Our Gecko has a Name!

After a week of students submitting creative, art-related names for our gecko and a week of voting on the top 5, our gecko finally has a name.

Vincent Van Geckgogh!

This creative name combines the name of the animal with the name of the famous, post-impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh. His most famous painting is Starry Night.

New Addition to the Art Room

Starting today, Monday September 19, the art room has a class pet! Our new friend is a crested ghecko. Crested gheckos are originally from a small island called New Caledonia. This island is in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. If you are looking for it on the world map, find the continent/country Australia and look to the right. Crested Gheckos were thought to be extinct until 1994 when they were rediscovered on the Isle of Pines, and now they have become a popular pet.

There are several different types of gheckos. Ours is called a crested ghecko because of the ridge that runs from above e

ach eye, down to its tail. They kind of make it look like it has eyelashes. Gheckos like to climb and can jump short distances. In the wild, they eat insects and fruit. We will be feeding ours a mix made from dried fruit, and sometimes we will put some crickets in the cage for a yummy treat.

This week everyone will meet our new friend and learn a little bit about it. Every student will also have a chance to submit a name for our ghecko. All name ideas should be art related, so research some art terms, artists or artwork and find something that would make a cool name for our class pet. Our ghecko is too young to tell whether it is a boy or a girl, so you can look for names that would work for both.

I hope everyone will be excited to meet our new friend, and it will be a source of excitement and inspiration in our art room.

Photograph taken from gheckoforums.net

Holiday Program Set Design

Its that time again! Time to start gearing up and getting ready for the annual Banks Road Elementary Holiday Program!

Each year, fourth and fifth graders have not only participated in the program by putting on a wonderful show during school for all students and in the evening for friends and family, but they have also been an important part in the creation of the set itself.

This coming week, I will provide fourth and fifth grade students with information about this year's opportunities to help out with the set. (Don't worry, younger students, you'll get your chance when you're in fourth and fifth grade.) There will be a sign up sheet on my door for students that are interested in participating. Sign up will end on Wednesday, September 21st.

We will work on Wednesday afternoons from 4 until 5:30pm starting at the end of September, throughout October, and ending in early November. Due to the great number of students interested in the past, it is most likely that students will be assigned one day to participate. Permission slips will be sent home with these students and should be returned before the student's scheduled work time.

Mr. Capps, our music teacher, will be sending home ways for all students K through 5 to help with our holiday program through donation of items for set, costumes, etc. Keep a look out for that in your Friday Folders.

Click Here if you would like to sign up to donate.

I look forward to getting started on this year's set!!!