Snow Day Nature ART- see selected videos and images for creative inspiration in the snow!!

Here are some ideas on how to keep your kids busy during these snow days! If you do any of these, please take a picture and I will post them on the site!!

First, you can run out and make beautiful snow angels!

Snow forts are fun especially since the snow is very deep!!!!!

Andy Goldsworthy-style drawing in the snow!.....

I love doing this idea below!! Making a huge snow ball around small twigs and branches.....the results are very, very fun to share and anyone who comes by after you leave will be amazed and curious about how this snowball cam to be stuck in the tree.

Here is a video of a man and his art on the snow. Looks like a lot of fun...

Building an igloo!!!! try it!

Again, some Andy Goldworthy-style snowballs......use twigs from trees and stick them in the snow! Your snowball will look like a hairy snowball monster!

Make a GIANT snowball.....then punch some sticks or nuts all around it to make it even more unique.

Here is a collection of snow sculptures from all over the world. Get your friends and family together and see what you can do....

Handmade Cards for Haiti

Kids in art class have been making cards for Haiti. Each class used a different theme and medium. cards will be for sale at the Talent show next Thursday from 6-6:40pm and are also available in the art room before and after school hours.

3rd grade who are not going to a painting unit, created trees while learning about tints and shades.

Kids learned to use a palette to premix their colors before using them on their painting.

Items needed for upcoming units

If you have these items below and are about to throw them out, please send them to school instead. Thanks in advance for your support. Note: If you have items from lists from week's past, please also bring them in.....I will use them all.

yogurt cups

broken toy pieces

game pieces

puzzle pieces

shoe boxes

seashells

birthday candles

any type of shiny paper

paper boxes (like from office depot that hold 5000 papers)

spools

buttons

marbles

broken fake jewelry

plastic coins

Legos

towels (old but clean)

flat sheets (any solid color)

Tupperware lids

shelves/bookcase

tops to gallon milk bottles

soda can tabs

beads

broken x-mas decorations

small fabric bits

wood pieces

magnets

marker tops

pen tops

plastic tablecloths (any color, any design)

1st Grade Mice Homes on Display at School

A few mice homes are on display in the second floor of the main school building. Please come see them.....they are a few feet from the art room. These homes made from simple recyclable items has inspired other children from other grades to also collect items and make homes outside the art room. projects like these are only possible thanks to the donations of Murch parents. If your mice home is not on display here, please feel free to come pick up your mice home before or after school anytime from the art room. Please continue to donate small items that would have otherwise end up in the trash such as spools, corks, broken toys, game pieces, etc.

Below you will find some plastic necklace pieces and spools donated by Murch families.

In this house can you find piece of the egg carton?

Can you find the bread tabs? or the Popsicle sticks below?

Can you find the broken tiara?

Where do you see corks in the home below?

Exercises in Composition (4th Grade)

As a skill building activity before working on our Louise Nevelson-inspired 3D collages, children used parent-donated items and placed them in varied compositions on a black piece of paper. Please keep these small items and show boxes coming for we will be needing plenty of them for this unit. Having a varied vocabulary pertaining to composition will allow students to better discuss each others' work once we start the unit.

Background for 5th Grade Musical

Ms. McCoy's class helped create this background for the 5th grade musical happening next week. This is one of 2 Jacob Lawrence-inspired backdrop.

2nd- Adding hair to their sculptures (Mahar)

2nd graders used parent-donated yarn to add hair to their sculptures. Each child chose any color their wanted and was shown how to cut various strands of the same size by using their hands to roll the yard. Children began adding hair in the back and ended in the front. The next week, children will cut their hair, but only when the glue is dried.

Making an Ocean-Prek (Wierenga)

Kids in Ms. Wierenga's class have created these beautiful fish using cray pas and watercolor. Children used various types of lines to decorate the fish, such as wiggly lines, zig zag lines, and bumpy lines.

The background was also created by the kids. Children learned about colors changing when mixed though making these walls of water. Like how green happens when blue and yellow are used. Or how light blue appears when white and blue are mixed.

Children learned how to make roundish marks on paper by using their brush like a stamp...up and down marks were the only marks allowed in this activity. This way they learned another way to use their brushes besides gliding them across the paper.