Rain Rain Go Away!

It has been raining so long here. Our river crested the other day the third highest crest in history! There were so many people out taking pictures of it on the main bridge the police had to shoo everyone away. The cemetary got more visitors because it borders the river and some lots overlook the river so they got alot of visitors taking pictures. Someone even went up in a helicopter and took a video of the flood waters and posted it on facebook!
My grand children are ready to go back to school where they can at least get somewhere to run and play! My yard is filled with mud and goo so they can 't even get to their swing set!
Are you getting ready for school? I'm having a sale on 12 of my back to school products- 20% off- beginning January 3-6th.
Click here:
www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams

Thank you! Mizz Mac

Holiday Ornaments

Holiday Ornaments for you and your little ones to make at home

I have walked around some art shops and galleries and noticed some artists are painting on clear glass ornament balls. I have heard that Macon Arts even had a glass blower making glass balls at the opening of their holiday show.  One of my first Christmas gifts I received when I first began teaching at a private school was a choo-choo train painted on a glass ball. I still cherish that ornament and put it on my tree every year.

Several years ago my school held an auction and one of the parents came in my room to have the children in a particular grade make a craft for the auction. This parent took glass ornament balls, filled each ball with a bit of craft paint and told the children to twirl the ball to twirl /marbleize the paint inside the ball.

 That art project could be a neat way to teach color mixing to little ones.  That project also inspired me one year to paint my own glass ornament balls. I used white puffy t-shirt paint to make a snowman face.

 As you can see in these photographs one side is painted but because the glass is clear, one can see through the clear side to the showman’s face! It doesn’t matter if the ball turns!

To paint a glass/plastic ornament  ball at home one need to buy clear plastic balls, white puffy t-shirt paint for the snowman, acrylic craft paint, and a small brush, preferably the short-handled kid’s brushes that come in a pack from a craft store like Michael’s or JoAnn’s.

Spread newspaper on the working surface. You will also need a container with water and some paper towels or a sponge for drying and cleaning the brush when changing colors. An egg carton works great to place the ornament in when painting and drying. A round plastic lid works for a palette and can easily be discarded when finished. Old plastic ice cube trays can work also and keep the paint colors separated.

Set your supplies up. Egg carton with ornament placed  in front of the child. Paint squeezed on the lid or in the ice cube tray. Now paint! Let dry overnight and hang when ready!

For more of Mizz Mac’s art lessons and art projects click on:

www/teacherspayteachers/com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams

Holiday Art

Only two more weeks left before the Holiday Break is here! Now that last week of school can be a bit hectic. How much learning actually takes place?? I would have so many breaks in my schedule that very little could be taught that week. Being an art teacher why not take time away from the art classes? Oh well--- I do have some very easy art craftivities that allow for reviewing patternmaking.One is a freebie for making candy canes with pony beads and chenille stems:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Easy-Christmas-Holiday-Candy-Canes-1007350

Holiday Christmas Art Projects

It's a rainy night in Georgia! Time to start searching for those holiday gift art projects. Back when I was teaching in a typical classroom school setting, I would really only have about 2 weeks of actual teaching time after Thanksgiving. My teaching schedule would change due to rehearsals for the holiday program and classroom holiday parties. I would organize my time to teach any gift giving art projects during those two weeks ( that amounted to two class periods for each grade). I would show art history based movies the last week of school that would tie in to the first week lessons after we returned from the holiday.
I have bundled a group of my favorite art projects that I would teach:
www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Easy-Christmas-Holiday-Art-Projects-962021

Fall Leaves and Colors

Are the leaves changing in your town yet? I was at the beach last weekend and coming back via backroads I noticed the leaves were already changing. They have started in my town in Central Georgia. This time of the year is quite inspirational for me as an art teacher. The young children can be taught how to make secondary colors. Middle schoolers are interested in making earth colors. A variety of media can be used for a variety of products.
I liked to use Georgia O'Keefe's painting of an autumn as an inspiration for creating various products for the many grades I taught.
My bundle of Easy Leafy Fall Art Projects is quite popular.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mizz-Macs-Easy-Leafy-Fall-Art-Projects-862114

Time for Apples!

It’s time for Apples!

