Use Your Youth

Valentine HELP!

2009-02-08T19:30:00.002-05:00

So this is almost shameful to say, but...

So Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday (well, maybe Thanksgiving). That is not the shameful part.

I am having a hard time coming up with some outside-the-box valentine art things to make with my kids.

HELP?

2009-01-25T10:59:00.001-05:00

This was not from me. I found this and just thought it was really funny. Really, I don't even know if it's for real or not, but I loved it.

Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told Sarah how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had. Then I found one more in the back room, and several people were fighting over who would get it. Sarah's picture does NOT show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot. From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith

"Amurica is America Again"

2009-01-20T20:15:00.005-05:00

What a great day. AMAZING!

And my students, seriously, think Obama is a superhero. Are they wrong?

'R' is for Robert Rauschenberg

2009-01-18T18:08:00.003-05:00

As much as I love sneaking in kids' interests into what we are doing, there is only so far Ben10 and Hannah Montana can go. Luckily I've got my own resources that (from time to time) they find interesting as well. For instance, they prefer dancing to Glass Candy and Yelle to the OST to Aladdin during our morning movement times. Take that, Miley Cyrus.

During our celebration of letter 'R' this week, I took some time out to bring in one of my favorite things to do outside of school: screenprinting. I prepared a small screen with drawing fluid and screen filler ahead of time. And who better to look to for inspiration than Robert Rauschenberg! Two birds, one stone.

We took some time to look at Rob's work, made a list of what we see in the work (paint, colors, shapes, people, "a lot"), and tried to transfer that to what we can do. Some of them cut photos from magazines to collage onto their work, while others layered with paint.

FREE FOR ALL FRIDAY

2009-01-16T20:14:00.000-05:00

Today had the lowest temperature in four years here, with a daytime "real feel" (thanks Accuweather.com) of -1. Obviously, none of us were going outside to play. We found a way to bring some heat into the room, though.

Fridays are usually a day for review, playtime, and F.U.N. I chose not to think about the near future and broke out many of our supplies at once; I wanted to see how well the children would do with overstimulation and some artful independence. The only rule was we stuck to using warm colors in our paintings, but we used sponges, magazine clippings, toothbrushes, various rollers, fingers, crayons, and bingo markers. The mess at the sink was tiny compared to the fun.

Really, this project was simple and pretty lacking in originality. But, as they tend to do, they make it their own and completely hangable.

I'm getting a little Cy Twombly outta this one.

And so we begin...

2009-01-15T18:46:00.000-05:00

I am a 23 year old pre-k teacher in Philadelphia. After starting out, I quickly found that online resources for activities (especially art) were well… lacking. To be fair, there are PLENTY of things to find, but I am not one for constant coloring pages, worksheets, and simple cut and paste activities. I expect more from my students. We paint, sculpt, make songs, collage, silkscreen, and more. I want this blog to be a number of things:

1) a place where other preschool teachers can get ideas.

2) a place where anyone can get inspired for their own work.

3) proof that 5 year olds are capable of making some amazing work.

You gotta stay youthful and use that power every day.

So please keep with me… this should be moving in no time.