Molas from the Elementary Art Room

MOLAS. Elementary School Art. DESIGN. 

This past week I made one more little stop to our local northern WI elementary to say goodby to my kindergarten friends. It's time to get in our car and head south to friends awaiting our eventual arrival in sunny Florida. I was rewarded with hugs and more hugs...... and these incredible Molas were on display outside of the Art room. 

I had just a minute with the brilliant Art teacher during her transition to learn that these pieces emerged from several classes devoted to this project and the study of island work across the world. 

GLORIOUS! 

My new favorite thing about blogging? Getting to shine light on excellence I see on my travels. 

-- Debbie -- 

A happy reminder! My little store over at Teacher's Pay Teachers is set for the SALE today!! 

Everything, including my new digital download of Monster Spray is now 20 % off for the day. 

SALE at Teachers Pay Teacher in the Debbie Clement Shop! 

Another BIG HEAD's UP. Speaking of today. Here's a HUGE give-away that concludes today. 

Get thee over to "Herding Kats in Kindergarten" to have the opportunity to win: BIG TIME. 

Happy Fall Y'all Give Away at Herding Kats in Kindergarten

Monster Edition: Fine Motor Friday!

FRIDAY!! FINE MOTOR FRIDAY!!!! 

WELCOME to the MONSTER EDITION!

-Fine Motor Leads to Fine Arts: Part 30-

This is an exciting RoundUP!
**MONSTERS, CREEPY MONSTERS**
I have big news to share and lots of inspiration to get us there!
Foreshadowing: The big announcement is at the end. 
"MONSTER SPRAY" is the clue.
Today's edition is all about the fears in our lives + overcoming them.
When we name our fears we are on our way to growth. 
Children + Fears = Monsters. 
Let's use playful monster projects as a vehicle to address fear. 

Fridays I focus here on fine motor fun. I'm an old elementary art school teacher morphed into a music lady, turned into an author illustrator of children's picture books. Got that? For today's RoundUP, I put out a call to my fellow bloggers in the Kids Network -- for inspiration in the 'monster' category, as it relates to Fine Motor Fun. [We have our own KBN Pinterest collaborative board you'll want to be certain to follow.]

You're just going to LUV all of these possibilities from my blogger buddies LITERALLY around the world.
Let's get started with some delightful, insightful drawing-stories.

Monster Story with Finger-Print Embellishment

What an amazing piece of writing and drawing mixed together with fingerprint ink details for the monster. You'll simply HAVE to click through to see how the robber, monster and fingerprints resolve this story! From the same household, here's another monster taking shape. Special thanks to MamaSmiles for these examples of how writing + drawing combine to articulate imaginative ideas. 

"Monsters and a Robot" by Johnny

This next beauty is such an incredible monster drawing getting underway over at Tinkerlab. She shares where the inspiration for this approach to guiding organic creations originated. You'll have to see how the process got underway and how it looked upon completion. 

What if you are a bountiful lover of children's Art? What if your young child creates an amazing drawing that you treasure? What if you wanted to create a real-life-sized replica of your child's drawing for them to wear? What would that look like? The answers to all of these questions lies over at The Artful Parent, where Jean houses a treasure trove of insight, information and interviews. You have to pop over to hear in her own words how this was literally brought to life! 

From the fine motor explorations using crayons and pencils, let's begin to explore fine motor development as it applies across a wide variety of applications. Look at these fingers at work creating a set of monster-fingers! You'll have to click over here to happy hooligans to see how these monster fingers emerged, evolved and check out the finished pieces. You're gonna LUV the details: pinto beans + band-aids! 

Marshmallows make a great base for a monster-sculpture! 

Marshmallow Monster!!

Let's continue in three dimensions. I have a couple of ideas to share from nurturestore -- across the pond in the UK. Want to go see this scary beauty come-to-life? Click over for the video. This creature stars in its very own movie! The sound effects are my favorite part!

Scary Monster Puppet from nurturestore

Got a big bag? Use it as the basis to create your own monster-creature. Follow along through this article to seek additional inspiration for your upcycle-efforts. This project was originally part of Tinkerlab's on going series of challenges. This beauty was an entry in the Paper Bag Challenge. Nurturestore has all of those results who linked up with paper bag ideas.

Paper Bay Monsters from 'nurturestore' -- Response to the Paper Bag Challenge

Speaking of up-cycling.....these multi-eyed monsters are an easy 'upcycle' and created with love in this post at Creative Family Fun. Use the supplies that you have on hand to personalize your very, own, creative monsters. 

A variation on the same theme is available over at Creative Playhouse. 

Here's one more version from RedTedArt in full color and details!

Now let's take our up-cycling to a whole 'nother level. I'm sure that you have regular access to the plastic containers that originally convey your berries. Look at this puppet created over at Kitchen Counter Chronicles! You'll need to go here to see how it unfolds and view another finished puppet. KUDOS! 

Yes. Here comes a happy creature from a monster-quilt! Long time readers here are aware of how much I LUV LUV LUV fabric and all things 'quilt.' Imagine an entire MONSTER quilt to wrap up around you on a cold evening! Pop on over to The Educators' Spin On It to see how an economical and 'simple' quilt was created. [Talk about a labor of monster-LOVE........]

Now let's turn to play-doh. Especially the home made variations!

Multi-Eyed Monster of Fun 

To get the recipe to use to create this MONSTER-squeezie character, you're going to need to click over to this article at MamaSmiles. There's got to be something quite therapeutic about squeezing your monster-fears away!

Playdoh Monster Squeeze

These wigglie-eyes are a prominent feature when it comes to monsters. Aren't they? I just LUV to see these wittle fingers and Mr. Thumbkin at work over at The Imagination Tree. Hop the pond here to see how all the other incredible variations came to life!

