Mrs. Finder’s Website

Today I have had the privilege to time with my family, as we gathered around the table to eat and a blessing was said upon the food.  Mention was made of those who have sacrificed all they have to provide us with the country and freedoms that we love and enjoy. I took the time to reflect on the time my nephew spent in Iraq and about those who are enlisting daily to protect us from those who desire to take away our liberties.

I looked back to last Thursday when my 5 year old niece graduated from Kindergarten, how she so proudly stood up in front of parents and families and with her class mates recited the preamble, although she probably didn’t understand a lot of what it said, she belted it out with all the conviction a 5 year old could muster.

As I have set, or stood in the back of the multi-purpose room this year and had the blessing and honor to listen to our students sing, say the pledge, recite the school proclamation and spend a few moments in meditation I want to share with you my thoughts about your children.

I have had the privilege of watching them grow, not only as young adults in art, but as young people who have grown as respectable citizens of our wonderful country. I have been truly blessed to be able to work here at this school this year, and am looking forward to many more years here, working with and getting to know your children better. Now that the end of the year is here and it’s almost time to say goodbye to our graduating Seniors, I want to wish them the best of luck in the future years, and I pray that life is good to them, that they are able to follow their dreams and accomplish many great things in life. For the rest of our students, have a fun, safe summer and I look forward to seeing you in August. May you have a restful, enjoyable break and return ready to learn.

  We have been working on a big project for the last couple of weeks. Our project is entitled “falling for foreshortening”. The kids traced their shoes and hands, then they have to reproduce the souls of their shoes and the palms of their hands.  When they finish with that they have the challenge of attaching a body (which is very long and skinny) to the hands and feet.

  We have had kids scattered all over the multi-purpose room, they have had their shoes off trying to draw the bottoms of them. Some of the kids have even fussed at their mom’s because the bottoms of their shoes are hard to draw.

  It has been a really fun project that has been a big challenge for all of them. I have enjoyed watching them work on this activity and see the creativity of you children.

  We are planning an art show for sometime in May so the kids can show off the work they have done. Parents thanks for having such wonderful, fun, talented artists, i have really enjoyed working with them and seeing the skills that they have blossom and grow. PARENTS YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The past couple of days in art we have been doing some projects with a hot iron and old crayons. We took some wax paper and broken pieces of crayons. We shaved them with a cheese grater and a potato peeler.  The kids have been saving their milk cartons so we can make a crayon candle. We have some milk cartons but not enough old crayons. If any of you have any old broken crayons that you would like to donate or would like to donate some new crayons we can recycle the old ones for the new.

We would really love to make these candles with the kids but we need your help in order to accomplish this project.

If you have any unwanted items that would be good for art projects or would like to help us with some projects please fell free to contact me at the school and we’ll make arrangements to do that. Thanks.

Greetings from the paint closet. The paint brushes are updating Mrs. Finder’s page because she is to busy cutting paper for the kids to draw on that she has no time to send out a special thanks to the wonder, kind, generous ALS family that donated the beautiful, colorful huge stack of scrap book paper ever donated to our school!!!

Thank you, thank you very much. If any other parents would like to donate paper to the cause of your child’s art experience we would welcome ANY donations. Any kind of paper would be super, (the kids like white it’s easier for them to add their own color and stuff. Any other art supplies would be welcome also (glue, glue sticks, play dough, or anything else you can think of)

We have over heard Mrs. Finder saying that she loves teaching your kids in art and has the best job in the school!!!!!

Art has held new challenges for our kids. We have been working on a lot of still life projects. In the past month we have spent time outside drawing the trees and the fire truck. In the art room we have been learning how to draw a bowl of apples and a prospective hallway.

I have been very impressed with the progress our young artists have made this year and the willingness they have to step up to the challenge and how they have stretched to accomplish the project set before them.

This month we will continue to work on our still life’s and maybe throw in a portrait of a person or an animal and see how well we can do that. We are going to learn how to do cylinders and 3-d shapes.

I received a phone call from Tim our trucker buddy, he said he is unable to make it to visit us this Friday, he was in New York headed for Pennsylvania, he was not sure when he would be able to come and visit, but said he would let us know as soon as he found out.

EAGLE’S AERIE’S WHAT A GREAT PLACE TO LEARN

Welcome back, I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a safe New Years Evening. School starts tomorrow and our school has many activities planned for the new year. We have the Clifford W. Hummer fireside on Friday evening, we will be doing activities around the campfire theme this week. We will be drawing and writing about our Christmas and new Years activities.

On January 30th is our Orienteering day, we will be doing activities later in the month,  drawing and learning about different types of maps and compasses. 

I received an Email from Tim our trucker buddy, he has plans to come visit our school on Friday February 6th. He will be bringing his truck for the kids to see, and will be talking to them about his job. We will be finishing our Christmas cards for Tim when we get back from vacation also. It is hard to believe that we are in our second semester of school.

I am excited to see the kids again and can’t wait to hear about their vacations. Have a safe and peaceful week.

Mrs. Finder

Tuesday November 24th was a fantastic day!!! The opportunity we had to share a tasteyThanksgiving lunch with our students and their families was incredable. As I look back over my life my most memorable Thanksgiving dinners were spend in large noisey crouds. This was probably the biggest croud that I have had lunch the priviledgeto eat lunch with.

The students and staff worked hard to put all the fixings together for lunch and I am grateful to all those who helped with providing us with an enjoyable meal.

Now that Thanksgiving is over and we are moving on to Christmas we only have 3 weeks left in the 2008 school year. I am looking forward to working with the kids on many Christmas projects. It is my hope that the kids will enjoy the projects as much as I do. 

An update on Tim our Trucker, he has sent us many post cards from his travels, most of them are from back east. It has been fun to see where he is traveling to and what he is hauling. We have sent Tim some letters and look forward to sending him more. We are also trying to set up a time when he is in town and we are at school so he can bring the truck and trailer to show the kids.

I hope you have a very merry Christmas and a safe New Year.

Mrs. Finder

  We have been busy getting ready for our Veteran’s Day celebration. We have been making Thank You cards for our service men and women. We will be celebrating our Veterans service by enjoying lunch with them.

  In art, we have a pen pal, he is a truck driver, named Tim. He lives here in Gilbert, and drives a refrigerated truck that holds produce. Tim’s postcard said he went to Bakersfield, CA and then to Lauel Md. with a load of ice cream.

  In  class, we are sending Tim notes asking him about his truck, load and his travels. On the letters to Tim, our kids are only putting their first name and grade, no age, last name or teacher’s names are on the letters. Our purpose in having a pen pal is to help the kids learn about different parts of the country, help them with their writing skills and learn about a new occupation, at the same time keeping the students safe and having fun learning.

  With the Renaissance fair fast approaching we will be doing some activities around the Renaissance era. We will also be doing some Thanksgiving activities. 

  I have enjoyed working with your students and have had fun watching them expand their artistic talents. One of their favorite things to do is free draw, drawing what ever they want. I have added a link to a school that I use to work at that has some really fun art activities on it. I hope your children enjoy it.

http://www2.mpsaz.org/stapley/parent-info/cybercats_cafe/special_education_links/

Have a wonderful day and thanks for sharing your young artists with our school.

Mrs. Finder