Happy Halloween,

I don't know how the weather is anywhere else in the country, but it's a beautiful day here for some trick-or-treating. Here is a Halloween favorite of mine:

I used to watch a video similar to this in my grade school music class every year for Halloween, only the one I used to watch had dancing skeletons, it was fantastic, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Anyways all these years later I still remember it. Here's something similar:

Danse Macabre

Thanks everyone!

I received a blog award from Teacherssalaryinfo.com listing my blog as one of the best in the Northeast Region. Yay!! Thanks to everyone who thought my info was so noteworthy.

I also got a 'Versatile blogger' award from Kathy who writes two wonderfully creative blogs which are:

Cottage Garden Quilter
Gallery 2404


Here are 7 things about me:
1. I love dogs, which is why I have 3 of them!
2. Cupcakes are my absolute favorite dessert
3. My favorite season is fall.
4. My next big goal is to learn how to ride a motorcycle (yikes!)
5. I prefer tea over coffee
6. I'm Italian but I don't like any Italian desserts
7. I'm left handed :)

Here are 15 great blogs you really should see:

1. Art Project For Kids This site has an unending amount of interesting and useful art lesson ideas. And who I got my Frank Stella 2nd grade lesson idea from! :)
2. Ms. Picasso's Art Room I'm always inspired by the images she posts of her room and of all the wonderful lessons she does!
3. Art with Mr. E Phenomenally creative art lessons and inspiring bulletin board ideas!
4. Urban Sketchers A great blog of sketches done by artists all over the world. The epitome of global art sharing!
5. Tishalou A great blog, and I love the design of it!
6. Deep Space Sparkle A fantastic amount of artistic ideas.
7. Art For Small Hands Great lesson descriptions and ideas
8. Two Dresses Studio Awesome altered book art/collage-great place to find inspiration.
9. Eric Carle's Blog Who doesn't love Eric Carle?
10. I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids)
11. Kuntstraum I believe its in German but it still has great ideas!
12. Ms. Malones Art Room Cute blog and she does such great bulletin boards!
13. Keeping the Mistakes
14. Paint and Paper
15. Learning Parade



The conditions of this award are that all recipients must:


1. Thank and link back to the person that gave this award


2. Write 7 things about yourself


3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic


4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked to let them know about the award

1st Graders Purple Crayons!

The students really liked this lesson. The librarian told me the other day that all the 'Harold' books had flown out the door after I had done the bulletin board. I was a really simple lesson to teach. It took 4 sessions. The first session we read the book 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' by Crockett Johnson and we practiced using our imagination to make objects out of cut pieces of construction paper. The students were not allowed to glue this first session, they could only play with the pieces, in order to help them come up with ideas. We then closed the first session by sharing some ideas they had come up with while experimenting. I posted all the ideas for all the class on a piece of 18x24" paper and posted it throughout the lesson. The second and third session the students worked on creating their images. I discussed the idea of details with them and why it is so important for artists to make sure their work has tons of it. They were allowed to use scissors to cut their pieces and as they worked, I went around helping and making sure they all had concrete ideas that they were working on (to make sure I didn't get any "I don't know's' when I asked the question What are you making?) The last session was spent adding details using pink, purple, and white oil pastels, crayons, and a silver marker. In addition to their finished piece we discussed why artists give titles to their work and I had them each create a title for their piece.

Here are some pictures from the lesson:

kinder Mondrian

This was a nice short first lesson of the year. It took 3 sessions. The first was used to lay down black 'lines' using glue-sticks. The second session was for painting, and during the last session the students used markers to 'touch-up areas that they didn't completely cover. I used paper that was 12" x 14" but next time I would like to make the paper larger, maybe 20x20 so that the students would have had 2 sessions of paintings. Overall they came out great, and it makes for a nice bulletin board!

Finally, some completed lessons!-First Frank Stella...

Here's the first:

2nd graders studied the art of Frank Stella, specifically, his protractor series. Students used protractors to create an overlapping collage (6 or more) and they could only place the protractor horizontally vertically. After that, they chose a 6 color scheme, in which no two colors could touch. I told them they had to become 'shape detectives' making sure that they found all the new shapes that had been created by the overlapping lines.
The concepts in the lesson were:

-Frank Stella
-Art does not always have to be recognizable objects, sometimes art can be about lines, shapes, and colors.
-Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines
-Overlapping
-Color Scheme
-Protractor

This was a pretty intense lesson for them, with a lot of focus required to get all the coloring done neatly, but they did fantastic!!!!

Quick post-New site to check out

The site is called 'blabberize'. You upload images then add talking mouths to them. The mouths can say whatever you record. It's hysterical. AND, its a great tool to use in the elementary art classroom. You can add a bit of humor and bring images of artists 'to life', what better way to get your students into their learning. Alright, I'm going to stop right there for fear of sounding like an advertisement. (but I can't wait to try it out! :))

www.blabberize.com