Space Center Intermediate has been looking up lately! Within two weeks we had quite a show of multiple fly overs by the Space Shuttle Endeavor then started our Friday morning with a surprise evasion of hot air balloons joining the Ballunar Festival this weekend.

Space Center Intermediate student body all participated in celebrating International Day of Peace on September 21, 2012.

Over 1200 pinwheels graced our front lawn for the day. The students decorated a pinwheel template from the Pinwheels for Peace website during their advisory classes. Students added color, text, and symbols all sending up wishes for a peaceful school, community and world. Art students took on the challenge and completed the pinwheel creation in under 4 hours! The assembly line process brought all students together in creating a wonderful art installation in front of our school. By lunch we were creating a giant peace sign made out of pinwheels in front of the school.

It was wonderful to see the students so proud of their joint accomplishment and impressed by the overwhelming size and quantity of pinwheels during dismissal at the end of the day. I watched as students stopped by on their walks home to walk around multiple times until they found their pinwheel. Many took photos and posed with their pinwheels to share with family and friends.
The project really brought our students together in mutual goal of peace!

My preAP art students were give a series of drawing challenges including drawing with charcoal at the end of a dowel rod. The idea was thanks to several wonderful art teachers in my district. We started with adding elements of magazine and newspaper elements to a piece of paper. Once dry we painted the textured paper with a white base and with an accent color of choice. A still life was set up in the room and the students put their papers to the floor and were each given their LONG artist tool. The students were challenged to draw from observation while not being able to have the comfort and control of a "normal" art material. Once completed students went back into their image with charcoal to add contrast and value.
The image results were quite surprising and forced students to self evaluate their art work throughout the process and make adjustments. Perspective and building contrast were challenges for many students. Students were asked to step back and look critically at their own art work and tell me what they felt they needed to do to improve on the piece. After this assignment many students will surely look at an artistic elephant with new appreciation for their challenges in creating with such a great distance between them and the canvas!