This post focuses on pied colouring pages of seven Easter Eggs to paint.

One little girl (G1), immediately settled at the table, grabbed her paint brush and started filling up her eggs with colours.  Being the Arty soul that I am, I joined her at the table.  I started filling my eggs with patterns.  Two other girls came over  (G2 and G3) and they wanted in on this Egg-painting Extravaganza.  I gladly gave up my paint brush and used a pencil to fill in the rest of my eggs.

Now, working with water paints sounds simple, but it provides ample opportunity to problem solve: too much water results in a wishy washy colour; if you don’t rinse the brush well enough, the colours blend in the tray; you are limited by the colours in the tray,… or are you?!

G1 filled about six pages of eggs with solid colours before she was brave enough to try some patterns and colour-blending.  But she kept counting the eggs she had left to colour, thus working on her numeracy skills, naturally, without being instructed to do so.  This nicely illustrates how young children use their daily “play” activities as natural learning opportunities, and how a knowledgeable educator can use natural conversations to encourage the process.  This girl probably filled about 70 eggs, increasing her exploration and discovery as she proceeded.  

G2 was quite meticulous in her methods.  She only used one page of seven eggs, but she immediately realized that she could mix her own colours by layering them directly on her paper.  She discovered this by simply observing what happened when she placed the different colours beside each other.  (The colours blend where they meet, making a new colour.)  I said, “I love making new colours! It’s super neat because you can make your very own colour and then it’s fun to give it a name.”  She agreed.  I gave her validity of her process and provided an opportunity for higher order thinking.  She also stated she was going to make a lighter colour.  I asked her, “How are you going to do this?”  She proceeded to choose a lighter colour to mix with a darker one. These special moments of wonder and awe come so often in young learners as they engage in art (and play).  It happens naturally.  An educator’s skill lies in providing the materials for the students.  The educator does this with intent.  Of course, the young learners explore things that were not even thought of by the educator!  - This is true, you know it is!  And, of course, recognizing these ample moments for rich conversation to push their thinking further.
Now, back to our learning situation… I used paper towel to wipe excess water off my brush and  G2 noticed this method that I had subtly modelled.  She began to do the same.  She independently took this line of thinking further; she decided that she could mix colours on the paper towel before applying the process to her paper.  The final discovery she made was that she could paint her finger and press it to her paper, making mini-eggs, with a finger-print pattern.  I told her that was a great idea and I immediately did the same to colour the rest of my eggs. (Recall, I gave up the third paintbrush to G3 because I am a sacrificing teacher… ha ha!)
Throughout the whole situation, G3, very quietly, observed me, and she went about using the pencil to try her own patterns to fill her eggs.  She also tried what G2 did with her careful blending and finger-painting techniques.  I provided gentle encouragement and reassurance, and she became increasing braver in proudly showing her work.

The Goal of Educators: to nurture the belief in our students that “I can do ANYthing!”
Here’s another nugget of fine advice from Bob Ross, 
“The secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it. Anything that you believe you can do strong enough, you can do. Anything. As long as you believe.”
Young children really do believe that  they can do anything - watch them play and listen to them tell a story!  They have this bold and fiery attitude until they are told differently; life will tell them differently; as a teacher, I aim to nurture and develop it.


Even the boys, whom had gravitated to the intentionally-chosen computer game, were learning turn-taking, which is very hard to do - nobody enjoys waiting, but 5 year olds really hate it!  But these are some topics for another day and another post:)

​Clever Teacher Move #1: Sneaky Transitions...
Me: “As we walk back to the classroom, I want you to think about 2 words: PIG and PARADE.  When we get back, I want you to look inside your brain at the picture those words made and SKETCH it on the paper on your desk, and, go!”
(We discussed the word SKETCH so that they would not be surprised and upset if they are not done after 5 minutes.)

Clever Teacher Move #2: Schema-collecting, sharing & oral communication...
We sat around the perimeter of the carpet with our pictures.  I chose students to tell one thing that they put in their sketches and anyone else who also put that item in their picture raised their own up to share.  (The option was there if students did not wish to share.) We could easily see the things that were the same or similar and the things that were different.  New ideas were also generated and the students were eager to go back to their sketches and add more.  I told them to hang on to those ideas because they were going to use them in a little while.

