Teacher Appreciation Week 2016

It was no small feat to try and top last year's Wall of Thanks for teacher appreciation...but I think we did it! 

I present to you...

I had my fourth and fifth graders choose a couple of teachers to turn into superheroes. Some gave capes and crowns...others let the title and writing take care of the creativity!

                  This is me ;)

This was a wonderful, thoughtful project on research, portraiture, and appreciation. I'm just sharing a few of the 91 portraits they drew. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all teachers, you are true superheroes!

we ain't gonna paint no more! (splatter painting)

This book, called "Ain't Gonna Paint No More" by Karen Beaumont (illustrated by David Catrow) is an Art Teacher's delight. It's a sing-songey book about a mischevious little boy who sneaks into his paint stash and gleefully paints himself silly. I am in love with the illustrations in the book, and my kindergartners like to "guess" what body part he's painting next using rhymes.

It's a fitting book to read at the end of the year, too. Guess what? We Ain't Gonna Paint for another 2 months! We might as well enjoy our last couple of days here. *Really you can do this lesson anytime, I just like having projects that really hook the kids in at the end of the school year for my own sanity!

After reading the book, we talk about illustration and self-portraiture. Do we think the boy in the book was a portrait of the illustrator, David Catrow, as a child? Students then draw (in crayon) a self-portrait on 12x18" paper. This is the "clean"version of themselves, the angelic child their parents think they are! On day 2 we put our papers in our splatter box (a big paper towel box---which looks SO lovely on day 7 of this project!) I thin down some red, yellow and blue paints (in case they mix on the paper we still have nice colors and not muddy colors) and show the kids how to shake and splatter.

Needless to say they LOVE it!

The end results make me laugh after a long day of "sit, stop, come here, go there, tie your shoes, put your shoes on, yes you may go to the bathroom, time to clean up, push that chair in".

Happy splatters!