Apples are in season and they are great for beginning school activities, particularly kindergarten and preschool classes.  For art teachers the apple  is a great beginning observational subject to use.  This art teacher would begin the class reviewing the five kinds of lines- horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curvy, and zigzag. I would explain how artists take the lines and combine them to make drawings and shapes. I would then show them an apple and ask which line I would use to draw the apple. What am I going to look at when I draw the apple? I will be drawing the contour shape or the outside edge of the apple.

While holding the apple with my freehand I draw the apple slowly on the white board or with my tablet and project for all to see.

Students should already have paper and pencils and apples are then passed out. A 9x12 drawing paper could be folded two times, unfolded, and students told to draw their apple with four different views (side 1, side 2, top, and bottom) in each rectangle. Try to fill up each rectangle with an apple.  Each apple is then colored. The apples can be colored with crayons or oil pastels and the background painted with a thin watercolor or tempera wash.

Older children can do a progressive drawing with the apple. First drawing would be a whole apple, second an apple with one bite on one side, third an apple with two bites on each side, and the fourth with only the apple core. Students who don’t like apples are allowed to spit the apple bites out in a cup.

Check out my freebie apple print lesson for an easier lesson:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mizz-Macs-Print-An-Apple-for-Johnny-Appleseed-1428061

More Love Back to School Sale

SURPRISE!!! It's a one day BACK TO SCHOOL sale! Thank you TPT!
www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Gena-Mcwilliams

Back to School with Harriet Tubman and the Shoo Fly Quilt

The Harriet Tubman Museum in Macon, Ga is absolutely gorgeous! It was finally finished this year and I finally went in to see it today. OMG is it GORGEOUS!!! I am so proud that my hometown has such a beautiful museum.  Be sure to go upstairs. There are rooms with inventions that blacks have made, a huge mural one of our prominent black artists made depicting black heritage in Macon ( I have personal story to tell about this artist too) and in the Harriet Tubman room there are not only documents about the life and times of Harriet Tubman but one can view actual real nationally known artists work. Some of the artists I remember and have taught my students are john Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, and William Johnson.

In another room downstairs for Georgia black artists I got to see art work by the Dot Man who was featured in an article published in an issue of School Arts magazine when I first started teaching art. I was so excited!! It’s quite exciting to me to see the actual real artwork!

Another artist I must mention is Wini McQueen. She is one of our local black artists who mainly works in fabric, dying and using photographs in her pieces. She was commissioned by the Tubman to create banners and quilts depicting the history of the black people in Georgia and they are hung in the rotunda.

As sad as the past is let us all remember so it won’t be repeated.

Check out my arts integration lesson on the Shoo Fly quilt. Legend says it helped the blacks in their flight on the Underground Railroad: 

www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Shoo-Fly-Art-music-math-shapes-review-for-back-to-school-972741

Back To School Sale

It will be here soon!! Back to School Sale at Teachers Pay Teachers!! www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gean-Mcwilliams

Christmas in July Sale for back to school

Hey Y'all! I'm having a Christmas in July Sale 10% off my back to school and beginning art projects!
WHEN? July 26-28. WHERE? www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams
Here are a couple examples:

Fun Activities for Grandparents to do with their Grands

Summers are too short in my county. The children get out of public school at the end of May but they will be back in school the first week in August. A week in June is set for a vacation with one parent and the grandparents and another week in July is for vacation with the other parent and the other grandparents. Whew! With only3 weeks in June and July there isn’t much point in doing an enrichment camp, particularly since their school does an excellent job with providing plenty of enrichments during the school year.

My grands went to Camp GaGa (their name for me!) While at Camp GaGA, they have made a rocket ship, a pirate ship, a vending machine, a “ball” room, and now paper bag puppets. They have drawn landscapes and birds in their sketchbooks.  They studied science and wild life studies by catching fireflies at night, moths, and tiny baby tree frogs, put in jars with holes for air to breathe, and let go back into nature before going to bed.  They watched a pair of hawks soaring and hunting in the front yard and a fawn running all over the yard. The hummingbirds have been plenty!

While at two beaches there were sandcastles to learn how to build and tiny fish to hand catch in the tidal pools. Hermit crabs were found in seashells.  This grandmother had to hold a small jar of water with a conch shell and a hermit crab named Fred while the grands’ mother went in a store to learn how to take care of it. We did have to put Fred back onto the wild beach!

