Monday, January 11, 2016

Jim Dine Hearts: Valentines is Around the Corner!

 JIM DINE

Looking for some great resources to do a February themed art lesson?

Not looking for holiday art projects but interested in teaching an artist who uses symbols that connect to a particular holiday or theme?

Than Jim Dine is your answer for February and Valentines Day!

Here are two great resources to use with your students! There is a power point and lesson plan activity in addition to a great informational worksheet.


visit my store, The Magnificent Paintbrush for these resources and many more!




Power Point and Lesson
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jim-DineExploring-the-1670634
Worksheet
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jim-Dine-Informational-Worksheet-1942759

Happy New Year to all the Snow Lovers!

 Happy New Year and belated Christmas! I wanted to share these darling homes in the winter snow. We are missing out on snow this year and have not seen any yet! Boy what a winter this has been here in Pennsylvania! Warm weather galore, which is nice too :)

This was inspiration from a children's book I crossed paths with in the Library. These were done in oil pastel and we used a toothbrush and some white tempera paint for the snowy effect. We were missing the cold and snow this year, so this brought students joy and a reminder!

Do you get your art lesson ideas and inspiration from books?

SMORE: Newsletters to invigorate and simplify life!


As an art educator, I have used my skills of creativity, technology integration and my own research to now teach a successful and integrated course to students grades 2-6. After retirements and moving around positions, I now teach elementary art and an elementary class to grades 2-6 called Visual Communications (yes, I cam up with the name of the course).

I am not sure how many art educators out there are being introduced to technology or how you integrate it into your classrooms. Google has become a big part of our districts communication with our students, staff, and faculty. Not only do I have the duties of an art educator, but I also am a technology arts teacher, I coordinate professional learning opportunities using technology to my colleagues, I coordinate our building technology meetings and I am part of our districts technology committee. Both positions have challenged me in many ways but it has been such an exciting and invigorating experience to learn new ways of learning, new ways to teach, and new ways to grow. This ability of being creative shines in new ways and it has opened my eyes to new ways to teach my students Art and Design. Because I have an array of resources and research to share with my colleges, there is this fabulous site I wanted to share with you all called Smore. It is a digital newsletter that has quick, easy, and organized layouts which allows you to list, bullet, and summarize information adding videos, articles and links to quickly use as a resource and to get information our quick and easy. It tracks your visitors and it is just AWESOME!

Please check it out, it would make a great way to share Art News as a department or just a cool newsletter you can send out to students for updates and inspiration.

What will you SMORE?!


Here is a link to my own personal Smore Newsletter for my district. Enjoy!
https://www.smore.com/faf2p

Nutcrackers: Art Around the World, Next Stop is Germany!


This was the perfect time of year to do a lesson on the Nutcracker. With the holiday season which approached so quickly this year, and with our Art Around the World theme, exploring the history behind the nutcrackers was perfect! We discussed where the Nutcrackers originated from, who has nutcrackers at home and what they look like, in addition to the infamous Nutcracker Ballet! We listened to the amazing soundtrack of Tchaikovsky's memorable tunes and integrated such a wide variety of rich content! Don't forget to pull out the map and locate Germany on the map in comparison to The United States! This was a great lesson that the students very much enjoyed and were surprised by all the connections they made to each topic.



2nd Graders created these nutcrackers using sharpies, pencils, crayons, and watercolor paints.



Beauty, Music, and Dance!
Storytelling through dance and the arts!