Tigers and Pandas

This week my groups of students focused on tigers and pandas in my Animals of Asia classes. I gave the children a lot of free reign in terms of media, colors, and style in creating their artwork. It's not something I always do. But I find summer the perfect time to be a little less structured and really allow a sense of play and experimentation. I had children from Kindergarten through 9th grade in the same class. And I could not have been more pleased with the way they worked together and encouraged one another. Next week we'll be "visiting Europe" on our last stop of our animal art tour around the world.

Blogger Interrupted

I have been absent from my blog for months. I do apologize! I have had one technical difficulty after another - crashed computer, multiple blogger issues, blah, blah, blah. If you follow me on instagram, and I hope you do (@marymakingart), you know I have been working on the #100dayproject. I have been creating a mixed media collage each day using leftover materials from my art classes. Below are a few of my pieces. I'm at day 95 - so it's come down to the final sprint!  It has been a great experience for me to tap back into my own creativity, beyond children's art projects, and really challenge me to work quickly and be resourceful.

As for art classes - I am at week 4 of my Animals Around the World children's art class series. We are focusing on the animals of each continent every week. We have created cheetahs and lion portraits from Africa, Pete Cromer style koalas and printed landscapes with kangaroo for Australia, and orcas and emperor penguins for Antarctica, This week we will make raccoons and red foxes for North America. It's the perfect 7 week (our school district's shortened summer this year) theme for our 7 continents.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer! Talk soon!