Welcome Back

Dear Parents,

Welcome back everyone for the 2013-2014 school year.  I am looking forward to having your child in art class this year and seeing his/her creativity blossom.  In order to ensure that your child is successful in art class, we have 5 rules that are expected to be followed.

1.            Be Kind.

2.            Be a good listener.

3.            Give your best effort.

4.            Take care of supplies.

5.            Help with clean up.

Behavior will be monitored through a clip chart system.  Students will be reinforced for good behavior.  Any negative behaviors that do not follow the guidelines above will result in a verbal warning, loss of art class privileges, loss of recess time, and/or a note sent home.  If your child brings home a behavior note, it needs to be signed and returned the next day.   These expectations will be discussed during the first art class.  Please also review the rules above with your child so that we can work together to make Art a positive experience for your child.

In the art room, we will be using all sorts of supplies and even recycling materials to create something new.  I have included a wish list below of items that I am looking for to use for projects throughout the year.   If you wish to donate anything, you may send the supplies with your child to school:

Items:

Brown paper lunch bags

Paper plates (not Styrofoam)

CLEAN Styrofoam meat and fruit trays

CLEAN and empty 2-quart paperboard orange juice containers 
(almond milk also comes in this type of container)

Jean pockets from old jeans

Popsicle sticks

              Please check back regularly on this blog site to learn about what your child is doing in class.  Encourage your child to talk about what he/she is learning in art class, which artists we are studying, and about his/her own artwork.   Students will be bringing home artwork throughout the year, and we will also have a school-wide art show on May 8 showcasing all of the students’ work.  I will send out more information regarding the art show as the time draws closer.  Thank you for your support. Together, we can make this a terrific experience!  If you ever need to reach me you can email me at aback@tricreek.k12.in.us.

                                                                                          Thanks,

                                                                                                           

                                                                                          Miss Back

                                                                                          Art Teacher

Zanzibar and Naivasha

I have to tell you about the fabulous end to my trip here in Africa.  Last week I was in Naivasha volunteering at Life Beads Kenya.  I got to work with men and women who are making art products to earn a living.  I stayed with Minalyn, the woman who started the program, and her family.  I learned how to make various different types of jewelry.  The people there were so nice and welcoming.  I even got to teach English one day to women from the community.  There was one lady who was over 90 years old!  I helped her practice writing her letters.  I was amazed at her determination despite her age.

This past week I flew to Zanzibar, which is an island off the coast of Tanzania.  It was beautiful and very hot!  The island is full of history.  The buildings in the main town are all white washed old buildings with big wooden doors that are carved with lovely designs.  I purchased a small wooden carving of a door that I will show you in class.

Unfortunately, the island was once used as a place for slave trading to countries in the Middle East.  I was able to see different places around the island that were used to keep slaves.  There is a sculptural memorial in the middle of Stone Town to remember those who were victims of the slave trade.

I spent one day learning how to make a batik tablecloth using stamps.  Said, the man who ran this program, took us to his workshop.  His family prepared delicious food for us using a solar oven.  The oven looks like a big metal flying saucer.  It is kept outside, and it uses the sun to heat up instead of electricity.  I also got to try weaving on a large loom, which is much harder than it looks.  I did manage to weave a small bookmark using grass fibers from a palm tree.

During the rest of my time in Zanzibar I went snorkeling, saw giant tortoises, visited other art cooperatives, visited palace ruins from a former Sultan's family, and went bike riding around the island.  I also went on a Spice Tour where I learned about different spices that are grown around the island as well as fruits.  Now I know all about where my vanilla, nutmeg, and cardamom come from.  One of my favorite things about Zanzibar is the juice.  They have many different juices: passion fruit, mango, watermelon with cucumber, pineapple, etc. And all of them are made fresh.  I also ate in a really interesting restaurant where everyone had to take off their shoes.  The floors were covered with grass mats, and the tables were very low to the ground so that we could sit on the floor to eat. Every night in Zanzibar I had to sleep under a mosquito net to make sure that I don't get malaria.  There are lots of mosquitos there!

I am returning to the U.S. soon.  I look forward to seeing all of you back at school in 2 weeks.

