Week of Sept. 4th to 7th

This week was pretty busy for my classes.  They all worked hard on completing their portfolios, and the last day of in class time devoted to them was Friday.  Just about everyone is finished with them now, but for those that still have a bit to do they will be allowed to work on them as they finish other projects this next week.

Our classes also participated in the school wide read-a-thon on Wednesday and watched Chopper 5 land at our school.  It was an exciting day and I hope it made an impact for them as much as it did for me.  I took the opportunity to let them have a break from doing art and we read a choose your own adventure style book that day.  It was fun to see the many options they could choose and how it would effect the story.

I was also able to go with the 5th grade classes to Thanksgiving Point and Hutchings Museum.  It was quite a full day of learning so many new things.  What a great way to see "art" in a different sense as we looked at all of the antiques and craftmanship of early settlers to Utah.  Hopefully while learning and visiting they were able to notice these things as well.  From quilts to clothing to needlepoint these are all types of art that can still be valued as important types of art skills.

This next week we'll begin reviewing the primary elements and principles of art and then beginning our next project.  I hope we can get into a good working routine as classes so that we can soon begin our first painting project for the year.  The timing of beginning that project will depend a lot on how the classes do in focusing and using time wisely.

Also, just as a note to parents and students:  I love to see work your students do outside of class.  If there is anything they want to share with me they can bring it in or even bring in a picture of it.  It's great to see how creative they are.  In fact, the PTA just announced the Reflections program for this year.  This is a great way for students to express their artistic talents.  The theme this year is "The Magic of a Moment..." and they can enter in a variety of categories.  Art categories include:  Visual Art, Photography, and 3-D art.  I encourage any of my students who enjoy being creative to consider making a project for the Reflections program.

I can still say that any day I get to go to school and do art with my "kids" is a great day.  Thank you for letting me share part of their learning time together.