each section of their painted papers, to use to make their own "What did you MAKE in your Pocket?" Book.

The books were completed by cutting and pasting the colored pockets and title, drawing stitches on their pockets, and writing a single sentence on each page that read "I made (insert color made here.)"

I want to figure out a way for the students to make these more individualized, I hate it when it occurs to me, every single artwork looks the same! Check out the results and let me know how I could make this better! Thanks so much!

Magical Worry Dolls

2011-01-30T14:04:00.000-08:00

There is nothing more adorable then a lesson that the students really get into and uber excited about! In this case my first graders experienced the legend of Guatemalan worry dolls! I created this lesson when I was a student teacher, working at a small jewelry store on the beach in RI, where I sold pottery, handbags, wind chimes, and assorted trinkets, including Worry Dolls. I loved the concept of worry dolls and thought that it was really a fantastic lesson to teach to the students. In case you are wondering what they are, here fabulous link to explore http://worrydepository.com/legend.html . Also here is the little story that comes with each set of dolls:

WORRY DOLL LEGEND - There is a legend amongst the Highland Indian villages of Guatemala: If you have a problem, then share it with a worry doll. Before going to bed, tell one worry to each doll, then place them beneath your pillow. Whilst you sleep, the dolls will take your worries away!

At the time I felt that the best way to convey the concept of the worry dolls to the students was through a story book, well I couldn't find one that did that. I wrote a book to go with the lesson and got a friend of mine at the time to illustrate it for me. The students really got a big kick out of this too! They couldn't believe that I wrote a book just for them!

Anyway, here is the rest of the lesson. Students twist pipe cleaners together to form their doll. Rather than wrapping the structure in embroidery floss like the actual dolls, I have the students continue to use pipe cleaners to create clothing on their doll. Pipe cleaners are fairly cheap and easy for students to manipulate. Finally, I pre-made a pouch for the students worry dolls to "sleep" in. I take cut construction paper to be 6 x 12 " and fold it over leaving about an 1- 1.5 at the top. Then I punch holes all around the edge, and put a staple on each side to hold it together for the students. They have to sew yarn around the edges and decorate the pouch creating a pattern- and we talk about what a pattern is. The pouch is for the doll to sleep in, but also for you the teacher to keep track of who's doll is who's. I originally did this with 2nd graders. When I did I have created a worksheet to go along with it to have the students write about their doll, giving it a name, describe what the doll was wearing, and what they're dolls magical powers are. We even had a show and tell portion of the lesson where the students introduced their doll to the class. It was very adorable!

This doll has a sword!

This guy here is skateboarding!

I recently discovered that there are kits that provide you with materials to make worry dolls as well. Enasco has a kit http://www.enasco.com/product/9720639HV. Also Amazon has a kit that supposedly allows for you to make 100 dolls! Here is the link for that! http://www.amazon.com/Worry-Dolls-Craft-Kit-Makes/dp/B000VLA15M Here is my 2 cents on the kits: I think that these materials may not be appropriate for the level of 1st and 2nd grade students. I personally think that these younger students may not have the patience or the motor skills to work with embroidery floss! But the pipe cleaners are fantastic!

Visit the link above to see more worry dolls and MANY more lessons on my Artsonia page! Thanks for looking!

Be a Fan and Win!

2011-01-30T13:20:00.000-08:00

So Pacon is giving away 100 pounds of Tru-Ray construction paper. Just visit their facebook and become a fan to win! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pacon/167928493245302?v=wall But hurry they are picking a winner on February 8th! I think its also worth mentioning at this time that Tru- Ray construction paper is hands down the BEST quality construction paper a teacher could ever use :) Even though I can't afford it right now, I love it!

Another Snow Day for MNPS!

2011-01-21T14:28:00.000-08:00

So far this year we have had 8.5 snow days! Being from Rhode Island for me normally getting a snow day for having 1" or 2" on the ground wouldn't happen. There they have PLOWS and salt and sand. Here in Nashville, we're lucky if they salt the main roads. Since they really don't have a great way to handle the snow here in Tennessee, we have to wait for the snow to melt. Last week the low temperatures kept the ice frozen on the roads so we had an entire WEEK of snow days! Crazy! So today we had another and this is what i did....

One of the most difficult parts of being an art teacher is finding the time to make our own work. So make good use of your Snow days off friends!

3rd Grade Circle Weavings

2011-01-19T22:02:00.000-08:00

This was the first time I tried this, and after a bit of consulting with friends and different approaches! Part of the Metro art curriculum is a circle weaving. Mr. E. uses cardboard circles- aka pizza rounds for his third graders, and I would have too if I had any money. Mrs. Jahnig uses paper plates, which is what I did. Dollar Tree is a fabulous place for art supplies!!!! I used the paper plates, but simply doubled them up to make them a little more sturdy. Like Mrs. Jahnig, I had my students complete their projects with a design around the border using markers. Thanks guys!!!

3rd Grade Torn Paper Landscapes

2010-12-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

The third graders did an excellent job with learning about landscapes. The students learned the parts of a landscape- foreground, middleground, background, and sky- and used torn paper to illustrate the different parts. The details were then added using oil pastels. Check our the results. More can be found on our artsonia page.

Ho Ho Ho Fashion!

