Gifts from the heART bowl raffle to support Vermont FoodBank

Win one one these two beautiful hand painted bowls, filled with local and handmade goodies AND support the Vermont FoodBank at the same time!  Email me if you are interested in tickets-  $5/each or 5/$20.  Nmcdonough@wwsu.org 

Visit to a Really Fun Art Room

Hour of Code meets Art Class

http://www.tynker.com/hour-of-code/play

Today we learned how to use the program Math Art to draw cool designs using simple coding. This is a great example of how math, technology and art can come together.  I really had to dust off my math thinking cap to remember what I know about angles in order to complete these tough puzzles. Clink the link above to explore coding and try Math Art or some other the other Hour of Code games on the Tynker site. 

Book Arts with Guest Artist Elissa Campbell

Third and fourth graders are working on an integrated art/language arts/ technology project during our integrated art time. The idea was born from the children's book  "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" by William Joyce. In this story, a man writes his hopes, dreams and memories.  Students responded by writing short memoirs of their most vivid memories. They also have been working on art journaling around the themes in their writing. 

In order to create a very special piece that combines their writing and art, we invited guest artist Elissa Campbell to our art class.  She is a professional book artist from Montpelier. She took time out of her very busy pre-holiday schedule to teach us how to make a simple handmade book and give an introduction to art journaling. 

See more of Elissa's work here:  

Here are our finished books.  We used beautiful handmade paper for the covers. 

Pattern, lines, printmaking, watercolor resist

Kindergarten, first and second grade students helped make last weekend's "Country Christmas" festive with these colorful decorations. We practiced making different types of lines and patterns and experimented  with the watercolor resist technique. We also explored printmaking using a muffin tin and shiny tempera paint. 

My visit to the Eric Carle Museum of Children's Book Art

Over the long weekend, I went to check out the Eric Carle Museum of Children's Book Art on the Hampshire College campus.  I've wanted to visit this special place for a long time, so I was very excited to finally make it there.

In addition to having displays showing Eric Carle's work, the museum also featured another favorite artist, Mo Willems, of "Knufflebunny" and "Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" fame.  

The entry hall of the museum is decorated with his painted murals by Eric Carle. 

Kids love to explore the giant Very Hungry Caterpillar.  That's my niece, Samantha, on the left.

The art studio is filled with materials and project to inspire young artists.  The sun was perfect during our visit to show off these beautiful texture pieces. 

Art inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

Mark and Willis get CREATIVE! 

Great advice and inspiration for all artists

Colorful artwork everywhere! 

Paul Klee Castles

Click here to watch my Google Presentation about Swiss artist Paul Klee.

First and second graders are looking at Paul Klee's painting Castle and Sun and creating their own using geometric shapes cut from colored paper.

What is the difference between geometric shapes and organic shapes?