deep sleep

I came home from my week and fell asleep.

My two little boys are outside enjoying the beautiful surprisingly mild and lovely weather, and beating themselves and the neighbors to a pulp with large foam covered cudgels. And I'm okay with that.

My oldest was literally in tears this morning because I have been on his case about various and sundry teenage behaviors and he thinks I don't trust him. Trust. Him? Um. Dude. Welcome to the neighborhood, I'll be your tour guide, my name is Mom. My job is to be on your ass for the next three years. And. Yes, duh, I don't trust you.

Today I taught all day, one class each of kindergarteners, first, second, third, fourth and fifth graders. This is exhausting, but throw in an observation/evaluation by the supervising teacher and an evaluation by the cooperating teacher and wow! What's a word for way more than just exhausted?

I really need to go to the pharmacy.

This week the kindergarteners were learning about warm and cool colors and using a wax resist technique called "color on the paper with crayons and wash over it with watercolors and see how cool it is!"
Here is a photo of one I did myself: 

In this photo you can also see to the far left, a print I made of my very own using a sheet of styrofoam. Mine was a bird. The first graders are learning about Hats in Art, so their prints will include funny hats they made up themselves.

Each day a different class of first graders and I have been struggling through the process of tracing through a drawing, in order to make an impression on their rectangular sheet of Styrofoam, which we will use to make a print...and it goes like this:
"I'm done."
"Um, you're working hard! Go back and trace over it again."
"I'm done now."
"Um, trace over it again. I like your hat."
"I'm done."
No you are not.
I'm done.
Go back and trace.
Wash.
Rinse.
Repeat.

The second graders and I have continued the "Wild Things" unit nearly to fruition. They drew large, which is difficult for many people. One of the wonderful things that happens in Mr. B's class is the students learn to see the importance of filling up the page while they draw. They are making cute/horrible/adorable/scary Wild Things. We drew on huge paper, using pencil, traced over our lines with Sharpie, and now, we are using texture rubbing plates and crayons to rub texture onto the body of the Wild Thing. Except, today I was maybe not so clear on where we would put the texture. So quite a few of them in today's class just experimented with rubbing along the edges of the page. I have four more sections of second grade classes to go on this part of the unit, so I know on Monday my brain will have devised the perfect way to go about explaining the steps for this lesson. For one thing, I think I am attempting to have the students go too fast. Or I might be giving them too much time to work. But they're second graders! They don't have a sense of timing either, do they? If I say "Ok you have three minutes to trace the lines of your Thing," are they actually going to work more efficiently? If they rush, they won't have good results either. My goal is generally better timing. And somehow to start finishing up sooner, because there are always students who will absolutely not put down their work until the very last second.
Ultimately the Wild Things look a little like this:

No my Wild Thing is not breach birthing a Marlin.

I think my hair has grown so long that now my scale says I've gained four pounds. But it could be the regular consumption of the school lunches. Seriously. I would eat school lunch in this district nearly every day if I were a retired person. I'd go and hang out with other people's kids and read stories to them as an excuse to stay and have school lunch. It's like having your mom cook for you. Today we had fish sticks. Er. They call them fish shapes. But they're just pointy fish sticks. I was expecting them to be shaped like dinosaurs or farm animals or something but no, they are more like carrot caricatures. But quite tasty. The other day I practically licked my tray, the Cherry Crumble was so delicious. Fajitas were good even with no salsa. The cookies are divine. Once in a while they serve real turkey. The carrot sticks are cut by hand from gigantic fresh sweet carrots.

The third, fourth and fifth graders are working on clay animals, paper mache masks and one point perspective, respectively. These three grades seem easier for me, possibly because they are in the morning and we are all a little fresher. I brought my own mask to show the fourth graders. I made it in Mr. B's college course on Elementary Art Methods.

You can see it in this picture hanging on the wall to the left of the painting sitting on the table. I'm pretty excited about how beautifully everything seems to be coming together!