From 3rd Grade to all of the SFC community....happy happy Easter!!!!
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Monday, March 26, 2018
Project Updates (by Grade)
1st Grade:
1st graders just finished up their Coiled Lions. As they say, March sometimes comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.
3rd Grade:
We are preparing for Easter with adorable line bunnies. Students made the bunnies completely out of lines to create the fur texture. The backgrounds are being made by soaking watercolor paper in water and then dropping liquid watercolors onto the paper to create beautiful and bold backgrounds. This week, we will be finishing them up and adding glasses to the bunnies.
4th Grade:
We have just started making ceramic coil bowls. After they are fired, we will glaze them. Students are so excited to be working in clay.
5th Grade:
I...oops, I mean WE, survived the first few weeks of paper mache with 5th grade. Students learned about the artwork and inspirational life of Laurel Burch. We watched a small video where she is interviewed and students learned about the challenges that she had to overcome in her life. Students planned out a cat that they would create based on the artwork of Laurel Burch.
Forms were made with plastic bags stuffed with newspaper and taped with masking tape. Ears were made with cardboard. Today, students began covering their cat forms with paper mache. It will take us a few weeks until they are ready to paint but they are off to a wonderful start!
6th Grade:
We are just finishing up our Dreamcatcher projects. Students learned about radial symmetry. Using a compass and ruler, they created a mandala that had to have radial symmetry. Feathers were drawn and everything was outlined in sharpie. Selective color was added with crayons, they using small droppers, liquid watercolor was poured over their artworks which were soaked with water. I can not wait to display these. The variety and the details are just stunning.
7th Grade:
Inspirational Person and Writing Collage. Students had to think of someone who is inspirational to humanity. We spent a lot of time talking about collages and how to make them artistic. We talked about adding layers and altering materials and pictures that they used. Students had to include some either writing or quotes of the person that they chose. Here are a few completed ones.
8th Grade:
We just completed our metal repousse projects. Students used burnishing tools to created reliefs out of metal. They were then coated in India ink and the dried ink was then rubbed off with steel wool. Their metal work was glued to paper and their designs had to continue out to the edges of the paper. These took quite a bit of work but they really stand out.
And that's a wrap. Phew! I'm exhausted just looking at all of this hard work from all of the students. I will post more soon on what Enrichment classes are working on so far this trimester. We have some really adorable and fun projects that we are working on to help beautify the school.
1st graders just finished up their Coiled Lions. As they say, March sometimes comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.
2nd Grade:
Students in 2nd grade learned about the art of Claude Monet. We talked about his life and his beautiful gardens in his backyard that acted as inspiration for many of his paintings. Students learned what impressionism is how Monet liked to use lots of small brushstrokes and lots and lots of mixed colors to paint with.
Students made Monet's bridge and lily ponds. They had to start by painting the background like Monet would have, with lots of small brushstrokes and unblended colors. Then the following week, we drew the bridges with oil pastel and added shadows and highlights to make the bridges more 3-dimensional. Students were AMAZED when their shading was done and the bridges began to pop.
We are preparing for Easter with adorable line bunnies. Students made the bunnies completely out of lines to create the fur texture. The backgrounds are being made by soaking watercolor paper in water and then dropping liquid watercolors onto the paper to create beautiful and bold backgrounds. This week, we will be finishing them up and adding glasses to the bunnies.
4th Grade:
We have just started making ceramic coil bowls. After they are fired, we will glaze them. Students are so excited to be working in clay.
5th Grade:
I...oops, I mean WE, survived the first few weeks of paper mache with 5th grade. Students learned about the artwork and inspirational life of Laurel Burch. We watched a small video where she is interviewed and students learned about the challenges that she had to overcome in her life. Students planned out a cat that they would create based on the artwork of Laurel Burch.
Forms were made with plastic bags stuffed with newspaper and taped with masking tape. Ears were made with cardboard. Today, students began covering their cat forms with paper mache. It will take us a few weeks until they are ready to paint but they are off to a wonderful start!
6th Grade:
We are just finishing up our Dreamcatcher projects. Students learned about radial symmetry. Using a compass and ruler, they created a mandala that had to have radial symmetry. Feathers were drawn and everything was outlined in sharpie. Selective color was added with crayons, they using small droppers, liquid watercolor was poured over their artworks which were soaked with water. I can not wait to display these. The variety and the details are just stunning.