2010-12-20T08:08:00.000-08:00

A really playful way to teach horizontal/ vertical lines and primary colors is this lesson I recently did with my 1st graders. I showed the students a brief slide show on the paintings of Mondrian as well as a website that showed examples of his paintings that influenced fashion- dresses, ties, jackets, and shirts. So then I told them that we were going to design a new hat for Santa using Mondrian as our influence.

The students used a tracer to create the cut shape of a santa hat. Following cutting out their hat, the students had to create their design using vertical lines, horizontal lines, and primary colors. Each student used a white, a blue, and a yellow oil pastel to create the colors, as well as a black sharpie and a ruler to create the pattern of lines.

The kiddos really love doing this because it has to do the Santa! You could have students of other levels create other articles of clothing in the form of fashion designs. A friend of mine also suggested that you could create Santa hats inspired by all a variety of different artists paintings.

This is why I do what I do...

2010-12-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

Today I brought 43- 4th grade students to the Frist Center in downtown Nashville. Now some background information on my students....

Shwab Elementary is what you would call a neighborhood school. Nearly all the students live close enough to walk to school, we only have one school bus that few students ride. Many of the kids haven't ever been out of the neighborhood. The Frist is less than 15 minutes away from the school and as one of the other teachers put it, taking our students downtown is as equally exciting as if we were to bring them to NYC! And it was! The students were OOOoooing and AAhhhing all throughout the drive to the museum.

At the beginning of the school year, students have been studying and creating their very own Dale Chihuly artworks. I can't think of anything more thrilling for the students then to see the Chihuly artworks in person! Needless to say it was an incredible gift that I was able to arrange for my students, and they gave me the gift of smiles, thank yous, and hugs.

Even better was hearing from the other chaperones about the students reaction to the Birth of Impressionism. During the tour, my students were making comments like "Ms. Motta showed us that," "that's a landscape, "that's a portrait," "that's a still life." I was very proud to hear that they were also asking great questions and were very respectful of the docents who were leading the tours. Of course I heard that the boys giggled at the nude paintings that were hanging that they walked passed, but I mean they are after all only 4th graders!

Upstairs felt magical. I have viewed this particular Dale Chihuly exhibit somewhere between a half dozen and a dozen times myself, but being with groups of my students who have focused so much on him, viewing it for the first time- was almost like seeing it for the first time again for me too! The students were amazed at how the "drawings" by Chihuly appeared to still be wet, the size of the Macchia, and were excited to sketch from the Ikebana. What cracked me up though, was their amazement at the Hotshop video, even though they had already viewed it a month ago! I have a feeling that I may have to show the students the video again now that they have seen the work in person.

All and all, the bad kids of Shwab Elementary turned out to have a good side, and they all made me a very proud teacher today! Today was the best day since I started there, and I really truly loved every minute of my job today! One of my students said today, after hearing that I am going to Chihuly's studio during this coming NAEA conference, that he wanted to be me. - I certainly love being an art teacher!

Bad Case of Stripes

2010-11-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

Recently when trying to come up with a portrait lesson for my first graders I stumbled upon my friend Crystal's blog and found this fabulous lesson...
http://mrsjahnig.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Bad%20Case%20of%20Stripes

I made a few alterations to the lesson. Rather than having a fully colored background much like the face full of stripes, I had the students cut out their portraits once they were completely colored with crayon, and paste them onto a colored piece of construction paper. On that construction paper students were given a sharpie to complete their art work by applying more stripes and patterns within those stripes. These turned out very cool! Both myself and the kiddos were pleased with the results!

MNPS Chihuly Blog

2010-11-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in seeing what is happening in Nashville Schools in conjunction with the Chihuly exhibits here please visit http://mnpschihulyartlessons.blogspot.com/ I just posted to it this evening!

Enjoy!

Above are 1st and 2nd grade students drawing of ikebana using sharpie that was then covered with tissue paper and mod podge. The combination loosely resembles stained glass when hung in the window.

3rd and 4th Grade Self Portraits

2010-10-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

The first several weeks of school I spent teaching the 3rd and 4th graders how to measure proportions of their facial features in order to create a self portrait. It was a hard lesson for both myself and the students when once we were through with the drawing, the painting of the portraits was rushed and completely covered the drawings. The fourth graders used a monochromatic color scheme with using the complementary color for the background, and the third graders used primary colors- working with tempra cakes. Third grade was also encouraged to keep the colors seperate. Below are a few really great examples.

Embedding Power Points using Slideshare

2010-10-09T11:36:00.001-07:00

Pop art

View more presentations from creativespirit9.

I am currently sitting in a workshop on google docs and thought because that blogger is run through google that I could paste or upload directly from google docs. This is NOT so. My wicked awesome instructor Tisch said, take this time to play and figure out what will benefit you. So I did and this is what I found!!!

Upload your power point from your computer directly OR from google documents into a Slide Share account. Copy the embed code from the slideshare website once your power point is there and paste it DIRECTLY into the body of the text of your blogger post. This will then display the slide presentation just as it is currently displayed on my page. The power point above is not one that I created- but found through a google search. This was WAY simplier than I expected it would be. :)

Can you say CHIHULY?!!!!!

2010-09-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Here are several examples of some of my student's Chihuly inspired artworks... Most Macchia- today though Kindergarten learned about Ikebana! They first sketched their Ikebana's with sharpie, then watercolored them! They were so cute!

