Moving to the middle school!

So here we are almost at the end of September... and I’m just now writing my first blog post!  It’s taken me a bit to get oraganized, as I have made a change this year!  I’ve taught elementary art for 14 years, and even though I’ve taught middle school age students before, this is my first experience at a true middle school. 

Let me start by saying... my room is like a dream! Over the years I’ve had a lot of not-so-roomy art rooms, as well as nonexistent rooms 😂 when I had to teach on a cart.   I’ve ALWAYS been split between two schools, which is another world of challenges and have shared my classroom with other classes and after school programs as well. It still feels so strange to go to the same school every day! 

While I greatly miss the staff at my two elementary schools, the staff at the middle school is also completely amazing, and I feel so blessed to be able to work with such a fantastic group of teachers.  An extra bonus? I know 2/3 of the students from my two elementary schools! It has been so neat to see them all again! I thought I’d share a few pics of my room that I took before school started!

I have a bulletin board outside my room and TONS of tack strips for artwork in the hallways, which are already FULL of some amazing stuff! I’ll share those soon!

Does it get much better than being able to decorate with all the colors at once?! :)

Art Camp 2018!!

Each summer in July I have the opportunity to teach art camp for kids in our community.  The camp is sponsored by the Stanly County Arts Council. You can find out more about them at stanlycountyartscouncil.org including information about our camp! Over the course of 4 days, campers ages 6 to 12 rotate through 4 classes each day which include art, theatre, music, and dance.  This year we did 2 separate weeks of camp. Our paintings included some pretty amazing zebras, giraffes, sea turtles, and toucans!

We were also asked by the City of Albemarle to decorate 3 benches to be placed around the town! So if your child attended camp this year, they made have had a part in the decorating! 

We had an awesome time and can't wait for next year!!!

Gumball machines!

We are learning about Wayne Thiebaud in my classes this week and Kindergarten is working on these fabulous gumball machines!  I showed them a short little video clip about Thiebaud and also focused on his painting called "Three Machines."  We drew these together and talked more about exactly HOW to stay inside the lines when coloring.  They are doing a fantastic job!!!

Finished pinecone paintings!

4th and 5th grade are finishing up their amazing pinecones this week.  I'm thrilled with how these turned out.  Students did an excellent job learning to shade with color and they look so realistic.  This will definitely be a repeated project for next year!

This one is still in progress but she was doing such a great job I had to post it as well.