Mosaic pieces- the first few finished

             The younger grades used plastic mosaic pieces and stones/glass gems for their tesserae.

                                                      Finished gluing but not grouted.

                          Pictures above are the older grades who used actual glass/broken dishes.

                        Grouted! Gorgeous!!! Thank you parents "M" and "L" for helping me!!!

 I'm bursting with pride on these mosaics!! I know in a picture you don't see the labor, the brainstorming and the wonderful process of the kids making these but for me to see the finished pieces is total joy! I'm post more later this week.

Mosaics with my 6th graders :)

We had a ridiculously fun week making mosaics! I requested that each kid bring in a plate or dish that I could break and use in our pieces so that our finished works had a little bit of each of us included. The first pieces we are making will be donated to the PTA for them to auction to help raise money for the school (thank you wonderful PTA!!!). Each class has worked together and they voted on what imagery they would use that related to our school. I have tons and tons of pictures from those classes but I'll just share my 6th grade student's work in this post.

 They have been working on mosaics for a couple of weeks now. They are doing individual as well as collaborative pieces. I taught them a quick lesson on the history of mosaics. Because the Romans portrayed their daily life in some of their mosaics I encouraged the kids to portray something about their daily life as well. The "Creeper" from the game "Minecraft" that D made into a mosaic has been a huge hit with the younger grade kids ;)....D is an immensely talented boy who has convinced me that Minecraft is artistic.

Even though I've had episodes where I thought that I should have grouted the mosaics by myself ;)- I really feel like they learned quite a bit from grouting on their own. Mixing it to the correct consistency, seeing how it preforms if the spaces between glass is too large and learning that once it dries it is HARD to get off are all part of learning how to plan and foresee problems.......I hope they can apply that to real life ;). I included photos to give you just a teeny vision of how crazy messy it gets letting kids grout on their own though!

I have blisters on my hands from doing so much breaking and cutting glass this week but it  is well worth all of the effort. I hope they are enjoying it too!!

Art Cash!

Teachers have numerous ways to support good behavior and art bucks, cash, cards, etc. are common in art rooms. I chose this method because it reflects our school wide Positive Behavior Support campaign. School wide we use "cash" called Bolt Bucks when we see the students going above and beyond what we expect from them. My art cash is very similar but it stays only in the art room and the rewards they can buy are all art related and self contained in my room ;).

When I explained art cash to the kids I encouraged them to read the facts about the artists that I featured. At the end of the year we will have a trivia game using the facts and they will have the chance to win art supplies and books.