Masks, monsters and class taught by Bing Bong from Inside Out

What a fantastically fun full-moon, pre-Halloween week at PES!  Fourth graders in Miss Klewin's class started the week with creating masks out of plaster to go along with our Mexican art unit.  Don't forget to bring goodies to decorate your mask this week!  

This week was also Red Ribbon Week!

We had twin day...

Superhero day!

Students in Miss Hoffman's third grade grade class are participating in a special collaborative project with the high school students in Miss Torre's classes.  They are designing and writing about their own, original monsters.  The high school students will then build the monsters out of clay and the artists will meet in the spring.  This is my third year with this project and it's a huge hit!

Second grade students watched a short video about contemporary sculptor James DeRosso, who specializes in clay monsters.  They used oil pastels on black paper to create our own monsters!

Students have been embracing choice art as well!  We currently have three studios open that include drawing, inspiration (books) and now collage!

To round off the week and in the spirit of Halloween, Bing Bong taught classes and participated in the parade on Friday!

Enjoy your weekend!

Blacksmithing Shop Demonstration

Did you know Pecatonica High School is one of only 5 high schools in the United States (and the ONLY one in the Midwest) that offers artistic black smithing to our students?  Thanks to Mr. D for showing our 4th grade students this amazing sculpture art form!  (Miss Klewin's class will go in a couple weeks.)

Have you seen our Kindness Wreaths around school?

For the third year, I have incorporated my favorite positive behavior management system into the Dragonfly Studio.  We call it "Our Kindness Wreath."

Our 2015-16 beginning wreath.

When students are caught doing acts of kindness for each other or the well being of studio, they might be invited to add a ribbon to the wreath.  The ribbons are kept in a box behind the purple hand chair.

Our first wreath from 2013-14 resides in Mrs. Brockway's office.  

See if you can find our wreath from last year!  Hint, keep your eyes to the sky!

Peace Day & Unity Day Fun!

We started out the week by celebrating the International Day of Peace by planting pinwheels for "whirled" peace on the front lawn of the school!

Today we had "the best day ever" by celebrating Unity Day!  A huge shout out to Miss Hoffman for making Unity Day an amazing success!

Blue Ribbon Award

Did you hear?  PES was one of sixteen schools in Illinois to win the Blue Ribbon award for 2015!  We had a big dance party assembly to celebrate!

Inspiration and Drawing Studios Open!

There are too many things to list about how much I love this candid shot last week!  Someone takes "diving" into her art quite seriously in the background!  

Kindergarten friends finished their class "Peace" books and their pinwheels.  Remember next Monday, the 21st, is the International Day of Peace in which our pinwheels will be on display on the front lawn of the school for "whirled" peace!

Busy! Busy!

This school year is off to a great start!  Children have been working on making their portfolios to store artwork in and pinwheels for the International Day of Peace on September 21st!  

He is very proud of his coloring job!  If you notice in the background there are two new things!  I was able to obtain a booth from a wonderful family in Westlake this summer aka "The Creation Station" and a new wooden portfolio rack.  The portfolio rack will make student portfolios readily available to the children when they want to add to them. I was able to make this purchase with funds from our Artsonia account!  When parents purchase items from Artsonia, a percentage of the money goes into an account to help supplement supplies.  Thank you, parents!

Also our third kindness wreath is hanging on the door waiting for ribbons!  When the children are caught doing an act of kindness for each other in the studio, they might be invited to add a ribbon to the wreath.

The wreath from last year now resides in the library and the one before that is in Mrs. Brockway's office.  I am looking forward to a fabulous school year!