Seussational

We had another wonderful class yesterday afternoon!  We provided tips and tricks on how to incorporate clay in your classroom curriculum.  It proved to be a great stress reliever as well when kneading the clay to get the air bubbles out.  We took inspiration from Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and created clay fish.  It was so inspirational to see how different they all turned out.

 

We were so thankful for those teachers who participated as it is a busy week with report cards due next Monday.  They all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

 

Next month we will focus on the PICTURES FIRST approach in Writer's Workshop with an emphasis on poetry.  We will create Eric Carle inspired illustrations as well as learn the art of printmaking.  We will finish class with an acrostic poem.  

Hope to see you there!

Vicki and Chrissy

 

Seussational

Seussational

An Arts Integration/Author Study on Dr. Seuss

Monday, March 24th, @ 3:00

This month we will explore the world of Dr. Seuss.  We will show you how to integrate his books in to all areas of your curriculum!  Our focus will be on ceramics along with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  We will be making clay Dr. Seuss fish.  You will learn how to use clay in your own classroom along with tips and important information on working with clay.

 

Hope to see you there!

Vicki and Chrissy

   

 

Mo Willems Class

This was our most informational class to date.  We took teachers on a journey through a fully integrated art unit and tied it to Mo Willems.  Participants created their own Mo Willems comic strip.  We even had groups of teachers perform a Mo Willem's inspired Reader's Theater.  Everyone did a knock out performance!

Our March class will focus on clay!  Hope to see you there!

Vicki

Chrissy

Mo's Magic

Mo's Magic

An Arts Integration/Author Study on Mo Willems

Monday, February 24th @ 3:00

This month we will be exploring the world of Mo Willems.  Our class will focus on building and author's study around arts integration.  We will discuss activities for math, writing, reading, and social studies.  We hope you will join us! 

 

Thanks,

Chrissy and Vicki

Winter Wonderland

We had another wonderful Arts Integration class just in time before Winter Storm Leon hit Charleston!  We taught our friends about perspective and how to teach children to draw, paint, chalk, etc. in fun, new ways!

Here are some of the artists at work:

Sketching the snowman from the perspective of looking at it from the ground, up.

 Starting to chalk:

 Our master instructor Vicki:

Adding the finishing touches:
** I love that my daughter gets to learn along with everyone else!

 

Did I mention the delicious snacks we provide?  Apple cider and winter Chex Mix with marshmallows (snowballs!).

We have e-mailed a survey to our faculty asking what you would be interested in learning in future Apples and Brushes classes.  We will review the feedback and plan our February class soon!

Have a warm week!
Chrissy

Mini Conference

The 8th Annual Mini-Conference was a HUGE success! We shared ways to integrate the arts while teaching about the famous Dr. Martin Luther King. This lesson would be broken in 4 parts and done over several days in your classroom, like mentioned in  http://wonderteacher.com/

You will see for the pictures below that each person took something different away from Dr. Kings Big Words.  We LOVED seeing the different interpretations and the illustrations done by our fellow teachers which were quite impressive! Our Arts Integration session validated the belief that AI is a journey and not a destination and we are well on our way!!

Dr. King's Big Words

Lesson 1: Making Watercolor Skin Tones

We started by mixing watercolors to make skin tones. After making the skin tones, teachers wrote their 

'color recipes', these will be used for another activity.

 

Lesson 2: Who is Dr. Martin Luther King?

During this lesson you will teach about who and what Dr. King is and what he did for us!

Lesson 3: What are Dr. King's Big Words?

Looking closely at some of Dr. King's famous quotes, discuss what these mean and how we can live by them today! Then students will create illustrations of their interpretations.

 Lesson 4: Inspired Writing

Students will write about what Dr. King's Big Words meant to them. 

Pinterest

Pinterest has become a great resource to find inspiring art projects for kids.  When I saw this idea I couldn't pass it up.  I have created snow globes in the past but how fun would it be to make it more "real" just by adding a clear, plastic plate and fake snow!!  I searched everywhere for small, clear plates and struck gold at Target! 
(I had a kindergarten assistant tell me they did the same artwork but took pictures of the children pretending to throw snow, ice skate, build a snowman, etc.  The children created a background and the teachers added the pictures of the children on top.  What a fun idea!)
My class couldn't stop shaking their snowglobes!

To integrate the project into our Common Core standards, I found this wonderful book on Amazon.  It is the sweetest story about a snow globe family who wishes for a snowstorm!  If only the "real" family would remember their snow globe and give it one good shake.

My class finished by writing about the snow globe family they created and the adventures their snow globe family enjoyed!

I have seen several other examples of snow globes using finger paint, glitter tempera paint, and oil pastels.  You never know what will inspire you while searching Pinterest! 

Thanks for visiting,
Chrissy