garden loom

I brought out some scraps of yarn for our garden loom the other day during my recess duty. Usually our garden loom is filled with earthy colored twigs, sticks, long grasses, and garden cuttings from work days but I like the splash of bright color here too!

The garden loom is wonderful Multiple Intelligence tool. It fosters the use interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences, and of course the spatial, naturalist, bodily-kinesthetic, and logical-mathematical intelligences.

If you want to find out more about how to build your own garden loom check out Weaving a Life and The Earth Loom Foundation. Our garden loom started as a hallway conversation "wouldn't it be great if..." and our wonderful NCS parents made it happen!

welcome back!

Welcome back! We have just finished our first week here at New City School. I am looking forward to a wonderful year of art! You'll notice the new shelving in the middle of the room that was handmade by Bill,our expert craftsman and facilities manager:)Thank you Bill! This makes our art supplies so much more accessible.

I have a fifth grade advisory and we start and end each day together in the art room. We used washi tape to decorate birdhouses on our first day together.

And this little guy is our yarn ball sprite. He winds balls of yarn for our kiddos who love to finger knit during free time. He might need a little help now and then to keep up with demand;)

This is the start of a concept bank. Each 6th grade art time I will record our "post it note discussions" and deposit them here so we can refer back to our discoveries. My Art21 experience really has me thinking about my big questions and through lines. This year I want to make these connections more evident (rather than just using them as a curriculum organizer). Our theme in 6th grade asks the question: What is creativity? How can I use my creativity to benefit myself and others? We will be exploring what ways we can be creative, what hinders or promotes creativity, finding out if creativity is universal, and looking for ways we value (or don't value) creativity.

More to come soon! Best wishes for the new school year!