Kwaheri! (Bye)

Learning About Art

I have gotten to see several interesting art making workshops around Nairobi.  My favorite is Amani Ya Juu.  They were using huge wooden stamps with interesting designs that they dipped into wax to create designs on fabric.  There are about 80 women working here making all kinds of bags, purses, and wall hangings out of fabric.  I purchased a wall hanging of Africa that I will show you when I come back to school.  I also went to see another place where they make paper bags for companies.  This place was in another slum called Kawangware.  They use huge rolls of brown paper and print company logos on the bag.  Then they glue the bags together and send them to various companies.  Have you ever looked at your paper grocery bag from Stracks and wondered how it was printed?  I'm sure those bags are probably made in big factories.  But it was very interesting to see this process happening by hand.

I also visited another place called Beacon of Hope, and they train people to create beautiful weavings.  They use huge looms to weave on.  They even dye their own wool there to use for weaving.

Tomorrow I am going to Naivasha for most of the week.  I will take a matatu to get there.  A matatu is a 14 passenger van that is usually stuffed past capacity with people.  Naivasha is in the Rift Valley of Kenya.  There is a huge lake there with many birds.  I will staying at Life Beads Kenya and volunteering my time there.  They are an organization that creates bags and jewelry and helps to give people jobs.  I am excited because I think I am going to get to help them make items, which means I get to spend time making art.  I am looking forward to telling you about my time there.

Delivering the Letters

I have delivered the letters that you wrote to the kids in Kenya.  They were so excited to read them!  They kept looking at your pictures and reading each other's cards.  They have written some letters back to you as well.  It was a great opportunity for them to practice their English.  They were very happy to get to draw with markers and crayons.  Most kids here in the slums rarely use any kind of art supplies, so they really enjoyed being able to draw.  Yesterday I painted with the kids too.  We did a lesson from the book Only One You.  The book is about being a good friend.  The kids painted rocks that looked like fish (called samaki in Swahili).  I am also going to read this book to all of you during Character Ed. when we start back to school in August.  Isn't it pretty sweet that the kids in Africa are doing the same thing that you'll be doing?

My Swahili is improving.  Ninajaribu (I am trying).  This is my last week of Swahili class, so I am trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible.  On Thursday, I am going to visit a place called Amani Ya Juu. At this place they create bags, purses, and other artwork from beautiful fabric.  They also stamp and decorate the fabric using  the process of batik.  If you were in 4th grade this past year, you may remember when we also made batik.  I am very excited to go see what everyone is making there.

Last week I learned to make samosa.  Samosa is an Indian food that is triangular shaped dough stuffed with meat or lentils and spices.  They were delicious.  I often buy them from a lady who sells them on the side of the road near where I stay.  As a treat, I also sometimes have a purple Fanta...the flavor is called black currant.  It tastes like grape Kool-Aid.  In Kenya, much of the soda comes in glass bottles.  You have to pay a small deposit of money for the bottle and then when you return the bottle they give you your money back.  This is how they get people to recycle.  It is kind of like how you pay a quarter for your cart at Aldi and then get the quarter back when you return the cart.

Ostrich Ride

Today I had the opportunity to ride an ostrich!  Have you seen pictures of ostriches?  They are the very big birds that cannot fly, and they have long necks.  I went to an ostrich farm outside of Nairobi.  The workers there helped me up onto the ostrich and I got to ride it around the pen.  It was a very bumpy and crazy ride.  Fortunately the Kenyans were helping lead the ostrich around.  Otherwise I think I might have fallen off!

I have been continuing to take my Swahili classes.  The Kenyans I meet seem to be quite amazed about the Swahili that I speak.  Yesterday I stopped along the road where some people were playing checkers.  They invited me to play.  And so I sat down and played.  Everyone was laughing at seeing an American girl playing checkers on the side of the road.  I didn't win, but it was fun.

This week I was very immersed in Kenyan culture when I had to do my laundry.  In Kenyan washing machines are very rare.  People typically wash clothes by hand in a basin.  It is a very time-consuming and tiring task.  But I did have clean clothes when I finished.

I have been eating lots of fresh mangoes, pineapples, and avacados.  Yesterday, the groundskeeper at my Swahili school climbed up in a tree to pick me guava fruits.  I am really excited to try them but have to wait for them to get ripe. 