Next the 1st and 2nd graders made Macchia using coffee filters, markers, and spray starch. I had them cut an organic shaped lip first, then colored them with markers, and finally folded them over a yogurt container and sprayed them; to give them a bowl shape once the starch dryed. They students loved this and they turned out pretty neat. I then hot glued them by classes onto matt board and hung them in the hallway.

The coffee filter drapped over a yogurt container.

First Graders!

Second Graders, I made them keep warm and cool colors seperate. Hit an extra standard with these guys!

Close up!

Finally today 3rd and 4th graders created Macchia using the Dura Lar plastic from Dick Blick. I loved the way that Andrea from the Frist had done altered this process from the Blick lesson plan: rather than having the students manipulate the dura lar while handling it IN the hot water, I simply dipped it in the hot water and placed it over the yogurt cup/ form and the students (while wearing gloves) press their hands onto the dura lar over the form- creating again that bowl like form! We used sharpies and Sharpie paint pens- which worked really well because you can paint the dura lar BEFORE putting it in the water, making it much easier to paint while it is still flat!

A new year, new school, new lessons!

2010-09-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

In Kindergarten the first week we focused on cutting and pasting. I read "Planting a Rainbow" by Lois Elhert to the students and we created these rainbow collage gardens following the story. The students loved this assignment and they turned out really cute!

A student tracing a flower tracer before cutting it out.

1st Graders learn that architecture and create collages of the buildings, including the famous Batman building in downtown Nashville.

Students in grades 1-4 create a name design for their sketchbook covers using bubble letters, organic shapes, and patterns of textures.

More to come very soon!

New Beginnings- Life Update

2010-07-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well this summer has been crazy. I have been out of school for the past 2 weeks due to sprained ankles. None the less the injuries have really been a blessing in disguise. My time off has allowed me to take care of some business that I would not have otherwise had the time to do.

I recently interviewed with a few schools in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School district and have accepted a position with Shwab Elementary School. My boyfriend Rob and I have moved in together at his house, just down the street from Shwab and are loving life.

As much as I love my students at the King's Daughters' School, I was feeling ready for a change and so with Rob's encouragement and support I have made that happen. I am sad to leave the awesome family that I have grown to care so much for at King's Daughters' but am ready to embrace a new one at my teaching position.

One last exciting bit about all this change, the person who accepted my current position with the King's Daughters' School is none other than one of my very best friends from Rhode Island College. AJ Mindyas just graduated from RIC with his art education degree just I had 2 and a half years ago and is ready to follow my footsteps into the King's Daughters' family. He has been working with people with mental disabilities in group homes for several years and is ready to meet the challenges of the KDS students. I am so excited to pass the torch to my friend AND to have him here in Tennessee with me!

After AJ's acceptance of the position I really feel like everything that is meant to be is happening and fitting together like puzzle pieces. The process of interviewing and moving has been stressful but the results are so so sweet.

This coming week I will be attending the Tennessee Arts Academy for the second summer and will most likely be blogging about that as it happens.

I hope everyone's summer is going as good as mine!

Interactive Art... "Play me I'm yours"

2010-07-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Quick update, my students are working on a wall mural at school this week- I'm not there because I sprained BOTH my ankles this past weekend during my yART sale Saturday. BLAH So I am stuck here in the house and can't do too much of anything... except play on the computer and watch movies. So on facebook this morning, a band mate of mine from high school was tagged in an article and featured playing pianos in many photos of this new exhibit throughout the city of New York. Several pianos. which are decorated beautifully, are placed all over the city with stickers on them that say "play me I'm yours" and "sing for hope." Anyone can stop and play these piece of public art and become part of it! Much like other projects such as 1000 journals, you can go online and upload your videos, photos, and stories of your interactions with the piece onto the artists website! Street pianos have been exhibited in cities all over the world and are currently set up in london and in nyc. Go check them out for yourselves either in person or online!

pictured: Michael Chicoria
http://www.streetpianos.com/

Tessellations: Art and Math Teachers coming together

2010-06-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

Last week was exploration week for the theme based around the Adventure Science Museum trip. Leslie Franklin the math teacher and I collaborated to teach the students about pattern and tessellations.

First we watched a video on how to create tessellations from crystal. This video was really well done and broke it down really well for the students.

Some of the students did a really great job with this assignment. Others didn't do so great. This is a difficult lesson to do with students with special needs, but you sometimes don't know what they are capable of until they try.

Monet Waterlilies

2010-06-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hello all! While most of you are enjoying your summer vacations I continue to teach all summer long. (Needless to say I am very much looking forward to heading to Belmont for the TN Arts Academy for my "vacation.") Any who... This year our summer schedule has been redone and we are doing this quite differently. Each week the students enjoy field trips to all sorts of places such as the zoo, wave country, adventure science center and so forth. Each week is a theme based around the field trip for the week- and the teachers/ aid are teamed up and the students divided into 5 classes that are an hour and 5 minutes long instead of 10- 35 minute class periods. New classes are more life skills/ fun based such as cooking, gardening, swimming, art, ect.

This week the students went to the Waynesboro community pool which apparently is the awesomest pool with all kinds of slides and such, so this week is "water week." In art class we created Monet's Waterlilies and have also done some paper marbling with shaving cream. Check out the results.

