Teaching Portfolio

Constructing cubes from circles stretched our geometric thinking, while the springy bamboo challenged our finger skills. Watercolor diffused on rice paper created colored shadows.

After looking with our "artist eyes" at aerial photographs of our town, we made layered landscapes from the bird's-eye view of migrating Canada geese. We fingerpainted the grass and sky, printed clouds and autumn trees with sea sponges, and collaged paper silhouettes of geese above it all.

Who hasn't wanted to send a sushi boat sailing through fingerprint lilypads? We learned that Impressionist artist Claude Monet painted on his floating studio boat, surrounded by nature.

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These cardboard castles let us practice construction with cylinders, cones, and tab-and-slot techniques.

First we added texture designs to air-dry clay using pasta, legos, and rubber stamps. Then we fit stones and sea glass around the painted ceramic tiles, inspired by the work of contemporary ceramic artist Laurie Mika.

We printed on mulberry paper with legos, bubble wrap, and burlap, then collaged organic shapes to assemble dinosaurs. Finger strokes added plants over blended pastel landscapes as we considered what our dinosaurs would need in their habitat: plants to eat, water to drink, soft sand to sleep in, rocks to hide behind.

A large canvas created collaboratively by three preschool classes from recycled materials.