Not Much of a Week

Well as the title of this post implies, I didn't have much of a week at school. Because of the snow coming in....yes, I know it is still hard to believe...school was cancelled on Tuesday. (That meant no 1st, 2nd, 4th, or 5th) I woke up Wednesday morning to three inches of snow on the ground. No school again. (No 3rd, 6th, K4, or K5). I do have to say though, I did have a great day Wednesday. Mr. Chance and I built this 4-foot tall snowman, Burt.

Truthfully, I was a little upset about missing school this week. Tuesday and Wednesday was suppose to be our Art Fair. Luckily, I was able to keep all of the projects up throughout Thursday and Friday so students, parents, and teachers could visit.

Most of the snow had melted by Thursday, and despite having a 2 hour delay to start the day, we were still able to hold Art Club. Since we have now completed our Boffoli and Grooms projects, we are on to something new. During this past summer, I worked with one of my professors on the creation of a new website, Handheld Art. Partnering with the Columbia Museum of Art, several teachers, including myself, wrote lesson plans centered around the art of the museum and enduring ideas, or "ideas that are centered on human experience and span the test time". During our workshop, where we created the different lessons and units, we were able to see many of the different artworks that are in the museum's collection. One of the artworks that I was really drawn to was a piece of Palissy ware.

Palissy ware was first created by Bernard Palissy in the 1500's. This style of ceramics often uses amphibians, reptiles, and aquatic life as the subject matter which is molded onto a large platter. Artist Geoffrey Luff, creates art in this same style today. We looked at a lot of his examples, including the process of how he creates his works. After having a great discussion on the purpose of this type of art, as well as the use of animals as subject matter in Art, students got to work creating sketches of Palissy ware that we will be creating throughout this next month.

 I cannot wait to see what Art Club will create! The sketching process went so well with so many good ideas!!!

Well, next week things will not be returning to normal quite yet. Because the Art Fair had to be cancelled due to the snow, I will be having students participate in a "show and share" about their project. I am excited to see what students have to say about their projects, especially why they chose the artwork their display is focused on.