Olympic Fever!

It's true...I've got the fever.  Olympic fever that is and it's coming on strong!  I am that person that waits in anticipation for each Olympic games.  Summer games, winter games I love them all.  For a girl who can usually give two hoots about a sporting event I go completely bonkers for the games.  The spirit of celebrating your country, no matter what country you call home, is a beautiful thing and I love being able to participate in the moments when someone sees their lifelong dream come true.  A few of my favorites in the summer games are swimming (where I hold my breath during the events and only breathe when my favorites breathe), archery, track and field, rowing...oh I could go on an on.  Let's just say if an even is on, I'm watching it.
The only tough part is the time change.  Because we are watching many of the events on a time delay it's hard to keep the endings from being spoiled.  I ADORE  watching the races happen and waiting to see who wins and I can not stand it when the anticipation is crushed.  Having said that I have put myself on an internet blackout after noon each day to keep from having my fun spoiled.  Yep, that means unless I absolutley have to use the computer it stays off all afternoon and evening.
Now that swimming is over, it's on to track and field where I am still looking for someone to let me throw a javelin!
Summer is almost over.  School supplies are out in all of the stores and I'm off to brave Target on tax free weekend to stock up on supplies for the art room. Crazy, I know!
So enjoy the Olympics and keep cheering!

Lettuce have Salad!

The family farm (as I like to call it) is in full bloom and we are LOVING watching it grow, not to mention the deliciousness that is fresh vegetables!  Lettuce has been in for a few weeks and I think it's safe to say that we will never look at salad the same way again.  All the organic mixed greens that I usually buy in a bag at Ingles can't come close to my new favorite "yard salads."  I think the fact that we put this in the ground as seeds and now can chow down has a lot to do with my love of yard salad! 
We are also well on our way to a full summer of yum!  Peppers are growing, squash has started being picked, tomatoes are FINALLY turning red and the first home grown cole slaw has finally been made.  Our herbs are growing so fast that we have to cut and store every weekend with drying, freezing and every other way of preserving all the yummy basil, apple mint and parsley that is growing faster than we know what to do with it.  The other herbs are much more manageable but my goodness some are growing fast!
This past weekend was my first attempt at making pickles ever and it was so much fun!  We decided to start small with refrigerator pickles since we are new to the homemade pickle game PLUS we don't have one of the crocks that all the recipes say you need.  (I also don't possess the ability to keep up with a recipe for 6 weeks, my attention span just can't take that kind of commitment!)  Thank goodness for the internet because we found a simple recipe that we used but learned we would need to triple the liquid recipe in order to be sure we had enough liquid to cover all the cucumbers and onions.
Here are a few pictures of the "farm" and our progress, the tomatoes have officially out grown me as have the cucumbers!
I've been working on some adorable art projects at my summer day camp job so those pictures will be up soon.  We are "traveling the world" with a country each week so Japan and India's projects will be up soon!
Enjoy!

 Chives!

 Baby Cucumber

 More Basil and Apple Mint than we know what to do with!

 This is now delish cole slaw!

 Oh Roma's, How I do love you so...

 Just a little bee doing his thing...

 Lettuce eat salad!

Lilac Peppers...they have just turned Purple, pictures soon!

 

 Spaghetti Squash soakin' in the sun

 New tomatoes for later in the summer

Okra flowers

 Spring onions

 A look at our Fridge Pickles

 A little cucumber and a little onion...

 Jar them up...

 Add the tangy and sweet liquid and seal them.

 A nice afternoon spent making pickles!

 This one is just because I'm so proud they're finally red.  Dad told me that my sunny disposition wouldn't ripen them and I had to let the sun do its work!

Now, what to make with all this deliciousness!?!?

City Farmers

So I have an issue with growing plants in that I'm not a person willing to put the effort into caring for temper-mental plants.  That is unless I will be given yummy produce as a reward for all of my hard work.  Hence, our family "farm" was born!  After attempts to grow tomatoes and peppers both in pots and upside down in a contraption that I still don't understand, it was decided that the best place for the garden is my parents backyard.  In the fall the soil was turned over and compost added to ready the harsh Carolina red clay for wonderful vegetables for our supper table.  After months of letting mother nature and time do their thing we added more compost, fresh soil and lots of sweat to lay out our garden right in the middle of town.  I must say that I'm quite proud of our efforts so far, lots of tomato plants (that are almost as tall as me!) tons of peppers including lilac peppers, and an assortment of squash, okra, lettuce, carrots and all of my favorite herbs!  So far so good in the garden, I even had a taste of the delicious lettuce while weeding the other day.  I can't wait for a farm to table dinner that traveled all of 20 feet!
Here are some pictures from the family "farm"!

