aww thanks...

Aww I feel so special. ReArtingDotNet Blog like my journal page enough to put it on their Mosaic Monday post.  Mine is the first one with the apples and orange background.  Lots of pretty pictures....

One World One Heart-- Blog Hop and Giveaway

One World One Heart

One World One Heart was created in 2007 by Lisa Swifka as an event hosted to connect bloggers with one another.  Each of the blogs participating hosts a giveaway.  You can find a list of participants/blogs here.  


This year, I am participating!  Welcome to anyone who has stopped by my blog through this blog hop.


Here's a little about me:  My name is Marcia.  I am a K-6 Art teacher in Madison, WI.  I'm 31 years old, have a husband named Andrew and adorable little 1 year old named Daria.  My blog features mostly things about art teaching, collage making, art journaling and so forth.  I do a lot of my own mixed media art.  


As part of the blog hop, we offer a giveaway to people who stop by.  Anyone who currently reads my blog or visits this post can sign up.  All you have to do is leave your email address in the comment if you are interested in winning.  I will randomly pick one winner to win this book: How to Make a Journal of Your Life. It is a tiny book, but a fun little read.  One winner will randomly be chosen Feb. 17.  Thanks for stopping by!!!  

Pipe Cleaner Weaving

 

We made this with my first grade class.  I took mat board, and the kids stapled their own pipe cleaners to the ends and then weaved in yarn, ribbons and feathers.  The kids did a great job on their weavings, but I think I like this technique better. 

Collage Journal Pages

 

Many of these are pages in progress and I'm trying to figure out what to do with them.  For now they are saved in my journal, waiting for another day. I have a bunch of photographs I "warped" with bleach spray which I may put on top of the pages.  We'll see...

Sketchbook Pages

Sketchbook Pages

These are two pages I made while "taking" the online Strathmore Visual Journaling Course.  Pam Carriker led us through the process of using photocopies of some of our old collages, cutting them up and adding layers of gesso and paint prints.  The top one uses portions of old collages and the bottom page does not.  With the bottom page, I started by painting circular shapes with watercolor paints.  I did some writing with white pens and smears of chalk pastels.  The black lines are made with a thin Sharpie paint pen.

I am reading this book called "Circle of Simplicity" which is above more simple, mindful living and trying to back away from the lure of consumption.  It is a fascinating book which really has started to resonate with me as I have become more and more disgusted by consumer culture/advertising/tv.  I am lured into things (such as fun cameras), but on the other hand it seems every time I turn around I read about someone buying something else they don't need (like on facebook).  We are obsessed with our gadgets, tvs, computers, buying more and using more.  Anyways, this book is about trying to break away from that.  Not totally denying consumer culture or pop culture, but trying to really think more deeply about everything we buy and use and how we spend our time.  So the words on the collage above are inspired from that book and e.e. cummings.  "Today is the sun's birthday!"  I love that line..  it's about embracing the day and the life.  HE is all around us.  above and below and all around. 

Pointillist Trees

 

The 3/4s painted Pointillist Trees.  They have studied trees in Science.  We learned about the artist Georges Seurat by reading Scholastic Art magazine.  Students identified and described Pointillist paintings.   They created a Pointillist painting of trees showing dimension and form by color mixing.  Tips:  use the back end of the paintbrush, a q-tip or a small brush.  Keep the size of the paper small (9x12" is plenty).

Grandma Moses Landscapes -- 2nd Grade

The goals for this project are to

• Classify artworks as landscape, still-life or portrait.

• Identify and use foreground, middle ground, and background in two-dimensional works of art.

• Use size relationships and simple depth techniques to show space in an artwork.

We learned about the artist Grandma Moses and created a winter collage using various materials.  We read a couple books about Grandma Moses and looked at her artwork.

These are two books about Grandma Moses which are great for this project:












Grandma Moses (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)

Steps:  Day One-- I teach this as a step by step project so the kids don't get confused.

1.  Cut a mountain range from gray paper.  Tear a white piece of paper for the snowy ground.  Glue to a blue background.

2.  Draw and cut out houses.  Small houses go in the background, medium sized houses in the middle, largest houses in the foreground to create the illusion of depth.  Draw details on the houses with crayons.

Day Two:  Add more details with crayons:  animals, people playing in the snow, river or road (showing depth by going back into space), etc.

Day Three:  Paint trees and white snow with watercolor paints.  Finish up any remaining details. 

