Thank you Art Rocks! Readers

THANK YOU! to all of my regular blog readers and to the visitor's of Elementary Art Rocks!
This blog has been such a blessing. My second website, this blog initially served as a way to not only communicate with parents at the schools where I was teaching but as a way to document my days as an elementary art teacher. Making the shift from a high school to middle school and then to an elementary art teacher was a great experience as I realized how much I loved teaching at every single level.

I am thankful for all of your comments and support over the past several years.
Here are some cool facts about this blog!

As of today, we are at 349,832 page views!

10,000 visitor's just last month!

Almost 300 posts!

And what's interesting for me is what the most popular posts have been. These posts, when I see them on Google searches or Pinterest, my heart always skips a beat. I am thankful that these posts have been helpful to other art teachers over the past several years.

ART ROCKS! TOP 3 POSTS

Written in 2011: SNEAK PEEK at ART ROOM MURAL

Written in 2013: GRADE 1 MONET BRIDGES

Written in 2011: MONSTER MAMA (Art and Literature)

Not a top post but....

Year 2012: BIRCH TREES

This is a lesson that I saw online and was inspired to modify and use in 2012. I've seen this project soooo many times now but the results are consistently great and an example of how some lessons are oldies but goodies.

 T H A N K    Y O U   to everyone for visiting and I hope the next few years supply you with new ideas and inspiration to try something new or reinvent something old.


Happy Thinksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Each day as I enter school, I feel excited and appreciative for another day of doing what I love. There is always something new happening or a new way of looking at things in front of me.

One thing that happened recently was an old thing seen through new lenses. 

We were using glitter in second grade to create jewels for our Tree of Life inspired paintings. The kids had drawn their shapes and were filling them in carefully and so happily using glue. Their little fingers were being careful to pinch glitter and sprinkle the colors of their choosing in the areas that they wanted to make the most unique and beautiful jewels for their trees. 

Something seemingly so simple had their attention and interest for an hour- and they could have gone longer. 

We chatted about birthstones and they were intrigued by the concept of a precious stone to represent their birth month. 

As an adult, it's a great reminder to appreciate the view of this world through a child's eyes. There is so much that can be taken for granted... Like the excitement for glitter and birthstones. 

In the same class period, when it was time to begin cleaning up, using our mini brooms was the best option for cleaning the glitter.

Every art teacher knows the allure of a few token clean up tools... Mini brooms are high on the list. 

It wasn't the mini brooms that stopped me for a moment but the care and ownership that my boys put into the clean-up. Oh, and these kids were sweeping every single piece of glitter on the tables and floors AND having meaningful conversations about the best procedures for sweeping. How could I forget how much the kids loved the mini brooms??! Well, we don't need them often, that's why. Easy to forget.

As I stood there watching them, I thought of new ways to inspire clean-up for my Friday Art Enrichment class that has 11 boys and 6 girls. By the time we roll around to clean-up, their minds have moved to "what's next".... meaning, "what am I doing once I go home".

With my Thursday group where I have 20 girls, clean-up has barely any challenges at all.

So, with the inspiration of my 2nd grade boys and the mini brooms as inspiration, I decided to think much simpler and created individual tasks for them to complete in order to leave for the day. Individual jobs is the key. Table jobs at the end of the day are worthless. 

I appreciate the moments in which I learn from students how to be a better teacher and the opportunity to thank my students for inspiring me on so many levels. In this case, my students reminded me of something that I forgot and the reminder allowed for a new and better clean-up structure for an after-school class.

Just some random thoughts for this beautiful day...

Random Mumble: Great way to start the week!

What a perfect way to begin the week. Balancing on my door handle this morning was a note with my "name" on it. Immediately curious, I hurried in to see what it could be. 

Inside of the envelope was this note:

So I carefully cut the taped seams with thoughts of what could be inside... A special piece of string or paper found over the weekend, a drawing made on a wrapper?!

Inside was a little origami fortune teller made from a post-it note!

I carefully unfolded it and held it in my hand cherishing it like the little jewel that it is. Oh! I have the most thoughtful students!

