First Day Student Name Tags

A great idea for the first day of school is to have students create their own name tag for their desk. This provides them with a sense of ownership over their desk and new classroom and provides a low-key art activity for the first (or second) day of school.

Most of the students I will be teaching this year (*note: we have not yet started the school year) already know each other. In fact, I already know/have taught the majority of them, as well. This means that, although we will still be doing some important community building/icebreaker activities, the students will also need some informal getting-to-know-you/reconnecting-with-old-friends time. It also provides me with a great opportunity to circulate and chat with each student - so important!

One more bonus for this activity . . . it is low prep! If you teach older students, all you need is some pre-cut card stock (as small or large as you prefer) and a teacher sample. You can give your students the freedom to write & decorate their name as they choose, or give them a sample to follow, so all the name tags look uniform when displayed on their desks.

There are a ton of great name art examples online to inspire you, but here are some of my favourites:

*I love this idea from the blog of Rob Golombek Jr. Art Teacher. Have students write their name in bubble letters and fill the letters with a pattern of their choosing:

Via Rob Golombek

Via Rob Golombek

*Have students create a rainbow name tag like these from The Happy Teacher:

Via The Happy Teacher

*I love the look of these 3-D names from Art with Mrs. Seitz and they're super easy to read which is perfect for name tags:

Via Art with Mrs. Seitz

*If you teach primary, you could always have the students' names pre-written in block letters and then let them color them in, like these from 4th Grade Frolics:

Via 4th Grade Frolics

Now I'm off to do more back to school planning!

Let's Talk About Books (Again)!

I'm back again to link up with Deanna over at Mrs. Jump's Class, but it is going to be quick because I am more than exhausted. My eyelids are getting heavy just writing this . . . is it summer vacation yet?

I'm sure I've talked about this book before, as well as Peter H. Reynolds' other books, but anywhoo, I'm still going to mention it this week: The Dot:

Via Amazon

This book is a sweet tale about Vashti, a girl who thinks she cannot draw. With an encouraging art teacher, she discovers that not only can she draw, she can create amazing, creative art. Vashti not only learns a great lesson, but takes the time to pass that lesson along!

I love this book as an inspiration to all those reluctant artists in the classroom. How many times have you heard a student say, "I can't draw. It's too hard!"? Students need to learn that they are all artists, they just need a little confidence and a lot of effort.

In addition to the great message passed along in this book, there is also great artwork to be inspired. Use this book at the beginning of the year to remind students that they can draw (and paint etc.) or at the beginning of a great "dot" inspired art lesson.

Via Art Projects for Kids

Via Art Projects for Kids

Via Art Projects for Kids

OK, I think I better go before I fall asleep on my computer!

It's Snowing!

Yes, it is in fact snowing here - finally! I love snow, probably because we don't get a ton of it (maybe 1 or 2 days a year maximum). Although all it does it make me want to curl up with a book and some hot chocolate and not be productive at all!

Speaking of not being productive, this poor blog has been really neglected as of late. Between Valentine's Day and the Olympics (and all that reading, writing & math stuff thrown in) I have not posted in awhile.

Valentine's Day was great this year, probably due to the fact that it was on a Friday! We made a few Valentine-themed art projects including magazine heart trees:

Via Putti's World

and some line heart art (although I think the actual term is cubism!):

Via Budding Artists

They turned out cute and the kids loved them.

I've also been busy finishing up (& bundling) my Word Problem a Day packets. I now have a full year of word problems (12 packets) for 3rd and 4th grade.

You can click the pictures to check out the bundles or {HERE} if you are interested in single packets.

I guess it's now time to start planning for St. Patrick's Day and Easter, with a little Spring Break thrown in there too! I cannot believe how fast this year is flying by, only a few months left!

Enjoy the last bit of your weekend!

Olympics, 100th Day and Valentine's Day - Oh My!

Well I'm stopping in tonight to talk about how busy these weeks are getting! Last week was Chinese New Year, the Olympics are starting in a few days, 100th day is coming up next week and Valentine's Day is already next Friday! To top it off, we're celebrating Carnaval de Quebec. Some days, I don't know where math, science, language arts and all the other subjects are supposed to fit in!

