A while back I had stumbled upon the website of a teacher who did a "soup drive" along with her Pop Art project. I thought this was such a cool way to get students involved with art history and their community! I took this teacher's (I have no idea who she is) idea and ran with it. I created what is now called, "The Warhol Project". For the last month, students have been bringing in cans of food where we will be donating them to Channel One Food Bank in Rochester, MN. Our goal is 400 cans by the end of May. We already have 238!

As an artist, I love art. Art class was the one class I looked forward to everyday. However, I've had some students who say they don't like art because they think they don't have the talent. Each lesson I like to talk about the real-world skills students can learn from art. We recently started a comic strip project. Students learned that a lot of art is used to tell stories. From advertisements to animated movies, images can often speak louder than words. I think it's important for students to understand that what they are learning is like an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg is the project itself, but what matters even more are the skills and knowledge students acquire beneath the surface.

This semester I wanted to do something different for conferences. I wanted to stress the importance of art education to parents. I came up with the idea to create magnets with art-inspired sayings to give away as freebies to parents and students who stopped by. HOLY COW! They were a hit. I had some parents asking if they could take more than one. I hinted that these magnets would work really well holding student artworks on the fridge and this got a lot of enthusiasm.          

MAKING THE MAGNETS
These magnets were extremely inexpensive and quick to make. I bought the large glass stones from the dollar tree. You get approx. 35 of the stones for a $1. I only bought one bag, but I probably should have bought two since I ran out. I used scrapbook paper and printed sayings such as:

• "Artsy Fartsy"
  
• "Art is Important"
  
• "The world without art is just 'eh'"
  

I cut the paper to fit the flat side of the stone and used a glue stick to adhere the paper. Then I bought a cheap roll of magnetic tape for $3 and cut those into small squares to glue to the back. Each magnet took only a minute or two to make and they looked so fun sitting out together!