Catching Up and Story Quilts

Wow! It's been a long time since I blogged. It's been a little busy! My student teacher finished up, I tried to take an actual break for Spring Break, I started working on my garden, I've been working on a presentation about Visual Thinking Strategies and Inquiry methods for a mini conference in my school district, and I accepted a new job! Next year, I'll be starting a new adventure as a PreK-12th grade art teacher in a small school district just 5 minutes outside my hometown. I've enjoyed my position for the last 6 years, but I'm looking forward to shaving about 70 minutes off my daily commute and having the chance to work more in depth with fewer students (less than half!)

Now, because we HAVE to have some photos, here are some 1st grade and Kindergarten story quilts from my student teacher's Tar Beach lesson. The students made a self portrait as if they were flying over a memory or something meaningful to them. Kindergarten students mounted a smaller piece of paper on colored construction paper and drew a border with construction paper crayons. 1st grade students glued 1 inch patterned paper squares around the border. Students from both grades wrote about what they were flying over and why. Their writing was one of the best parts of the project! When I take them down from the hallway, I hope to have time to add the sentences to Artsonia.