Snow Day Minnesota

Today almost all of MN had no school today due to a blizzard that roared through our state yesterday afternoon throughout today. 1 ft of snow later the thought of spring is non-existent and more cold weather is on our way. As much as I love winter and the extra snow we got I still felt like painting something fun and bright to make it seem like spring could come some day.

Not my usual taste in color, but I love the bright and fun it is!

COLOR!

Painting number 2 and it's a 2-for-1

Now this feels like spring and summer!

Shall we eat out side tonight?

Mosaic Picture Frames

As much as I love my job... I don't mind a day off from work! On these days it's always my goal to make some of my own art. Today's artwork included glass and picture frames! 

I got into glass art and mosaics when I lived in Duluth, MN. Duluth has a big glass warehouse and many glass artists. I even had the opportunity to teach stain glass while student teaching!

Making mosaic glass picture frames: 

Materials:

Cheep frames

Adhesive glue for glass

Glass chipper 

Glass or mirror

Grout 

Ruler

Newspaper

Old brush that can get full of glue

Old rags

Here is a photo of all my materials and what you'll need! 

1. Trace the photo size in the middle of the photo paper in the frame like I did above with blue. You will not put any glass in this area.

2. Find the glass you like and clip it with the glass clippers to the size you prefer.

3.Using the brush, paint some glue onto the glass cover or onto the piece of glass you are adding.

4. Keep adding glass until all the area outside the traced area is full.

5. Let the mosaic dry for at least one day.

Part 2: Grout

6. Mix a cup of grout, and rub over the glass trying not to get grout in the traced area.

7. Let the grout dry for a few minutes and wipe it off using old rags.

8. Wipe glass pieces with a clean rag.

9. Let grout dry completely an add your photo in the frame!

Finished!! Check back in to see my finished mosaic frames from today. I'm guessing it will be a while since I have no grout at the moment.

Olympic Gold Medals

Its clay time in the art room!

I look forward to using clay every year! It's a bummer we can't use clay more than once a year, but it is too expensive for my budget. I can only hope we get to use it next year. Our district is in a process of cutting 1 million dollars and 4 teachers at the elementary level. However, I'm staying positive! 

Our physical education teacher had the COOLEST program I've ever seen to get the kiddos pumped up for the Winter Olympic Games. Each class was given a country participating in the Olympics. Each student decorated a little flag for their country and the United States. We even had our own opening ceremony! Classes entered the gym with their flags while 1 student from each class carried in a large flag for their country. There was music, a podium demonstration, student readers, singing, and some students even modeled Olympic speed skating uniforms (one of our teachers use to be in the Olympics)! While the Olympics are on each classes receive gold, silver, and bronze medals for whatever event their country medals in! For example the art room (France) only has 1 gold medal and 2 bronze medals. Talk about an outstanding learning experience for the students. I think the best part is how the students are cheering on other countries rather than just the USA.

I figured, with all this energy about the Olympics from the kids, what would be more fun than making our own personalized GOLD MEDALS! All this week K-4 got their hands messy and created medals with clay.  All they had to include was the Olympic rings and 2014- the rest was up to them. I had a great smart-notebook presentation with examples of gold medals, and we talked about how artists play an important roll in the Olympics! This is by far one of my favorite lessons for the year! I also showed this video to the kids, which was the perfect lead in for talking about gold medals.

Next week we will paint our medals, let them dry, and add ribbon so student can wear their medals and feel like an Olympic champion! Check back in for pictures! 

Crazy Hair Day

Hastings Reads

Wednesday was crazy hair day in our district to help promote a great event in our community called Hastings Reads. Its a week long event with happenings all over the town! This year the theme is resilience, and one of the focus books is Crazy Hair Day, thus the crazy hair day at school. The kids absolutely loved it, and of course I did too! I figured whats more crazy for an art teacher then using art materials to help out with the crazy hair style? So here you go... my crazy hair!

Color + Wine

Monday was a snowday... aka a cold-day! Most of MN was experiencing -40 to -60 wind chills. I took it upon myself to try and stay inside... and that was a challenge! I started with a big pot of coffee and some painting. 2 hours later I created another painting! A few weeks ago I created a painting for my friend Kristen, to give to her friend as a gift, she wanted a wine themed painting. I started playing around with vibrant colors and movement, the style I love to paint in, and came up with this (above). I loved the look so much I wish I could have kept it for my own kitchen. My goal for this cold-day was to create another variation of this theme. Here is what I created, and I absolutely love it!