Camp GaGa  is coming to a fast end. Now is the time to review reading skills and number skills to get ready for back to school. Don’t forget those sight words, too!

Here is a  photo of the art we made at Camp GaGa!

How to Draw a Bird

Our elementary and preschools are teaching the recognition of geometric shapes. Art teachers also teach looking for shapes to draw and paint. Some art teachers have children put on their “shape” eyes when looking at an object to draw or paint.

Parents, grandparents, child keepers help reinforce children’s learning of shapes in school. The following is an example of one of my interactions with my grandson.

Yesterday Bishop sat in front of our picture window and said he wanted to draw a bird. He had gotten his sketchbook out and his crayons.

Bishop asked, “ GaGa, will you help me draw a bird?”

Me: “First draw an oval.”

 He did.

“Next draw a circle for the head.”

He did.

“Draw triangles for the wings.”

 He did.

“Draw another one for the tail.”

He did.  He added the legs, eyes, and beak without directions from me. He also added the limb and the tree on his own and colored it!

For another directed drawing lesson click here:

www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Drawing-with-Beginners-398360

Directing children to draw using lines and shapes not only reinforces math concepts of geometric shapes that are taught in school but also demystifies the act of drawing for some.

Mizz Mac has taught children's art for over 25 years and sells art projects and art lesson plans on her store:

www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams

Worst Day Camp Ever!!!

Last summer my all little boy grandson went to a half day camp and had a good time. Yes there were typical little boy behavior issues with his five year old attention span but there were two teachers in charge with some teenagers as helpers.

This year he and his little sister attended the same camp. The difference was there was only one teacher in charge of 30 kids with a handful of teen-agers as helpers and one non-teacher adult helper.  The camp was the same format and the boy was totally bored. His little sister wasn’t accepted by the other little girls on her row since she didn’t go to their school. I guess there wasn’t a way for her to make friends with others in the camp! From the lips of a five year old “All we do is sit, sing, sit, snack, and sit some more and wait on our parents to come. It’s been a total waste!”

So my grandmotherly advice is this:                                                                                                              

1.       Please make sure there is an adequate number of adults in charge even after you have paid your money!

2.       Make sure the adults are experienced at handling children and won’t start a battle of wills because children will win every time!

3.       Make sure the adults are trained to spot bullying tactics and will not allow it to happen.

4.       Ask lots of questions before signing the child up even if the child went to the same camp the year before.

By the way I have many years of teaching and creating a fun camp for my students with an adult teacher helper. Our goal was to make sure each child had a good learning experience, made friends with others in the camp, and had a good time. We also limited the number and ages of students we would have in our camp.  Mizz Mac

Preschool Children, Painting, and Watercolors

How many of you have bought those cool watercolors in the box for your young children? Who remembers painting watercolors with the metal Prang watercolors? We can still buy the Prang watercolors but they will stain clothes. Crayola has better watercolors for young children and Sargeants can be found also.

Did anyone have a classroom teacher say not to mix the colors? I know they do and I understand why they say it. If the children aren’t taught good brush handling skills, they will dip the bush into every single solitary color in the watercolor box. What happens? The colors are no longer clean but muddy or even black!  If the children are taught how to use the brush, eventually good brush painting skills will be a habit.

I found the best way for me to teach good brush painting skills was at the beginning of the school year. I would give the children a dry brush and a cup of water and a sponge. We would practice dipping the brush into the water and drying it on the sponge. Next we would pretend paint in the air, dip in the water, swish the brush to clean, dry it on the sponge, and pretend to dip the brush in the paint.

After practicing we would then paint with our watercolors. The following is a photograph of my granddaughter painting with her watercolors. She is mixing her colors on her watercolor paper.

This photo is her painting almost finished!

Another method for teaching children not to mix up the colors is by teaching them how to make colors through the color wheel. I will post more on this subject again. Mizz Mac

For more of Mizz Mac’s lessons or projects, check out her store on www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams.

Teachers Appreciation Sale!!

I haven't realized how long it's been since I have posted something. I have been busy with grandchildren! Also I have been creating some designs for frames, borders, and background papers. I have a free one on my store for you to check out!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Loops-ZigZags-black-and-white-borders-and-frames-1816566

Also Teacherspayteachers is having a teacher appreciation sale tomorrow and Wednesday. Everything in my store is on sale 20% off and TPT takes off another 10%.