Monet's Waterlilies

Materials: Coffee filters, markers, a bucket of water, crayons, water colors, glue, green construction paper (lily pads) and scissors

Shaving Cream Paper Marbling

2010-06-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

Paper Marbling using Shaving Cream and Liquid Watercolors (or food coloring)

After smoothing the shaving cream over a lunch tray we dribbled a few splashes of liquid water color on top (limiting the students to two colors!) The students then used the back end of paint brushes to make their line marbling patterns. A comb would also work for this step.

A piece of white drawing paper is laid over the shaving cream and gently massaged. When the paper is pulled off the pattern isn't visible yet.

Using Popsicle sticks we scrapped the shaving cream off the paper immediately after pulling the print and the design is magically revealed!

The completely scrapped paper!

The results were amazing!

A Sneak Peak from CHEEKwood!

2010-05-31T13:18:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I went to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens for the first time since Chihuly's exhibition has opened up and OH MY GOODNESS!!! The show is absolutely breath taking! This week for the first week of "Summer School" the students field trips are to the zoo- and the week is "Nature Week." For nature week I'm going to teach the students about Chihuly's artworks at Cheekwood and a little bit about man made versus nature made objects and how they interact with one another. I'm so excited! Then the last week in July I'm taking a group of students to Cheekwood one day and to the Frist the next couple of days following. The students are going to be so psyched as well!

Check out this lesson from Dick Blick on Dale Chihuly I haven't tried it yet but am looking forward to doing it later on in the summer with my Kiddos!

http://www.dickblick.com/lesson-plans/classroom-chihuly/

Ms. Malone's Art Room has already tried it! Check out her results here

Some days you just want to SCREAM!

2010-05-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

Recently I saw this lesson on Artsonia. I used the Scream by Edvard Munch to demonstrate a taste of perspective to some of my students- and others just had fun making the face and exploring expression in their versions of the painting. When working with students with special needs, the most basic level of perspective that you can teach them is the idea that when things are closer to you that they are larger then when they are farther way. This is illustrated by the fence that runs diagonally through Munch's painting. I will be posting most of these artworks by the students as it is Artsonia's rule to not post student artwork that depicts a photograph of the students themselves in it... for security purposes.

Super Sunflowers!

2010-05-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Vincent VanGogh's Sunflowers, the students of KDS create their own versions of sunflowers for the classroom bulletin board. This lesson is an altered version of Nasco's Lesson that I got the plan for from their booth at the convention this year. My students colored using oil pastels and glued beans in the centers to mimic sunflowers' seeds. This lesson is particularly good for students with special needs because it helps them work on their fine motor skills when handling the beans! They turned out wicked cute!

Nashville News- The good the bad and the hopeful!

2010-05-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

Fellow Art teachers and bloggers!

As many of you may already know, last week Nashville and many other Tennessee counties found themselves underwater from the storms that passed through us. Some folks had minor damages and others lost everything. I myself wasn't affected directly but know many friends that were. This week I did what I could by cleaning out my closet and took about 4 garbage bags full of clothes to a community/ donation center.

Many of you may know of the Houses for Haiti project and how it has raised lots of money for those affected by the earthquake down in Haiti. Now those same teachers in Florida who started that project have renamed the project Volunteer Village Houses, as TN is the volunteer state- http://www.volunteervillages.org/

If you have the resources and the opportunity to do this project with your students please help Nashville! Send your contributions to the Red Cross's Nashville Chapter.

On a completely different topic- Dale Chihuly will still be showcasing his works in Nashville beginning today at the Frist Center, later on in the month at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, and on the 21st the show that was going to be set up at the Symphony is now going to go on over at TPAC- including his lecture! I hope those of you locally will try and make it out to see these amazing works of art! Check out

http://chihulyinnashville.com/

Chihuly Sea Blue and Green Tower now @ the Frist!

Tammy Vice comes to visit KDS!

2010-04-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon April 23, 2010 to bring the students and I a copy of her CD and play some of her songs for us. The students loved the experience and the CD cover came out beautiful!!! Thank you so much Tammy for sharing your music with us!!!

NAEA Convention 2010 Presentation Success!

2010-04-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

Today was a long, eventful, and very positive energy day here in Baltimore. So far it has been so wonderful to reconnect with my peers and connect with some for the first time. I have been here since Tuesday and it has been such a fulfilling experience already- and I still have 2 more days left...

But today was very special to me. It was the very first time that I gave a presentation here at the national level. I was nervous at first but it is somewhat comfortable being in the front of the room and sharing ideas and experiences with others because that is what teachers do on a regular day to day basis. Being in front felt natural. I received many compliments on my performance if you will and ability to conduct discussion as well that followed. Needless to say I seemed to spark the fire about IEP's in the art room. The most heated debate was over the issue of whether or not I'm doing the job of the OT through the writing of my goals. I had one audience member that continued to challenge me and I was told I handled myself well.

I feel very accomplished to be a second/ third year teacher that has already presented both at the state and national levels of our professional organization. Now I'm sure as many of my peers have said, I will be hooked and I am already thinking of potential topics that I can present on for next year in Seattle!

(Peter has a question for me!)

A very special friend of mine did a very fabulous job presenting for the first time as well yesterday. Mary Silvestri from the Learning Center in Framingham MA a school for the deaf presenting on being a deaf teacher and teaching students who are deaf with multiple disabilities. WOW! Mary you ROCK!!!

