SLO's and Floor Murals

Well, I finally figured it out.  I am going to have to do SLO's for four out of seven grade levels that I teach...blech!  That means I definitely have to do the  pre- and post assessments for those grade levels.

I think the one thing that I worry about with this whole SLO's thing, is what if I don't cover everything I plan to cover?  For example, with my sixth graders, say we end up not having enough time to cover Native American art at the end of the year due to field trips, assemblies and what have you.  If I included this culture in my pre-assessment, I still have to include them in my post assessment quiz...this is what worries me, at least for the 6th graders who will be taking an actual test for their assessments.  Which brings me to a question that I have been wondering about in other art rooms... Do you impose a deadline to art projects and how strict are you at keeping these deadlines?  


Sometimes I find it very easy to complete projects within a deadline, especially with the younger kids, but with the older kids, I tend to find it harder to make the deadlines, especially when they have more in depth projects.  Some of the kids work at lightning speed and still do a good job on their projects compared to others.  The last two years, I would allow 5th and 6th grade students to come down to my room during their study hall if I had it free to work on their projects, but I have heard through the grapevine that they may not even have a study hall this year due to new additions to their schedules!


On a happier note for me, I started painting the play house floor with my private lesson student today.  Her younger sister and mom also helped out.  We spent about an hour and a half drawing it out and painting the water aspects.  I left them with some homework to give all the rocks a base coat of paint and to paint the grout in between the rocks on the cobblestone path that can't be seen in these pictures below.

We plan on adding some koi fish into the pond, as well as some waterlilies and flowers.  We will also add some flowers in the green grassy area.  The only thing left to do is figure out how to create the effect of grass in the larger areas...I'm leaning towards one of four options:  (1)Just paint using different tints of green, (2) Paint in patches of grass here and there, especially around the flowers we will put in and the stones, or (3) Use a stamping set to stamp in some texture similar to grass, or (4) Leave it the way it is!  The grass is the only thing I'm stressing about...grass seems a little difficult for me to paint from a top view and be successful!  Anyone have any pointers?