Continuing at the Begining

Whoa, it's been awhile...I almost forgot how much I like blogging!  About this time every year I eagerly look forward to catching up on all the great art ed blogs I follow.  I really love reading about how all the wonderful, creative art teachers out there setup their classrooms and see all the new tweaks and changes they are making to their rooms and their teaching. It's inspiring (and insightful) when we get to delve into each others practices and learn from others new and different ways to do things.  Sometimes something as simple as a saying or signal can give us insight into a more effective way to change our own practices.

For the past 3 weeks I've been listening to the 'Everyday Art Room' podcast from the Art of Ed.  The always inspiring Cassie Stephens authors and narrates the podcasts and its REALLY impressive.  Very clear, concise, and organized, the first 3 episodes have focused on routines, rules, and consequences and I highly recommend checking it out, even if your a veteran teacher. This is my 10th year teaching and I still found her information relevant and thought-provoking.

Listening to her podcast made me re-think my own practices and, as I do every year, I am trying a few little changes in my setup and approach, forever striving to find what works most successfully for me and my students.

This year I'm all about mindfulness. After having a tough last year, I'm going to try my best to stay organized, positive, and really focus on making my classroom as much of a community as I can. 

Good luck to everyone starting soon and to all of you who have already gone back!
  

Conference Day Ideas

It's so infrequent that I get the opportunity to just sit down with my peers and discuss art. Today, was our superintendents conference day and I have the pleasure of being able to sit with two of my elementary art teacher and colleagues and just discuss teaching art. We talked about everything from handwashing procedures to accommodating students with special needs, lesson materials, power points and notebook software we've created, and even just vent to one another about the day-to-day challenges of being an art teacher. I can't tell you how enjoyable it was to just have some downtime quote with my peers. Sometimes, just having the time to talk is more beneficial than a whole days worth of structured Professional development. Here are a few pictures I snapped with my iPad of some of the things we discussed.

Before pictures above are a fifth-grade Zentangle relief style project. The project is started with some simple wavy lines, or you could say, "taking lines for a walk". You then discuss with the children exactly what is Zentangle is in the way patterns are created. Some children are going to need more coaching in this than others. You also have to really explain to them that patterns are everywhere and having an activity like a pattern search, or having them walk around the classroom and observe and all the different the different patterns all around them, would also help to inspire them. After that they fill in the loops that they've created with their overlapping lines with the  zentangles using a fine point or extra fine point sharpie, and then color them. Lastly, they decide where they're going to cut their drawings in order to make parts pop up and then glue them onto a rigid backing.  Another good tip that was shared with us were the new adult coloring books that you see everywhere nowadays. This particular  teacher picked hers up in the dollar store and passed a few books around so the students could use the images as inspiration

This project above, is a Debuffet inspired card stock sculpture using X-Acto knives and sharpie markers with Elmers glue. This project was completed by 6/7 and 8th graders.

The two above adorable pictures are pinch pot birds made from clay and raffia tied nests. I even love the red and turquoise glazes she used on the bird.

This project is one of the first project of the year this teacher teaches in kindergarten. It's based on the idea of "taking online for a walk".  The students paint simple freeform lines with a chubby brush on the first day and then on the second day using, tempera cakes, the students get a slightly smaller brush, choose three colors for unity, and fill in their lines with the paints. On the third day, the children can go back in with an even smaller paintbrush and add different patterns. This is a great lesson that teaches line, shape, color, and helps the kindergarten students develop their fine motor skills with different sized paintbrushes. It also helps to teach them the routines of handwashing, brush washing, and how to paint in general.

 

This artwork was done by first grade. It uses one Joam Miro as inspiration for the design. And tempera cakes along with oil pastel to fill-in.

 This is a great all-purpose are rubric that was posted in her classroom.

 Lastly, the image below I snapped because I absolutely love the Mondrian inspired deer head. This wasn't a project, but was something she picked up through the website Zulily, which occasionally apparently has these odd off 3D cardboard puzzles that are inspired by artists. At the time, she had some middle school student put it together and said that it only took them about 20 minutes which is pretty awesome considering how complex it looks!

Something shiny in the spirit of the holidays

This has nothing to do with the holidays, but it is shiny!  This was an enormous work of art that my 2 art teacher colleagues and I collaborated on with our elementary art students for a local recycled art contest we all participate in every year.  At the end of the contest and exhibit the projects usually get scrapped, which really is a shame considering the amount of time and planning that goes into them.  So I was pleasantly surprised to see this hanging in the administrative building of my district the other day.  I'm glad it's getting  a little more exhibition time!

In the spirit of ninja turtles

 Yesterday I saw the new teenage mutant ninja turtle movie (yes, yes, I'm a kid trapped in a 34 year old's body), and while watching I couldn't help but get a little nostalgic.  To think that over 20 years later the kids in MY classes would be wearing the same ninja turtle t-shirts and carrying the same ninja turtle backpacks and lunchboxes that my brother and I did as kids.  Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, my brother and I used to use the tin and then plastic, lunch "boxes" and nowadays they're all fabric, but I digress.....Anywho, in the spirit of ninja turtles, I decided to post a few turtle-themed art projects.  Enjoy!

Ceramic Turtles 

From the blogs "Art Education Daily", "Chin Colle", "Oogly"

Aboriginal Style Turtle-Dot Paintings

Sources Unknown

 Black Glue and Chalk Pastel Turtles

From the blog "Princess Artypants"

Close-up Turtle with frame 

Source unknown

Foil Embossed Turtles on painted paper backgrounds

From the blog "Deep Space Sparkle"

Camouflage Turtles with chalk pastels and oil pastel outline

From the blog "Artisan des Arts"

 Line Design Turtles

From Pinterest and the blog "First Grade Schoolhouse"

Oil Pastel and Watercolor Resist Turtles (with salt)

Two images are from the blogs "Kim & Karen: 2 Soul Sisters" and "The Art Teacher's Closet"

 

 

 

Art Supplies for the New Year

In response to a post about art supplies from Cassie Stehphens, I thought I'd post a few things I particularly like to order for my students. 

