FREE Mask-Making Workshop for students!

Mrs. Leban is looking for talented artists interested in creating decorative masks out of plaster after school. These masks will be donated to the District 205 Foundation and used as decorations for their Midnight Masquerade fundraiser on October 22nd.

The Sandburg art room has benefitted from several District Foundation grants – the most recent being this year’s new SMARTboard and set of 3 iPads! We’d like to thank the Foundation for their generosity by making as many masks as possible to help decorate at their event.

This opportunity is open to ALL Sandburg Middle School students, grades six through eight, regardless of whether you’ve had art this year or not.

You must be able to attend all of the dates listed below, in order to finish your mask on time for our deadline, which is October 19th. IT WILL GET MESSY, SO BE PREPARED!

Here’s when we’ll be meeting:

• · Wednesday, October 5th from 3:20 to 4:20 in the art room
• · Wednesday, October 12th from 3:20 to 4:20 in the art room
• · Friday, October 14th from 3:20 to 4:20 in the art room
• · Monday, October 17th from 3:20 to 4:20 in the art room (optional, if time is needed)

All you need to bring is yourself! A 4:20 bus is available to take home for $1 each day, if needed. Otherwise, you must plan for your own transportation home.

Any questions? Please email or talk to Mrs. Leban in the art room (room 027 in the basement).

Clay Days!

This week and last week, we had pottery wheel days in 8th grade.  We had to work in shifts, since we only have 8 wheels total, but each student gets to have a whole class period to work on the wheel. 

Working on the pottery wheel is hard!  I tell students that it's okay to NOT end up with a finished pot!  If they end up making a little something, that's fine, but it's not a requirement.  I am not a trained ceramicist, so I had a bit of a struggle to learn how to properly use the wheel.  In fact, it took me the whole school year to get the hang of it!  I made sure to share this fact with students, so they would not feel bad if they struggled, too.

Once you DO get the hang of it, it's really fun.  Mr. Gail and Ms. Read even joined us last Friday to try to throw some clay!  It was pretty cool to see them get their hands dirty with us!

Hooray! I won stuff!

Exciting news!  Today I was visited by members of the Elmhurst 205 Foundation, and they awarded me with a super amazing huge grant!

I wrote a grant for a SMART Board and three iPads to use in the art room, and I was so happy and excited to find out that I had won!  It felt like winning the lottery!  I had almost forgotten about writing the grant, since it was way back in December.  My sixth graders were walking into the class as photos were being taken, so they were invited to take a photo of me and Principal Read along with our sign.  I'll post a photo here if I get a copy, because I bet it turned out pretty good.

I hope to order the new technology soon, but it won't be fully up and running until next school year.  Some of my current eighth graders were a little sad, but I promised they could try out the iPads if they show up before the summer.

Hooray!  I love exciting news!

Coral Reef Photo Gallery

I've been promising some updated Crochet Coral Reef photos for a while now, so here they are!  This is in the display case across from the main office at Sandburg.

Our "background" is a sandy-colored fleece Mrs. Bensfield found at the fabric store.  Eventually, we can sew pieces onto it permanently and hang out reef anywhere we want!  For now, pieces are placed down and/or pinned to the corkboard behind.

One of our favorite new techniques is to crochet around pipe cleaners to make our coral bendy and defy gravity!  Do you see the tall blue piece above?

 

These little mushroom-like pieces were made by Mrs. Bensfield.  She's always giving us cool ideas!

Above: Brainy coral, fuzzy coral, and a round ball-shaped piece of coral!

 

Wow!  What a variety!  We'll also be showing off our crochet skills at our "Sandburg at 60" birthday celbration at the end of May, so be sure to stop by and check out how we've gotten EVEN BETTER!