Tomatoes!

Apple Mint

One day they will be carrots

LILAC PEPPERS...that's right, I said LILAC!!

Okra

Salad Bowl lettuce...delish!

I'm just so proud of them...had to show the tomatoes again!

Lovely shot but had to show that they're already up to my shoulders!

A Trip To The Zoo...

It's that time of year when everyone is starting to get a bit restless and summer vacation is on the horizon so I'm working hard to keep everyones attention and keep art fun.  One of my favorite things about my job is working with other teachers to provide lessons in multiple subjects.  I really do feel that the more integration used in schools the better the learning experience will be.  This is why I was thrilled when one of our first grade teachers approached me about doing a project with them.  First graders are headed to the zoo in a few weeks and were starting a research project on animals in our zoo.  They would be using various methods to learn about their animal and creating a book so I was asked to help them create their book covers.  Due to the end of the year stuff that always seems to pop up I wanted to make sure this lesson could be completed in 2 class periods so that it would be completed before their trip to the zoo.  Week one was spent looking at the images of the animals and sketching and on week 2 I had card stock "book covers" with their animals and names ready for their creations!  I was amazed at how wonderful their work turned out.  You could definitely tell the students who had been working hard on their research projects and had seen many images of their subjects.  Here are a few of our Book Covers!

Romare Bearden Jazz Musicians

Each year when our 5th graders start learning about the Roaring 20s I do a lesson on Georgia O'Keeffe but this year I decided to try a lesson that has been in my "Want to Try" folder for a while. We focused on artist Romare Bearden and my students spent a few weeks working on a collage of jazz musicians. It was a great way to start a unit that all of the related arts teachers could participate in because we all love the 20s! The collages turned out AMAZING and everyone was so proud to see their work displayed. Enjoy!

Salt Dough

Each year in 3rd grade students learn about the landscape and landforms of South Carolina. To help them practice this we use salt dough to make our own little South Carolina. Week one is an introduction to the landforms and coloring a template of SC with the colors of the color wheel, one assigned for each type of landform. During week 2 we place a sheet of plastic over our colored sheet of paper and each student is given salt dough to sculpt their SC. They make sure to have the changes in the state where they belong (mountains, flat lands, coastal plains, etc.) and we let them dry for a week or so. Then we spend part of a class period painting our landforms to match our first coloring. They turn out really well and it's a great reinforcement of their science standards.

*The plastic we use is the left overs from the laminating machine. I just keep them cut down to squares in a box and they make great work surfaces for clay or salt dough!

Here's the recipe for Salt Dough. I found it online years ago but I'm not sure where.
If you're able to flip the sculpture over at some point it will help it dry much better. They take a while to dry so be prepared to have them sitting for a week of two depending on the weather!

Salt Dough
2 c all purpose flour + more just in case
1 c salt
almost 1 c warm tap water

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Add a little bit of water at a time until it feels like dough. You may need to add more flour at this point to keep it from sticking. When the mixture feels right you can begin to make your sculpture. When you are done making your masterpiece place it in a safe place to dry. This can take up to a week depending on the weather. You can store any remaining dough in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Hello, Mister Seahorse!

My love of Eric Carle has spilled over into the latest Kindergarten lesson. Each week I use a letter of the alphabet as the inspiration for the lesson and we are on the letter S. This time we did "S is for Seahorse" and read the book Mister Seahorse. This lesson took two weeks because we painted the papers that we are going to use. Week 1 each student picked a color from the neon paints I found and painted a paper and added a bit of texture. Week 2 each student used a tracing shape that I had made using card stock to trace the shape of a seahorse and cut it out. I was much more concerned with their tracing and cutting skills so I gave them the tracing shapes. After they cut out their seahorses and put the scraps in the recycling bin they came to me and added a googly eye and I put their names on the back with a label written in their teacher specific color. They turned out so cute and make for a very fun bulletin board!

Caterpillar Collage

We are on a collage kick in the art room and 1st grade is no exception. Anyone who know's me will tell you that I absolutly ADORE Eric Carle. I love his books, his prints, everything about him. Because I do so love Mr. Carle I make sure that I use his techniques of painting paper to make collages as much as possible.

In first grade we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then got started! My first graders spent a few weeks painting papers. We used green with drops of yellow to make the body and reds to make the heads. Then we spent a week tracing and cutting ovals from our painted papers to make our caterpillars. Color a background habitat and you've got yourself one cute caterpillar!

Enjoy!