Laughter is the best medicine.

I've been home from work due to illness. Lying in my bed has allowed my to focus on myself - quiet the body, and quiet the mind. Over these two days I've been rekindling "my favorite things to do" in my mind. 

Music and Art have always been my first loves, and my favorite is drawing cartoons. Here is my latest "Snoopy" creation. 

How many times have you laughed today?

What would Mozart do?

For the last 2 weeks in October, the middle school students were engaged in group work activities. Each class was divided into four groups, and the groups rotated throughout four Mozart inspired activities: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart biography creates on the computer using Microsoft PowerPoint, rhythm & dance check ups with the beats of Pomp & Curcumstance and The Conga, mozart's father's Instagram drawing, and a Fall scene in Austria.

Of course the students were just as excited to start each Music class, and the students enthusiacally cycled through the stations every class day. A nonformal poll resulted in a concensus of the Austrian Fall painting and Leopold Mozart's Instagram being the favorite of the music classes.

Art class rocks

Initially this project started out as "pet rocks," but then I thought of a wonderful way to bring the outdoors inside - so we made a class rock garden. The rocks rested peacefully on the art class window sill, and the students enjoyed visiting the "people inspired" rocks whenever they came to class.

I believe nature is art, so combining the two gets me as close to heaven as one person can get on earth - just beautiful. Do you see art in nature? If so, Please let me know. Y'all come back now!

Fall into Autumn

Leaves are falling from the trees, and people and animals are preparing for the Harvest. We are fully enthralled in this month's theme "Autumn."  Our latest projects include a 3d Harvest Cornecopia and fall leaf drawings. 

"We love art class" was the refrain from my 4th grade class students today, and hearing how much they enjoy my art class just warms my heart. I love art class too! 

You are beautiful!

All the art classes have been working on developing skills to complete a self portrait. The first, second, and third grades are completing a "bubble gum self portrait drawing and watercolor alphabet painting. The fourth and fifth grades completed a cowboy/ cowgirl wanted watercolor poster and a "What's my name" drawing. 

I especially enjoyed facilitating and instructing the students as the worked on all of the art projects. I got a bird's eye view of how the children see themselves every day. 

Self esteem is a precious gift. If I can get my students to see their worth, I've done my job. I am beautiful, strong, and smart, and I am worthy to be loved - is my mantra. Do you have a mantra? When you look in the mirror what do you see? Let me know. Y'all come back now! 

Here We Go!

Boots, apples, pumpkins, cooler weather, and the Beginning of a new school year..are all my most favorite things about Fall. Although I will surely miss everything summer, I am so excited about enjoying everything the new Fall season will bring forth. 

The first week of Music and Art classes was awesome. The music classes will learn about "rhythm" this month, and the art classes will learn about "texture." The classroom has been designed to accommodate both subjects, and the students  seem to enjoy my design effort.

 One 1st grade boy took the liberty of organizing the art caddies during clean up time. How adorable is this? 

 

The 1st through 5th grade classes used crayons, markers, and water colors to create contoured lined illustrations to help them see the different "textured" surfaces each art medium produces. All the art students will be working on individual and group project based art lessons, so many projects will take more than one class to complete. This will help the students with developing time management, organization, and communication - all skills they will need to compete in the fast paced workforce of the 21st century. The first individual art projects should be completed by the end of next week. 

The PreK and Kindergarten music students learned about one of the colors of Fall - Red. We sang "red" themed songs and created "red" illustrations.  

The Middle school students learned about a New York based musical band, The New York City Voices, and invoked "Big Apple" dreams while listening to Frank Sinatra's song "New York, New York. I wanted the music students to know that good music transcends time. Listening to "New York, New York" makes me want to jump in my car and drive to chase my all of my dreams. Just like most big cities draw people in from all parts of the county, music draws people in from all over the world. 

What do you dream about? Let me know, and next time I will share my dreams too. Have a nice weekend! Y'all come back now.