Wednesday, April 15, 2015

A Day in the Life of Catawba Trail Elementary School art teacher Nichole Luckie recap

Catawba Trail Elementary School art teacher Ms. Luckie has a busy day planned for her classes on Wednesday, April 8, 2015.

First up, fifth grade. They arrive and get right to work finishing up clay coil pots.

"When you add a new coil remember to what?" she asks the class. "Scratch and attach," she tells the students referring to a method of shaping clay.

Next, third graders get to work molding lumps of clay into turtles with impressive results. Ms. Luckie circulates through the light-filled room helping students shape first the base and later head and legs of the reptiles.

Fourth graders arrive next and begin putting the finishing touches on their cupcakes. They've even used silicone cupcake wrappers to give the pieces texture. After polishing off the sweets, many students begin to work on their portfolios for the remainder of the class.

After lunch, Ms. Luckie spends the first few minutes with her kindergarten class refreshing their memories about collages and the art of Eric Carle. They gather around a table and watch her paint watercolor designs and then use salt to create texture. Then it was off to their respective tables to create their own Eric Carle-inspired works of art.

In the next class, second graders experimented with bright colors as they painted Dr. Seus's "The Lorax" inspired truffala trees.

"How did you get so good at this?" asked a student peering over Ms. Luckie's shoulder at her bright and whimsical trees.

"I've had lots of practice," she answered with a smile.

Later in the class, Ms. Luckie carefully hands each student the owls they made in a previous class.

And just like that the day is over. Ms. Luckie is substituting in the car-rider line today. Catawba Trail uses Kid Gopher, a system that uses cards and scanners to que students for pickup.

Ms. Luckie was inspired to become a teacher thanks to Ms. Casey, an "amazing" art teacher she had at Ridge View High School.

"The experience I had with her was so great that I wanted to give that to other students," Ms. Luckie said. "I love being able to spark creativity and a love of art in my students. Seeing them get excited about art makes all the hard work worthwhile."

Ms. Casey has since retired, but Ms. Luckie's students are certainly reaping the benefits.

Below is Ms. Luckie's day in photos. Visit our A Day in the Life album on Flickr to see more!






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