Mary @ her Presentation Us @ Inner Harbor

Also I wanted to mention to that tonight I officially was appointed the membership chair for the Special Needs in Art Education Group (SNAE). I knew it was only a matter of time- especially when Peter Geisser had e-mailed me a couple weeks ago asking for me to take on some job for the group involving technology. Boy am I in trouble...

Finally to conclude today I want to congratulate the SNAE group for their fantastic super session and latest Publication on Autism and Art! Sue Losel and Beverly Gerber are truly my heros and do such a fabulous job. A special thanks to Sue for coming to my presentation today- it made my day and meant a lot to see everyone there that showed up!

Beverly, Sue, Julie, and Judith

Some of the finest of SNAE!

Stay tuned! More to come from Baltimore!

Picasso Picasso and more Picasso

2010-03-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

I am so in love with my fellow art teachers' blogs! I recently stole a fantastic idea from Dali's Moustashe of these marvelous blue Picasso collaged guitars. Following the African masks and the more recent Picasso collage Cubists portraits we studied the parts of a guitar and created our own abstract guitars.

Picasso Exemplar Images

The students were able to choose the body type of the guitar that they liked best. My fantastic teacher's aid pre-cut out several basic shapes for the students to use out of black and what construction paper as well as newspaper. As finishing touches the students used yarn for their guitar strings and cut paper towel tubs as the inverse of the sound hole- just like Picassos wicked sculptures. They students could not wait to do this assignment after seeing examples on the board.

Student Artworks

Happy St Patricks Day!

2010-03-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

I completely forgot that it was St. Patricks Day until my boyfriend made me green eggs for breakfast!

From African Masks to Picasso Collages...

2010-03-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

The week after the students completed their African masks we switched gears and looked at Picasso's portraits. We talked about geometric shapes and viewing a face from more than one view. The students practiced drawing like Picasso in their sketchbooks, then created a collage and drew their Picasso faces on top of the collages. The results were mixed like anything other projects that we do here at KDS, but several turned out pretty decent! Check out the final results on our Artsonia account! (Link @ the top of the page!)

Sketchbook work

Teacher Sample and Picasso Artwork

Black History Month

2010-02-23T09:01:00.000-08:00

For our schools Black History Month celebration my art classes made collaged African Masks using symmetry. I was really proud of the students creativity and inovation. Check out all of them on our Artsonia!

Getting Geared Up!

2010-02-16T21:19:00.000-08:00

I know the conference is 2 months away, but I'm already excited. This will be the third NAEA conference that I will attend, and the first that I will present at! I just read through the schedule and it looks really great. Last year most of the Special Needs (SNAE) Issues Group sessions were overlapping one another, and this year there is about one per hour which is great! I'm also super psyched to see so many of my friends are presenting as well. Certainly ones NOT TO MISS---

Debi West

Donalyn Heise

Mary Silvestri

Pete Curran

Tina Atkinson

Sue Loesl

Debbie Sickler-Voigt

Peter Geiser

Even more exciting... This year will be the first that the SNAE group is putting on a SUPER SESSION! Friday afternoon from 4-5:50 the great Beverly Levett Gerber will be co-presenting with Susan Loesl, Julia Kellman, and Judith Burton.

“Artism”: Understanding Autism through Art Education
4:00-5:50 PM
“Artism” is a term used to describe the “relationship between art and autism.” Explore this relationship as presenters share information on students with autism and the implications for art education.

I can't wait!

Oh and I present on Friday April 16th at 1:00. Please be there! :)

Finally! The students at KDS receive back their Ceramic Pendants! Thanks Cassie!!!

2010-02-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

Check out more on the KDS artsonia website!

Valentines Day more than candy and cards.

2010-02-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

Today my aid read the book "Saint Valentine" to my students. I find that one of the best ways of teaching students about interdisciplinary topics is to read them a story. Now my students know that Valentine's Day isn't just about candy- but that it started with a saint that cared deeply for others- and in his name we show our appreciation to those we love on the day of his execution.

And by the way- the illustrations also are a great lead into a lesson about mosaics!

Art Class Celebrates the Chinese New Year!

2010-01-29T07:51:00.001-08:00

As an art teacher, I have the freedom to create curriculum for the class as we go along- as long as I meet my NVA standards of course! This allows me to gather inspiration from just about anywhere for my lessons which is great. This past New Year's Eve I spent here in Tennessee and my boyfriend was still visiting his family back in Boston. When we realized we weren't going to spend the New Year's together his immediate response was, "Well we will celebrate the Chinese New Year instead this year." Aside from the suggestion being incredible sweet I thought it would also be a culturally rich and fun topic for a unit plan in my art room. So far so good!

First we read the book "Sam and the Lucky Money" and the students learned about the traditional red envelops that children receive from their elders with lucky leisee inside. We then created our own and decorated them with tiger images as 2010 is the year of the tiger. I am currently in the process of making "Mona Bucks" which the students will have to earn to put in their leisee envelops in order to earn their way to the Frist Center in March.

Then the students created beautiful paper fans! We used color diffusing sheets so when they were painted the images bleed thru to both sides of the paper. The following day when our paintings were dry we learned the according fold. These turned out wonderfully and really brighten up the classroom!

Now we are decorating the hallway with dragon masks that the students' made. We used a coloring sheet for the face, I made a tracer for the students to use to cut out the construction paper beards to go around the face, and the students got to use that accordion fold that they learned this week to make wild and crazy hairs! All fun stuff!

