Kindness Club Meeting

Today we decided to bombard the elementary school bathrooms with positive notes abut being kind!  It was a mission to place them without getting caught!

What a fun way to surprise our students and staff!

We love watercolor resist painting!

A few classes have earned a portion of the painting studio to open today!

Some students explored mixing colors and using watercolor pencils as well.  They were too engaged to notice me.  Wow!

Purple Week!

Kindergarten students created purple shape artwork today after hearing, Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Some grades are earning new studio openings this week!  Looking forward to adding choice painting studio!

Umbrellas for Peace was AMAZING!

I have been waiting to blog about our amazing display of peace until I finished compiling the video.  What a day!  The support from our small community was fabulous and the kids had a wonderful time making memories!

Umbrellas for Peace Video Here

  A select number of fourth grade parents received a permission slip in communicators for Kindness Kids Club.  If this is of interest, please return the application and permission slip by October 3rd.

Third and Fourth Grade parents also received a note in communicators about our Mexican Folk Art Unit and Dia de los Muertos.  If you or someone you know would be interested in coming in as a guest speaker on a Wednesday, please send me an email ASAP!  Also, if you are willing to allow your child to bring any fun Mexican artifacts to share, that would be wonderful!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Countdown!

Umbrellas for Peace will wrap up on Thursday with a two school, plus marching band and Pecatonica Police & Fire Departments parade at 9 am.  We plan to begin on 7th & Main and parade to 3rd Street on Main.  The kids are excited!  Lets show our students what small town support is all about!  Kindergarten finished painting their umbrellas today, hence no pictures as I had my hands full even with Mrs. V helping.  My parent helpers are the best around!  Want to join the Dragonfly Studio?  Sign up to be a volunteer through the office and send me an email at beckygocken@pecschools.com .  See you Thursday at 9am on Main Street.  You don't want to miss it!

Umbrellas and Unity Day

One week countdown until our Umbrellas for Peace parade!  We are set to begin on Main at 7th Street and walk to 3rd Street, looping back up Reed Street.  This will be an amazing display you won't want to miss!

Last Friday, thanks to Miss Hoffman, Unity Day returned to PES!  I, personally, think I had the best team of the day!  We exchanged many group high 5s and made new friends!

I placed the Umbrellas for Peace shirt order yesterday.  A huge thank you to Scott Wenstrom at Northstar Graphics for his design work and quick turnaround!

First day...we paint umbrellas! Perhaps I lost my marbles?!

Today we painted umbrellas!  Yes, on the first day of school!  Have I lost my marbles?  Perhaps, but we did it anyway and the kids loved it!!!  Umbrellas for Peace parade will take place September 11 at 9am beginning on 7th & Main, up Main to 3rd and loop back up Reed Street.

It's going to be a fabulous year!  Some kinders and first graders might tell you I sometimes am their PE teacher as well.  It's true!  I wear many hats at Pecatonica Elementary!

Getting the studio ready!

Did you know your teachers spend weeks setting up their classrooms before school starts?  It's true!  This teacher is no exception!

Workday 2

I am tweaking some of the studios this year to provide easier student access and movement within the studio.  I added SLO (Student Learning Objectives) to one of the whiteboards through our "I Can" statements.

Have you tried chalkboard paint?  I LOVE IT!  I painted the back of two big metal cabinets to use as menu boards.  Next up was my dreary original 1930s slate chalkboard behind the student computers.  It had definitely seen better days, but I was concerned with the paint adhering to the slate.  After a response from Rustoleum, I went to town priming and painting.  This will be our word wall!

Before

Primed

After

I can't wait to write on it!  There are some steps to conditioning the paint after it dries, but wow!  It looks so much better!

Hope everyone is enjoying these last couple of weeks!  We are going to squeeze a last minute trip with my mom and brother to Chicago!  I have never been to Millennium Park!  What have been your favorite summer memories?

Big score at the dollar store!

I found sponges, clothespins and clean squeeze bottles for the studio today at the dollar store!  School days are just around the corner!  

Hope everyone is enjoying these unseasonably cool temperatures!  

We ordered the umbrellas!

We placed the orders for the umbrellas for the Umbrellas for Peace project today!  A huge thank you to the Pecatonica Education Foundation and Ms. Ginny Meyers of Gambino Real Estate for your generous donations to push this project forward!    The excitement continues to build!  We hope to have enough funds to purchase more paints as well!

Yes, Mom! I ate my artwork!

Kindergardeners had a great time with my annual "eat your artwork" color wheel lesson!

Students watched a 3 minute YouTube video about the color wheels before we dove into experimenting with red, blue and yellow frosting mixing on vanilla wafers.  Lots of excitement for this lesson today!  What colors can you make in between these colors?

Some kids just couldn't wait to dig in!

We even had some future kindergarten 2014-15 students visit today!  What a fun day to visit!

Now onto cleaning and packing up the studio for next school year.  Unknotting paint smocks anyone?

Guest origami artist today!

We had a very special guest origami artist today during Miss Hoffman's class. Did I mention he's a fellow student?

These children are eager to learn how to make ninja stars from another third grader!  This is what I love about TAB!  He was able to take a small group of us (me included as I am origami challenged) and teach us how to make ninja stars!  Other students were able to finish their projects while we learned a new art of paper folding.  

Last Special Group

Today was my last special 4th grade group meeting.  We finished reading From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler this past week and ended the session with soap sculptures!  I apologize I was too busy sculpting with the kids to get any pictures today.  My room smelled lovely for the afternoon.  Ivory soap is soft enough to sculpt even with basic cutlery.

Ending of our art party!

Mrs. Wanke's class finished their art party artworks with splatter painting today!

It was splatastic!