LAST day of summer school...July 1st, 2011

It is the LAST day of summer school 2011...and today is the day to clean up and shut down until August!!!  I took pictures of my ceiling this year because we added to my semi-permanent decorations with more string art!  I do not like to work in a sterile environment with all white walls but decorating my ceiling tiles is a bit of a feat because I have approximately 10 foot ceilings and getting up their definitely requires a ladder.  In this particular case it took two ladders because getting the ceiling tiles down is a bit of a trick

thanks to all the suspension wires up in the rafters.  Oh, and did I mention they break REALLY easily (I know this because we had a couple casualties)!!!  Luckily the cracked tiles seem to be repairable with a generous amount of Super Tacky Glue!  I've always said that it is a good idea to get on the good side of the custodians and this was one of those times where a good relationship came in handy because they were able to "look the other way" while I had about 10 holes in my ceiling for a few days!!! 

You see, the reason I called the string art semi-permanent is because the students actually pin everything directly into the tiles while they are down and so its cork-like properties is actually what holds everything in place!  The name plates this year were created using block lettering and one-point perspective.   I'm hoping to eventually decorate each tile with student work but it'll take a few more summers before that can be achieved!!!  :-) 

Masks!!! Summer School...June 27th, 2011

Almost every year now in summer school my class has made these larger than life oversized masks that I then use to add color to my classroom.  A few years back they originated out of a history lesson discussing

African culture and tradtiuonal trimal style masks but they have evolved into more of an art/math lesson involving symmetry and colorful embelleshments.  Regardless of the student's motiviation for the masks, it allows them to really tap ito thier creativity and play with shapes, color, and 3D elements without too many restrictions!!!  :-)

Rainbow Cupcakes!!! Summer school...June 23rd, 2011

Summer school is winding down and I always try to have a cooking lesson at least once a week...we've made full meals like lasagna, salad and bread and then we've done minor things like baking cookies.  I had been telling the students I had a surprise for them that included food dye but I never told them what exactly it was going to be.  Finally the day had arrived and we were going to be making rainbow colored cupcakes where each one has multiple colors swirled inside.  We taught the kids to separate the white cake batter into 5-6 bowls and then using gel food coloring (the gels tend to be

more vibrant than the liquid kind) dyed each a different color.  Then using spoons they added batter a spoonful of color at a time until each cup was 3/4 full.  The coolest part was after they were done baking because I let the students choose which two cupcakes they wanted to ice and eat.  I didn't let anyone eat until all the kids had theirs iced and ready...then we had a countdown where everyone took a bite at the same time and then compared colorful middles.  I don't think I've EVER seen kids eat cupcakes so SLOWLY before in my

life because with every bite they were comparing it to other kids. Overall, everyone was quite impressed and ultimately went home with a sugar high! :-) 

Hooray for Duct Tape!!! Summer school...June 21st, 2011

So, if you haven't seen the Duct Tape selection in the hardware isles recently you'd be AMAZED!!!  The days of gray and silver are no longer...you can now get it in bright colors and prints too!

 Everything from tie dye, to polka dots, to skulls and Hello Kitty you will be overwhelmed with the choices!  Kacey (my aide during summer) and I decided it would be a fun project for our summer school class to create some usable art with the fun new colors of Duct Tape!  She and I had both bought a few rolls out of pocket but then Kacey was over at her mother's house and was watching some You Tube tutorials on creating
Duct Tape wallets and her mother loved the idea!  The next day Kacey's mom (who works at Wal-Mart) decided to buy 30 plus rolls of various

colors and prints and donated them to my class!!!  This was nearly $100 dollars worth of Duct Tape even with her employee discount!!!  It was unexpected but VERY appreciated!  So each student got to create a wallet for themselves and because father's day was quickly approaching they got to make one for their dads that we then wrapped up as gifts too!  Some of the quick working kiddos even made flower toppers for pens too!  I then took the opportunity to create an English project by teaching the students to write thank you notes to Kacey's mother to thank her for the Duct Tape donation.  To make the notes pretty (more like stationary) we used special a Japanese floating dye I'd bought.  After the students wrote, revised, typed, and printed their letters they got to pick their colors.  Kacey and I manned the dye (because it was expensive and permanent)...each drop of color chosen was floated in water and then lightly swirled by the student with a Popsicle stick and then we dipped the paper and envelope into the dye and wallah--Beautiful!!!   

Summer School Tie Dye Event...June 15th, 2011

I'm always in search of fun cross-curricular hands-on activities to do during summer school because four straight hours of English and Math paper and pencil assignments would bore me to death as fast as it would the students!!!  So this summer we took art to a permanent level!!!  Kim Smith promised that if we did a tie dying day that she'd come to help out and of-course participate!  Luckily I'm blessed to have an aide of my choosing to help out during summer school, but I definitely wouldn't turn away an extra set of hands on a day I'm dabbling in permanent dye and

teenagers!  Kacey McNew has been my summer aide for years now and we work rather well together!  She is fabulous at helping the students without giving answers or doing projects for them--a necessity in truly learning if you ask me!!!  During the year Kacey works as an interpreter but in the summer she assists me in the classroom and helps to keep me sane during our non-stop 4-hour block schedule in a classroom FULL of students (at least double the size of any class I have during the year)!   So once we set a date I then discussed it with the custodians because we needed to borrow a hose and bib

connection to rinse out the dye (and any other messes that could arise).  They are awesome and had everything set up for us before school even started that day, which is a bright and early 7:30 am!!!  Over the course of the first week of summer school we had the students bring in 1-2 items that they wished to dye and

if they did not already have a white t-shirt or socks their parents would allow them to alter I told them to bring me $3.00 and I'd buy them a shirt and socks (thank goodness or multi-packs at Wal-Mart!) .  All the students had been awaiting this day in utter anticipation and I'd threatened them

with plenty of homework if they goofed off too much around the dye because I didn't want parent calls yelling at me for sending their students home multi-colored!  Luckily when the time came everyone was rather well behaved and no casualties occurred , although we did create quite a spectacle with our clothing line of colorful items strung from one side of the building to the other!!!  At the end of the day (give or take noon) Kacey and I had the job of bringing in all the clothes.  We strung up new lines across my classroom so they could finish drying overnight without being stolen.  The next day we had a life skills lesson in ironing (that's how you set the dye before washing) and then washing and drying in the machines located in the room next to mine (normally utilized by the Severely Developmentally Delayed (SDD) class during the year).  So from art to life skills it was an enjoyable couple of days!!!    :-)

Even Carter got a shirt!!!  :-)