3D Thanksgiving Art

We made Autumn Spoon Rests for our families for Thanksgiving!

I LOVED how these turned out!

Here is the "before" picture:

Rough, raw, and not so special looking,
but just wait until you see what I take out of the kiln in the morning!

Here is the "after" picture:

Each one was a unique work of art!

10 Steps For Making A Ceramic Autumn Leaf Spoon Rest:

This makes an awesome family gift for Thansgiving!

If you aren't lucky enough to have a kiln at your school, you can visit your local "Color Me Mine" type shop and they will help you out, for a fee.  Then, you can do this amazing project. :)

If you don't have a kiln at your school, you can
usually ask a local ceramic store to fire your clay for a fee. 

Do this first:

Order clay and lead-free glaze from a ceramic store.  I ordered 25 lbs of white clay and a small jar of yellow, orange, and maroon lead-free glaze.  

Do this second:

I use fishing line to cut the clay into 1 inch slabs.  I slap each slab down onto a piece of white construction paper at least ten times to condition the clay and work out any air bubbles.  

Then I roll it out to about 1/4" thick making sure the slab is an even thickness from end to end.

I let the kids help with this part.

Do this third:

I drew a maple leaf that measures about 6 inches in diameter on a piece of tag board.  I cut it out and used it as a template.

Do this fourth:  

Place the leaf template on the slab of clay.  I stretched out a large paper clip and used one end to cut around my leaf template.  Keep a bowl of water close by to use to smooth out the edges of the leaf.

Use the paper clip to write the child's name on the back of the leaf making sure to go less than halfway deep into the clay.

Do this fifth:

Have the child use a pencil to dray vein lines on the leaf.  Pick off any excess clay that builds up when the children draw their vein lines.  Then help the child to turn the ends of the leaf up, sideways, or up and then down to create a rim.  Make sure the center of the leaf remains flat.

I let the students draw the veins wherever they wanted to. 

Do this sixth:  

Cover a flat surface with white construction paper and place each completed leaf on the construction paper.  Then, wrap the top of each leaf with a paper towel that has been soaked in water.  This will help your leaves to dry out slowly and will prevent cracking.  Allow the leaves to dry for 3-7 days.  Check for cracks, and add water and smooth the cracks out.

Do this seventh:

After 3-5 days, fire the clay in a kiln.  Leave the kiln closed for an additional day to allow the pieces to cool completely. 

Do this eighth:

Remove the cooled pieces from the kiln and rinse them in cold water.  They will dry immediately.  

Have each child glaze their leaf with autumn colored glazes.  See directions on glaze jars.

Students painted their "bisque" pieces with lead-free glazes in fall colors. 

Do this ninth:

Fire the leaves.  Make sure each leaf is propped up on a kiln stilt and that you are using the correct kiln cone.  Allow the leaves to cool a day before removing them.

What I saw when I opened the kiln.

Do this tenth:

Wrap your leaves well and send them home as a Thanksgiving gift from your students to their families. 

Each one was so unique!

These were hot out of the kiln!

Students were able to bend and shape their own leaf. 

LOVE the fall colors!

Each one turned out so differently!

I loved taking the sample home to use at Thanksgiving time!

Didn't they turn out great?

  

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          Teachers Pay Teachers:  KFUNdamentals on TPT

 See yo all tomorrow!

Palma :)

What Happens In Vegas (Continued from my last BLOG post)

The Big Day!

3 of the 4 sessions I presented.

July 9 was the day I was scheduled to present four 75-minute presentations.  I could not sleep a wink, well, maybe just a few winks.  Actually, I slept a total of 1.5 hours and then it was time to rise and shine!  I put on my new polyester dress, I grabbed the biggest necklace I had, and I was down at the conference room by 6:30 AM setting up for my first presentation at 8:30.

Turn You Students Into Addition & Subtraction Magicians:

This amazing teacher in the front row stayed for 3 of my sessions
and even helped clean up after one of them.

247 people signed up for this session and I did NOT want to disappoint any single one of them!  I set up my computer & projector, I patched into the sound system, and tried it out.  It worked!  Yes!  My biggest worry is that the technology will not work so I was feeling a little more relaxed now.  

I set out the samples while my dear friend, Cindy, set out 250 "make & take" kits.  What would I have done without her?  She was simply amazing!  She set up and took down all four of my presentations.

Cindy was such an amazing help to me.  Such a fun roommate too.

Teachers began to enter the room.  I like to play a 5 minute video of my classroom as people walk in. The videos I use include inspiring songs like "The Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog, "Forever Young" by Joan Baez, and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Iz.  It just sets the tone for the entire presentation.   