A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes is one of my favourite books and is a go-to item in my Supply Teacher Bag O’ Tricks!  It takes a silly idea and proceeds to build an argument based on the author’s opinion that a pig parade is a terrible idea. I’ve used this story for pure enjoyment, of course, but most often it leads off to work around opinion/persuasive writing, depending on the grade level.  And, yes, I do use this story for middle school kids, too, because it really does follow a pretty obvious formula that can be easily replicated by the students in their own work.

For this group, due to time limits, during reading we simply counted all of the authors reasons as to why he thought a pig parade is a terrible idea.  We also briefly discussed his explanations for those reasons.

Clever Teacher Move #4: Offer choice...
After reading:
A __________ parade is a _______________ idea because…..
I told the class that they were to complete the words in the sentence and then either use words, pictures, or both to finish the sentence.  In passing, I also suggested that they use interesting words, other than 'good' or 'bad' which provided an enrichment component for some (differentiation on the fly).  Knowing this particular bunch of students, I fully expected many pictures, but I also got many more words than I had expected to get.  I think it is because it was each student’s personal choice.  As the students handed in their masterpieces, I got further elaboration if required, but the pictures did a mighty fine job of depicting what they were meant to - quite the group of artists, I tell you!

​Gratitude Attitude Alert!  
One of the best things about my 10th year of occasional teaching is revisiting lessons.  With reflection, they adapt and change and become even better than before.  And knowing my students allows me to tailor the lessons for each class and/or grade level.

​That’s exactly what happened with this art lesson… On the phone, Dear Classroom Teacher said to me, “Do you remember that flower art lesson from a couple years ago? Do you want to do that with them?” Well, great, I thought.  I love teaching art and making art with children, but the lesson could be bettered.  In the original lesson, I showed them a sample (top right), demonstrated making the flower (as pictured on the left side of the top right photo below), and then the students went off to spend 3 minutes copying my picture and they were done and most of the pictures were the same.

Of course, the luxury of knowing my position days before allows advance preparation, so I went to my library for the DVD, and an Art idea book that had a sunflower picture that we could use as one source of inspiration. I found a handy Crayola resource chart (see above) depicting a couple of other styles of painting flowers.
The students were well into the animated version of Van Gogh's life, and unfortunately, due to time restraints, I had to cut it short so that we had time to explore the paints, as well as make our art.  We discussed Van Gogh's use of colour in regards to how the pictures made us feel and thought about how he felt while he was painting them.  I told them that since Dear Classroom Teacher's instructions were painting flowers that was the only rule (aside from filling the page).  Some of the kids came up to me and asked if they could do a video game flower... sure!... a monster flower? Sure! Field of flowers, potted flowers, single flowers, whatever! 

There was no brown.  Tragedy? Not at all.... they had to make their own by collaborating with the students in their groups, so they did, and we had many different shades of brown.  If we had more time, I would have given only primary colours, plus white and black, so that the students would have been forced (ha ha HA!) into more problem-solving than they did... and many of the students created their own colours in separate plastic cups.  While circulating, I asked them to name their colour creations as an impromptu enrichment activity, or asked them to explain how they came up with their colour.  Of course, a few students will always be finished sooner than I'd like, but most were engaged right up until clean up time!  Done one picture; make another! All good:) And, while I was not yet in the habit of documenting student work, I do have an updated flower picture for my files!


Clever Teacher Move #5: Preparation for Cleaning Up...
The fun of conducting painting art lessons with no sink in the room is Awesome, but luckily, with preparation, the kids were actually able to be fairly neat.  I used Word Work trays to put paint in egg cartons on, plus empty mixing containers, brushes, and even some brush alternatives (anything can be used as a paintbrush!)... We covered the desks with the big paper used earlier in a math lesson and I filled water containers to rinse the brushes out and provided paper towel to wipe excess paint off brushes before dipping in next colour.  And, I had to be a meanie and tell them "no painting on hands or finger painting because we have no sink access" and we simply had a short discussion on why I needed to make that rule... they knew; kids are smart when we give them time to think:)  Finding drying space was also quite a challenge... I so wish I took that picture.... there were paintings drying on every flat surface in the classroom.  It was Art-ly Awesome!

I hope you enjoyed:

• Clever Teacher Moves,
• If I Were a Classroom Teacher... Next Steps and Questioning, and
• Gratitude Attitude Alert!
• the concept of VGB - a Very Good Book (a very versatile read-aloud that is good across ALL grades; has enjoyment factor + matches curriculum expectations),  
• references to a Supply Teacher Bag O' Tricks,  
• the importance of Reflection To Guide Change, and
• a Bonus Clever Supply Teacher Move...

                                              ... And, it's all in a day's work!