Van Gogh Sunflowers

 

If you don't know about the Art of Ed website, you don't know what you are missing! They have wonderful lesson plans. One that I really like to do with my kindergarten and first graders is Van Gogh Sunflowers click here for your free download. While there check out what else they have!

I start off this lesson by showing my students a photo of Dali's Basket of Bread. We talk about how we can see the basket, however we can't feel the texture of the basket. Then I pass a wicker basket around for students to feel. We then continue the discussion of texture you can feel and texture you can see. I show students some examples that I made of visual texture on a board along with the actual texture next to it.

 I read them van Gogh and the Sunflowers. I also share a calendar of van Gogh's art where the photos are large enough to see the wonderful texture in his work.

Then I take them step by step through the directions. They glue the black paper to the bottom of the orange paper. I did change out the directions for the vase as I showed them how to fold the paper to make it symmetrical.

 

 I encouraged students to try ripping the paper, but not everyone was happy with that concept.

 

 

 We used a glue stick for most of the gluing and liquid glue for the tissue paper and seeds.

 

 And of course, children were instructed to sign their name along the middle of the vase, just like van Gogh.

Still loving the storyboard presentation. Have any of you tried teaching your lesson with a storyboard?

2015 Blog of the Year contest

I am so very excited and extremely honored to announce that:

I am one of NINE finalists, all of which, have wonderful art blogs, that have been nominated in

 the Rising Star Category in the Art of Ed's annual contest!!!

If you have read and enjoyed my blog, please consider voting for it HERE!

And while you're there, check out the blogs in all the other categories.

I have met and admire many of these wonderful bloggers!

So check it out and please VOTE!!

Thanks!!!!

Presenting at the FAEA Conference

Look! Listen! And Learn! was the workshop I presented first thing on Thursday morning, which was the first day of the conference. It wasn't quite as well attended as I had hoped for, but, there were a lot of choices for that time slot. Anyway I thought it went really well.

I started off with the above slide of my power point. On the tables were different words from the list below. This activity is called Conversation Starter and was a way to get some discussions going about the art work shown on the screen. It will help students to learn the correct vocabulary to use when discussing art.

  

Next we did the activity You Be the Critic.

 You can read about how well it went when I did it with my 4th graders here.

Then we were Curating with Postcards.

 

Blogged about doing this with my students here. 

Then I did this activity that I had never done with my students. See the photo on the left for the steps.

 

 

Each person was given an envelope (with a number on it) inside was a postcard of a painting, tracing paper and different colored index cards. I posted the steps, on the power point, one at a time, giving people a few minutes to respond. After all the directions were given people grouped together according to the number on their envelopes. Then they had a discussion based on what they had written down on their index cards. I believe they were a bit surprised to find when they were grouped together it was because they all had the SAME postcard.  

The workshop was scheduled for 2 hours and I am happy to say that the 4 activities I choose worked really well in that time frame. I was able to give out goodies from Faber-Castell, they also provided a door prize for both of my presentations. My suitcase weighed a ton with all the swag I packed.

Also gave out pins from the Art of Ed and included some info about The Baker Museum and Traveling Exhibits.  To get the goodies I gave out, I emailed representatives  from those companies beforehand.

 

My presentation on blogging which I titled Born to Blog on Friday was very well attended. I used the power point that I made for the Carousel of Bloggers that I was a part of at the NAEA in New Orleans. I did add a few informational slides that were helpful for actually starting a blog.

 

There was a lot of great feedback from people and I hope I inspired a few of them to start their own blog.

I really enjoyed presenting.  I attended a President's Reception and got to mingle with Karen Noble, our outgoing President, and our new President Nicole Crane along with the other presenters. I even got this awesome certificate and a nice thank-you note.

And on another note- My niece, who is a math teacher up north, decided to Google: Storybook Character Costumes for Teachers and look what she found! ME in the second row! You can learn how I made that costume here  and what book inspired it! 

