Baby Glue Dots

Glue on your hands, glue on the table, glue on the floor? I hate it when glue gets in places where it just shouldn't be. If students are not taught how to use their glue correctly or in some kind of manner, it will typically end with a razor blade scraping it off the table. Here's how I solved this problem.

My students use these steps for gluing.

1. Open the glue by making the tongue disappear. (We also stick out our tongues and stick em back in)

2. With the top up, squeeze gently to make sure it's breathing. If air comes out we're good to go.

3. If no air comes out then we have to open close, open close and pick out the glue boogers!!! 

4. Then we flip over and gently squeeze one "Baby Dot" onto our finger. 

I have them do this exercise in grades K-2 every time we use glue to make it sink in in the upper grades. 

A "Baby Dot" fits in the center of your finger. If they learn this early with their tiny hands, the dots stay small and it seems to stick with them in the later grades.

We also compare it to a Momma Dot and a Daddy Dot.

"What will happen if we use a Momma or a Daddy Dot?"

"It will go smooosh!"

If a smooosh does happen we leave it to dry clear. If we leave it and kids don't like it they are sure to try not to do it again. 

5. To get the glue off our finger we rub our hands together and "Turn it to DUST!"

Kids love this and it's great because we don't always have time to wash everyone's hands. 

Below are some pictures of the first activity I do with Kinders in the Fall to teach them this technique. 

We are making a mosaic with many pre-cut shapes. The shapes are small which makes it great to teach why we use Baby Dots and not Daddy Dots. This activity is definitely more about the process than the product.

Trays of shapes.

 Great Baby Dots

 It doesn't matter to me whether the students put the dot onto to back of the piece they are gluing down or directly on the paper. I really feel like it depends on the project as to which way is best.

How do you glue?

Pinteresting

I apologize to all my loyal followers and web surfers. My absence should not be excused, but PINTEREST has taken over my life. If you would like to check out some lessons I'm thinking of trying and just what is going on in my head at the moment please take a look here. I have broken up my interest "boards" in to grade levels!

 Until next time, when I have loaded batteries into my old camera to take some pictures of the happenings in my classroom, I will talk to you all again soon. 

Patterned Shoe Prints

First graders used LINE and PATTERN to create shoe prints.

Students learned the 5 types of LINE by singing our Line song and drawing them in the air. 

Then, we discussed PATTERN by using different materials to make patterns. 

 Each table had different materials to make patterns. It was a great assessment tool.

Next, students worked together to trace their shoes with a black crayon.

Time to draw the LINES. Some students wanted to draw the actual lines that were on their shoes.

Crayons were used to show PATTERN.

 

Finally, students cut out their shoe prints and glued them to colored construction paper. 

 

Great Inservice Opportunity in the TN area

You've heard me preach about "The Clay Lady Way" of teaching clay. Now here is your chance to learn from (in my opinion) one of the best. My good friend and fabulous teacher Danielle McDaniel is offering a 

How to Teach Clay the Clay Lady way workshop in Nashville, TN

here are the details:

After 15 years of countless How To Teach Clay...The Clay Lady Way teacher inservices, I can say this with certainty - the information I teach is still current, relevant and useful to art teachers on every level.  I can also share with you that to increase my enjoyment of teaching this same information, I plan to add on different information and shake up the curriculum this year!  So before you say - been there, done that!- look below for the current offerings for 2011!

 

How To Teach Clay...The Clay Lady Way teacher inservice Saturday, October 1st, 8:00-4:30 to be held at The Clay Lady's Studio, Artist Co-op and Galleries ~The Educational Facility at Mid-South Ceramics in Nashville, TN.

Fee is the same as past years - $150  (or $100 for returning teachers).

• Learn The Clay Lady Way:  make and decorate successful clay projects in one-sitting with a single firing to complete.
• Tour our manufacturing warehouse and learn about raw materials and how they are mixed to make products. Learn the difference between low-fire, mid-fire and high fire supplies.
• Enjoy a hands-on clay Clay Lady Workshop to experience The Clay Lady Way as you use our products to make projects.
• Tour and enjoy visiting with several of my 20 artists in residence and see how making projects can turn into a profession at The Clay Lady's Artist Co-op and Galleries.
• See a project demo and learn how to design your own projects.
• Learn my 8 week curriculum, my clay camp curriculum, my K-12 project curriculum that works with your county's curriculum , my teen/adult handbuilding and sculpture lesson, class management techniques and hands-on kids wheel lesson.
• Learn about kilns:  how to load and to program for no-explosion firings!
• Enjoy us providing your apron, your lunch, your certification for inservice hours and your enlightening day!

Feel free to forward this email to all your art teacher contacts - I heavily rely on your goodwill and good reviews!

 

Contact me in any way that works best for you and I will get your name on the list for this year's inservice.  I am limiting the amount of registrations to increase personal interaction and provide plenty of time for questions and diversions from the schedule!  It's going to be a good time!

 

 

Be An Artist in Everything You Do!

 

Danielle McDaniel~The Clay Lady

The Clay Lady's Studio, Artist Co-op and Galleries

~The Educational Facility at Mid-South Ceramic Supply

1416 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C

Nashville, TN  37210

 

phone 615-242-0346

fax 615-244-3191

email danielle@theclaylady.com

www.facebook.com/danielle.theclaylady.

www.theclaylady.com

www.midsouthceramics.com

Clay Lady Documentary

Behavior Board

I was asked to explain more about my behavior board, and I am more than happy to. Art class would not be able to carry on smoothly without it. It's very important to me that my students have fun, but to understand that Art still has rules that must be followed for the fun to happen.

First the expectations of my students are to 

Be Responsible

Be Respectful

Be Kind

Be Safe

Here is a picture of my board at the end of today.

Each teacher has a pocket and each student has a 3"x6" index card in the pocket with their name on it.

When an expectation is not met (rule broken), a student in 1st - 5th grade must pull their card and clip them to the consequence. I have also had them put the cards into a consequence pocket, but I wanted to change it a bit.

1st consequence GREEN WARNING

2nd YELLOW 5 minute time out (when a student goes to time out the time is marked in my roll book)

3rd RED 10 minute time out

4th BLACK teacher's choice (detention, office, or written communication log home)

I have a good behavior art party (fun art activity centers) at the end of the semester. If students have not had time outs then they will be able to participate the whole time. If they have had time out (say 10 minutes total during the semester) they will have to sit out 10 minutes at the party. In other words, whenever they are in time out, they will have it again at the party. It hits them twice so that they hopefully will never misbehave bad enough to go to time out

Kinders are given reward pockets for the whole class behavior: Green for Great Day, Yellow for okay day, and Red for bad day. Individual Kinders are given a verbal warning and after that are sent to time out for 5 minutes any time they break a rule after the warning. Kinders don't have good behavior parties because the class set up is different. See Art Centers

As with any behavior plan, it is a very effective system as long as you stick to it.

I also have a whole class system seen here.