Have A Merry Christmas Today



vintage image of Santa in his Workshop
http://cathyscrazybydesign.blogspot.com/

 I'll be back later to show 4 results from my Christmas lessons at school.  We had a lovely showing of artwork for our Advent - Christmas Program at school.  There was just enough art to go once around the gym and in the hallway leading into the gym.  The program went off flawlessly and so did the caroling program the next day.  We sent off a dozen Nativity paintings to the Knight's of Columbus group for judging in a local contest.  Hopefully we will have an entry that will move on to the state level this year.

More on the Ornament Club

For some reason my picture of our Christmas tree with our ornament club creations didn't post in my last message. 

Here is how our tree looks this year:

I am always on the lookout for more creative ideas for us to do next year and beyond and I have three more that I'd like to file away for the future.

I saw some very cute felt ornaments on Terri Wilhelm's blog called Terri's Notebook.  A friend of hers had created a pair of skates for a Christmas exchange package.  I was admiring them and wrote a comment about how cute they were.  Terri was so nice to do a little research and provided me with this link to a great tutorial on how to make them including how to use a large paper clip for the blades of the skates.  Thank you Terri!

The other ornament I want to do for next year was shown on the Crafty Crow.  It is a lovely red poinsettia made with coffee filters and paper tubes.

German Woven Stars  also known as Froebel or Moravian stars will be another craft for my future meetings of ornament club.  I must practice them myself this year so I will be able to guide the kiddos when they try weaving them.

Ornament Club

Shown here are all the members of this year's ornament club and the 2 leaders, Kathy O'Connor and myself.  We had a nice mix of children in grades 3 - 5.  This year we were able to make 8 ornaments.  We've been having regular meetings since just before Thanksgiving.  Our last meeting was on Wednesday Dec. 8th, so the tree is really well decorated.  I estimated that there are 180+ ornaments hanging already. 

Here is a great ornament idea I am filing away for next year:

photo by Joanna Davis



I just read a very wonderful idea for making a snowglobe like ornament on a different blog, so I am creating a link to it.  This was written up by Joanna on her blog, We Heart Art.  I wanted to bring it to the attention of my readers and create a reminder for myself to make them next year for our school's ornament club.  



#8 Plaster Cast Ornament

# 2 Reindeer by a Fence

#3 SnowAngel

#4 Pinwheel

#5 Decoupage

#1 Wooden Lightbulb



#7 photo perfect hanger



#6 Wishing Spool

1. wooden lightbulb:  ric rac hanger, paint, wooden light bulb shape
2. Reindeer w/Fence  popcicle sticks, paint, trims, spoon shaped craft sticks
3. SnowAngel:  foam, accucut shape, buttons, thin twigs, thin white wire, crackle medium
4. pinwheel:  scrapbook paper, spray adhesive, jingle bell
5. decoupage:  wrapping paper, acrylic medium
6. wishing spool:  empty wooden spool, thin strip of paper
7. Photo Perfect Hanger:  school photo, sharpies, accucut shapes
8. Plaster Cast ornament:  acrylic paint and glitter glue

I am very willing to tell more details about any of these and welcome any questions you may leave as a comment. 

Art Teacher Blog Directory

Here is a great opportunity to connect with other art teachers and the blogs they write.  Visit the Vivid Layers blog to read more about it and join up with a link to your own blog.

Farewell to Fall

    The fall season has come and gone so quickly this year.  Our school usually has an autumn harvest concert and a Christmas program, but for a change we have decided to have an Advent program and it will be followed by a winter concert in January.  It gives the students more time to prepare, but we have missed the fun pumpkin, scarecrow and football songs and artwork this year in the music room and art room.  It was the band instructor that suggested this change.



White Luminary Pumpkin for School Display



This is the white pumpkin we used at school while the 6th graders were sculpting the pumpkins.  Having it allowed us to see the ridges in the surface.   We attached 2 pinch pots with plenty of score marks and slip to mold them together.  Dental floss string helped us get the pumpkin ridges started and then they finished sculpting them with pencil tips. It was a very successful project this year.

Glazed pumpkins ready to come out of the kiln



Harvest Pumpkins in Moonlight

Indian Corn (unfinished sample)

unfinished scarecrow sample

Leaves Everywhere by Peter R. gr 5

Raining Leaves by Carley M. gr 5



Ceramic Leaves by Ryanne S gr 5

Hopefully this shows some of the things we have been working on in the past month at school.  It has been a busy time and we are currently involved in some very nice work with a Christmas theme.  I look forward to sharing those soon.