Many Thanks to our Supportive ART Community!

How fantastic it was to get the email on Sunday morning that our student, Hayden, was selected as the 4th-6th grade Artsonia Artist of the Week!
Yes, his collaborative work was great~but it was the community-wide support for him that helped him win!

Thank you so much for taking a moment each day to support our RJR artist!

Hayden will receive a special plaque and a gift certificate for $50 for Dick Blick Art Supplies! The studio also receives $100 in art supplies.

Thank you to Artsonia and to Dick Blick for their support of art education as well, and many thanks to you, our families, community, and my awesome PLN, for celebrating our artists in many ways throughout the school year.

We Need Your Vote!

Help us make Hayden3488, the 4th grade Artsonia Artist of the Week!

What makes his work so unique, you ask?
This particular work of art was a collaboration between Hayden3488 and his classmates. They wrote their artist statements using a Google Form. These statements were then copied and pasted into a Tagxedo word cloud text box. Their words describe the art they created for Seton Highland Lakes Hospital for their Valentine's Day party where Seton will present the new Care-A-Van, a specially-equipped RV that provides medical support and care in this region.
Their Valentines are being distributed to the care-givers, donors, doctors, nurses and volunteers who make the Care-A-Van possible. It is a gift that keeps on giving!

Please vote for Hayden3488.

Votes can be made daily. Thank you for your help~

Interactive Media from MIT

I am getting ready for an exciting class through MIT's Media Lab. I looked into some material from Mitch Resnick, the director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group, who discusses in this TEDx presentation the idea of fluency leading to expression, regardless of medium. The idea of teaching coding to my students is exciting and daunting. However, as part of this journey, I may try to teach Scratch to a small group. Who knows what we will create? Isn't that the fun (and the challenge) of Art and Science?

Let's Get Drawing with Stikz (and Xtranormal!)

It's amazing how many resources and tools are out there for us to use! I love finding new tools, but I also appreciate how often it is my PLN (my professional learning network) that puts a product or tool to the test first and shares what they found. This neat tool was Tricia Fuglestad's find. She has it posted on her website, so I decided to play with Xtranormal too.

I wanted to get my students drawing more in their free-time, so I created this short movie to get them thinking about it, at the very least!

Let's Get Drawing with Stikz
by: fineartsstudio

Clip and Collect: Box Tops for Education

We have a mission!

Our goal is to get to the Blanton Museum of Art, in Austin, for our 5th grade field trip. It is an expensive trip. We take four buses into Austin for the day. We split up into groups, some tour the State Capitol first, others go straight to the museum, we meet back at the State Capitol grounds for a picnic and after everyone has had a full day of art, history and culture, we head back to school.

Help us get there! Clip and collect Box Tops for Education found on many grocery items. Collect them in a baggy and send them with your student to the Fine Arts Studio. Deadline for this year's collection is February 22nd. That will give us time to count and ship them to BFE. They are our tickets to the wonderful sights in the city!