 

Thanks for reading!! Would love to hear from people who have presented at conferences. What did you present? How was your experience? Would you do it again?

AOE Online Summer Conference

 Last Thursday, I spent the day in my nightgown, attending an art conference, online in my sewing/art room. I enjoyed the flexibility and the comfort in which I could do this. I even got an AWESOME swag box in the mail.

 

The conference was given by the Art of Education (AOE). If you have not heard of this incredible website you need to check it out.  Behind this brilliant idea is Jessica Balsley, an art teacher who realized that there JUST wasn't enough professional development available. Sooooo Jessica created some. What started out as a blog, turned into a site filled with lesson plans, articles, online classes AND the Summer Conference I attended last week. Positively BRILLIANT!

The AOE team, headed by Jessica has attended the NAEA (National Art Educators Association) conferences. This photo was taken of me with Jessica at NOLA (New Orleans, site of the 2015 NAEA conference) this past March.

At the same time they also hosted a gathering for blogging art teachers.  It was a SUPER opportunity to hobnob with the writers of several blogs that I follow. LOTS of FUN!

Not sure how I originally found out about The Art of Ed. I think I was on Google looking for some inspiration for an art lesson. I loved what I saw and signed up for info.

They have been doing two conferences a year and the first one I attended was in the winter of 2014. I felt the connection was spotty and since you receive an after pass, good for 6 months, to view the presentations I decided go back and do that. The 2014 Summer Conference I did at my leisure, with the after pass, as I was out of town at the time. After pass again for the 2015 Winter Conference because I was tied up with something.

Last Thursday I decided to do the 2015 Summer Conference at the time it was being broadcast. AND I'm glad I did! I don't know if it was my new laptop or the AOE upped their resolution but it played out beautifully. And I enjoyed it immensely!

 

When you initially look at the schedule you think, okay which presentations do I want to see? Then you say to yourself OH NO there are conflicts I WANT TO DO ALL OF THEM!! Well, the GOOD NEWS is that you can view EACH and EVERY ONE of them! The schedule is actually the order in which each presentation is given. They each run about 8-12 minutes and are focused and informative. You also have access to handouts and the opportunity to ask questions and chat with others during the broadcast. AWESOME, right?

It was very relevant to those of us that teach art, as they had presenters from elementary to high school. And you could learn something from everyone.

There were 19 presentations with an after pass that included 5 more. I plan to just highlight a few of them or I'd have a really long post!!!

One that I was really looking forward to was Nic Hahn's Artist Trading Cards or ATC.  Mrs. Hahn has the blog Mini Matisse and this link will take you to a short video on teaching students what QUALITY art is using  ATCs.  I loved it and couldn't wait to see her presentation.

Had fun meeting Mrs. Hahn at NOLA!

Another presentation: How to Teach Restoration at School by Miriam Pateemoster was really, really interesting. (Clicking on her name will bring you to her blog.) I believe teaching restoration is or will be part of our art curriculum. I was fascinated with how much info was presented. And how important restoration is.

There was a presentation on team work with Ian Sands and Melissa Purtee. The part I liked was how to decide on something as a team. Apparently each person is assigned energies or votes. So let's say you have 3 different suggestions to decide on and you get 5 votes. Suggestion 1 may get 2 of your votes, suggestion 2 may get none of your votes and suggestion 3 may get 3 of your votes. Everyone's votes get added up and suggestions get eliminated until you have something the whole team agrees with. Pretty clever!

Julie Davis from Dick Blick (click on their name to link to their videos) always demos a great project and the swag box always contains the goodies to make it. Also met Julie at NOLA. I was a busy girl!

I enjoyed Laura Lohman's presentation on using different strategies to make some crazy/good painted paper. Cassie Stephens presented on School Wide Collaborations-Those ideas just knocked my socks OFF! LOVED them!

