september currently

September is upon us, folks! Hopefully this means the weather will cool down ~ soon.  It's time for Farley's Currently.

Listening: I'm listening to my husband cook bacon. He's the best bacon chef in the house, with Heather coming in second place. I can cook bacon just fine, but they do it better.

Loving: Stephanie is on the JV volleyball team this year and her first game is on Friday. This year she plays in the regular gym (instead of the auxiliary gym), which is going to be a whole new level of excitement. I love watching her play.

Thinking: We've been in school a week and I'm still trying to figure my class out. They are a good class, but right now there's still a lot of sitting and staring at me.

Like I'm an alien.

Like they don't know what to think of me.

Figures.

Wanting: I love my job and all, but let's be honest, who couldn't use a few more days off.

Needing: I have loads of laundry & other stuff around the house that needs to get done ~ that may or may not actually get done.

3 trips: My list is longer than three, but I'd love to go to New York, many countries in Europe, and New Orleans.

Go see what other teachers are up to on Farley's blog.

the one where we bust out the paint

If you take a look, you will see that my last post was on the first day of school ~ in 2013. Uh...what happened there? Half of the summer is even over.

I have a project that I did with my class in the last days of the school year to share with you.  

I saw this painting from one of those wine & canvas group painting classes. It was actually a kids' project for Father's Day. I showed it to Greg and told him that I wanted to paint this to put in my class. He asked if I was going to have the students do it to. Good idea! I am rarely afraid of painting with kids, so why not!

Before we started on the canvas, I gave the students a piece of paper the same size as the canvas and we practiced drawing the owl. We went through the drawing process step by step so when it was time to draw the owl on the canvas there would be minimal erasing. I find that when you draw with kids, if you break the drawing up into basic shapes it helps them be more successful. For example, I told them the top of the head was a U shape that was stretched wide, then the left side was a J hooked onto it.

We painted on 5 x 7 canvas boards. Originally, I wanted to do a bigger painting, but in my last minute buying, the store didn't have the stock I needed.  This size turned out to be just fine.

Painting tip: I use old egg cartons as paint trays. Depending on the size of the project, they can be cut into fours or sixes, or even left whole. When we are done for the day, we just toss them in the trash.

Here are some of the finished products. I love how even though we all did the same painting, they turned out very individualized. I'm digging the mustache!

We worked on this in several paint sessions over the course of about three days. We went slowly, step by step. I painted my own and showed them tips and tricks as I projected it with the document camera.

The black outlining on the original was likely done with paint, but it was probably a much larger canvas, with the correct brushes for line work. Since ours were smaller canvases and our brushes a little bulky for that type of work with the inexperienced hands of the little people, we finished our details with a Sharpie. I think it worked well.

To completely finish the project, the students created a dedication card to go on the back to cover up the unsightly label. I also hot glued a piece of string on the back in a loop for hanging.

Here's my example. Like I said, I painted along with the kids. I did this with the intention of redoing the art on a bigger scale for a class decoration for this coming year. But I'm pretty pleased with the small version, so I will be incorporating this one into my classroom art.