SILENCE!!!

The past two weeks have caused a great wave of burnout on me. So, obviously, I have taken a break from all the art posts. I've been working so hard. I've been working so hard that now I have gotten sick. I have almost completely lost my voice (hence the silence title), I have a sore throat and cough, among other things! I left school early today because I was about to fall over. It was incredibly hard teaching children when you've lost most of your voice. I'm SO glad that it's Friday! I do need a break more than anything right now.

I'm off to watch my tivo-ed Ghosthunters episodes now.

Still here!

I officially have internet at my apartment now. I'm still busy student teaching, and I have been a bit sick, but nothing serious. Don't give up hope in me. I will try to have a post that is actually GOOD and worth reading sometime in the next few days. :)

Rough Week

It has been a rough week for me. It's not easy being an Art Teacher. So forgive me for the lack of posts. I need to take a breather and relax for the evening... after such a long week.

Just have to say...

I know I have already made a post since Valentine's day, but I just felt the need to write about what a wonderful one I had. I usually don't make too big of a deal about Valentine's day, but this year my boyfriend went all out!

I had finished my day of teaching and went over to his apartment around 5:00 PM. We had talked on the phone before that about where we wanted to go out to eat. When I got to his apartment, we continued to have this conversation. So, I was sitting at the computer, when he got up and went to the stove, and pulled some barbeque chicken out of the oven! He had cooked me dinner. We had barbeque chicken, steak fries, and biscuits, and it was great. He totally surprised me.

That's not all!!!

So after dinner we were watching television and he was saying things to me such as, "That's all I got you for Valentine's day" . . ."You're not getting anything else"; Things of that nature....and then a few minutes later he told me that he was going to take me to the mall and let me pick out an outfit, and then next week he's going to take me to a fancy place to eat (lol). So, we went to the mall, I got a super awesome outfit, and I was perfectly content with my Valentine's day.

That's not all!!!

After we got back from the mall, I went back to my apartment to take a shower, so I wouldn't have to get up so early the next morning to take one. So, after my shower, I went back to my boyfriend's apartment because I was going to stay the night. When I got there, he was in the shower, so I took my things to his bedroom. When I entered his bedroom, all of the lights were off and he had lit candles all over the room! I didn't notice at first because it was dark, but he also had this big kettle with water in it, sitting in the floor, with flowers, and beside the flowers were two big boxes of my favorite Nestle Turtle candy!

I was just so shocked and amazed and still am. No one has ever did anything like that for me before, and I don't think he knows how appreciative I am of him. I know this post would have been much more appropriate on Valentine's day, but hey, this is the best I can do!

This painting by Marc Chagall is titled Birthday, but I still think it's very appropriate for this post considering it's subject matter.

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter and printmaker. His art was primarily Expressionistic in style. His best known painting is The Scream (below), which was painted in 1893. Much of Munch's art revolves around the themes of life, love, fear, death and melancholy.
This is thought to be because he experienced a great amount of death and loss in his life.

The Scream

Puberty


Vampire


Death in the Sickroom

Http://wikipedia.com

Let's Try This Again... Pierre-Auguste Renoir!!!

The snow and ice has been falling, and I can only say, that I am absolutely loving being a student teacher right now. I could get used to these snow days. Anywho, I suppose I should get to the point...

Renoir was a French artist who was born on February 25, 1841 and died on December 3, 1919. He was one of the main artists in the Impressionist movement. Below are some of his works.

Girls at the Piano


The Swing


The Theater Box


Dance at the Moulin Galette


Girl with a Cat

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was working on this post about Renoir.  I've been sitting here for the past 15 minutes to get it to work, but blogger just doesn't want to work with me today.  I cannot get anything to work right, so maybe tomorrow!!!!  What's the deal blogger?

One Line Only

Credits for this lesson go to the Art Curriculum Activities Kit by Barbara McNally Reuther and Diane Enemark Fogler.

Materials needed:

• Pencils
• Erasers
• White paper
• Assorted think and thin markers

Directions:

1. This is a lesson in creative problem solving. The goal is to create a picture using only one type of line - a straight one.
2. Begin by lightly sketching your idea in pencil on the white paper.
3. Next, beging to fill in your picture with lines. You will have to alternate the length, the width, and the direction of your lines in order to make your drawing visible.
4. Keep in mind that you can use think and thin lines, lines that are close together or far apart, lines that alternate in directions, and lines that create curves!
   

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954) was a French artist. He briefly studied impressionism before settling into his own movement, known as Fauvism. Fauvism is known for its painterly qualities and strong, bold color values. Fauvism was a short-lived style, beginning around 1900 and ending around 1910.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauvism

Here are some works by Henri Matisse:

Portrait of Madame Matisse


Woman with a Hat

Soon

New post coming soon!

Jackson Pollock's "Action Painting"

Today I feel like posting some Jackson Pollock art. Small children love to look at Jackson Pollock art.

Don't forget to take a look at my post from yesterday, which includes a lesson plan for Secondary Colors.

Now onto Jackson Pollock:

Galaxy, 1947


Lavender Mist, 1950


Blue Poles No. 2

And lastly...

JACKSON IN ACTION!!!

Secondary Colors

For next week, I am going to be teaching Kindergarten and Second Grade classes a lesson about Secondary Colors.

The students will create a collage using tissue paper that resembles Mains Aux Fleurs by Pablo Picasso. This tissue paper they use will only be that of the secondary colors.

Materials needed:

• Reproduction of Mains Aux Fleurs by Pablo Picasso
• Green, Violet and Orange Tissue Paper
• White Paper
• Crayons/Oil Pastels
• Scissors
• Glue


• IN ADDITION FOR SECOND GRADE:
• Watercolor paint
• Brushes
• Watercups

Process:
1. Briefly review what primary colors are with students.
2. Tell students what the secondary colors are and show them on screen.
3. Show students an example of a collage they are going to create during this project, and show how it is similar to Picasso’s painting.
4. Give students white paper and crayons/oil pastels.
5. The first thing students are going to do is trace their hand, wrist and part of forearm on white paper. Then, they are to use oil pastels or crayons to color it with the color of their skin.
6. Next, give them scissors and instruct them to cut their hand/arm out.
7. After this step, show students how to take their cutout hand shape and fold the knuckle joint on all fingers and thumb. Give them glue, and have them glue their hand down so it looks like their hand is going to hold flowers.
8. Next, give students green tissue paper and have them cut out stems for their flower. When they get the stems cut out, instruct them to glue them on their cutout hand so it looks like their hand is holding the stems.
9. For the next step for Kindergarten, give them green, violet and orange tissue paper. Have them cut or tear several shapes to make petals for their flowers, They will then glue the petals and create a flower.
10. For the next step for Second grade, give them white paper, watercolor paints and brushes. Before giving them tissue paper, have them make their own paper using the secondary colors of the paint, by painting on their white paper. Have them cut their petals shapes out from their painted paper, and then give them the secondary colors of tissue paper and have them cut their shapes out from that. Allow them to glue all their shapes down to create a flower.
11. At the end of the lesson, review with students what the secondary colors are and what a collage is.




Teacher sample:

Week One is Done!

I survived my first week of student teaching. I think I have already decided that I do not want to teach elementary!!! Thank goodness for P-12 certification! I hope I find a high school job. I guess I shouldn't base all of that just on one week thouh.

I taught Kindergarten today. They were little devils, but still cute. I'm so sleepy right now I can't even type. I will probably post a lesson plan that I'm doing next week either tonight or tomorrow. We'll see!!!