her big 3-0!

The Mrs. is turning thirty in a few days. She is looking forward to her next decade on the planet. To celebrate this big event, I've made a series of frame-ready cards. I created eleven 8x10 designs by the time it was all said and done. I then disposed of four of them due to massive shortcomings. I chose to make seven so that they could be hung in a 2-3-2 arrangement on the wall. The "30 sure is something" design was intended to be hung in the center of all the others. These are the seven survivors:

Happy 30th Ash!!!

free art time struggles with young students



When my students finish a project, they are allowed the opportunity to create during "free art time." They finish their work at different times. This may have certain students with quite a bit of time on their hands. The result is a big problem for many youngster. WHAT-TO-MAKE!?!?!?!? I'm 42 and surrounded by creative inspiration and I often look puzzled at the flat white of a blank piece of paper. My job has me on the offensive in this battle against creative block. I am battling youth and it's inexperience as well as the clock (I see students 45 to 55 minutes a week).

 

Today, I sat down for about 10 minutes and showed my struggling first graders how I could brainstorm a silly short story. Note to taxpayers: We use the cheapest of materials during free art time (printer paper, crayons, old markers, etc.). I took a 9x12 piece of manila paper and a piece of printer paper and folded them into a "book". Three staples close to the fold and began the brainstorm. Thanksgiving time mixed with a long held love of drawing fried chicken/turkey wings had me sketching up this little wing guy. I thought (out loud) about what the wing could be doing. He could be dreaming of feathers. He could be dancing with the other foods at the table. He and the other food could devise an escape plan to get off the table....and about three other ideas. The book below was one of those other three. 



 



I had to revise the story as the black crayola marker could be easily seen through the white paper. This allowed me only four pages to work with!

angry strongo #36 tarzan