Keith's Treasures

Is it a rock? Is it a paperweight? No. It is petrified wood my father brought back from a trip to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. I'm not sure if snatching pieces of petrified wood is like taking coral from the Great Barrier Reef, but it's been in the family for a long time. So, if you are a Petrified Forest ranger who happens to be reading this, please don't come after me.

Another angle of this ancient wood. Fascinating. 

The colour is a rusty red. 

A beautiful starfish brought back from Myrtle Beach.

My parents are very keen to learn about what we're doing in our class. My mother is a retired school teacher and she still gets excited going into teacher stores. She is always finding things that I can use. They recently got back from a trip to Myrtle Beach where she bought me several books and other things like educational posters. We visited my parents last weekend and they took us to a book warehouse where my husband, Duncan, and I filled a large box with books and only spent $30.00. I counted 32 books that we managed to fit in the box. At least half of those will go to our class. I found some very interesting books the kids will love, including three Nick Bantock-style books exploring the world of fairies, vampires, and mythical creatures respectively. 

My father is a lifetime collector of odds and ends (a lot of who I am can be explained if you meet my dad). Although my parents continue to be addicted to yard sales, they have also been de-cluttering and my father has given me several interesting pieces. I will try to photograph the more unusual things he has given me in future posts. 

Above, find some treasures from the K. T. Hawkins' cabinet of curiosities which are destined for our class.

Pictures From the Earl Haig Book Sale

After a few too many late nights working on report cards this week, I was rewarded with the most perfect Saturday morning. Earl Haig Public School (the one near Coxwell and Danforth, not the arts school in North York) had a book sale which I viewed as the unofficial kick-off to yard sale/church rummage sale season. While Duncan busied himself colouring at the craft area, I hit the book tables. One table had a lot of new books donated by a publisher and the prices were in the $2.00-$3.00 range - way more than I would normally spend, but I was pleased with the quality and justified the cost as a donation to the school. I scooped up so many books, that a box was quickly filled and I had to drag Duncan back up to the Danforth to get more money. When we came back, we checked out the children's section and loaded up. By that point, we were ready for a rest. We sat down on the gym floor and watched a performance of Scottish dancing while Duncan ate his first popcorn ball. We schlepped our stash several blocks back home, realizing at the mid-way mark that the box was falling apart. Luckily we made it home before the box collapsed and before the hard rain came. I read Duncan some of the books for his bedtime stories tonight and the car is now loaded with books for our classroom. There's no excuse for teachers not to have a room full of books. You just have to hunt around. What fun. See my booty of books below.  

My son Duncan's stash. Each book was .25, less than the price of anything I can think of.

I may have our class sketch the snail and then try to sketch the ear, including the snail-like cochlea. Cross-curricular education. Love it. 

Art books and some cute books for the craft clubs I'm involved in. 

The ever-surreal Anthony Browne. 

Detail from a book on the sad childhood of Paul Gauguin. The illustrations are by Isabelle Arsenault and they are stunning. Visit her website at http://www.isabellearsenault.com

Detail from a vintage book on water. The illustrations are charming.

I have a hardcore group of kids in my class who devour these "how things work" books. Note the publisher highlighting "Why do we fart?" A big selling point for the 8-14 demographic. 

These are just some of the books I bought for my class. Most of these were either new or in excellent used condition. Prices ranged from .25 to $3.00. 

Junk to Jewels

I've noticed that when you mention the word "collage," students tend to groan. I can only imagine that they've been forced into boring collage projects. This past Friday we explored mixed media collage. I pre-cut the foam board from Artsjunktion (this was a big job which left me wishing I had an old electric carving knife), and I used a glue gun to attach felt to the boards. I was going to have the students do this part, but this would have used up the entire Art block just doing the prep work and I wanted to get to the creative part. Students were given three different templates of an outline map of Africa. They could trace onto fabric, paper, or some of those cool vintage transparencies from Artsjunktion. They could do whatever they wanted so long as they mixed their media and tried to do something original. The results were wonderful. They will go up on the wall of the gymnasium for the African Heritage Concert tomorrow and we will eventually attach string to them and cover the back with paper. 

Diverted from landfill: styrofoam presentation board, old fabric, used transparencies, and  newspaper. Thirty pieces were made (two students were absent). Who says you can't do messy Art projects in a large class? See the pictures below for some of their completed pieces. 

Beautiful Things