Books, Art and Everyone's Favorite Catchy Tune!

I heard about this event and just had to share! The upcoming release of the new Disney Press children's book "It's a Small World" is being celebrated in style at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California. 

Starting Saturday the 17th, artwork will be displayed throughout the gallery all with the theme of global peace to celebrate the release of Disney Press' "It's a Small World", a children's book made using the Sherman Brothers' famous lyrics and illustrated by artist Joey Chou. The exhibit features artwork from 45 artists, including Chou, all taking their inspiration from the Disney Parks attraction.

The Opening Reception is Saturday the 17th from 7pm to 10pm and will not only have some of the artists present, but will feature a book signing with Joey Chou as well as a raffle with one of the prizes being a signed copy of "It's a Small World". Admission is free and refreshment will be served. Click Here to see the event page and to pre-order your copy of the book.

What a great theme for an art exhibit with some Disney flair! If it wasn't on the other side of the country, I would so be there. I told someone at the gallery this and they let me know that a preview of some of the artwork that would be at the show was available on their website! I looked at the pieces and was amazed at how much they reminded me of sitting on that boat in that classic attraction! The colors and the faces of the children featured in some of the pieces brought a smile to my face. Check out the preview by clicking this link. Let me know what you think about the pieces as well! Do you get the same familiar feeling as I do?

If you are in the Alhambra, California area, I would definitely urge you to stop by this exhibit. After the opening on Saturday night, the exhibit is available to view every day until October 3rd. Visit www.gallerynucleus.com for directions and other information regarding the gallery.

The Disucator: Creepy Creeps with Eerie Eyes- A Descriptive Writing Lesson

Do your students need to practice writing descriptively? Why not use the holiday to your advantage? Follow this fun lesson plan to have the children talk about their own Haunted Mansion.

Subject: Language Arts
Grade: Can be adapted from Kindergarten through 5th Grade
Estimated Time: 40 to 50 Minutes

Learning Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

• learn describing words
• be able to describe a haunted house
• write a paragraph about haunted houses

Materials:

• Haunted Mansion book and audio (can be found at http://www.mousevinyl.com/content/haunted-mansion-disneyland-records)
  
• Access to a computer and projector (if this is not available, the children can take turns watching it on the computer or the teacher can just read it out loud to them without showing them the pictures)

Procedure

1. Ask the students what they think a haunted house looks like. Ask them what a haunted house has in it and what makes it a haunted house.
2. Write the descriptive and key words the children say on the board
3. Show them the Haunted Mansion book
   
4. Have the children write for 15 to 20 minutes about a haunted house they visited or a haunted house they would make. Make sure they use some descriptive words that are on the board and were in the Haunted Mansion story. (For the younger grades, you can have them draw a picture of their haunted house instead of writing about it and the writing samples can be from a couple sentences to a paragraph or story. Allow the children to be creative, let the ones writing even draw a picture of their haunted mansion if there is time for them to do so.)
5. When they are done, allow the children time to share their writing/picture with the other students

This is a fun activity to work on children's writing skills and descriptive thinking, plus it gets them in the holiday spirit! Feel free to use the descriptive words that are given in other fun holiday ways, including a word search, crossword or even a Halloween themed Hangman game!

Thank you to www.mousevinyl.com for the awesome Haunted Mansion book and audio used in this lesson.

Check out www.teach-nology.com/web_tools for an excellent Word Search maker among other great teacher tools.

Until our next lesson, class dismissed! (And a Happy Halloween!)

My Sister, The Artist

So, my 16 year old sister is one of the best young artists that I know...and I am not just saying that because she is my sister, she really is great! She loves to draw copies of pictures that she has, especially characters. I told her I wanted to put a little section about her art on my blog and she said that she could draw some pictures for me to stick up here!

This is her first official blog drawing! It is a picture of Wall-e that I found on the internet and gave her to draw.
This is the Original Picture, found on the web:
This is the picture drawn by my Sister, Emily!


Pretty Good, huh? Just thought I would share that with you guys! She is going to work on a few more for my blog, so you will be seeing more of her for sure!