End of the year teacher gifts

 

Before I finally start making art with the students tomorrow during my classes I thought I would post the teacher gifts that we made at the end of last year. I used the hand made papers that each child made and painted with similes or alliteration illustration. 

I cut out circles of wood with my jig saw then I glued the hand made papers around the edge. I topped it with a circular mirror and edged the mirror with different yarns to finish it off. The hard part was adding the hardware in the back to hang the frame ;).

On the back of each frame I glued an envelope and had the kids write a note to their teacher. I tucked the notes into the envelope in hopes that their teachers will read them again at a later date and remember how loved they are!!

 

With each frame we also made a coffee mug for each teacher ;).

Light Drawing

 

My summer is officially over- us teachers start back full time tomorrow. That makes me incredibly sad because I've had such a great time with my own 3 kids this summer.....but it also gets me excited to start sharing everything that I have planned for this year in my class!!!

I think a lot about how I can bring science and technology into the art room.

 I remembered Picasso's light drawing photos- he stands in his shorts drawing in the air with light, his figure is slightly transparent. I recalled how we did the same technique in college with film cameras and found that it's just as simple with a DSLR. So I went shopping on Amazon.....I bought finger LED lights, these LED fireflies, lots of glow stick products and this stuff called EL wire (glo wire)....it's awesome!!

I practiced with all of my kids (they are 4, 6 and 8 and each of them had a blast!!). We have been playing around with ideas the past month. Each light source gives a different look to the final photograph. I'll explain more about my actual lesson when I do it with my students but for now, here are some of our favorite images. SO MUCH FUN!!!!

firefly LED lights

practicing "writing" his name- finger LED lights

my daughter drawing a heart with an LED finger light

all 3 kids dancing like maniacs with LED finger lights ;)

more dancing- I love that you can vaguely see their little legs

Oh my goodness the EL wire- isn't it awesome!!??

EL wire- love his flip flops ;)

my husband jump roping with the EL wire!

the kids are on their scooters here- Laci has a finger light on her handle bars and Ryan has the EL wire wrapped around his scooter

again, on their scooters

this time on their scooters we put the EL wire on strobe so it was going off and on....simply incredible!!

 What I adore about working with this was that they gained knowledge about photography exposure, LED lights (technology), they were able to move their bodies in any way they could think of to create an art work and they had the chance to really experiment with the material....they were strapping finger lights and making light poles, wrapping up their bikes, legs, skateboards, they strapped lights to their ears, to hot wheels, stuck them inside balloons- the list goes on and on! Can't wait to show it to my students!!