Pablo Picasso

The Second Graders are studying the famous artist Pablo Picasso this week. Picasso was one of the most important artists of all time. He painted and sculpted in many different styles. He worked a lot in abstract styles, and created cubism. Here is a fun link that you can try to make a portrait in the style of Picasso.

PBIS Celebration includes Thanksgiving Crafts

Last week Cumberland school celebrated the student's success in following the Cougar Code during our first quarter of the year. All students involved showed that they were:

-Respectful
-Responsible
-Safe

The school wide celebration included a dance party, bingo, and Thanksgiving crafts. Here are some Cumberland students being creative with recycled craft materials.

Winter Greeting Card Winners Announced!

Last night at the Board of Education Meeting 6 District 62 students were honored for their holiday card designs. Four of the six students honored were from Cumberland and Chippewa!

 Julie Choi, a 5th grader at Cumberland won 3rd place.

Natalie Trytko and Emily Utt, both 6th graders from Chippewa won 3rd place.

Ashton Smith, an 8th grader at Chippewa won first place!

Salt Dough Recipe

I promised to share the recipe that we used to make our Day of the Dead skulls. You could make holiday ornaments, turkeys, skulls or almost anything out of this dough. You do need to bake the dough to make it hard. We used regular markers to draw on the finished sculptures.

                                                    

                                           Salt Dough Recipe

1 cup salt

1 cup warm water

2 cups all-purpose flour

Mix together salt and warm water in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Add flour and mix together. When dough becomes too stiff to mix with a wooden spoon, use your hands. Knead the dough with your hands. Add more flour (about a tablespoon at a time) until dough will not stick to your hands. 

Place on a cookie sheet and cook at 200 degrees for 1 to 4 hours or until hard.

Thanksgiving Turkey Challenge

I love to see the creative things my students come up with on their own. As it is almost time for Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays, I want to challenge you all to come up with a turkey. It can be a painting, sculpture, cartoon, food art item, or whatever you want to make it from.

I will display all entries on the blog to show the world how creative we can be. Please show it to Ms. T by Friday, November 18th so I can post it by Thanksgiving.

For the Birds

My Life Skills Classes are looking at birds this week, and the shapes that make them up. We read a story about birds and watched a short fun cartoon that I thought you might enjoy.

Dia De Los Muertos

Today is the celebration of the Day of the Dead in Mexico, North and Central America. This holiday celebrates the lives of loved ones that are no longer living. Family members and friends of the deceased gather together and creating offerings of food, flowers and art work as they remember and pray for the dead. It is a happy occasion and filled with lots of color!

Recently my 6th grade students created skulls that look like traditional sugar skulls made for the celebration. They used a salt dough recipe that we put over a ball of aluminum foil.