Why Veterans Day is My Favorite Holiday

I'm not super keen on "hallway projects."  You know, those projects to just decorate the hallways to coordinate with holidays or school themes.  It's just not my style.  I think they're cute, and encourage teachers in my school.  I'm always 'consulting' with the kindergarten team to help them figure out projects.  Cute is generally just not for me and my curriculum.  It's not natural.  I have to work on cute.

What is me is honoring our Veterans.  My grandfathers is a World War II vet.  A solider.  A hero.  I had the incredible experience to be his chaperone on an honor flight.  If you have a veteran in your family, sign them up!!!  This is an incredable organization!  Grandpa and I were moved to tears all day.

Grandpa and I at the WWII monument.

Our school invites Veteran's every year for a school assembly, so I wanted the hallway to look patriotic for them and get a chance to talk to the kids in class about veterans and what the day means. Here's my conundrum.  A holiday project?!  Can I possibly do something cute that teaches the lessons I need taught too!  I found out, YES!

The idea to change the palette to red, white, and blue.  

I had been doing a lesson previously with kindergarten that was similar.  Students would draw horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines, then discover they had made shapes. They would paint in each shapes and then once they were dry, add lines designs with oil pastel. When I saw this similar idea on Pinterest and then on this blog, but in the red, white, and blue palette, I knew immediately what to do! I had a lesson and a cutie-pa-tutie art project!  The foil star is a cute idea, but not ideal to do with so many kindergarten students.  Instead, I used the Ellis machine to cut out stars from mirror paper and students used 3D foam dots to attached them to their art.  In the white space students added glitter, because what is elementary art without a little glitter?! Thank you Christie from kids-finelines.blogspot.com for sharing your idea and inspiring me! 

See more photos on Artsonia 

At the end of the school year, Scholastic was having a dollar sale and I happened upon this flag notebook paper for wait for it....$1!  One whole dollar for a pack of 50!  You can hardly buy a ream of paper for that cheap.  So I added it to my shopping chart.  At the beginning of the third grade, I like to do a lesson on drawing people using double arms/legs and paying attention to details.  So the students draw their person under the flag.  They can say the Pledge of Allegiance, Boyscout salute, cheer, or say thanks to the veteran's.  Students unlearn some of the bad habits when drawing people, learn about Veteran's day, and it's a cheap and quick project with great results!  My volunteer who hung them up did so in an American flag pattern.  So so cute!  Yes, I used the word CUTE!

See more on Artsonia

And here's a few of my favorite photo's from Grandpa's Honor Flight...

This was one of my favorite moments.  You can see in the reflection Grandpa is pointing at a battle where he remembered the sound of the planes overhead, as he was on the ground fighting.  The sounds of the planes meant there was a chance for survival.  Such a meaningful moment, the kinds I love to share with my students.  

Two Pins, One Lesson. Fourth Grade Zentangles.

Part 1 of the inspiration found on Pinterest and from Painted Daisies

Part 2 of Inspiration for Fourth Grade Zentangle Leaves

Sometimes one pin just isn't enough.  Thank goodness we can organize with boards on Pinterest because it was two pins on the same board that sparked an idea for my fourth grade students.  A couple of years ago my student teacher introduced zentangles to our high school classes.  It was so successful that we (and by we I mean WE because this relationship was the most awesome collaboration of lesson planning for the both of us!) decided to try zentangles with our fourth graders.  Mrs. S came up with the idea to have the kids do zentangles inside of a leaf outline. The students were in the middle of a Nature unit, so it fit the curriculum perfectly.

Just after we completed the high school lesson,  I saw the pin with the zentangle on brown craft paper with the white and was instantly taken by it.  The artist is Teri Casper.  I wrote a note to include it in my high school art school lesson the next year.  I never got the chance, as the next year I became full time elementary.  No complaints here though. (Although I love high school students too!)  Next came the leaf pin, and I immediately thought of the 4th grade zentangle leaf lesson.  For the first year, the students had drawn them on white paper and used a sharpie for the zentangles.  These two images really inspired me to take the project to a new level.  I have basically morphed together the two images to form a new lesson for fourth grade students, and they love it.  You know those days when the kids stop talking completely on their own because they're so absorbed with the lesson?  That's what happens here.

I've collected a lot of good materials over the years, which definitely makes a difference.  The kids use the micron pens and that helps them be successful at such little and detailed lines.  I have 10 packs of black and it was an investment, but they have lasted two years and the kids do a great job of taking care of them.  I tell them if they use professional supplies they have to treat them like a professional artist.  For the metallic coloring the kids use Sargent Liquid Metals which have lasted well and are very reasonably priced per wear.  I got a free pack of the Crayola brand, and I'm impressed with those too.  I had to really keep an eye on the kids that they didn't completely cover their zentangles with the markers.  We talked about how artists have to be good editors and make choices, even though the materials are fun to use! 

After mounting the leaf zentangles, students decorated the black background will gel pens, which they also could use on the leafs.  I am super excited about the results, and it's even cooler to look back on my Pinterest board and now see the end result of what started as a pin and idea.  

The Light "Blog" Moment with Circles

A few weeks ago a fourth grade teacher, Mrs. B, approached me about circles.  "We're trying to use a compass Miss Hatch and it's not working out too well.  Do you have any ideas?"

I didn't.  I was a total blank.  The teacher wanted something to make creating circles with a compass more interesting.  The kids were getting frustrated, and there was no motivation.  I had nothing in my arsenal....

The light "blog" moment!

Until I added the blog, Cassie Stephens to my blog reading roll.  I saw the pictures of relief circles and was intrigued now that Mrs. B had put the circle idea into my head.  Cassie Stephen's prep project is what particularly caught my attention.  The step by step was perfect.  I could write it up, and give it to the teacher.  It's something the kids can work on in her class (I'm booked for lessons with my art show in December!) and it's a way for me to reach my students without actually having them in class.

I showed Mrs. B and she is just as excited as I am to include the lesson in her classroom.  She planted the idea, a blog gave me the inspiration, and now I can't wait to see the fourth graders go!

My version of the lesson, with instructions to use a compass.