Kindergarten Penguins

The kindergartners are studying penguins in their classroom, so we made penguins out of model magic modelling compound.  One trick to get the parts to stick better is to use just a bit of regular hand lotion on your hands to make the model magic just a bit softer and squishier.  Then, we made a triorama and decorated the background for a habitat. 

One thing I like about the trioramas is that it's a good way for the kids to think three-dimensionally, but if you are pressed for space, they stack up nicely while they are in progress.

I used black and white colors. 


I also read the kids this awesome book that just happened to be on display at the public library when I went in there last week.  It is a fun story about penguins.  Plus, the pictures are really interesting. 

Kaleidoscope book winner

True Random Number Generator  Result: 1

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Pam Speaker you are the winner.  Please email me your address!  you can email marciadotcom @ yahoo . com (no spaces).  Congrats!

Pam Speaker said...

This sounds like a neat book! I'm a first year teacher and new to blogging! I find myself looking for books often to spark creativity in my lessons and in the art room. This giveaway is a great idea :]

 

Question for you all

For those of you who sell prints of your artwork or your own original photographs (like on Etsy or at shows) where do you get them done?  or do you do it yourself? 

Book Giveaway

If you're interested in signing up for a chance to win a book see this post.  Just post a comment there.  Last chance to sign up!!!

Blog Love and Another Giveaway

A blog I recently discovered :  Talking to Volcano

Another big favorite blog of mine:  Grrlscrap

I'm having another giveaway of a book I no longer look through.  The book is:  Kaleidoscope: Ideas & Projects to Spark Your Creativity   If you are interested, post a comment here and then I will randomly choose a winner on Tuesday.  Sign up by MONDAY!


Also a link to the blog that has linked to me and has given me the most traffic this week... That Artist Woman  Thank you!

Geometric and Organic Shape Collage, Kindergarten

Shape Collages-- The kindergartners learned about geometric and organic shapes.  We  read a book called When a Line Bends, a Shape Begins. We made a shape collage using cut construction paper.  Lines and shapes were added with marker.

art critique

At a loss for words at your next art critique, check out this handy dandy art critique generator!  ha haha

Book Winner!

True Random Number Generator   Min:1   Max: 9 Generate...  Result: 6

jenplusfive  YOU ARE THE WINNER!!  Send me your address.  You can send it to marcia @ eagleschool.org

Crusade #47

Another challenge I recently discovered is Michelle Ward's street team crusade.  There is a new technique every month and then you post your results.  This month the challenge is "It's a Wrap".  You are supposed to incorporate wrapping paper, tags or cards into your artwork.  This is some Christmas wrapping paper, combined with my own drawing and painting.

Overall, for an experiment I am fine with how they turned out.  I would like to have been able to glue down the wrapping paper without it wrinkling.  Plus, the wrapping paper on the bottom two are kind of cutesy, but that's all we had left!  :)   On the first one, I tried to replicate the swirly patterns from the wrapping paper using watercolor.

Last chance!

Last chance to sign up for this random giveaway of an art book.  See this post to sign up. I will choose a winner tomorrow.

Egyptian profile paintings--4th/5th grade

Egyptian Profile Paintings:The 4/5s have studied ancient Egypt in their social studies class.  In Art class, they are using the standard proportions of the human face to draw each other in profile.  Then, they are adding typical ancient Egyptian headdresses, clothes and jewelry to their portraits.  Finally, they are drawing some hieroglyphics to finish the picture.

Sketchbook Pages

"highly prized" drawings for the Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Pages

This last one will have text added to it later probably.

Woot Woot!! Art Book Giveaway!!

In honor of reaching 100 followers on this blog, which in my opinion is really darn cool, I'm going to do a series of giveaways.  In the spirit of sharing, decluttering and passing things on to good homes, please participate if you are interested in the giveaway offered.  As an art teacher, subscribing to magazines, purchasing books, receiving other people's art books and always being on the look out for good sales, I end up with way more things than I need.  My goal this year is to use what I have and move some of the things out of my house.   My first giveaway is for this book:

If you are interested in painting watercolors of subjects that are typical to greeting cards, you would like this book. I enjoyed flipping through it and looking at her step by step designs. This book was in my Dad's art book stash which he consolidated and gave a bunch of them to me.

If you are interested, please post a comment and tell me what subject matter you like to paint the most or what you are interested in painting (if you don't already do so).  I will randomly select someone from the comments to win.