Last week, we had a ton of fun creating paintings inspired by Ted Harrison and based on artwork created by students at Georgetown Elementary Art Blog and Grade ONEderful:

Via Ted Harrison

Via Georgetown Elementary Art Blog

Via Grade ONEderful

We divided into groups of 3 or 4 and the students had to line up their artwork to create a continuous landscape. This was great for co-operation.They did a fantastic job of working together to line up their buildings, snow and sky, as well as deciding on colours. No arguments - it was fantastic! We then used black pastel to outline and watercolours. After they dried, we used finger-painting and the small end of a paintbrush to add the snowflakes.

I'm really loving the winter art I've been seeing lately, hopefully I find some great spring art inspiration soon!

All Things Snowmen

To be honest, that blog title was completely exaggerated. I am way too tired to delve into most things snowmen, let alone all things snowmen, but I am still here to talk about a few things snowmen.

So it's January, is everyone deep in some kind of snow, penguin, snowmen studying in the classroom? Do you have real like snow to go with these activities and lessons? If so, you're lucky (even if you don't agree with me!). Even though I live in Canada, where I live, we really only get a day or two a year with a dusting of snow - and that's during a cold winter. If we ever get more than that, well then lucky us, schools shut down and we get the elusive snow day!

Despite our lack of snow, we can still have fun with snowmen in January. I think some of the cutest art I've done with students lately has been winter/snowy/snowmen art. I have said it before and I will say it again - I am no artist, so I really like it when the students can look at my embarrassing artistic example and make something amazing.

This year, I tried some Van Gogh snowmen that I've seen floating around Pinterest. Of course I never have time to sit down at school, let alone whip out a camera, so I'll show the Pinterest image that inspired the art:

Via Jamestown Elementary Art Blog

We carefully traced the snowman with pencil on white card stock and then traced with a black pastel. We used white, blue, and for some adventurous students, pink pastel to draw the Van Gogh inspired wind, then painted with watercolors. They really turned out amazing and brightened up the hallway. Make sure to remind students to just use a wash in the background (bright blue looks the best), so the pastel wind can still be seen.

We also read some the of the Snowmen series by Caralyn Buehner - perfect for winter,

Via Amazon

The students loved looking for the hidden pictures, though I have to be honest, I'm still searching for some of them!

After reading, we talked about what snowmen could do at night. I think the most creative answer I heard was "drink milk from my fridge." Love those sweet answers! I then showed students the following pin and let them create their own artwork using pastel and black paper.

Via A Faithful Attempt

Ahh, SmartBoards - I love when I can show the kids a great example of art to inspire them! The students loved looking for the hidden images in the books so much that they decided to include their own hidden images - I do love when they are excited and inspired. It was interesting how a few hidden pictures ended up being white mice hidden in the white snowmen, no wonder we couldn't find them!

I haven't been stuck on snowmen though, I've also been thinking slightly ahead. I've uploaded a few more Word Problem a Day packets, including Valentine's Day (for 3rd and 4th) and Spring (for 3rd, still working on 4th). In addition, I've got some Winter Printables (Differentiated for 2nd) and a Valentine's Day Write the Room packet for Kindergarten. Click on any of the below pictures to check out the units if you're interested.

Now, I guess it's time to think about this upcoming week, I can't believe it's almost February!

25 Days of Christmas Picture Books - Day 11

Is it only Tuesday? I feel like I'm already behind and the week just got started! I am so exhausted that I don't have a freebie to share tonight, but if you missed them, check out my Polar Express freebie {HERE}, my Mooseltoe freebie {HERE}, my Snowmen at Christmas freebie {HERE} and my When Santa Lost His Ho! Ho! Ho! freebie {HERE}.

So for day 11 of my Christmas picture book countdown, I chose Who Will Guid My Sleigh Tonight? by Jerry Pallotta.

Via Amazon

This is a fun story about how Santa found the perfect animal to guide his sleigh. Your students should enjoy picturing the other animals that Santa tried. If this books seems familiar, you may have seen some of Pallotta's other books such as, Who Will Be My Valentine This Year? and Who Will Help Santa This Year?

The one reason why I wanted to mention this book is because it talks about reindeer and I just had to mention these adorable reindeer pictures you may have seen floating around Pinterest:

Via ARTventurous

I saw a few other teachers (even Kindergarten!) try these last week and they turned out ADORABLE! It takes a few steps (pencil, pastel, paint the background, paint the nose and scarf, paint the fur) but with patience and support, they will turn out fantastic. If you do it with younger students, make sure to do the step-by-step drawing with them - ARTventurous has great step-by-step instructions (& pictures).

