Elves in the Artroom!

This holiday season there have been many Elves in the Artroom!

It all started last year, when a student brought his elf (Crispy) to school so that I could teach his class how to draw his elf. I asked his elf if it would be possible to get an elf for the art room.  I waited and waited, but no elf showed up.  Christmas came and went and I forgot about my request for an elf.  Fast forward to this year. It has always been my tradition to put my Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving. The next day I woke up and sitting on the tree was a brand new elf, Nigel.  He had a book and letter explaining that he was here based on a request from last year.  Who knew that it took a whole year to get an elf by request?! It was such a great surprise!

Meet Nigel.

He has been all over the art room, making sure students are doing what they are supposed to do in Art Class during these last few weeks before break.  He has proven to be the most helpful elf.  He fixed the broken projector that would overheat and turn itself off after 7 minutes. One day when I got to school he was sitting up there on the projector. It has worked wonderfully ever since then.  I guess I really lucked out and got a helpful elf, rather than a trickster elf.

Over the passed few weeks many elves have come to visit Nigel during Art Class. The first was a vintage elf named Drew.  He is much older than Nigel and they spent a lot of time talking about what the job of an elf entails.  He was such a good mentor to Nigel.

Frosty, a Swedish elf, came for a whole week! He and Nigel hung out and had such a great time talking and playing elf games. One day we even had 9 elves and two reindeer hanging out together. Elf Party in the Art Room!!!! 

Nigel is working on getting a girl elf to come and be a part of the TTE Art Room so that he can have some help watching over so many students. One of our sweet first graders asked her evles (Belle and Fudge) if they would help get a girl elf for the artroom so Nigel would have a friend. Santa said that there was a really good elf-in-training that would be perfect for the job!  Maybe she will show up next year when I put up my tree on Thanksgiving!  I can hardly wait!

Calendar Artists!

Last year two artists from TTE were selected to have their artwork be a part of the Colorado Recycling Association's  2015 calendar.   Mrs. Johnston (health) held a contest for students to create a work of art that promoted recycling, resusing, upscycling, ecycling and composting.  She also has a blog now. Check it out at: TTE Health Blog.

Art doesn't always have to be just something pretty to hang on the wall.  Most of the greatest artworks have something important to say.  Creating art for a cause is a great way to make your artwork about something that could effect change. Having their artwork chosen for this calendar is a huge honor as an artists.  The entire community of Colorado now has the opportunity to hear the message by viewing the work of these talented artists!

Hear Me Roar!

Lions, Lions Everywhere!!!

Lookout! There are lions in the hallways of TTE!  First grade artists created these lions using mono-chromatic (one color family) mixed media process.  The most difficult part was actually outlining the face in paint. Painting straight lines is not easy, even for adults.  After adding their mane, students could take their lion to the beauty shop to give him so curls, or crimps or whatever they could imagine. 

Below are some photos of our Fantastic First Grade Lions. 

Sydney's Zentangle Pumpkin!

Sydney, one of our fabulous fourth graders created a real Zentangle Pumpkin! 

Taking what we had been working on in class and applying to a real object, Sydney created a really unique pumpkin this fall!