Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.
Celebrating Easy Art and Creativity: I was doing some shopping at A&E gallery when I saw Marcie. I asked her if we could get together to do gel printing for Christmas stuff. She put it all together last weekend and four of us met at the gallery to play with our gel print plates. This is such a fun and easy way to create art. On the gelli plate (they were original made with real gelatin), you squirt and roll out paint. Then you can press in a stencil or even grab a paper towel roll and print circles. Place the paper down and pull up. There you have it. I designed gift tags, note cards, and tissue paper.
The mess of creative play with gel printing.
Gel printed tissue paper
Celebrating Skype Author Visit: My students were beyond excited about their Skype visit with author Caroline Starr Rose. She set up her computer outside a Starbucks in Albuquerque because she had roofers at her house. She looked a little red-nosed from the chill, but all worked fine. (I was especially happy the technology worked.)
Caroline Starr Rose wrote May B and Blue Birds, both historical fiction verse novels, and Over in the Wetlands, a picture book about the creatures in the wetlands surviving a hurricane. Her writing is lyrical and beautiful. But we messed up in preparing for her visit. I read aloud Over in the Wetlands as well as parts of May B and Blue Birds, but we didn’t read the Author’s Note. She gave them a quiz. Let me just say that gifted kids are not accustomed to failing quizzes. They didn’t do too well on her wetlands quiz, but they learned a lot.
They were inspired to be creative with their thank you notes.
Creative thank you note from Kielan
Emily reproduced the cover of “Over in the Wetlands” in her drawing.
Lani made her a construction paper purse using a star symbol for “Starr.”
I celebrate the creativity of playing with art. My students “get” this sense of play as well. I love that. I am grateful to authors like Caroline Starr Rose who inspire with good literature and generosity of spirit.
I have another blogger friend who shares the gelli plates. Yours turned out so beautifully, Margaret. I need to explore & find out where I can do this! Glad that the Skype turned out so well. I did love Over In The Wetlands, really pretty book. Have a nice weekend!
The gelli plates look so fun! I want to do something artistic over break! And I am right in the middle of BLUEBIRDS (for CYBILS). Need to get busy and finish!
Art and reading translates into peace and joy for me. Such a lovely celebration.
I’ve never seen gelli plate art! I’m going looking for that and the other Caroline Star Rose novels. I only have May B. Don’t know why I’ve missed the others. Thank you for the beautiful artwork by your students and you!
I am jealous of your personal art time! Love that you and your friends took time to feed your creative souls at this busy time of year.
Love the gel plate art. Thanks for sharing the process.
I’ve seen someone use the gel print plates and they look like an amazing amount of fun. 🙂