Celebrating Creativity - Keith Jacobshagen

This month we looked at the inspiring paintings of Keith Jacobshagen.  Here is one of his pictures from the Joslyn Art Museum.

We started our project looking at his "big sky" paintings.  We discussed his use of horizon line and how beautiful the sky was.  We all agreed we had seen something like that in Nebraska.  

For the project, we started by giving each student 2 pieces of watercolor paper.  One of the paintings was to be inspired by Keith's work and the world we live in.  The other was inspired by the beautiful watercolor paintings created by Mrs. Impey's students. 

The kids got right to work... it wasn't quiet but it was fun!

Here are some of their finished winter birch tree paintings 

Here are some their finished "big sky" paintings.  

Many of the students chose to use a black tree silhouette.

(as inspired by this type of image)

I even had a student who just wanted the "big sky."

Happy January everyone... Hopefully we get some good things finished soon to share with you!

Christmas Break....

I have been ENJOYING my time at home...  It has been the perfect blend of busy and peaceful.  We started break with our first "measurable" snow that made the dry brown outside a beautiful white wonderland.  We were able to enjoy the wedding of our friends Paige and Ryan.  We spent time with family celebrating our Lord's birth.  We we went sledding.  We stayed home and baked yummy meals.  We rang in the new year with dear friends.  We played board games, laughed, giggled, snuggled and enjoyed one another.

Merry Christmas from some 'crazies'

Another thing that I tackled was something that I had always thought would be fun but never really set out to do.  I illustrated a book.  Last summer a friend approached me about doing some illustrations for a book she was putting together.  I said sure but never really got around to doing much about it (something about life, 3 kids and a full time job).  Her husband was a preacher and every month he would write a parable for the church bulletin that illustrated a lesson he had learned from his beloved miniature donkeys or chihuahua.  I chose one lesson from each year to illustrate and below are the finished products...

I have 2 days left to finish enjoying this time.  Sadly that also means I have to take down my Christmas tree.  It is one of the saddest times for me.  We go to a tree farm and cut a tree every year (LOVE IT!).  It makes our house smell wonderful and it is so beautiful.  By now it is time to put things back in their place and the tree is starting to loose it's "sparkle."  However, I am going to let the kids have one more night sleeping by it's light... 

our family hand picture

~Welcome 2013~

I "mustache" you...

My husband is in a wedding this weekend and the groom is one of his softball buddies. 

Needless to say, there is a lot of goofing around with this group. 

... elaborate Christmas costumes are being worn to the rehearsal dinner

The best man asked me to make mustache tie tacks and I thought I could give a try.

I used oven bake clay, finger nail polish and tie tack pins from Hobby Lobby.  

I think they turned out pretty alright.  

All my kiddo's at school sure wanted them.

my scarf was as close to a tie as I could get!

Celebrating Creativity ... Chuck Close Style

As I mentioned in this earlier post  the Celebrating Creativity students were able to see one of Chuck Close's amazing portraits at the Joslyn.  Therefore he was the focus of this months celebrating creativity.

We started by watching this video of him reading "a letter to my 11 year old self."  It is REALLY GOOD stuff!

With only 40 minutes to have "class" we couldn't do a whole painting so we logged onto the computers and did "Chuck Close Inspired Self Portraits" using Picasa.   Each student had to hand in one plain portrait, one pixelated portrait and two of their choosing.  They turned out AWESOME!  Here is a sampling....

MAGIC!

Yesterday was a CRAZY day of end of the quarter work being finished, projects being handed back, missing work being reviewed, tracking down sick kiddos and starting with week "Monday Goodies" but in the midst of it all we made magic...

The kids LOVED the oil resist snowflakes.  It was super hard to keep them on task when there was always someone dunking their snowflake.  It was music to my ears to hear them "ooooohhh" and "aaahhhh" as they removed them from the black paint.

Then to finish them with glitter was almost more than they could handle.  

Day One's Creations

I don't usually allow student to make up clay but with so many of these going home as gifts, I made 25 extra "discs" for those students who were sick .  It really meant a lot to them that they didn't have to miss out entirely.... and they turned out pretty neat also!

(My lesson learned was to wear gloves while dipping them.  I had a hospital board meeting last night and had to attend with black all around my fingernails... ewwww!)

and speaking of "Monday Goodies."  Check out this adorable goody from one of my 5th graders

Sugar Cookies?

Nope.  

SNOWFLAKES!

Before Mr. Koehn  left to graduate he started the 6th graders on a clay project (he had a passion for sculpture) that had them creating clay snowflakes.  I have never tackled a project like this and wasn't sure if we could make them more than a "cute seasonal project."  But I think we have that covered. 

On a side note, we did a few things during this lesson that helped make it all run a little smoother...

#1 We all have those students who finish early and have "nothing" to do (even though you have a file of projects they could work on).  This project had a lot of "left overs" that they were happy to wedge for me.

#2 Clean up can be a bit tedious.  I made the requirement that they give me a "ticket" on the way out the door.  Some classes were required to bring a piece of clay from the floor.  Some classes were required to bring me a specific number of papers.