These pictures will be sure to brighten up your classroom bulletin boards!

I just found out a fun Christmas Questionnaire over at Michelle's (Fabulous in First) blog. I guess I'm not too tired to join in and answer a few Christmas questions!

Here are the questions:

Hot Chocolate or Eggnog
100% hot chocolate. I think I might go make some tonight!

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them underneath the tree?
Wrap unless it it something awkward (like a bike. Who on Earth could wrap a bike?).

Colored lights or white?Photo Cards, Letter or Store Bought Card? 

When I was growing up, it was always color. Now, white, white, white!

When do you decorate? 

Way too late. As in, I still do not have a tree or bit of decorations in my house. Hopefully this weekend!

Real or Fake Tree? 

REAL. It always takes me hours to pick out as we go through every.single.tree at the tree lot. I tend to pick out ones that are too tall (roof-scrapin' tall) and wide (can't-see-the-front-door wide), though not quite as big as National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!

What Tops Your Tree? 

Umm - an embarrassing star that I homemade years ago. I think this is the year I'll have to find a new topper.

Favorite Christmas Memories or Traditions? 

So many little things remind me of childhood holidays - getting up way too early to peek at stockings, eating chocolate on Christmas morning, visiting extended family, listening to the same Christmas songs year after year. Some of that we still do, some I've outgrown (ahem, there is no way I'm getting up at 4 a.m. to look at stockings or presents!).

Do you remember your favourite gift as a child?
I was (and still am) a complete bookworm. When I was nine, my aunt and uncle got me FIVE books and I was on top of the moon!

Do prefer giving or receiving? 

Giving all the way. It is such a great feeling! 

What is your favorite Christmas song? 

Oh, there are so many! Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You, Run DMC's Christmas in Hollis, Madonna's Santa Baby spring to mind, but I think my number 1 favourite is Carol of the Bells.

Candy Canes. Yuck or Yum? 

They kind of make me nostalgic, but after the first few licks, no thanks,

Favorite Christmas Movie? 

Home Alone! 

Do you shop online or at stores?

A little of both, but I try to do as much online as possible.

Photo Cards, Letter or Store Bought Card? 

Umm, let's just say I'm not a big card person.

Head on over to Fabulous in First to join the holiday fun!

Funny Face Pumpkins

Is it only Monday, wow I am already exhausted! Tonight was a fun day filled with pumpkins!

After I saw this pin on Pinterest, I knew I had to make these pumpkins, they are just too adorable!

via Art Projects for Kids

I also found a great bulletin board image with these pumpkins that can be found at flickr {HERE}.
**Sidenote** If you are in need of art projects you must check out Art Projects for Kids. It is an amazing resource and a quick browse showed me a ton of fun Halloween projects that I already want to plan!

Frames via Graphics From the Pond

Rather than do a marble paint, I had the kids use orange, green and yellow watercolors and they turned out so adorable. Since we did only a thin layer of paint, they dried fast and we were able to use construction paper to add our eyes, mouths, teeth, stem and grass.

I love projects like this where you give all the kids the same materials and the originality that they come up with is amazing!

By the way, I always see people apologizing for the quality of the iPhone pictures . . . um, I apologize for my camera pictures. I would say that apparently I need to invest in a good quality camera but I am the worst photographer, so give me any camera and the picture will always turn out blurry, grainy and probably crooked!

A Few Lessons with David Shannon

Well I think the Pete the Cat saga has calmed down, though some kids are asking if Pete will come visit us again, and others are still seeing him all over the school.

Friday was a day that consisted of some work and a lot of play. We met our big buddies for the first time and I have to say the kiddos were great listeners as the big buddies read to them. We have been working on our quiet book time and our stamina is now up to 9 minutes - about which we (most of us!) are really excited.

After practicing using our white glue we were ready for our first craft. We started our Rainbow Names - inspired by the fantastic Deanna Jump - on Thursday. And I do mean started. I think I completely underestimated how sore their poor little hands would get from all that tearing and gluing. So we continued that work on Friday and now I think most of the names are finished and ready to display and we're just waiting on two especially careful workers!

We read No, David! and worked on our Eagle Eye strategy. On Friday, we read David Goes to School then created an anchor chart of what we do and don't do at school. The kids were coming up with some great ideas and even mentioned eating healthy food!

By Friday I was EXHAUSTED. Now I'm off to make sure I'm all ready for next week which will be full of colours!