The 4th graders made fortune tellers during Spanish class with Señora Morrison. I'm thinking the origami skills are attributed to Señora's lesson. I am just happy at the thoughtful Monday gesture. 

Random Mumble: The Little Things in Life

We got a delivery to the art room this week. Mrs. Nami in the Main Office brought down a plastic box with "Joslyn Johnson Bear Tavern" written across the lid.

I opened it up in front of my class and showed them what was inside. It was filled with a couple of things but the huge excitement was for the fake fruit that filled the majority of the container and the cool note laying on top.

I can't even tell you how excited we were to receive the fake fruit from Mrs. Cariola, Art Teacher extraordinaire from the middle school. I pretended to eat some of the apples and squeeze some lemon and lime juice on the kids before we moved back to our lesson.

I am so appreciative for this batch of fruit to complement a lackluster existing supply. Sometimes it's the little things in life that make all the difference. We will be able to make better physical connections to our still life paintings with these fabulous props.

Pop Art, Pope Francis and Perry Milou

One of my 5th graders shared with me that her cousin was commissioned to create a painting of Pope Francis. Of course I asked if it was her famous, Philadelphia based cousin, Perry Milou who she has mentioned to me over the years.

How exciting! She brought in a print (below of Pope Francis with the art museum in the background) the next day and I felt so happy to see his amazing work and it's connection to this historical first visit of Pope Francis to The United States. Regardless of religious affiliation, this visit has been impactful in numerous ways to those of us living in this area. See the beautiful cathedrals on television and seeing fine art connections has been fabulous.

A Pop artist, Milou has depicted countless famous faces with his rich palette. His "Faces" collection of Pope Francis can be viewed on his website. There is a nice video towards the top of his site that talks about how this collection was a perfect match as he realizes so many personal connections to the Pope and his visit to Philly.

http://perrymilou.com

I am truly thankful to my student for keeping me up to date on some amazing local art that is being created and influencing the world. Milou's paintings are quite special. 

All images are from perrymilou.com

Letter to Basquiat

This simple letter that Keith Haring wrote to Jean-Michel Basquiat is so powerful.

The second paragraph and more prominently the last sentence is thought provoking.

In my classroom, I hope that my students feel that they are creating art for themselves.

Generally, they tend to be thinking of a person that their creation will be FOR before the pencil or brush hits the paper. They are such sweethearts. The kindest , most thoughtful people. 

But it's through the process of enjoying what they are creating where I hope they get selfishly lost. 

Not every person (child or adult) can get in a comfort zone to allow themselves to get lost but as an Artist, it is an incredible feeling.

I tell my students a big chunk of the journey that I've taken to become the educator and artist that I am. It may be hard for them to appreciate but I hope that they do someday. 

Until then, I just hope to create an environment that encourages creativity and ideas and support. And, I hope that they enjoy the process of creating because that joy is incredible....whatever the style, wherever the location.... Just keep creating and be happy.

Crafty Evening

I'm a bit sleepy as you can see but had a great time with the Spirit Committee working on our new staff t-shirts this evening! Every year staff and students receive new shirts generously funded by the PTO.

We met in June to design this year's shirt and they are awesome.

I can't spoil the surprise but can show you that we personalized the shirts. We had several irons and boards out and went to town ironing on staff names. 

It was quite a production and ended up being a great time. 

Random Mumble: Art and Sports

One of the conversations that I find myself having with parents (especially those of former students who are now in middle school or high school) is how special I think it is when kids take a strong interest in both art and athletics.

A self-proclaimed "art jock" in high school, sports have been and always will be a very important part of my formative years and current interests. 

Looking back, I'm not sure of who I would be as a person without soccer, lacrosse and art in my life.

Both taught me a degree of discipline, working hard, enjoying being playful and exploring creativity.

In as much as I had a sketchbook, camera, lanyard strings or cool pencil on hand, I always... Always, always, always had my shin guards and cleats right there with me.

It's exciting to me that we don't have to be just "one thing" and that my students are able to value both sports and art without feeling as though the two conflict.

It warms my heart to hear students talking about how much they love both and a special place goes to my students who take extra art after-school and then change clothes for basketball or soccer practice.

Thinking out loud.

Mrs. Johnson