I am working on getting Linda Wood's Oaxacan animals shared. When you see this one image you will get an idea why it takes me so very long to get ideas posted. I admire the images of children and often wonder just what was going through their little heads. I can only wonder.... Here is one that clearly DID NOT follow the rules....the rules were to be painted with fanciful patterns and bright colors - you are all familiar with the look of Oaxacan animals. No one said a word when this natural colored Trojan Horse appeared with all of the colorful animals of his classmates. This child KNEW what was good art. Sometimes, if we always make them follow the rules - what new is there to learn? I touched upon this idea in a lesson from Jan Hillmer on "Valued" animals (smile - I do "value" fish). Sometimes, trust the judgment of a child. You might learn something. Appreciation of art comes first and foremost. If a child can not appreciate their own art, how can you get them to appreciate the work of others? See more Oaxacan animal on Linda Wood's site (continue to click ARTS until the picture of Linda comes up - but here is the Gallery)  More on these animals to come.....

Note from Linda on using the new St. John's School Site:

We are still working out kinks and details. I share the arts story page with MS and US. Sometimes when you click on Arts from our homepage, you will get into MS, sometimes LS at the moment. Go back to the home page and click again to get into the LS page if that happens. I hope both links are working...to the new media gallery and to the archives from our previous LS art gallery page. If you just want to see the media gallery where new projects from this year will be displayed, you can also click on the student button from any page and scroll down to the bottom of that page. There you will see photo portal. Click on "Open other galleries" at the very bottom of the page. Then, follow cues (Art, LS) to the media gallery. There you will see our photo gallery and new entries for 3rd grade storytellers and the 5th Oaxacan animals. I am trying to make this new gallery work for all. It's going to be quite a task to transfer from the old to the new. (Note from Judy - I like what I see so far!)