an apology

Tessa had a scuttle on the playground that resulted in a friend crying last week so after a peace meeting her teacher asked all involved parties to make cards for said friend. Tessa worked on hers at the gymnastics studio while we waited for Trenton's class to finish up. She was genuinely sorry to hurt her friend (seen below drawn by Tess) and she worked hard on several cards. The bottom image shows Tessa's infamous Bobo character and a new triangle-shaped character named Fred. She ultimately painted a beautiful apology card and from what I hear all is forgiven. whew.

heaven, reality, hell

A cow's life is full of choices and obviously consequences. An old drawing by Trenton...

tabby cat

This is one more image from the old sketchbook -- a tabby cat long before Reggie and Roxy joined the fun at our home.

It's Rabbit Season! It's Duck Season!

Another drawing from the old sketchbook. This one is obviously inspired by the Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs and Daffy argue who Elmer Fudd should be aiming his shotgun at...At the top is an unlucky cat, an angry hunter, and a little bird pointing at the action.

Vikings and Maps

Found these in a sketchbook that has resurfaced. Trenton still loves drawing elaborate maps -- this is an early version complete with all the funny island names. Click the image to see it larger. See the Land of Magical Boots, Forget Me Island, Bunny Fields, etc. I have always loved his imagination and attention to detail.

If We Weren't Here

Trenton painted this image while at the airport for the Art Angel exhibit. I will visit it this week and take some pictures. The image was inspired by a book Kyle is reading with similar imagery on the cover -- but Trenton's is more colorful and we like it a great deal.

Rosie Flo

I found this line of coloring books on one of the design blogs and I ordered a couple. Tessa is having a blast with hers; Trenton's is a boy-themed one but he is not as interested... Anyway, the book has printed clothes, etc. and you are to add heads, arms and legs -- what fun! I think I will order several more and then I will have them ready to pair with colored pencils & markers for birthday gifts.

love notes

I have always been a big believer in the power of little love notes and notes of encouragement. I love to give them and to receive them. I like to hide notes in Kyle's bags before he leaves town and I like to leave notes for the kids in their lunchboxes. Thankfully the kids and Kyle return the favor. This note was scotch taped in my office and is from Tessa.

KEITH HARING project

I met with Trenton's class earlier this month to discuss Keith Haring's iconic art. Then we headed outside and spent the afternoon drawing on the sidewalks with chalk; I documented the afternoon for the students portfolios. We were blessed to have a warm day with a nice breeze since the earlier part of the week had both fierce winds and snow! After the class the kids headed back to their room and wrote short essays about what they learned.

funky heart mobile project

Another project for Trenton's class for February. I had nice thick stock and loads of tissue paper squares I had prepped for my Elmer class at the NMA, punched circles from magazines for the poi fish project last year and glue sticks. I also brought in tree branches and string. The school had been enduring constant testing the month of February and the kids were exhausted. This exhaustion combined with a terrible bronchitis virus and pneumonia that struck over half of the school's populace led me to create a project where we could have a quiet afternoon playing with color and gluing. After our sheets were covered we turned them over and drew hears and cut them out. Later we worked with the branches to create a mobile and hung all the hearts with funky yarn I used to knit Tessa's poncho. Anyway, the kids thought it was fun (anything would be fun compared to tests!) but afterwards I looked at it and thought maybe this wasn't really a Montessori project -- it seemed more suited to the Reggio classroom. Regardless, the mobile still hangs in the classroom and is affectionately called the flycatcher.

Great Coral Reef mural project

Last December I worked with Trenton's class on creating a mural of the Great Coral Reef for the multicultural festival. I purchased a 3 foot by 6 foot canvas and we worked one evening on creating the background -- a few students came to the school in the evening and we painted out the entire canvas in various shades and blends of blues, greens and white. The next couple days I went to the class and in small groups the students came and worked on adding fish and plants to the mural. The students continued to work on the mural throughout the week and it hung during the festival and continues to hang in the classroom. The nice thing about the subject matter is that all types of colors and shapes and styles of painting are in place in the mural just as all types of shapes, styles and colors are in the coral reef. What a successful project.