There were presentations on classroom management and managing the clutter! Using a kiln and not blowing anything up, using air dry clay because there is NO kiln! (Imagine that?) Making a rubric, getting art out in the community and much, much MORE!! Mind blowing!!!

Cost for this conference???? Early Bird registration got you the conference for $89 and guaranteed you a swag box. After a certain date it was $109 and maybe swag boxes were left. Day of event $125 and no way was there any swag to be had.  There were around 1900 people signed up and 1500ish boxes sent out. And this box was filled with incredible stuff-best one yet!

SOOOO get on their mailing list, learn a bunch of great stuff by reading their articles and checking out their lesson plans AND be READY to sign up for their next conference!!!

Thanks for reading!!

Packing To Return

 After what felt like forever, but, in fact was only 2 years I am packing to return to my school.  I have mentioned in passing that my school has been undergoing renovations. Turns out art has been moved to a new location on campus along with music. We will BE housed in a Fine Arts building! I will be getting a NEW kiln, tables, chairs, storage shelves, desk, AND updated technology. AND admin is getting everything I put on my wish list! Wish list included new artist posters, art career posters, clay boards, drawing manikins and stuff I don't remember! Hahaha, it will be like Christmas morning when I unpack!
 
In the mean time I'm packing my little heart out! I started a few months ago, so as not to be overwhelmed. But....... I forgot final grades were due today and ended up staying late. Sigh.....

 

 

So far I have packed what apparently amounts to 3 pallet loads according to my new plant manager.
I don't believe that I have much more to do-but I'm pretty sure I'm underestimating it! 

Anyway I read a really great article from the Art of Ed: 8 Helpful tips for packing up your entire art room.  Worth the read if you are packing for a move. I have already implemented #7 and have a box set up for the first week of school! Gonna do self portraits! First week AND again at the end of the school year. Read of several art teachers who do that and think it's an awesome idea.

Had my first give a way-AND the winner is Angel Holmes! 
Thank you for all the wonderful comments!

Want to show off this years masks. Directions here.

 

 One of which inspired one of my little kindergarten students to copy.

 

I have also started a face book page Primarily Art with Mrs. Depp I am hoping to write about little inspirational artsy things. Also, hopefully it will be a way to communicate with students and their families.

Thanks for reading!
 


 

Carousel of Bloggers

Elementary Carousel of Learning: Teacher Art Blogs- WOW! It was a blast!
From left to right is Laura Lohmann of Painted Paper, Phyllis Brown Levine of There's a Dragon in my Art Room, Cassie Stephens of What the Art Teacher Wore, Jen Dahl of Jen Dahl's Art Room and me, Sheryl Depp.

 The room was set up with tables, with a different blogger at each table. The way it worked was similar to speed dating. You would enter the room, choose a table to sit at, listen to a short presentation and then move on to the next table.

 

   

By the end of the session you had the opportunity to meet and learn something different from each of us. Since I was so busy talking, I didn't get to listen and learn from all the other bloggers in the room.

   

   

But I believe Phyllis spoke about navigating around the tabs of your blog. Cassie spoke about finding your passion and then writing about it. Jen got into the technology of setting it up and I went into my thought process on how I got started.

 

 

 

The event was overwhelmingly  successful and was attended by other established bloggers. I got to meet Nic Hahn from Mini Matisse. She has me linked on her blog AND as soon as I figure that out, I will be making a list of bloggers for you all to check out!

 

 

This wonderful event was coordinated and hosted by Nancy Walkup editor of School Arts Magazine.

AND later that same day...............

The Art of Education had a Blogger Meet Up! AMAZING!!

I am feeling incredibly inspired by all the wonderful people I met during the 2015 NAEA conference.

OH AND I ALSO GOT TO MEET THE "SELFIE" LADY!!!

 Last November, my blog was inspired by a video from The Art of Ed summer conference on Selfies.

What person has inspired you?

Now I'm gonna get some rest, so that I can get back into the real world and return to work tomorrow!!

Thanks for reading!!!