Out of my Gourd!

Gourds: Anybody worked with them? Have ideas?
I bought some sample gourds, already cleaned and dried. The Egg gourds are a good size and price (far right). The Jewelery are tiny. The Banana's shape could lend to some interesting projects. Ordered 1 Purple Martin for fun, many people use this type to make bird houses. Want to use gourds with K-5 students. I don't really want to drill and cut into them since that's a lot of prep so I guess that crosses off rattles. Ideas are dolls, ornaments, and sculptures (picturing fruit, eggs, etc.). Any suggestions guys?

The Art Room is going Green!

I've struggled over the years to get paper, and only paper, in the paper recycling bin in the art room. The kids have good intentions but in the rush of clean up and desire to go "free draw" rather than walk a few extra steps to the correct garbage can, we find interesting things in the recycling bin (and plenty of paper in the garbage can). So this June, Sarah, who will be in 5th grade this fall, painted my recycling bin! A picture says a thousand words right? Hopefully this will be a great reminder to recycle and conserve resources. Who wouldn't want to help conserve materials and preserve animal's habitats when viewing this lovely mural-in-the-round?

This beautiful painting will help kick off our fall theme~ Go Green! We will make better environmental choices in the art room, continue collecting recycled materials to make art out of (see previous "Go Green" post) and do some nature studies. I have hopes to draw from nature (flowers, leaves, sticks, trees, insects), do leaf rubbings, work with sand and rocks again and create art out of dried gourds.

8/4-8/10/11 Beautiful, free Native American Design images from Dover

I love Dover illustrations to inspire kids in art! Do you subscribe by email to Dover's free samples of their coloring book pages, art, resources, and literature? This week's Native American Vector Motifs are stunning and a real leaping off point for an art lesson. Print/save the samples this week and/or buy their books. Check this site weekly for other motivational resources for kids' art.
http://www.doverpublications.com/samplerkids/0804/index.html