Finally next week we will begin to make paper lanterns. I can't wait!

Check out all these projects on the The King's Daughters' Artsonia account! While you're there vote for Kourtney (thru Saturday 1/30/10)!!!

Vote for Kourtney!

2010-01-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

My student Kourtney has been selected as a finalist for "Artist of the Week" on Artsonia.com!!!! Please go vote for her Haiti House on the main page of the site!!!

CD Cover Design Contest

2010-01-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

The students of KDS have entered a CD cover design contest that is being offered by a singer song writer in the Nashville area. Tammy Vice is a Christian singer/ song writer who has a daughter with Autism so she has restricted the cover contest to those with students with Special Needs. This gave my students and I the opportunity to understand the process in which professional graphic designers and other artists explore when they are given an assignment by a client. We listened to the song that Tammy recorded and talked about what types of images came into their heads while the students listend to it, what type of feeling it gave them, and we spoke about symbolism in the words of the song. Many classes thought that a door was a great image to work with that Tammy sang about because they felt it was very symbolic.

Tammy has since called to inform me that she will be using a collage of the artwork done by the students here at KDS for the cover! We are all very excited. Below are some of the images that my students created.

Go to http://www.tammyvice.com/ to see the contest details and some of the entries submitted. Click on photos to see some of the students artworks.

Houses for Haiti

2010-01-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

To continue with our "Art with a Purpose" new years resolution, the students at KDS have constructed our very own little Houses for Haiti. The houses are made from recycled cardboard, tempra paint, buttons, glitter glue, foam hearts, and sequins- topped off with Mod Podge. The lesson tied art with current events and the students continuing learning about what it means to do good things for others. Below are some examples of my students' work.

Our little houses are for sale in the art room at KDS for $5 a piece. All money will be donated to the American Red Cross.

The lesson can be found at: http://www.haitihouses.org/

New Years Resolution: Art with a Purpose!!!!

2010-01-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

Debi West is an absolutely incredible art teacher and inspiration to me! We met this past summer at the Tennessee Arts Academy where she was a workshop instructor. After learning about the Memory Project, I asked Debi if she would be interested in having her students create portraits of my students. She enthusiastically accepted my proposal and the results were amazing!

Just a few of the portraits by Debi West's students!

In the spirit of "paying it forward" and continuing the notion of "Art with a Purpose" my students' made some really beautiful cards for soldiers that are fighting down in Iraq. A good friend of mine is currently serving in Iraq until July, when I asked her if I could send her anything she asked for mascara, a pumas stone, and cards from my students. All easy enough. I know that those cards will certainly be able to make the days of many soldiers who are far away from home. KDS students' did a wonderful job on this assignment and really enjoyed doing it!

2009-11-24T09:53:00.000-08:00

Showing off a Little... and hopefully Selling out!

2009-11-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

So my announcement isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. I've been invited to show/ display/ sell my work at some local events coming up! The first I will be displaying some of my necklaces and a bit of pottery at the Renaissance Centers' annual student pottery sale on Saturday December 5th, if you're around stop by! The other event is in Nashville on December 11th. Please come!!! At the "Artists in Nashville" December Art party I will be showing my figures, pottery, as well as my necklaces!

Artists In Nashville

For more information on the Renaissance Center click here

Presented at TAEA/ and it was a TRIP!

2009-11-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

This weekend was the TN art educators state wide conference in Gatlinburg TN at Arrowmont School for Crafts! As mentioned in earlier blogs I was selected as a super- session presenter! My presentation was called "Art for All tricks and tips for your Inclusion friendly classroom!" The morning of my presentation (which it was at 1pm) I tripped and fell down the stairs in the house I was staying at on Arrowmont campus and sprained my ankle. First an ambulance crew came- told me I needed x-rays because they couldn't tell how bad my ankle was without it. So someone from TAEA brought me to the doctor there in Gatlinburg. I was so upset at that point I truly did not think that we were going to make it back in time for my presentation! Fortunately they after sitting there a while we were in and out and able to make it back in time to present! I had 20 people show up-some stood in back because a lack of seating even! Miss Bonnie even came and sat front row. I had started late, didn't have lunch, and still received rave reviews from my peers on my presentation! Afterwards the only criticism that my mentor gave me was that I should not have read from the slides- this I did not know but now know for nationals! Kelly said other than that I was dead on every point that I made, thought it was great I had so many questions, and that the resources I brought were awesome!

Aside from my awesome experience presenting I also got to make a honey dipper in wood turning which was SO MUCH FUN!!!! Below is a photo of my honey dipper and Miss Bonnie Rushlow holding up my boot after my presentation!

The Frist Art Center/ Art Quest/ and Sunshine Art Gallery!!!

2009-11-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

Today I took my students to Nashville. We went to the Frist and Art Quest as usual. Something new in artquest is their awesome animation station!!! Below are some photos and videos of what my students created!

Animation in Action!!!

Last but not least we did something I haven't ever done with my students before. I took them to the sunshine art gallery in the Tennessee Art League to visit with Shaunna a professional artist there. The students asked questions and Shaunna talked about her creative process. The students were very excited to see a real professional artists studio space!!

Halloween Pumpkins... classic jackolanterns and New England Pride

2009-11-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

I don't care that the red soxs didn't make it this year to the series... I still love them!

Dale Chihuly coming to Nashville!!!!