Hope you are having a great summer.

A Hot Air Balloon Ride

Hello to everyone.  Today I have returned from Masai Mara, which is a wildlife park in Kenya close to the Tanzanian border.  I have been there for the past 3 days, where I got to take part in some of the most incredible things I have ever experienced.  I left on Friday and had to travel on some very bumpy dirt roads for about 5 hours to get there.  But the beautiful scenery, including mountains, trees, fields of wheat and corn, and animals along the way, made the trip worthwhile.  The road is paved for about half the trip, and then it turns to dirt.  As we neared closer to the park, zebras and gazelle would walk in front of or past our car.  It is truly amazing to see all these creatures in real life just passing by your car. 

After arriving at Masai Mara, I took a safari into the park.  Basically, the way it works is that there is a driver who takes you in a van and drives around to find various animals.  The top of the van is open, so you can stand up and look out to see the animals better.  We saw many animals including giraffes, zebras, gazelle, beautiful birds, ostriches, wildbeasts, lions, antelope, monkeys, and baboons.  One of the coolest things was when we saw a cheetah that had climbed up on top of another safari van.  It sat on top of the van right next to the people for a very long time.  In fact, there were 2 small kids so close that they could have reached out and touched the cheetah.

My favorite part of the trip though, was when I got to go on a hot air balloon ride.  I had to wake up at 4 a.m. and was taken on a long trip out into the middle of the park.  From there, they launched the hot air balloons.  When they launch the balloons, the basket part starts out sitting on the side.  So that means I had to lie on my back for take off.  Then as the balloon went up in the sky, the basket slowly tipped forward till I was standing upright.  They use a gas to get the balloon to rise up into the sky.  There were about 12 other people in the balloon with me.  It was a breathtaking sight when we were in the air.  I could see all kinds of animals in the grass below--even a porcupine.  When the balloon ride was over, we landed in the middle of the game park and had breakfast right out in the middle of all the animals.   

At night I slept in a semi-permanent tent that even had a bathroom in the back of it.  We only had electricity in the tent from about 6-10 p.m. and then again from 6-8 a.m.  The whole camp is powered by solar energy.  This morning I took one more trip into the park.  This time we saw a family of 15 lions eating a fresh catch of animal meat.  I also met many Masai people who live near the park.  They are famous for wearing bright red colors, which contrast with the landscape.  They wear beautiful beaded necklaces and shoes made of car tires. I can't wait to show you pictures of the animals and the people when school begins.

Hello From Kenya

Hello to all my students.  I am blogging to you from Kenya, Africa, where I am spending the summer here through a Lilly Endowment Grant funded program.  I hope you are enjoying your summer.  Right now in Kenya, it is actually pretty cold because the city of Nairobi sits at a very high altitude, and it is the cold season.  It feels more like the autumn weather we have at home.  I have been walking around wearing a scarf and sweater everyday.  It has rained a lot this week too.

While I am here, I am taking Swahili language classes.  Most people in Kenya speak 3 languages: Kiswahili, English, and a tribal language.  Often times people will mix the languages together in the same sentence.  So, even though people speak English, it is very helpful to learn Swahili so that I can understand what they are saying.  Every morning I take language classes.  My teachers are very nice, but learning the language is challenging for me.  Here is something I have learned to say: Habari?  Naitwa Miss Back.  Natoka merikani.  Ninapenda chai.  (The translation is Hi, how are you?  My name is Miss Back.  I am from America.  I like chai tea. 

In the afternoons, I am able to visit and learn about different art techniques that people are using to create products in Kenya.  The other day I visited a place where they take cow bones and sand them down to make beads.  They then paint them with wax and dye them with brown color to make brown and white beads.  Then they make them into beautiful necklaces and bracelets.

You may wonder what kinds of things people eat here.  Last night, I had matoke, which is fried/mashed plantains.  A plantain is kind of like a banana except that the peel always stays green, and you cannot eat them raw.  We ate them with a tomato and onion sauce.  It was delicious!

Tomorrow I leave the city to go on a safari in Masai Mara.  I will get to see lots of animals.  I will write more about it when I return.  Kwaheri, which means "bye."