The Amazing Dale Wayne

Sixth Graders were inspired by the work of instillation artist Dale Wayne to create a little bit of  community artwork of our very own.

We looked at Dale's work on her website, watched a few video clips, collected bottles then broke out the paint and the glitter.  We painted our bottles with tempera paints mixed with a bit of acrylic gel medium.  While the bottles were still wet we dragged them through glitter and set them aside to dry.

In the next class we cut the bottles into flower shapes, poked a hole into the caps and created extravagant centers for our blooms from sparkle pipe cleaners, straws, and other do-dads from the scrap box.  The bottles can also be doubled up for a fuller flower.  We continued paint, glitter, and working on blooms for three classes and each week added to the mass of flowers on the corner of the bulletin board.
 

Lots of glitzy fun!  But not for the faint of heart.  Make sure to have the broom and the dust pan ready because the glitter was really flying with this one.

We used the cheap dollar store "glitter".  It's big.  It's shiny.  It's all over the place.

To learn more about this artist check out the video.  I can't wait for Christmas...check out her amazing water bottle Christmas Trees at Inspiration Green

Trouble in Blog Land

Big milestone.  I reached my free photo storage limit on Picassa.  I knew I was getting close to the limit, but like Scarlet O'Hara decided I'd think about that tomorrow.  Well, tomorrow came yesterday when blogger refused to allow me to post any more photos.  I don't really want to purchase web storage even if it's really inexpensive because I'm cheap and would rather spend my money on other stuff.  

I figured out that images that are sized 800 pixels and smaller don't count against the limit.  So today I'm going to try uploading smaller images.  Not too excited  loosing all those pixels.  So sad.  I guess it will have to do for the time being until I figure something else out.

Has this happened to anyone else?  What did you do to solve the problem?

Here's our contribution to the 2012 art show.  Enjoy!  

Behind the Scenes

Three months of planning, four days of shooting, 6,000 Post-it Notes.

Rainbow Papers and a Musical Question

Today kindergarten used cake temperas to made these rainbow papers.  We're saving these papers for a special project that we'll start next week.  Kids referenced the color wheel to get the colors in the correct order and really enjoyed making their beautiful papers.  After clean-up,  some students continued to "rainbow" with crayons and on their free draw papers.  Then we gathered on the rug to watch "I See a Song", the Eric Carle Video.

One little girl looked and asked "Is that Tchaikovsky?"

Me:  "How do you know about Tchaikovsky?"

Her:  "Swan Lake"

I checked the credits, but the music is not listed.  Does anyone know what piece this is?  Has anyone else noticed that kindergartners are way smarter than they used to be?  

Log Trucks in Vermont

Butterflies and flowers are not for this group...second grade...all boys except for one lone girl.  Vehicles was our theme but the overwhelming vehicle of choice was the iconic "log truck".  They're a common sight in our town and fascinating to these young men.  Open sides, stacked logs, ladder and best of all...the log grabber are all shown in this print.  A real piece of "kid culture".

Here's our set-up.

Happy Earth Day

Our seed head sculptures sprouted just in time to take them home before spring break.  You can see the complete how-to here.

"Wild Thing....

....You make my heart sing."

Kindergartners continue to use simple shapes to build complex creatures like these monsters inspired by Maurice Sendak's children's classic "Where the Wild Things Are", a childhood "must read".

Vermont Farms and Barns

In Vermont, spring has sprung for the fourth grade artists painting these spring landscapes.  Fourth grade artists work to capture the various greens of the Green Mountain State in springtime and to create the illusion of space by developing a foreground, middle ground and background.  After painting these artists returned with brush and black paint to freshen up the outlines.  I love the bold color and lines.

May Day or Mothers Day a Super Pop-Up Card

Getting ready to try out these super pop-up cards.  They'll be amazing for mothers day.

Pysanka Time

Here is a link to some Free Pysanka Designs with lots of getting started info on this craft.

Here is a link to A Cute Pysanka Project for Kids.