Two Murch Students Visit with Sec. of Education, Arne Duncan

As part of a new student discussion series with the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, called Student Voices, two 5th grade students from Murch, Sophia Galligan and Leonie Aksyonov, were invited to the Department earlier this month to speak in a discussion on topics of effective teaching and learning. This was a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have student's voice and ideas possibly affect policy changes in education for the whole country.

Sophia's reaction to the meeting:

"It was great! I'm so glad that I could be there to share my input.

It went roughly as I expected. It was a very enlightening experience.

I really enjoyed it. Thanks for considering me for this opportunity,

Leonie reaction to the meeting:

"The meeting went great and we basically only talked about how teachers inspired us. I told the story of how when I came from Russia in the middle of first grade, and how Ms. Cresswell got me caught up with everyone's level. It was funny how the secretary couldn't sit because of his back. Also, he left early because of another meeting. "

Storytelling Class-Details on the last 5 dates

These are the last 5 dates for the Friday's storytelling class. If you are in the arts series class please save these dates. Dates are: 4/29, 5/6, 5/13, 5/20, 5/27. Email me if you have if you have questions.

You are cordially invited to attend the reception for the District of Columbia Public Schools Annual Citywide Student Art Exhibition

11th Annual District of Columbia Public Schools

CITYWIDE Student Art Exhibition

You are cordially invited to attend the reception

for the

District of Columbia Public Schools Annual Citywide Student Art Exhibition

on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, at 6:00 p.m.

in the Historic Lobby of Terminal A

at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The DCPS Citywide Student Art Exhibition is a showcase featuring an array of students’ artistic achievements to the national public, Washington, DC and DCPS stakeholders. The artwork has been on display since April 9, 2011, and will remain through May 30, 2011, on the baggage claim level of Terminals B and C. The theme for this year’s event is “Celebration of Artistic Expressions.” Reagan National Airport is accessible via Metro. Take the Yellow or Blue lines to the Reagan National Airport station. If you choose to drive, you can park in Garage A. Please bring your parking ticket to the reception area to be validated.

Please RSVP for the reception via email at mildred.washington@dc.gov or call

202-442-5030 by Monday, April 25, 2011. We look forward to your support of

the District of Columbia students and teachers.

Note from Ms. Cutelis to all parents: I will be taking the metro, please email me at Miriam.cutelis@yahoo.com if you want to ride there together. I will be leaving the Murch area around 5:20 pm.

The 9 Murch Students in the show are

Gus confalone, Nate Coates, Eva Robertson, Claire Lewis, Melissa Jefferson, David Jefferson, Stella Magee, Hadley Carr, Tessa Furlow.

student ART seen at Ms. Cutelis' high school reunion in NYC this weekend...

Aside from having a great time this Saturday at my high school reunion, the school, (Marymount School of NY which runs from k-12th grade) was filled with art everywhere....it was a dream come true to an art teacher like myself. Oh, and don't even think about asking what year reunion this is for me....!!

Below, are sample book covers done by students......my mind is already trying to figure out ways to do this with elementary children. These were done by high school girls. I keep saying 'girls', for the school is only for girls...

These are amazing portraits done by the high school students.
Now these (below) are to drool for......they are......clay shoes!!!! aren't they just the cutest things ever?....I am absolutely trying these with my kids.
You can tell this artist is growing up in NYC!!!
Paintings.....
These are portraits done on using Apple Ipads....



Marymount was the only girl school out of three schools across the country that got an award from Apple for being innovative education using technology. They are busy creating online textbooks that incorporate sound, videos, and digital kid drawings.....I am ready to try some of these ides out at Murch. See award below.
Check out this computer area!! Looks just like Murch....Dragons....
These are Marymount students here for their 50th reunion (below).....I hope I look this good at 67ish....

Zoe's artist grandma comes to visit with her AMAZING SCULPTURES

This is Zoe from Kindergarten. When we started our clay unit 2 weeks ago. She began talking about her grandma who is an artist. I told her to let her artist grandma know she was welcome to come share her craft with the class. Zoe apparently went back with my message and was able to set it all up in a week. Within a few days of my invite she was able to connect grandma, Karen Leighty and have her come to our class to share!

Ms. Leighty showed use several sized animal sculptures made from various mediums.
She placed her work on the tables for children to feel them.
Here she shares a bronze horse sculpture she had made.


This one if of a horse on the ground on its back. It looks like a metal sculpture, but we were told it was only painted to LOOK metal, yet it was clay.

Ms. Leighty answering amazing questions.

In then end, Ms. Leighty showed the kids two ways to make a clay bowls; pinch pot and coil method. Notice she is using the Elmo projector allowing all kids to see fine details of these bowl creations.

If you are a crafts person, artist or an art collector in the community and want to share children with your work, please e-mail me at Miriam.cutelis@yahoo.com. Also, thanks to Karen Leighty for coming. This was truly a very rich experience for the kids.

Kindergarten Finish their clay bowls (Welsh)

Kids in Welsh's K class just finished their clay bowls. They first began the unit with exploration, the next day they learned about making pinch pots and created the basic shape of their bowls and added tactile details using clay tools. When dry their were painted in its entirety in wither gold or silver. Last, kids used tiny detail brushes to add small decorative marks. We are now done....These will go home after the break.

Our 3D trees are DONE!!!! Ta da!!

I promised I'd post the pictures of the kids finishing up their tree and here they are. Notice our trees look amazingly sturdy. We painted the brown. We then created leaf printing plates based on real leaf sketches of trees right here at Murch. We then printed, trimmed and glued on these trees....only took six 45 minutes lessons.....but what a journey it's been.

This is a different Murch tree, hence the different looking leaves. After break I will take the kids out to the school and see if we can find our matching tree in the yard. Very exciting stuff!!

We've been asked to help with the set of Little Red Riding Hood, and these trees will be used in the set for two days. I will then have the children vote on where they could be placed on display.

Local Trees- Leaf study

Ms. Friedman's students in 3rd grade just finished a unit in printmaking of leaves of local trees. We got to sketch printouts of trees right on our very own Murch property. They later created printing plates of one chosen tree and printed out several copies to later trim and glue onto our realistic paper mache tree. I will post pictures of the finished tree in just a few hours.

These prints are so bold and beautiful. I love how amazingly different each one of them is. Look out for pictures of our finished tree in a few hours.

Each leaf is a different shade of green. Kids got to learn that they could alter the hue of a color by changing the amount primary color, white or black in that color.