Miracle Art Supplies!

Working on crayon resist paintings.

Yes, some of the art supplies I ordered have arrived! Let us rejoice in art world! Not the big order from the USA - those are floating around happily out there in the Atlantic, hopefully in a cargo hold. It was really rewarding and encouraging to see the boxes arrive in my room six weeks after they were ordered from a store in the same town where I live:-) You can imagine how long packages from the USA might take gauging from the above rate of delivery.

crayon resist up close.

I worked with the children today on a number of projects. The younger ones had a crayon resist giraffe painting to work on, and the older ones worked on making color wheels (5th grade) or mosaics and drawing exercises (middle school). 

Color wheels by 4th and 5th grade -their first time!

The seventh grade class remains difficult. I am seeing they do best if they have several drawing activities to replicate, but activities requiring choices and freedom of expression are much harder for them. Maybe it is because they have not had art at the school. Maybe it is cultural?


I sense I was given a clue as to what art is about here in Morocco. A fifth grade student brought in her sketchbook. In it were drawings like the one here. It reminds me of the ironwork on doors and windows as well as henna painting the ladies design to decorate their hands, arms and feet. I was so excited she shared it with me, and I asked her if I could take a picture of her sketchbook drawing.

Sketchbook drawing.

I hope to add some designs like this to my artwork. It's funny to talk about my own artwork....every free minute I am working on thinking about curriculum or setting up for the next class. If anyone thinks being an art teacher at an elementary/middle school is part time, they haven't really walked in an art teacher's shoes. Today, I started mounting artwork of the first graders. I had to hunt up a cutting board, but there was no space in the office with the good cutting board to lay out all the art. No matter; I'll work through it. I am slowly getting over problems more easily. Playing praise music softly all day in my room helped my spirits:-)




Night is falling on my main street in Morocco. It is time for sleep. It's been another full day on my adventure in Morocco.