The End is Near

Just not near enough. Sorry, but yes, I've got short-timers, I just want to get out. I have only seven weeks left and they can't go by fast enough.

And yet, there doesn't seem to be enough time. What I should do this weekend is get everything prepped out so I can just sail through (well, sail through as much as it's possible when you've got 500 report cards looming over your head), and maybe I will come in and do some work on Friday - what good is it to rent a car for the weekend if you're not going to drive it around? Unfortunately, though, I have overviews to write and artwork to prep for a display, so all those good intentions will have to wait for next week. Anyways, enough with the chit-chat, this is the classroom stuff.

This is the beginning of KG2's last unit (thankfully - I was out of ideas for healthy-habit-related art). They will be working on the transdisciplinary theme of "How we express ourselves" with the central idea of, "Thoughts, feelings, and ideas are communicated in different ways." Of course art is one of those ways, and the classroom teachers first thought was painting to music! (That's sarcasm. And the reason for it is the fact that this makes the third time we've "painted" to music in one year group or another.)

As I've used the same concept for year 2 and KG1 I've tried to mix it up each time. Year 2 studied Kandinsky. KG1 identified feelings and chose differently colored pastels to use. For KG2, we talked about ways we can communicate (our face, our voice, even art) and talked about art elements that we can use to communicate (color and line). I played the flute for them and they tried to match the sounds I made with different lines, and then I played several songs, and they decided what feeling they thought I was expressing, and how to show it with lines and colors. This afternoon's rendition went really brilliantly - the kids were really attentive and they really got the idea of it and experimented with their paper. The morning class was not as successful. It was the first time, and I should have spent more time with the whole group talking about how we can express the music, but I've been a little sick and the first time I teach a lesson always tends to run a little awry. Live and learn, right?

I just realized that it's been ten days since my last post - eek! Since the veggie prints, year one has moved on to beginning their still-life print. The introduction went really well - using the different images to brainstorm what kind of things we can show in a still-life really seemed to jumpstart their creativity! Tuesday saw me working on the printing plate for the first time, and for the life of me I can't remember how we used to do it! I thought we'd just draw through their sketch, but it didn't transfer very well. When I do it tomorrow, I think I may have them draw their image directly onto the polystyrene. I have a small quandary when it comes to Year One coming up - see, we still haven't finished our clay houses and we're about to go into full-integration again. Exactly where I'm going to fully-integrate them I have no idea because at the moment I have only nine free periods and Year One doubles would take up six of them.

Year two sculptures??? Ugh. What exactly have I gotten myself into? My class periods are so short, and the kids are so wild, that it makes it hard to do this thing, to give them so much freedom and control over their projects. why oh WHY didn't I just tell them we were making snakes and have done with it?????