But what about feathers? What if you have feathers handy? Just add some great feathers to the constructions? That's exactly  what happened over at Mess for Less in the classic showdown between Monsters and Aliens. Who wins? Monsters? Aliens? Hurry over to find out!

How about wigglie-eyes to create Monster Rocks! You'll be absolutely delighted to hear how RedTedArt and her children dispersed these glories as happy mystery treats. Click over to hear of their pay-it-forward fun. CLASSIC!

From the wigglie eyes on the sqeezie-ness of playdoy or the slick painted surfaces of rock on to the utter delight of glow in the dark, green slime. Think science. Think mixing elements. Think slime as brought to you by the slime-princess, Growing a Jeweled Rose. Of course you want her secret recipe. Of course you'll click here to get it! Of course you'll be making memorable fun together. SLIME Monsters!

Next up are these blue-ribbon Monster Cupcakes of the century! Krissy shares all of the specific ingredients and tools used. Did you know that there are food coloring pens? Get thee over to B-Inspired Mama to get all of the details and see just exactly how these sculpture-like cupcakes unfolded. 

 

Kid-Made Monster Cupcakes from B-InspiredMama.com 

There are so many delightful books available to explore monsters and fears and creepy ideas. Reading Confetti shares a 'lesser-known' monster book that was the inspiration for the collage creatures below. Pop over to see if you're familiar with the literary treasure suggested.... one clue. It's from treasured Mo Wilems! Do you know the title? 

Reading Confetti Collage Monsters

Deborah Stewart, the mastermind over at Teach Preschool and blogging mentor to us all, has contributed this project which is also based on a book. She shares numerous explorations through a variety of media in her must-see article. I don't want to let the monster out of the bag. You'll have to click over to see which book has how many monsters at what kind of school! 

Now that we're on the topic of monsters and books I had an article here last year with THE most incredible response to a monster book. This project was created by a high school student in Joint Vocational School studying to prepare for early childhood education. Raise your hand if you want your children in her room of the future. 

Here's the 'child-friendly' version created over at Mom to 2 Posh Divas in a DIY literacy-tutorial extravaganza. You're going to want to go over there to see all of the various pieces that get fed to their monster and how it was built. The photo I chose below builds number sense, but there are examples of sight words and so much more! 

There are literally a ton of ideas in this article from Mommy + Me Book Club. Everything from sensory tubs, and puppets to these amazing creations below. They, too tie to a book. Can you guess which one? Perhaps the green face background gives you a clue? 

Here's another response to yet another monster book. This project emerges overseas at RedTedArt. You'll want you to go over there to see which picture book her children are responding to in these incredible monster cards.

Here's a link to 19 Monster Books in an article put together over at No Time for Flash Cards. 

We're getting real close to the unveiling of my newest digital download, song "Monster Spray." Take a look at this next delightful child craft to create your very own spray version for the punch line to my classic dittie. 

It turns out that great minds think alike! This colorful, personal spray bottle was created over at the ubber creative AngeliqueFelix.com in conjunction with a sweet song of her own called Monster Stomp that has simple choreography for little ones on YouTube. You're going to need to click over there for her YT link of ingenuity. 

So now to think about monsters and fear and little ones. Crystal, of Growing a Jeweled Rose, has a brand new, definitive article on her blog that addresses all of these issues. She offers all manner of insight, resources and brainstorming ideas. Her list of suggestions offer an entire spectrum of possibilities for an issue that is very real to the littles. 

"Once Upon a Time" the beginning of Monster Spray

I wrote my song, "Monster Spray" when reflecting on the imaginary spray that was the tool that supported our youngest to sleep through the night, decades ago. The ritual of spraying in the closet and under the bed gave her the confidence that none of my conversations seemed to offer. A good night's sleep was worth all of the imaginary Monster Spray I could squirt ahead of time. It worked. She had conqured her fears. She has gone on to get her doctorate in music. That was some quality monster spray. 

I am in the process of getting all of the pieces into a zip file to upload to my little store at Teacher's Pay Teachers. It will be ready for your immediate download and will include an Mp3 with several support pieces. 

Special Intro Sale for Monster Spray et. al. 

As a special way of thanking you for your continued encouragement I am putting my entire store on sale this weekend, starting bright and early Saturday morning. 

Here's the direct link for your digital download of "Monster Spray." 

I have several ideas for the next project to go digital. Any requests from my ol' fanclub? I'm thinking the next songs to get the TpT format will be classified as "brain breaks" -- meaning movement songs. 

-- Debbie -- 

As always I am so grateful for your pins. 
I now have 63,000 followers at Pinterest. 
I have an entire board of 368 MONSTER related pins.

Did you see my Fall Arts and Crafts RoundUP earlier this week? 
There are a couple dozen great ideas for projects!



This article has been linked at "All Students Shine"

Name Recognition Art + Literacy

What's more important than a child's name? 

Here are three brilliant ways to introduce a child to their name and its letters. 

Today I had the opportunity to return to visit my local elementary school. 

There is a classroom for preschool children with special needs. 

This is the launch of week number four. 

Three ways to get up-close and personal with your own letters. 

LUV LUV LUV it!!

Here's what the bulletin board of the preschool children's names. 

LITERACY!! ART!! LETTER RECOGNITION!!

-- Debbie -- 

Are you following my little store over at Teachers Pay Teachers? 

I'm about to upload a couple more files of digital downloads. 

I had an earlier article here that was a RoundUP of all sorts of ways to use names -- in centers, as projects, for jobs. Click back here to see those ideas. 

Kindergarten Lifestyle Linky

Added to the letter linkie over at Kindergarten Lifestyle.