Thankgoodness for Pumpkin Pie!

I love, love, love this kindergarten project. I started doing it three years ago and I do it every year.   One reason I love it is it has circle, square, rectangle, triangle and pattern in one project! I start early so I can do a different part each day.

 First we talk about how to make orange and I put a squirt of red and yellow tempera right on the paper plate. They mix it together and cover the whole plate right up to the edge.

 The next class we trace a large circle and design our plate. The third class we cut our piece of pumpkin pie, and glue crumpled tissue paper, or in a pinch brown paper towel, for the crust. You can also glue the piece of pie to the plate on this day. The last class we cut strips of paper into squares and make a pattern with them around the edge of our place mat. Glue the plate with the pie on it to the place mat and Voila! done. They look so cute hanging or sitting around. I make sure they take them home in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.

School Opening

Well I thought September 7th would never get here. But it finally came and we have been in school 10 days now. There are lots of great things about our refurbished building, an-n-nd there are not so great things. But no matter how small the cabinets and counters are, or the lack of book shelves storage, or no bulletin boards and tack strips that don't work. . . . I am just glad to not be unpacking boxes!

I like to start with some kind of name or initial project so I can start learning who's who. Everyone from Kinder to 4th grade do some line, shape and pattern design on their particular assignment. Here are two kindergarten examples. I make the letters by hand or this time on the computer and have them copied and ready for line designs.

Third grade made the name pennants with all of their own lettering. This was a challenge to make all of the letters fill the space vertically and still have room across horizontally. But they really worked hard and we had some great results!

Fourth grade made initials inside a circle about 8.5 inches in diameter. Pictures to come soon.

Next we start our Native American inspired art. I have been making short PowerPoint's of Native American homes, blanket designs, George Catlin, and more to inspire us. My classes are only 35 minutes, but I have them every other day. So I will be able to discuss and set the stage for a project one day and the next class start in on the "creating" after a quick demo. I think it will work great, I just have to keep an eye on the clock since I used to have 45-60 minutes for a class. ;)

Well that's it for now I promise to post more now that we are up and running. I have to show you my sad storage and boring walls of the art room. :P Sounds like fun huh?