Optical Art

This is a handout that I used for my fourth grader Op Art Cubes. I haven't taken pictures of the final product but I drew out most of the handout and found it to be really helpful for the students.

Pocket pots

Tree of giving thanks

In those days right before Thanksgiving when students were all excited for their vacation I decided to have them help me decorate a bulletin board that I had just taken down. I had them draw their hands first and then put their name on the thumb. They had to come up with four things they were thankful for to put into each of their fingers. They were allowed to color and decorate their hands any way they wanted to. I made the tree and branches from scrap construction paper and then had students choose where they wanted their hands placed. They were all very excited to see how it came out the next week they came to class and it looks great in my room!

Firing up my new kiln!!!

It's been almost a year since we moved into the new school. I had this empty kiln room for six months and then my kiln arrived! The vent was installed, the electricity set up, and clay delivered. It was time to start the first clay project. I decided to make "Pocket Pots" with the fourth graders. This was my first time teaching a clay project with 100 students. The pots made it through the bisque firing but I had to call an electrician in to redo the wiring because the kiln could not reach glaze temperatures. Once we get that fixed I will be moving on to clay projects with the third grade!

Classroom mural

I found this project idea on a blog somewhere. I'm going to tag the blogger as soon as I can find them. I had an assistant help me draw out the one of the designs and then I cut each one into 80 pieces. There were enough pieces for four classes. This was a great project to get work up on the walls for my schools open house.