Mad about Macrame

Mad about Macrame. In this picture is a macrame key chain that I made. I thought it was a really enjoyable craft and I could see myself making many more of these as well as other things such as purses or plant hangers just as something to do for fun. An extension activity I would assign to a class would be to pick a trend from a assigned decade and research it. Present your craft or trend to the class.

May Day Leis!

May Day Leis! I thought this was a great lesson on multiculturalism. We learned how to make Hawaiian leis. We learned what it means to their culture, and why they make them on May 1st. As a part of this lesson we learned a little of the language as well as some traditions. One thing I found very neat was you can give a Lei as a sign of respect or out of love. I chose to give my Lei to someone I love very much, that is us pictured in the frame below. I think I will teach this lesson as a part of a multicultural week. I will add in some other crafts or jewelry from other cultures as well as preparing some traditional foods to share with the class.

Crazy with Clay!

Crazy with Clay! I loved this project clay pots and other similar items are just some of the artifacts left behind by many cultures from the past. Different civilization created them with slightly different materials that could be found in their region but one thing they all had in common was beauty. Many of them were painted or had carvings in the clay. These were significant to them and their culture much like the paw print painted on my clay coil pot. The paw print is significant to me because my high school mascot was the greyhounds and my collage mascot is a wolf. Also the majority of my pot is purple because my favorite color is purple. I would definitely use this project to incorporate into a history lesson on ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians. We could then decorate the outside with hieroglyphics.

WElcome to Orange Blossomville!

Welcome to Orange Blossomville. This is my very own 3D model of a town. The assignment was to create a town using different folds a curls to create a 3D image. I really enjoyed this lesson because in order to draw some inspiration we read and look at some illustrations from the Dr. Sues Book Oh the places you will go. One aspect I enjoyed was there were no limits to the creativity of the project and it could be as unconventional as we pleased because nothing in Whoville is traditional. I could see using this project in math to create 3D blocks or figures and calculating their volume.

SD Railroad

Look familar? In this printmaking project we were asked to draw a possible South Dakota scenery, that a train might pass as it crosses the state. This picture is very simular to my family farm with the big red main barn and its neighboring pig barn. It was a wind mill and hay bails to pull it all together. On the oposite side of the tracks is a small pond surrounded by marshy grasses and a fence with a little no tresspassing sign. My train carts are filled with corn and coal.

I think I would do this activity but I think I would talk about how the railroads where America's first form of transportation that connected the nation as a whole. I would further intergrade this topic into History and Language Arts. I would have my class do some research and write a paper on the railroad system.

Hot and Cold Animals on Display!

My small teaching group and I created this Hot and Cold Animal Puzzle display. I really enjoyed working on this display because we created everything from scratch. We cut the boarder and the lettering form rolls of color paper. We pulled colors that fit into the two color schemes. The letters pop really well next to the black background.

Hot and Cold Animal Puzzles

These three illustrations are pieces of two different puzzles. The assignment was for 3rd graders to learn some new vocabulary about certain art elements such as patterns, lines, texture, warm and cool colors. Each student was given a blank puzzle piece cut form one large square. They then drew a art element and were given guidelines to complete their piece. All the pieces fit together into two puzzles. One was a warm puzzle using warm colors the other was a puzzle using cool colors. I choose to do a frog with geometric shapes as the background for my first piece. The second and third is a duck and snake.  I would use this art project again and link it to a science lesson. I think it would be need when learning about warm and cold blooded animals or even making the connection about how animals are connected together because of the food chain just like piecs of a puzzle.

Bunnies in Plaid!

Bunnies in Plaid! This very cute plaid bunney is done in complamentary colors. It is great for teaching vertical and horizontal lines. Also the cotton ball for hte tail adds to the element of texture. One aspect of this project I really enjoyed was the facial, feet, and ear details we added in on our own. Each bunney becomes unique because we added our own little details making them different from one another. They are united however in basic shape because each bunny was traced from pre cut stencils.
 An additional activity I would do with this is to tie it to science and how some animals use camaflage to blend themselves into their surroundings. That is why rabbits fur are sometimes white while others are brown.

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring Has Sprung! This water color painting was actually drawn with a white crayon first, but there was a small twist we had to do this blind. I definitely enjoyed creating this painting and I think a art class would enjoy it to. I can see myself teaching this lesson to students of all ages. We could draw ideas of our own as a free sketch or even increasing the difficulty by giving the class a particular subject such as famous monuments to draw first.

I think this lesson could be used to teach students who can see how a student who can not see has to do things differently. I think it would give them an appreciation for their senses and all that they do have.

Story Collage.

This is my story collage. I think it is a great story about a duck who is afraid of doing something new for the first time.  Growing up we are experiencing many new things and at times we all become scared. That is why I would use this activity to let kids express their feelings in a story that they have created. I feel that being able to express themselves through the use of characters they created would make them feel safe and secure.  This is important for adolescence because they do not want to be judged by their peers.

Van Gogh

In the pictures displayed above you can see my two tributes to Van Gogh. Van Gogh likes to use swirls and avoids making things look as real as possible. In the first picture I created I have a city scene and a bridge. The bottom is a finger painting I created of a French castle. The creases of my fingers created the perfect strokes and swirls. An extension activity I would have my future students do someday would be to pick an artist and compare that artist work with Van Gogh. Then as a part of history class as well as a writing assignment for English I would have them write a short Biography of the other artist they chose.

Elements and Principle of Art

 Unity

 Movement

                                             

  Space

 Balance

 Value

Stepping Through My Life

This is an introduction activity we did in class each element on my foot tells a little something about me. The heart with the initials on the big toe represents my parents Joe and Stephanie. It is a symbol of their love. The baby rattles have my initials as well as the initials of all my sisters and brother. In the middle is a recreation of a rosary tattoo on my foot. It represents my faith as well as a chapter in my life when prayer got me through and remains important to me. The prayer beads are seeds that I glued down and the rest is marker. The small collection of fabric roses is included because I love flowers. I have kept every rose that has ever been given to me, I simply dry them out and keep them in vases. In the ball of my foot is a plastic lid that I cut from the bottom of a cup. I painted it white and wrote guard around the rim. It represents a lifeguard tube it goes along with the whistle I drew next to it. Being a Lifeguard during the summer was my first job and teaching swimming lessons was how I came to the conclusion I wanted to teach because I enjoyed that so much. Just off to the left of the guard tube is a tissue paper sun with sunglasses. This represents summer my favorite season. On the top of my foot next to my baby toes is an outline of the state of South Dakota. I wrote Hoven because that is my hometown. Being a South Dakotan has made a huge impact on my life. Growing up in this area has given me some great values. Most importantly living in South Dakota allows me to participate in some of the great things I like to do: hunting, fishing, boating, camping, sledding, and motorcycle rides through the Black Hills and surrounding areas.