On a total side-note, I just pinned a pin on Pinterest about heating a pan with water vanilla and cinnamon on the stove to make the house smell yummy. I decided to actually try it (unlike with 99% of my pins) and it smells delicious and totally reminds me of fall. Now I've got pumpkin spice lattes, cool weather and Halloween on the brain!

Here comes Halloween!

Well I have had Halloween on the brain since September but now I suddenly feel that it is coming on too fast and it will be over before I know it. I think I am finally ready though.

I have my Halloween unit ready to go:

Plus two Halloween word problem units (one for primary, one for intermediate):

And I just got this new (though I fully realize it is far from new, it is still new to me) book (+ CD) in the mail:

via Amazon

I also have an Art project to share, though I don't have pictures from when I did it (though I probably do on some camera somewhere . . .):

Photo via A Faithful Attempt

All students have to draw is trace a picture in pencil on black construction paper. Go over pencil line with white glue and let dry overnight. Students can then use pastels to colour between the glue lines. These look best when completely coloured in pastel, with only the glue lines showing.

I have seen so much pumpkin art lately and it just seems to be getting cuter and cuter!

Hope everyone had a great Monday!

Art is Important (and a Haunted House)

I had an epiphany today. Art IS important. I have never been an artsy, creative type and in all honesty I probably dreaded Art in school. This attitude has slightly inserted itself into my teaching attitude, though I don't let it show (I hope!) to students. I've realized though, that my attitude probably stems from my lack of artistic skills. You see, I really, really, really want to be a good artist, but I just can't seem to get it together. Whenever I have to draw in front of the class, my doodles always turn out as stick people or stick animals and I have to explain what I am drawing. For some reason though, today everything clicked and I realized that Art is important. And I don't mean cookie cutter, boring art. I mean really teaching students about different art styles, techniques, and materials. Kids need to grow as artists, otherwise they are going to be adults doing the same doodles that I try to pass of as people and animals.

A second thought - I also LOVE it when an idea or project ties together multiple subjects (hello cross-curricular!). Since it's October - and I have Halloween on the brain - I am reminded of a lesson I reviewed for my Art course in university, but have not yet had the option to try. I would love to credit the idea but I have no idea which Art journal I got it from. The lesson ties together art, language arts, and today I thought of a way to incorporate math.

Photo via Creative Juices

The project would work best for older elementary school and lasts about a week or two. At the beginning of each Art period, teachers begin by turning off the lights and reading scary stories about haunted houses (I would have loved this as a student!). The students then use pieces of cardboard to construct their own haunted houses. As the days progress, students add details (shutters, doors, fence, ghosts, pumpkins, whatever) and on the final day, the houses get spray painted black or gray to complete the haunted house formation. Just stopping here, I think the houses would make a fantastic hallway display. Students can then write stories about their haunted house, and post those alongside their haunted house display. To incorporate math, I would have students measure the height, square footage, etc. of their house and find out who constructed the tallest house, the biggest house, etc. Not only do I think this lesson sounds fun (AND gets me excited about Art) but it incorporates 3 different subjects and great skills.

So this may be the direction I need to go in the future. More Art projects that incorporate other subjects and get ME excited about the Art, so I can pass that onto the students. After all, Art is Important.

This Post Has a Point

I love walking the school halls and seeing all the creative bulletin boards that teachers and students have created, but really I'm not that crafty/artistic, especially not as so as some of the students! I do like to find and keep great art lessons, especially ones that can be done with various age groups. So this brings me to the POINT of this post - Pointilism.

Photo via http://www.mrsbrownart.com/1st.htm

I think this website was the first one that gave me the idea, and I have since done pointilism art in Grades 1-5. I don't know who takes there time and enjoys it more, the younger or the older students. I do butterflies in the Spring/Summer and snowmen in the winter, though there are so many different ways pointilism can be used. I really like how this helps students work on fine motor skills and concentration. Whenever I do this, no matter how loud the class is normally, when we first start this, it is silent as students try and concentrate on placing their dots. Students really have to focus on what they are doing, they cannot just scribble. The students that I find concentrate the most are often the most wiggly ones.
In addition, this art can really tie into math and science discussions of patterns, symmetry, and life cycles (wahoo cross-curricular!).
I often provide students with the outline, and have them fill in the pointilism, but it would be great to see students free hand an entire pointilism project.
Would love to hear feedback - let me know if you use pointilism.