Hi Everyone

I am writing about the books that I shared in class today. The first books is "Live of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes (and what the Neighbours Thought)" This book is great if you want to explore the artists behind the art. I bought it from Books and Co. for $7.00, but amazon.ca has it for $16.00, so I would suggest that you run and get it from books and Co. before they are all gone from the clearance bins!

The second book that I shared was titled "A Pacific Alphabet" illustrated by Dianna Bonder http://www.diannabonder.com/index.php. This is a beautiful book that I got for free, a few years ago, from http://www.achievebc.ca/ who as Linda mentioned gives away a free book each year. I could not find the link on the page so I would suggest just sending an email if you are interested. This book is also available on amazon.ca for $10.00.
Thanks

Hi everyone, I just wanted to put a quick little post up here about another neat website that I found, it has a lot of ideas in many different areas/aspect of Fine Arts that would be beneficial in an elementary school classroom, including lesson plans and links to online resources (ex for creating animation). Enjoy!
http://accessarts.org/ArtKids/

The Recorder and other musical endeavors

As I admitted before, I have very little musical talent or ability, although I have always wanted to be able to claim that I could play a musical instrument. I am finding that I am thoroughly enjoying the sessions that we have had in class learning to play the recorder. I am not sure how much I am improving, but I went home and I was able to actually hear myself and I sounded okay (nothing great, but okay). I was speaking to my mom about this and she suggested that I take my sisters keyboard and start taking lessons, which I might actually do, because I don't think that the recorder is one of those instruments that I would continue to play in the long term.
On a side note, this summer I inherited two fiddles from my fiance's grandfather (he played them and had a massive collection of fiddles). I have been fooling around with them a little, it is more like playing and discovering than actually making music, but it is fun and I like to imagine that I can actually play. I will post some photo's of my new (new to me) fiddles, as I think that they are beautiful especially the backs of them the wood grain is very nice. From what I understand they are actually quite valuable, so I probably should not be playing with them, but what is the point of having a musical instrument if you cannot enjoy it?

Web sites

Hi all, I just thought that I would share some of the web sites that I thought would be good learning and teaching resources:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
http://www.sunnyday.org/art_lesson_plans/index.htm
http://www.canadianart.ca/
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/English/Teacher/explore.html
http://www.artincanada.com/
The last link has a lot of info about the artists backgrounds and style while including examples of their art.
I hope that some of you find this useful!

Everyday Normal Guy

I found this video to be funny and very creative, however some people may find some of jonlajole's work somewhat offensive. I believe that art and art appreciation is very subjective, but that all should be able to appreciate art even if they do not approve of it. Please keep in mind that this is not something that I would show in an elementary school classroom. If you care to watch the post it is in the video bar. Thanks.

Hello

Hi,

I love art, and I am amazed and awed by most art, even if it is not something that I am praticularly fond of I can admire the effort and thought that it takes to create and develop artistic works. I do not consider myself to be a very artistic person. When I used to have free time I used to do some drawings (in pencil, charcoal, and pastel) and I love 3-D art such as working with plaster and clay, although I do not have much time to do either anymore. I dream of learning to play the piano one day, I have managed to teach myself a little, but I would like to learn more. I like to make things with my hands and I knit, crochet, and make jewelery. I am looking forward to this class as a means of expanding my experience with the Arts and thus being able to pass this experience and knowledge on to those I will be teaching.