7th Grade 3-D: Sugar Skulls

My 7th grade 3-D class completed this project just before Dia de los Muertos. Every 6 weeks, I do one clay project with them and one project that is another material, usually plaster. I had been waning to do a Sugar Skull project for a few years and it just happened to work out well this time. We started by reading this article and this article about Sugar Skulls and Day of the Dead.
Next, the kids looked at examples of sugar skulls and used 
some designs to create 4 different symmetrical designs.

What's Happening in the Art Room?

Well I was trying to think of something new and cool to post about today but everything that we are doing in my classes right now are things I have done before. So I thought I would fill you in on what we are doing and share a few things that I have done earlier this year.
My 7th grade 3-D class is currently working on the Rodin Hands project that you can read about here.

ALICE drill

It makes me sad thinking about our lockdown drills. What has this world come to that we must practice what to do in the event of an active shooter? I was in middle school when Columbine happened and since then, more and more incidents have happened. I feel like there is always something in the news about people going into schools/colleges/movie theaters and shooting innocent, unarmed victims. I won't get into my stance on guns because that has nothing to do with my blog. So back to ALICE. In the past, we have always been taught to lock our doors, turn off the lights, hide in the corner and WAIT. Wait for what? Wait for the shooter to go away? Wait for the shooter to kill other innocent students in another room? Wait for the shooter to come in to my room and find us all there like sitting ducks. That's exactly what you are in that situation...sitting ducks. Helpless. You have no control, no opportunity to protect yourself, NOTHING! Last school year, our district adopted the ALICE system of lockdown. ALICE stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate. Evidence shows that when you make an effort to deter the shooter by either throwing things at them, barricading the door so it's harder to get in (this happened at Virginia Tech and the rooms that the shooter couldn't easily get into were passed up for easier rooms) and getting OUT! My classroom is very fortunate to have a door to the outside so if something were to ever happen, my students and I would be out that door if the situation was safe for us to do so.

screen printing-100 Ms. Lloyd-2

I am giving myself one point for finally figuring out how to make the screens and making 7 today and one point for making myself a pretty awesome t-shirt that I am pumped to wear to school tomorrow.

Screen Printing...many failures that eventually led to SUCCESS!

Well let's just say it's a good thing I started my attempts at screen printing early. I decided this year that my middle school art club kids would screen print their own t-shirts. I LOVED printmaking in college but never did screen printing. I took a workshop once with a fellow art teacher but did not actually make the screens, we just got to pull the print in the end. This was also 5 years ago. So when I decided to take on this project, I never anticipated all of the problems I would encounter. I watched my share of YouTube videos on what to do and felt pretty confident going in. After creating my design, I decided I couldn't just create a stencil and needed to buy emulsion to burn my image into the screen. 

Need new ideas!

Do you ever find yourself frantically looking for new ideas, pinning your heart out with the intentions of trying new projects only to end up doing the same things you have done in the past? I feel like I am stuck in a rut right now. I really want to do new things but either I can't get it figured out in time or the kids beg me to do the projects they have seen in the past. It makes me feel good that the kids love the tried and true projects but I get bored teaching the same thing all the time. I also feel like some of my newer project ideas are less successful than those that I have done for awhile. How do you handle this? What do you do? Any suggestions to help inspire me?

A promise to start posting again!

Good morning friends! I apologize that I haven't posted in FOREVER! Like seriously...it's been over a year since my last post. Life has been a little crazy. I started my own business, an art studio that taught wine and painting classes and then sold the studio this summer, got my 2nd masters and I am now going through a divorce. My dad is in the hospital with heart problems and my only two living grandparents were just diagnosed with cancer at the same time. Not to mention our kiln broke yesterday and our clay trap clogged and flooded our storage room. But throughout all of that craziness, I am relying on my students, my wonderfully incredible students to keep me going. They are my world and the school is the only place where I feel normal right now. We have art club going on right now and the kids are busting out some pretty awesome ceiling tiles. 
With all of that said, I vow to keep my blog updated this year. I want to start posting again because I love to share what I am doing. I know that some of my favorite projects came from ideas that others have shared with me. So hold me to it! This is the end of the 6 weeks so this week is crazy but next week, I am totally going to start posting again!