Kitchen decorations

I recently put up four old art quilts to decorate my kitchen.

Seventh grade

Sometimes we just paint and have conversations.

Sasha advises Anna on curriculum

just silly

Saturday night potluck

These are quick candid pictures, no posers here! We had potato chowder, arugula salad, homemade Buddha bread, homemade jalapeno cornbread, roasted vegetables, and carrot cake. It was a carbo-licious dinner.

Poor Anna is on the floor stretching her back, but that doesn't stop her enjoying her wine!

It's Joe's Day!

Collage page with patterned papers

This is a quote from Henri Matisse. First I painted the patterns on paper, then cut out the letters and glued them to the page. Joanne (the teacher whose class I'm in) used marker ink for the background, but I'm using what I have: watercolor paint and Inktense pencils.

Working on big decorated letters

So, I've been painting a bit during our 3-day weekend. 

Messing around in the sketchbook

More Classwork for Joanne Sharpe

This was about painting marks using a brush and watercolors.

Markers would work, too, of course, but she's encouraging the class to paint.

It's not supposed to 'be' anything except practice making doodles, letters, and shapes with the brush.

Classwork for Joanne Sharpe

This was about using white opaque watercolor to white-out the background paint layer. I like the left page better, where the white isn't as thick.

Fancy sugar skull at Selena's

Road Trip

It rained all the way to Toronto, but that's better than snow!

Mandatory Swedish meatballs for lunch. 

Fun duvet covers.

These lamps always remind me of wads of kleenex.

I loaded the car and went back into the store for some cookies, and crackers. 

It was a good day trip.

From Japan

Joe sent me a postcard!

Mr. D’s class makes chocolate chip cookie cake

The kids were a lot more excited about this than they look in these photos.

Classwork with Joanne Sharpe

So, the lefthand page was making a background by squishing wrinkled plastic wrap into wet paint, then using the same color, paint around some shapes. She calls it pulling the negative shapes out of the background. It was not so easy, but it makes a nice backgroung to write on, I think.

The righthand page was PAINTING the letters freehand, trying to find your own personal font. Also, not easy. It's like writing in slow, slow motion. 

When Joanne does it, the script is all cute and stylish. Here's her website, go look. She's lots of fun, careful you don't get lost in there.

Today he strung 100 beads for the hundredth day of school

My littlest kinder-baby is autistic and never stops moving, so this necklace was a real accomplishment for him. He ran around the room showing everyone!

Origami pencil toppers

Today's classroom wisdom

Sixth graders do tangrams