…being a new mom has been *very* time consuming. Now that Amaya is older, and will hopefully start going to bed before 10pm (yes, she’s a night owl) I will have time to continue to add to this site. Thanks for being patient! Stay tuned for more resources and lessons.
Sorry folks for not writing for so long. Things have been pretty hectic here in China for the past few months! October was spent preparing for my maternity leave and for the arrival of my little girl. November was spent celebrating the birth of Amaya and December has been spent trying to figure out how to be the best mom I can be. Hopefully within the new few weeks I’ll be able to post more. Thanks for being patient!
In my next life, or maybe even later on on this life, I would love to become an illustator. While surfing around the web for inspiration, I came across Signature Illustration. What’s nice about this site is how its creator posts lots of thumbnail images of different illustrators’ artwork. This format really helps to give a complete picture of different illustration styles.
One of the things that I really like about my school is its dedication to community service. The elementary school works with a local Chinese migrant school called Old Qing Pu Elementary. Each year our students travel to the migrant school from time to time to play games, do cultural exchanges and art projects. Our kids also collect items such as sports equipment, clothing, art materials and writing supplies and donate them to the migrant school students. SAS also has donated big ticket items such as computers, library books and a piano (see picture below).
Last year our teachers started assembling “Welcome Back” Bags for the migrant school staff. At the local school, teachers are expected to buy the majority of their supplies. SAS teachers generously donated materials the they thought would be useful in the classroom. Below are some images from our delivery.
My belly is more popular that Buddah’s, or so it seems at my elementary school. I am currently 29 weeks and 2 days into my first pregnancy. If it wasn’t already a strange experience watching my belly stretch and grow, walking around the halls of an elementary makes it even more surreal. I have encountered questions that range from the run of the mill “Ms. Sajan, are you pregnant?” to the humorous “Ms. Sajan, did you eat too much for lunch today?” My students are so excited to meet my little girl. One first grader asked me if I could email her photos of my new baby as soon as she was born.
It’s been really cute to see their excitement match my own. What has been frustrating though is the fact that I am unable to maintain eye contact with them. I am able to hold their attention for about 10 seconds and then their eyes slowly drift to my little paunch. What’s more frustrating is the fact that the halls are a battle field. I can not walk to lunch without encountering a sea of outstretched tiny hands. While I do not want to crush their curisoity, I don’t exactly want to be touched by the entire school either.
= )
This is the best that my room will look all year. I figured it would be nice to enjoy the view before things get messy! (You can click on the images for larger pictures.)
I like to give my kids access to most of my art materials. In order to do this, I organize the supplies into three cubby areas: collage and sculpture, drawing and paper and finally printmaking and paint. I find that it helps to organize the room this way because always know where to look for the materials that they need.
In addition to the different material sections, I keep other supplies like pencils, sharpies, erasers, crayons, markers and colored pencils in different areas throughout my room. I like to have my materials in different areas because I feel it helps those kids who have difficulty sitting still. It gives their movement justification.
I also create bulletin boards for each grade level I teach. I put examples of the artwork that we have studied so the kids can look at it during different points of the project. I also try to include art vocabulary on these boards as well.
I know it’s a little early to start thinking about October holidays, but this Day of the Dead activity combines two of my favorite activities—cooking and art!
I’ve been feeling pretty bad about not posting to this site in a very long time. I had hoped to spend part of my summer vacation writing about new ideas for projects and researching artists to use in my lessons. I had also planned to work on some watercolor paintings. Sadly, my time has gone towards everything but this. The majority of the summer has been spent dealing with a family member’s medical issues, and trying to prepare to take the Praxis series. (I’m in the process of switching my certification from one state to another. In order to do so, I need to take these exams eventhough I have already taken NY State’s version of them. This is very annoying!) All my testing and studying will be over by the 29th. Hopefully I’ll be able to post after this. Thanks for being patient readers!!!
With this being only my third year teaching elementary school I am constantly impressed and surprised by the artistic abilities of my students. This is the first time I have done this project. I had no idea what to expect at the end of it. Theses projects surpassed all my expectations!!!
For this project kids looked at images of Pacific Northwest Indian art work. Afterward, I gave them a worksheet that asked them to choose different animals that represents their feelings. Samples questions were “When I am happy I feel like a…….When I am sad I feel like a…….” After the kids came up with a list of animals, they choose three for their totem poles.
Next, I showed them how to create pinch pots. Pots were stuffed with paper towels and holes were cut at the top and bottom of each ball to allow circulation. Balls were then attached together and then the three headed structure was attached to a clay base.
Students then went a head and built their animal heads and added texture and patterns to their work. After the totem poles students used Amaco Alligator glazes to their colors. I cannot go on enough about how much I love these glazes. They work particularly well on top of our red clay.
Recommendations for the project:
David found the Tiny Art Director site the other day while searching around the internet. Not only are there great examples of children’s book illustration, the “art director’s” commentary is priceless. I cracked up so much while reading the commentary that I just had to pass this along…..