Faculty Member of the Quarter

Today I was named the Faculty Member of the Quarter as voted by the other teachers in the school! I am so lucky to be in a school with such supportive and wonderful coworkers. I'm glad everything worked the way it did to bring me to this school. ^_^

Blue "Prints"

Our classroom at VolState had a great view of the construction on campus. We spent one morning watching the workers and sketching what we saw. Then we took those sketches as inspiration for our own artworks.

We discussed blue prints and how we change 2D images into 3D things such as buildings. Then we used white paint, cardboard, and toilet paper rolls to create blue "prints" (the pun is one of the reasons why I love this lesson ^_^).

I got this lesson from School Arts magazine September 2015 issue, STEAM. It has a lot of good STEAM lesson in it, and you can find a link to the digital copy here. 

 Very easy, beautiful results, and open to their imaginations. 

Camp STEM Day

On our first day of Camp STEM in Sumner County at VolState Community College. We had a special visit from the Mayor of Gallatin, Paige Brown, to declare October 12th Camp STEM Day. It was very exciting for the kids and a great way to open camp. We created goo and space models that day and everyone left with a smile. ^_^

Camp STEM Fall Break Camp at VolState

Very exciting news! We are branching out at Camp STEM to students in Sumner County for this year's Fall Break camp. We will have science activities from 8-3 each day. Registration is open on the website that you can find here. It is for students in grades k-6 and the fee is $125 for the whole week. Come see us and explore the world of science and creativity!

This Week in Art 6

Finishing projects! I love this week!

1^st grade used a bamboo skewer to scratch designs into their scratch art paper. We cut the paper into the shape of a vase and glued it to a patterned background.

2^nd grade cut their marbled paper into simple shapes to create their Parthenon collage on their painted paper. Beautiful contrast!

3^rd grade finished their mosaics by creating a building in the style of the Parthenon, kind of like a “temple” to their animal. We added a background, a roof, and two columns.

4^th grade added handles and painted their vases.

5^th grade added paper hair, horns, etc. and paint to finish their masks.

So proud of what these kids have done! I’ll post soon with project details. ^_^

Needle Felting with Cassie Stephens

Photo from Cassie's post you can find here.

I went to a workshop at the Frist Center last weekend to learn how to needle felt with Cassie Stephens. If you haven't seen her blog, Cassie Stephens, you should check it out. 

Apparently, needle felting is the easiest thing to do ever. I made a postcard, a pencil pouch, and a pin. 

I would recommend any workshop by her. Can't wait for the next one!

This Week in Art 5

During the second week of our Greek Art unit, we continued our projects by adding more detail and construction paper mache sculptures.

1^st grade painted over their oil pastels for the second step of their scratch art paper.

Using crayon in the back before painting to make a crayon resist.

2^nd grade painted a paper to be the background of their Parthenon collage.

3^rd grade continued adding tiles to their Greek Mosaics.

4^th grade constructed and paper mached their Greek vases.

5^th grade added paper mache to their mask forms for their Greek theatre masks.

Finishing these next week!