Art Museum

 We tried something new at Red Bell. In May we focus on the arts so we decided to host an art museum in each of the rooms.  Mine was this past Wednesday. My students worked really hard in April to complete projects with a little more effort than some of them wanted to put in, but all of them were super excited to host the event and have their families come in and see their artwork  

We handed out programs as the families entered the school.

3D art inspired by Antoni Gaudi. It was clay flowers and recyclable art made from egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, and cups.

Water Lilies inspired by Monet.

More Water Lilies on the wall to the right.

On the bulletin board are their self-portraits, inspired by Rembrandt.

On the far table is some artwork that I didn't take better pictures of, but they just did "window" painting in between the taped lines. The paper was taped to shoe boxes. When it was time for the families to leave, I had them take their 3D art home in those boxes. 

I had some student teachers this year and they created this banner with my students. It says "The Red Room Institute of the Arts" and has all the kids' handprints with their names below. 

Flower Mosaics inspired by Sonia King. The kids really enjoyed looking at the book I brought in with mosaics throughout it. 

The whole thing was a hit and we will do it again next year!

Suicide Prevention

On Friday I attended the funeral of another victim of suicide.  After being on a suicide watch for my own child, trying to recover from the suicide of my nephew,  and now having attended the funeral and helped with food for the family of another suicide victim, I'm done. It's too much. Please, use the resources available for thoughts of suicide,  or call a friend.  Call me. This blog doesn't reach that many people,  so my influence is small here, but I'm praying that I can help someone,  anyone,  as well as trying to take care of my family and myself.