2009-10-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Check out this article about Chihuly's artwork coming to cheekwood and there will also be an exhibit at the Frist at the same time!

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=32350

More Completed Skulls!

2009-10-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

El Dia De Los Muertos: Skulls in Progress

2009-10-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the day of the dead we are kicking it up a notch from last years stuffed coloring sheets of skulls. We are making skull masks using paster gauze and plastic mask mold forms. Once dry the students are decorating them with sharpie markers, paint, sequins, and glitter glue! Of course the project will be followed up with a lesson on the Day of the Dead, a video on the holiday and we will be making sugar skulls.

Students smoothing out the plaster over the masks. Notice that there are circles drawn around the eyes and nose, this is to keep the students from covering up those areas. Skulls do not have eyes and noses only cavities where they are supposed to be.

Students use sharpies, paint, and glitter glue to decorate thier skulls with.

One of the final products. More to come! All will be posted on our schools artsonia.com account!

They Might be Giants: WIcked Awesome Kids Albums Check them Out!

2009-10-18T21:08:00.001-07:00

Artsonia Artist of the Week Finalist! GO VOTE!!!!

2009-10-14T08:06:00.001-07:00

Dear friends,

Great News! Kenneth595, from The King's Daughters' School, has been selected as a finalist for this week's "Artist of the Week" award for the 10th-12th age group. The finalist who receives the most online votes between now and Saturday October 17 will be selected as our "Artist of the Week."

To view the finalists and cast your vote, simply click on the link below. Voting is limited to one vote per computer per day for each age group!

http://www.artsonia.com/aotw/vote/0/6320864

The "Artist of the Week" will be featured on the Artsonia homepage and will receive a commemorative plaque from Artsonia. In addition, Blick Art Materials has generously donated $100 gift certificates to the winning teachers and $50 to the winning artists.

All fan club members from The King's Daughters' School have just been sent an email inviting them to vote, but we encourage you to personally spread the word at school, making sure all your students cast their votes right away!

Thank you for submitting your artwork to Artsonia and helping every child be an artist!

too cute!

2009-10-08T19:39:00.001-07:00

2010 NAEA Conference Presenter!!!

2009-10-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

I received two offical e-mails this morning notifying me on the acceptance status of my two proposals. The one titled : Special Needs, Art and IEP's... Oh MY! was accepted!!! I am so excited! The other one job searching outside the box was rejected- but I will re-write it and try again for next year. I was so exicted about the first e-mail reading congradulations, that I originally miss read the second one... but its ok because I did read the first one correct and I am presenting at NATIONALS!!!! Hope to see all my fabulous art teacher friends there!

Chilean Rainsticks!

2009-10-07T13:33:00.001-07:00

Over a year ago the Frist Center hosted a free teacher workshop through VSA. Through that workshop we learned how to make rainsticks. Now I made rainsticks in grade school myself but I have to say that these were a lot cooler! We used a heavy cardboard tube- from the papertowel rolls in the schools bathroom, nails, rice & beans, wrapped the tubes in wall paper (from sampler books), and decorated them with strung beads, feathers, etc. Ever since my janitor has been saving those tubes for me. Finally inspired by all the rain that TN has been having, I decided it was about time to make them. The students learned where rainsticks are originally from- Chile, what continent Chile is found on (HELLO social studies CONNECTIONS :) and what the rainsticks were used for, essentially a prayer for rain to come. The students have LOVED working on these! Two weeks and a nasty burn from the glue gun later they are nearly all finished. Here is a list of the materials that we used:

paper towel tube

power drill (drill holes into the tube)

tooth picks

rice & beans

wall paper sample books

yarn/ string

ribbon

pony beads

crep paper

hot glue gun - (to only be used by the teacher!)

feathers

rubber bands

masking tape

sharpie markers

scissors/ paper cutter

Check out all of the finished Rainsticks @

http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=111773

TAEA conference Presenter: November 2009!!!

2009-09-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the description of my upcoming presentation as it will appear in the conference program!

Saturday, November 14th, Super Sessions—1:00-1:50

“Art for All: Tricks and Tips for Your Inclusion-friendly Classroom”
Presenter: Rachel Motta. This session will provide insights and information about how to develop and adapt lesson plans for students with special needs including (but not limited too), MR, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, ODD, Tourette’s Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder, PDD, and Schizophrenia. The presenter works specifically with special needs students and will provide participants with definitions to various special education classifications as well as offer lesson plans that are great for all ability levels. All Levels.
Location: Wood Auditorium

This presentation will be given at Arrowmont School for Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN>

Pinwheels for Peace- The Results art in!

2009-09-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

So if you live in Tennessee you know and have been bummed about the rainy weather. Unfortunately on Pinwheels for Peace Day we could not display our pinwheels outdoors as the project calls for, so ours are displayed on the wall outside of the artroom. My students really enjoyed this project and did an excellent job with it! I highly reccomend participating in this project next September if you haven't already planned on it!

Pinwheels For Peace!

2009-09-14T20:01:00.000-07:00

We are so doing this, this week in class! This site provides a template for pinwheels and during my dry runs of constructing the pinwheel myself I discovered that the pipecleaner attachment really only works when using the pony beads along with it! Try it out! Easy and fun Art with a Purpose!

http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com/pinwheelsforpeace/home.html

A Trip to the Frist Art Center 9/3/09

2009-09-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

I cannot rave enough about the Frist Center! It is Free and always FUN! The students love it, it serves as a great good-behavior incentive, and they learn! The students saw the Chuck Close show yesterday and loved it. Ofcourse those that had been before couldn't wait to make it to Art Quest...

