4th Grade stop motion animation introduction videos

These are just mere explorations of the media. In every unit, we always FIRST and foremost explore the media. Each class used an hour and 10 minutes to create 2 videos. The exploration is valuable for it allows the students to grasp how many frames it takes to make even a 10 second video. This information is valuable and essential for when they break off into groups and begin working on their own video. 

Get your cameras ready k-5th!!! School Garden Photo Contest

Lisa Burke, a Murch mom and Murch Garden Leaders posted a new message on the digest

and I thought I'd pass along this message:

K-12 School Garden Photo Contest

DC School Garden Week is Sept. 26 to Oct. 1. There will be Murch events related to Garden Week. In the mean time, get your cameras ready and come to Murch!! For new families, the garden is on the higher part of the playground, way in the back, by the fence.

School Garden Photo Contest!

In celebration of School Garden Week 2011, D.C. Schoolyard Greening and community partners are sponsoring the 5th annual student photo contest. Any D.C. K-12 student may submit a garden-related photograph to be judged by the following panel of garden and photography experts:

Kathy Jentz – Editor/Publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine

Winning entries will be eligible for prizes and will be on display during School Garden Week 2011 and online.

Check back for the 2011 entry form.

See last year’s winners here.

Here is a link: http://www.dcschoolyardgreening.org/dcschoolgardenweek.html

Art Classroom Tour FALL 2010

Hey all!! I have taken a few pictures of the studio art room.....enjoy!

Here I keep all my art book resources, and my library books related to lessons we are learning.

Here are my vocabulary walls, one for each grade. The white cards are vocabulary words we have already worked on during these past 3 days.
This is my portfolio and anecdotal notes corner. Each class has a cubby that will hold their 2D work, and a folder for professional notes about each individual child. Yes, each child!
Over 20 types of paper varieties.
General supplies, easily labeled. I love labels...can you tell?
I write down objectives, agendas, prior knowledge and essential questions for every lesson I teach during the day. Here is a close up of the pre-k one.
Here is what all 6 classes I teach during the week looks like.

Murch Photo Contest.....due April 25th!!!

Enter in the Earth Day Photo Contest!

For the 40^th anniversary of Earth Daythe Student Blog is sponsoring an Earth Day photo contest. Earthday2010 is Thursday, April 22, and Murch is asking students and parents to walk and bike to school to celebrate Earth Day. What a great way to exercise before another day of DC-CAS testing for third, fourth, and fifth graders!

Walking School Bus

Join one of several Walking School Buses leaving from the following “bus stops” at 8:30 a.m. If you need to get to work, you can drop off your children and the bus captain will bring them to school. Please make sure to email the bus captain if you are joining the bus or dropping off your child.

• Albemarle and Reno, bus captain: Jonathan Davidson [davidsonj3@comcast.net]
• Albemarle and 36th, bus captain: Wendy Gualtieri (wgualtieri@starpower.net)
• Davenport and Linnean, bus captain: Karen Beiley (beileyhut1@starpower.net)
• Harrison and Reno, bus captain: Deanna Jordan Sullivan (deanajordansullivan@gmail.com)
• Chevy Chase Parkway and Reno, bus captain: Stefanie Berger (stefanie.berger@googlemail.com)
• 3841 Fessenden between 39th and 38th, bus captain: Amy Dine (amy_dine@yahoo.com)

Earth Day Photo Contest for Students

The Student Blog is sponsoring an Earth Day http://ww2.earthday.net/earthday2010 photography contest. First, second, and third place winners will receive gift cards to Politics & Prose!

All students are welcome to submit their best photograph that shows what Earth Day means to them. That could be almost anything – nature, people, food, or even pollution – but the photo must convey a strong environmental theme. The deadline for entries is Sunday, April 25.

Members of the Student Blog team will judge photos on composition, content, and environmental theme. Winners will be announced and their photos published on the Murch Web site and in the next edition of Murch Mustang Express. All entries will be featured in a gallery on the Web site as well, but the winners will be featured on the Home page.

Please, digital images only – this is Earth Day, after all, so let’s avoid paper and chemicals! (If you have to borrow your parents’ camera, be sure to get their permission first.)

Contest Rules:

Entries due by Sunday, April 25.

One photo per student.

Entrants must be Murch students.

Photos may be in color or black and white.

Submit digital images via email [mikeheffner@mac.com].

Please include the student’s name, parent contact information, and teacher.

Titles and descriptions may accompany photos but are not required.

Good luck. Start snapping away today!

the email for photo submissions should be sent to
murchpics@202design.com.

BLOSSOMS IN BLOOM Photo Art Contest for Kids Ages 8-16

Oh, what an incredible idea!!!

click HERE to find out more about this opportunity!!

I think every Murch child should do this photo contest....why not? Perhaps we can come up with a weekend time/date in which we can all go to the Mall and photograph these trees as a community. The winner of the photo contest will receive a Corcoran family Membership along with his or her photo featured on the Corcoran Web site.

Makes me think that perhaps we can have our own photo contest here at Murch.....but what could be the theme? Any ideas?

I am basically seeking more "show" opportunities for our children. What most kids liked about the art show back in the late Fall was being able to show their work in a public forum. Do any of you know right off any community-based businesses,restaurants, markets or cafes that would like to showcase our kids' work for a month?

Changes to the site....

At the beginning of the year I sent out a permission slip asking parents to allow the Murch Art Department to post images of their child on the blog. I have gotten back about 90% of them so up to now I've been posting ONLY pictures of children's hands working on their projects allowing enough time for these releases to make it back to me. It's obvious that something is being robbed from these posts by not showing these children's faces actually enjoying the work they are creating or the depth of their concentration.

As a parent myself, I love to see albums of my child posted in his class' website and love to share them with extended family from out-of-state. Therefore, after much internal debating, I have decided that I will begin posting images of the children's faces along with their hands as well as pictures of groups of kids working. Most times I will only title the image with the label "artist" or at most the child's first name if at all.

If you prefer to NOT have your child's face on the blog at all EVER please contact me immediately and I will make a note of it on my class log. In addition, if you see a post using your own child's image and you'd like to have it removed, please contact me immediately.

Please let me know your thoughts....I am open to tweaking this framework as needed.