It's Cherry Blossom time!

It’s Cherry Blossom time in Macon, Georgia! The birds are chirping outside my window and the sun is trying to come out. Spring must be coming soon.

I haven’t seen any cherry blossom buds yet. Have you?

I do have an easy art project for drawing cherry blossom trees with the little ones.

All you will need is a small sheet of watercolor paper or construction paper, a brown and a pink crayon or oil pastel, and an 8-color watercolor box with a paintbrush.

First place a pad of paper on your workspace. Now lay the watercolor paper on top. Coloring with crayons or oil pastels is easier and smoother if done on top of a padded surface.

Directions:

Lay the free hand and wrist on the watercolor paper. Trace around the free hand and wrist with the brown crayon or oil pastel. Color the hand and wrist brown. This makes the tree trunk and limbs.

Draw crooked lines from the limbs (fingers) to make tree branches with the brown crayon or oil pastel.

Draw and color small pink circles with the pink crayon or oil pastel to make cherry blossoms.

Paint the sky with blue watercolor.

Let it dry and mount on construction paper or poster board.

This is an easy project for all ages. For another easy method try my Easy Smeasy Cherry Blossom Trees on https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Easy-Smeasy-Cherry-Blossom-Trees-1741136. It’s free!

Thank you, Mizz Mac

Teachers Pay Teachers Sale

SALE!!! 20% off my whole store beginning tomorrow February 24- February 26th- TPT takes an extra 10% off on Wednesday February 25th!
www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams

Snowy Day Art

February is full of things to celebrate. We have Presidents’ Day and Valentine’s Day and it is also Black History Month! The weather has been quite snowy in the north! It all reminds me of a favorite children’s book- “A Snowy Day” by Ezra Zack Keats. It won a Caldecott award in 1963 and it is the first full color picture book about a small black boy. The illustrations are wonderful simple shapes with little details, made from cutouts, watercolor, and collage. The lack of distinct details and the use of organic and geometric shapes adds to the tranquil, calm story line about a boy waking up to find snow has fallen during the night and the rest is about his day and discoveries in the snow.

The book can be found on Amazon the kindle version, a hard back copy, and a paperback copy.

There have been winter days when it would snow enough to close the schools for a day here in Macon, Ga. When the school would be open back up, I would ask my young students to tell me about their day and what they did in the snow. What colors did they see? What shapes did they use to make their snowmen? Did they add a scarf? Did the snowman have any facial expressions? Did anybody make a snow angel? I would then have them create their own Day in the Snow. They could draw in pencil on light blue or gray construction paper but they could color with oil pastels, cut out snowflakes and use scrap construction paper to collage their artwork.

Here is an example:

Reading “A Snowy Day” to children and discussing their own experiences in the snow is a fun way to help children recall and create art from their own experiences. Mizz Mac

Cool Snowflakes for Inside Fun!

Good morning! Did you have happy holidays? I know mine was hectic. The weather here is about to turn cold and frightful. Remember the ice storms last year and the frozen pipes?

So what to do with the children when they are stuck inside for days at a time? It’s time for art!!

There is a cool children’s book about the man who photographed snowflakes, “Snowflake Bentley”. Google Snowflake Bentley and you can find out about the museum in his name in Maine, the camera he invented to photograph the snowflakes, and see the actual photographs he made.

Now if you want to cut out paper snowflakes, you can follow these directions or you can buy my product: (it’s only $1.50 and you can download it and have the directions readily available) http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Snowflakes-and-Symmetry-1007433.

Supplies needed:

 1 round lid any size  to fit paper– I collected various sizes of plastic lids

                                 1 pencil

                                 Several sheets of white copy paper

                                  1 pair of scissors

Directions:

1.       Place the lid on the paper and trace around the lid with the pencil.

2.       Cut the circle out.

3.       Fold the circle in half, taco shape.

4.       Fold in half again, pie shape.

5.       Fold a third time, pizza shape.

6.       Cut out triangles and half circles on the sides. Don’t cut the point if you are a beginner.

7.       Unfold to see the snowflake.

8.       After much practice, deeper cuts can be made on the curved side to create radial arms and the point can be cut to make a hole in the center of the flake.

Stay warm and have fun! Cutting snowflakes is fun but messy! Mizz Mac