7th Grade:
Inspirational Person and Writing Collage. Students had to think of someone who is inspirational to humanity. We spent a lot of time talking about collages and how to make them artistic. We talked about adding layers and altering materials and pictures that they used. Students had to include some either writing or quotes of the person that they chose. Here are a few completed ones.
8th Grade:
We just completed our metal repousse projects. Students used burnishing tools to created reliefs out of metal. They were then coated in India ink and the dried ink was then rubbed off with steel wool. Their metal work was glued to paper and their designs had to continue out to the edges of the paper. These took quite a bit of work but they really stand out.
And that's a wrap. Phew! I'm exhausted just looking at all of this hard work from all of the students. I will post more soon on what Enrichment classes are working on so far this trimester. We have some really adorable and fun projects that we are working on to help beautify the school.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Peace...Make It, Spread It, BE It.........
Today was a PERFECT day (not with the weather but symbolically) to hang up the 4th grade Prayer flags.
Students learned about prayer flags that Buddhists use as a way to spread their prayers and good will to the community around them. Buddhists believe that if you create and hang a prayer flag up, that the wind will blow through the prayer flag and carry that thought, or prayer, or hope to the community around them.
Students had to come up with their own Catholic prayer for our SFC community. They symbolized that prayer with one word that was placed on their flag. They used paint, stencils, fabric scraps, puff paints, metallic markers, and sharpies to create their flags.
Walking out of mass today and seeing these beautiful swatches of fabric hanging in the breeze, each with their own prayer for our community, helped solidify a thought in my mind:
How wonderful it is to be a part of such a beautiful community where we pray and look out for one another.
I hope as you walk by the flags over the next few weeks or month, that you feel the prayers and love wash over you, maybe in the gentle breeze of the wind.
Walk Up, Not Out
Every once in awhile as a teacher, you get so excited about something that you can hardly wait to get to school to start a lesson. Today was one of those days.
For Prayer Day/National Walk-Out Day, I had one of the 3rd grade classes. I had seen a post fron another middle school teacher that talked about instead of walking out, you could walk up.....walk up to someone and say thank you, walk up and sit with someone that is alone, etc....
The 3rd graders job today was to do the following. They were each given a list of 10 classmates. They had to write a compliment to each student on a small square of paper.
Students then walked around the room, placing the compliments in each students small paper bag. If you could have felt the joy and happiness in this room today. I wish I could have bottled it.
Look at these sweet faces as they read all of their compliments. I can just feel the joy!
We talked about how they felt during this class and how sometimes those that are the angriest are often the saddest and that all we need to do is offer kindness to those around us. We talked about how everyone values something different and special in each other. That "Josh" might value "Ben's" laughter and sense of humor, but that "Jill" might value "Ben's" helping ways.
I have a great feeling that today's task started everyone's day off right.
It sure did mine.
My heart feels happy.
Spread love today.
For Prayer Day/National Walk-Out Day, I had one of the 3rd grade classes. I had seen a post fron another middle school teacher that talked about instead of walking out, you could walk up.....walk up to someone and say thank you, walk up and sit with someone that is alone, etc....
The 3rd graders job today was to do the following. They were each given a list of 10 classmates. They had to write a compliment to each student on a small square of paper.
10 compliments to classmates
1 compliment to Ms. Stamps
1 compliment to Mrs. Daigle
+ 5 random acts of kindness to do today
17 total good deeds and acts of kindness
(one for every child lost at the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass school. Although we did NOT talk about the school shooting, or gun violence, or the significance of that number).
Students then walked around the room, placing the compliments in each students small paper bag. If you could have felt the joy and happiness in this room today. I wish I could have bottled it.
Look at these sweet faces as they read all of their compliments. I can just feel the joy!
We talked about how they felt during this class and how sometimes those that are the angriest are often the saddest and that all we need to do is offer kindness to those around us. We talked about how everyone values something different and special in each other. That "Josh" might value "Ben's" laughter and sense of humor, but that "Jill" might value "Ben's" helping ways.
I have a great feeling that today's task started everyone's day off right.
It sure did mine.
My heart feels happy.
Spread love today.
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