The Tree Lady - Art with Nature

The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever Hardcover by H. Joseph Hopkins(Author),Jill McElmurry(Illustrator)

         My friend Alyson Low, the amazing children's librarian @ the Fayetteville Public Library (which by the way if you have never been too...is AMAZING) introduced me to this book.  It is a wonderful NON-Fiction book about Kate Sessions and her story of turning San Diego from desert to a lush green environment.  It is a beautiful story and fabulous illustrations.  I have 2 groups of students working on pieces with this.  One group is doing their version of the cover of the book.  It was a great lead into teaching PERSPECTIVE in art.  You can see their beginnings here.  I also decided to have them take actual PHOTOS of each other from up above to collage into their watercolor pieces.  They selected books to look like they were reading in their art work.  Yes...I'm all giddy already!

And even better is what KINDERGARTEN is going to do with the book.  I love the first page of the book where it talks about Kate using nature to create artwork and get her hands dirty.  This week my kinder artist will be using nature to paint their backgrounds...and finishing their pieces with a muddy hand print right on top.  Yep...I will probably pull my hair out...but how stinking cute it will be!

Well...I had left over paint that my kinders used today.  But I have already made changes for tomorrow.  I really want to just use shades of GREEN for the backgound nature printmaking.  Then do the muddy handprints on top.  I have my fingers crossed...and my room is a disaster!!  And our custodians are not real happy with me right now, :).

Working on some Silent Auction pieces...

 

Elmer & the Rainbow art coming soon!!

Here are the some of our Elmer pieces we have been working on continued.  We used Kenn Nesbitt's poem.  2nd grade wrote the poem around the edges.  1st grade wrote "Elephant by ___" and Kg glued the poem on the back.   These are continued from our earlier Rembrandt and the elephants post.

We did a paint and scrape rainbow using our rulers which was messy, fun and look really cool!
Here is  the book Rosie's Rainbow by Ron Dubren for a great compare and contrast to Elmer on you tube:
http://youtu.be/_fa8gRfP3Hs

My Elephant

My elephant thinks I'm wonderful.
My elephant thinks I'm cool.
My elephant hangs around with me
and follows me into school.

My elephant likes the way I look.
He thinks that I'm fun and smart.
He thinks that I'm kind and generous
and have a terrific heart.

My elephant thinks I'm brave and bold.
He's proud of my strength and guts.
But mostly he likes the way I smell.
My elephant thinks I'm nuts.

--Kenn Nesbitt



Football 8th Grade Highlight #81!!

My cute 8th grader #81 and his great 2 point conversion last night!  His first highlight clip!  :)  Go Caden!!  and Go Pioneers!!
Just had to share!

Elephants & Rembrandt

We are doing our study of Rembrandt now in my classes and we are now focusing on his sketches of Hansken the Elephant.  We are really picking his piece apart and discussing line, shading and how to sketch.  The students are doing pretty well with it.  Some are having a bit of frustration with the actual sketches because I am not doing a "how to" draw it.  I want it to be their piece.  But overall...I am loving them.

We looked at Suda the elephant that has been trained to paint.  Link at the bottom.  Power point to come.

K-2 is doing their elephants with the book Elmer and the Rainbow.  Elmer is a patchwork elephant, so I gave them the grid sheet to draw their elephants onto.  I did do a how to for this age level, but told them it was optional.  Their elephants have such character to them and they make me smile.
We are going to paint & scrape the rainbows next week to collage our elephants on along with an elephant poem by the author Kenn Nesbitt.  Kenn is coming to our school Oct 1 to do a poetry workshop so we are using his poems in our art room.

3-6 are doing their sketches on a sheet torn out of an old dictionary.  We are just getting started...more to come!

Adding poetry by author Kenn Nesbitt to our pieces now.  Kenn is coming to do a school visit Oct. 1 and we are super pumped for poetry!  I had the poem printed on strips of paper and before I even discussed it, I just passed the poems in the middle of the table.  They all picked them up and started reading...and I didn't even make them!  WOO HOO!  Love it.  Now they are working on creating a creative layout to include their elephant & poem for the final piece.  Can't wait to show you...

http://youtu.be/VQYEVQ4w7nw This is the you tube link to watch Suda the Elephant  paint a self portrait.  Pretty Amazing!

Power point presentation here:
3-6:  http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/huskeyj72501-1930808-artist-elephant/
K-2:  http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/huskeyj72501-1938559-rembrandt-elmer-elephant/

MORE Stonehenge with a twist! LOVE CREATIVE Kiddos!

  Here are a few more of our Stonehenge pieces.  You can see the how too at the other Stonehenge post below.  Power point is also there for you to use.