Olivia

This is my daughter, Olivia. She is two and a half years old. She is the funniest, little human I have ever met!

My Lesson: Scrapbooking Made Easy

This was the lesson that I taught. It was real fun. I showed the class an easy way to scrapbook. The way that I did it would not cost much. Like I told the class I don't go all out when scrapbooking, I just try to get my pictures on a page and keep them in a safe spot. This way I will have them for the rest of my life and I can show my kids and hand them down. I told the class to be as creative as they could. There were some pretty creative ones!! I was nice to see all the students take such time and work on their "masterpiece." The class used their time wisely and I was very pleased with how everyone did! The class had a choice of using pictures, magazine clippings, tickets, or anything they wanted to in order to make their project special to them.

An extension to this project may have been the class would have to make a mini scrapbook and tell the story behind each page and how they all fit together to make one big story.

Lexicon Collages

In this lesson we were to pick four vocabulary words and then write the definition on the back of it. We were told to keep our favorite and give the other three to classmates. After we painted then each person would add their own personal touch as to what they felt like when they saw the vocabulary word that was on the back. My four words were: obnoxious, aftermath, underground and handsome. After everyone was done decorating or designing the card that I had given them, they then handed them back to the original person. I really enjoyed getting back my original collages because I liked to see what everyone else's opinion of the vocabulary word that was on the back of each collage.

Obnoxious: something that stands out from something else; makes a scene.

Aftermath: what is left of everything after a disaster has hit the area.

Underground: the area beneath the surface.

Handsome: someone or something that is attractive.

Sketchbook

This is my sketchbook. I made this by using our other scratch piece of paper from our Eric Karl projects. We just took a big piece of paper and painted it. After it dried, we ironed it and then made book covers out of it. We glued them to card board pieces and then sewed them to each other with about 25 to 30 pieces of paper between them. This was a difficult project, but very nice to have when you just need to jot down an idea or project.

Scratch Art/Sketchbook Project

This project was originally in our sketchbooks. We first had to draw in our sketchbooks. I picked artist's choice and decided to draw the first thing I saw. I saw a remote control so I attempted to draw it. Then we were told to grab a piece of this black paper that had a different color under it and by scratching the black part away, a new color would be present. I began to draw my remote onto the black piece of paper by placing my original over top and tracing it. By tracing it, it bled onto the black paper and I could see my indents; therefore, I could just take my little wooden stick and trace over top of that again. By doing this I was scratching away the black and then the yellow shown through. It was hard to get a good picture of this project because the scratch art paper is so shiny.

An extension of this project would be for each student to make a few more of these and then arrange them a story line and narrate a story under each picture; therefore, it would be a children's book of scratch art.

Clay Project

With this project we used a dry clay. By using this dry class we did not have to use a kiln; we just painted our projects and let them dry. We were told to make a pinch pot or make a symbol of what we think a particular sound would look like. I chose to make a pinch pot. First the teacher made us blind fold ourselves and listen to a calm and relaxing music while she talked. She told us to make the clay into a cave and then collapse it. After doing this, as a class, I felt like we were all relaxed and felt comfortable with the clay. After we took the blindfolds off we were to design a pinch pot or sound. After we designed our project, we were to paint it with acrylic paint. I used red, blue, white, and yellow for colors in my design. I then took a hair pick and pressed it into the bottom and sides of my pinch pot; this just added some texture. After we were done painting our projects, we set them the countertop and let them air dry.

An extension for this project would be to make each student make a project out of what they felt a particular sound would look like and then have them express to the class why that particular sound made them feel a certain way and why they chose to make the design they chose.

Pastel Landscapes

In this lesson we were taught how to blend one or more colors and to introduce students to blend colors in landscape. We were first given a half sheet of paper where we were told to draw a geometrical shape and then shade it like it is suppose to look after shaded properly. After we got the feel for shading, we were told to get up and pick out a magazine clipping of different landscapes from nature. After we chose the magazine clipping we were told to either get an idea from that landscape or to try and replicate it. My picture was of the sky reflecting into a pond surrounded by vegetation. We had to color the different pastels dark and then blend them either with our finger or with a paper towel. This was a fun lesson, but messy!

An extension to this project could be to have each student make the different landscapes and then tell about how the picture made them feel and what steps they took to get it to look like the photographers.