Finger Print Portraits (like Chuck Close!), Painting, and Printmaking...

Line Communication, (students draw on the plexi-glass on both sides with dry-erase markers), and magnetic city construction!

My own personal creations.

2009-08-31T14:21:00.000-07:00

So I am starting to create my ceramic pendant necklaces to sell at various events throughout the year. Here is the first one of many to come of the KDS logo... heres to hoping they will be a hot seller at the TAEA conference suitcase sale!

Sculptamolding VanGogh's Starry Night!

2009-08-31T13:59:00.001-07:00

After talking with the students about how very thick VanGogh's paintings were- we made some super thick paintings starting with a layer of sculptamold over crinkled up taped down newpaper! Super Chunky and Super FUN!

Creating the understructure using newpaper and medical tape (because it was donated to us and it worked well for the project!)

Spreading the wet sculptamold over the matt board and newpaper understructure.

Painting the projects once the sculptamold was dry. I waited a couple days to make sure that the sculptamold was good and dry. The students pallets were limited to metalic silver, gold, pink, blue, and flat blue and yellow.

Check out the results!

All of the individual Artworks have been submitted to Artsonia under the King's Daughers' School and should be up within a few days!

More Mona's...

2009-08-27T08:45:00.001-07:00

Since Artsonia won't post these I am... Note I do have releases in student files here at school that give permission to the school to take photos of the students. It's all good! Artsonia will not however publish these because they do contain images of students under the age of 18. I don't blame them.

Very Cool Website Link: A MUST See!

2009-08-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.gamellama.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100:books-as-art-not-writing-as-art-books-as-art&catid=43:art&Itemid=57

Another art teacher friend posted this link on her facebook- thought I would pass it along...

First Project: Mona Mesa's!

2009-08-21T13:41:00.001-07:00

KDS's version of Debi West's Mona Mesa Lesson Plan!

The students were very intrigued by the recent sighting of the original Mona Lisa in the news! Apparently a crazy lady threw her mug at the famous artwork and was taken away to an instution following the incident!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8196538.stm

Thanks to Ted for the link!

First days of school...

2009-08-13T21:27:00.001-07:00

The first week back is almost officially over. Tomorrow is read in your pajama's day (which should be interesting.) This week has been full of downs and ups. The first day back was rough, we had a few incidences in my class that we dealt with and went on with the day, but it rattled me none the less. Not to mention I'm still groggy and attempting to recover from my vacation, my whole one week long vacation. That's right regular school year teachers, I got one week off ALL summer long. So much for the 3 reasons to teach being June, July, and August. Then again I think if I had the entire summer off I would be bored.

Today was absolutely amazing. The students were enthusiastic and excited to learn about the Mona Lisa, its history and even this past weeks events- the crazy lady throwing her cup at the famous artwork! (Thanks Ted for that article link! You totally inspired me!) Last period particularly today was so focused and full of energy I was totally in love with what we were doing. They students were jumping up and down wanting to answer the questions that I asked and had questions that they asked me and were very into the fact that the names of the Ninja Turtles were the names of famous painters :) ! We even subtracted the year Mona was painted from the present year to find out how old the painting is- Interdisciplinary connections with math! Now thats what I call good stuff! Tomorrow I'm going to take photos of their own Mona Lisa artworks and post them on artsonia sometime this weekend. Overall the first week back was a success. Now I just have to come up with a way to track their IEP goal progress in the form of daily progress notes/ check lists... I have way too much work this weekend!

TAEA state conference Presenter!

2009-08-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it! I was chosen to present at the state conference this November on making your classroom inclusion friendly! I'm wicked excited and nervous all at the same time. Arrowmont is gonna rock! Especially since I'm going with some wicked awesome art teacher friends from Franklin and I haven't be to Gatlinburg yet.

Press Release

2009-04-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

So many of you may already know about this amazing website for art teachers and parents called Artsonia. It is a site that allows teachers to post student artwork images on the web not only at no cost but will print those images on items such as t-shirts, mugs, magnets, you name it they will print it on there! Plus the school who's image is being bought on your item of choice receives a percentage of the profits! I have heard from other teacher friends that this has not been profitable for them, but I still think it is very cool to publish the work online for free so that students and parents can go there at any time and see the students' artwork. Particularly for the school that I work at, I have some parents that currently live in other states and even outside of the country. Anyway check out the new KDS Artsonia page here... www.artsonia.com/schools/kingsdaughters1

The first post yay!

2009-03-01T21:52:00.001-08:00

First and foremost I want to thank Ted, for having such an awesome blog of his own that has convinced me to create one for my classroom happenings as well! I also want to thank him for showing me around his artroom on Friday- it is always a treat to visit another classroom for ideas, inspirations, and seeing how another teacher of the same subject as yours handles their classroom.

There really are no too classrooms alike so I want to encourage all teachers to ask their principal for a day where they go and visit another teachers' classroom from another district or alternative school to gather ideas and such. After visiting two classrooms this past month I have to say that I still have tons to learn about teaching.

I plan on posting some photos up this week sometime from the past month. Here is a link photos from our schools Black History Month Celebration Assembly last week.

Enjoy!