I talked about "Circle Math" and teaching addition with 2-sided counters and fun containers.

I introduced them to Rekenreks and we all got to make one out of Fun Foam, pipe cleaners, and pony beads.  They also go the link to a 44 page FREE booklet filled with ways to use Rekenreks with kids.  

Later, we made subtraction strips and I showed them all kinds of FUN ways to teach subtraction.

Last, I introduced them to my shopping activities which is the best way I know to make addition and subtraction real.  I can do an entire workshop just on my shopping projects and centers.

Well, no one walked out and they were all so kind by clapping and coming up to visit with me after the presentation.  I was so thrilled!  They liked me, they really liked me  :)

Keep On Going!

Sessions 2, 3, and 4 rolled around before I knew it.  I should have gotten a coffee to give me that extra boost, but there was no time.  My second session was on integrating Math and Art.  It was also a "make & take" and the attendees got to make some really cool beads out of recycled magazine pages.  A teacher came up to me at the end and told me about how she made the same type of beads in Uganda with ladies who lived there and supported their families by making these beads.  She promised to bring me some the following day.  I was so touched to discover that she had looked for me and left the beads with Kymra who was in charge of all of the presenters.  She left her name and email address and I quickly emailed her to thank her for her kindness.  I'm so sorry to say that the email bounced back as undeliverable because "that email address does not exist".  IF YOU ARE THE TEACHER WHO LEFT THE BEAUTIFUL BEADS FOR ME, PLEASE CONTACT ME SO I CAN THANK YOU PROPERLY.  

It's A Great Day For Science!

Those are the words that a wonderful science teacher from my junior high school would say each day and I dedicated this session to him, Mr. Hayes.  This session got teachers up and moving as we created flying paper tubes.

Teachers tossing their paper tubes to see how far they can fly.

We also got to manipulate drops of water and make the lifecycle of a butterfly out of four kinds of pasta.  

Emergent Writing:

My last session was on writing.  We had fun using the graphics from my Instant Writing set and we made a sight word Pocket Locket. (You can get 2 of them FREE by clicking HERE.)  

Bloggers' Event:

Thousands of dollars in prizes.

That evening, I attended the Bloggers' Event.  Hundreds of teachers attended.

Heidi from Heidisongs.com
and my best roadie, Cindy.  :)

It was so good to see so many familiar faces from blogs I follow.

Many of the Southern California Bloggers who participated in
 the very first Bloggers' Bash at the So CA Kindergarten Conference last Feb.

You have to check out their amazing BLOGS:
Kristen from The Teeny Tiny Teacher, Hadar from Miss Kindergarten, Annie from The Moffatt Girls, Heidi from Heidsongs, Christy from Crayons & Whimsy.
So much talent all in one room.  There were prizes, drinks, SWAG, and tons of FUN.  I even won a prize!

That's Jayne Gannon from Smart Kids.Check out her blog for some really great ideas.

So many hugs and photos.  I loved every minute.

Cindy and I at the Bloggers' Event.

Afterwards, a group of us went out for dinner.  What a day!  One I won't forget for a very long time.  

Come back to find out what happened at Camp Common Core 

and the 1st Ever TPT Conference.

See you all tomorrow

(or in a day or two; I'm in Cabo flyfishing this week.)

Palma :)

Sometimes You Just Have To Seize The Moment...

... And Teach From The Heart

Driving to work today, I decided to bump my lesson plans to tomorrow and teach an impromptu art lesson.  I call it "Nature Prints in Warm Or Cool Colors".

These were as easy as 1, 2, 3.

3 Steps To Beautiful Art:

1.  We started with a quick lesson on how to walk with scissors and then we set out on a nature walk looking for samples of leaves and flowers.  We just finished our plant unit, so it went perfectly with that too!

These leaves had straight veins.

Clipping ivy.

We are so lucky to have so many big trees and lovely bushes at our school.

We even found a cool tree with branches that bowed down and let us trim its leaves.  

2.  We chose either warm or cool colored paints and painted the backs of each plant sample.

3.  Last, we placed, pressed, & printed:  We painted the plant, placed the painted plant on while paper (I cut it to 12" X 12"), and  pressed down with a paper towel to create a print image.  

Paint...

Place ...

Press.

We had so much fun with this art activity.  I mounted the art prints on black construction paper and entered them in our school district's art show.

This also makes a fun summertime project for your summer school class, summer camp, or your kids at home.

If you like this, you might also like our safe & easy Batik Directions and templates.  The set comes with 3 templates and easy-breezy directions for making stunning art on fabric like a canvas bag.  You can find them by clicking HERE.

Click the image to see the set.

See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)