Here's a link to her post: 

 "In the Art Room: The Dreaded Art Supply Order"

Now, even though I'll be missing the first two months of this school year, I placed my supply order some time in early May.  Let me just tell you that I LOVE planning my supplies, browsing through the catalog and deciding which materials I'm going to re-order, scrap, or try out.  For me, the process is like Christmas, and I'm equally delighted when I get my supplies shipped to me and I walk into an art room filled with boxes of "goodies". In all likelihood, I spend too much time fussing over which supplies I'm going to order for the year, but I just can't help it, it's only done once a year, so its gotta be done right!

I keep a master binder that has everything I need for the year in it.  Part of the binder is sectioned off for supplies, and throughout the year, I write down the things that have been recommended to me, that I've read about or seen at conferences or in magazines, or items that are new that I particularly like or dislike.  I also write down the supplies that are almost used up so that by the end of the year I'm not running around inventorying everything in the room frantically trying to make sure I don't forget or miss anything.  I also have a word document that I've created to record all the supplies that I've ordered.

Here's a snapshot of how I organize what I order.  It's divided into 10 categories: 

Paints/Paint Accessories/Brushes
Paper/Construction Paper
Office Supplies/Organization/Furniture
Drawing
Printmaking
Ceramics
Sculpture/3D/Tooling/Weaving
Center Items/Teacher Resources
Miscellaneous/ Crafts
Ideas for Next Year

The list helps me inventory the items after they get shipped to me in August so I make sure that I've received everything I've ordered. Now, onto the good part! 

I'm always trying new things,  I have a few "staple" items that get ordered every year but probably about half of my order changes year to year based on the projects I plan on teaching and new techniques/materials I want to try with the kids. Here are some of the staples: 


Ticonderoga # 2 pencils.  My opinion?  Don't skimp on the quality of the pencils you use.  I've ordered "School Specialty" brand and they sharpen terribly and the point breaks easily.  I've gone through twice as many of the cheapie pencils as the good ones. So you end up not saving money in the long run. 

 Blick Essentials Tempera Paint (and if you read Cassie's post...Yessss, I too am glad they dropped the dick, lol)
I used to use Crayola brand, and found that these are just as good, if not better, and are 1/3 the price!  I order quart size. I find that the gallon pumps waste a lot once you get to the very bottom and I can't possible lug around all those gallons of paint!

Crayola Watercolor Paints  
There's always been a debate, Prang vs. Crayola...I've found them to be equally good, I just had some crayola already in my room when I started working there, so I stuck with em'.  Oh and also, ORDER EXTRA YELLOW REFILLS (you'll need them!)

Mr. Sketch UNSCENTED Markers: Don't get scented unless you want all your kiddos to walk out with colored dots on their nose, either that or spend more time sniffing them and discussing  their odors than actually coloring with them.  Oh and by the by, has anyone else noticed that they stopped making the super helpful plastic trays they used to come in! Super annoying! I really liked those trays. Now the ones I have left are all duck taped up!


Colored Sharpies (24 color pack) Some art teachers don't feel comfortable letting children use Sharpies, but I've found if you take some time and go over the rules for using them that you won't have a problem.  Plus, you can't beat the precision and colors you get from them.  Just an fyi though, if you're sensitive to smells, don't use these bad boys on a hot days, you'll want to pass out!



Amaco "25m" White Art Clay. It's durable,is light beige when "green", has no grog, stays moist pretty long for clay, and fires to an almost pure white.  It's really receptive to all sorts of glazes as well. It's a must. 

Pinky Erasers  I believe these are made using latex so be aware of kids that have latex allergies.  That being said, I've been teaching for six years and have yet to have a student with an allergic reaction to them.Also, the cheap ones work just as well as the "Pearl Pink" name brand.

Tru-Ray Construction Paper And Sunworks Pacon  Tru-Ray really is the best but hear me out on this...I have over 600 children to teach and if I ordered Tru-Ray brand I'd blow my entire budget.  Sooooo, I order blue and black of the good brand because when blue and black paper fade they just look awful, and Pacon for the rest.  Yes they fade, but I'd rather that then cut out other supplies elsewhere. Oh, I also order all my construction paper in 18x24, I can always cut it down, but I can't make it any bigger.

Sax brand Extra White Sulphite Drawing Paper (500 sheet reams of 18x24) I order, no joke, about 6 reams of this stuff, it's great for ALL types of media and considering the quality and quantity, well worth it!



Yikes this turned into a longer post than I thought it'd be, so tomorrow I'll post my favorite non-essential supplies then. 

Loved it so much I had to share it

"Never let anyone define what you are capable of by using parameters that don't apply to you."
-Chuck Close

I found this video from the blog Art is Basic in her post "5 Fabulous Things".  The video is part of a series of entitled "Notes to Self" featured on the news show 'CBS This Morning'. The person they were featuring was artist Chuck Close.  If you are familiar with Chuck Close then you already know what an amazing and inspiring artist he is and how his love of art has given him the strength to overcome obstacles in his life that could easily stop most people in their tracks.  I had originally learned about Chuck Close from my high school art teacher in 12th grade.  Two years ago (12 years after graduating high school) I had the good fortune of attending the NAEA conference in NYC where he was a keynote speaker (along with another of my favorite artists Janine Antoni).  His words and philosophy on art-making are profound and honest.  This short video is chock-full of quote worthy mantras to not only use as artists and art teachers, but also as words to live by.  I love Chuck Close!

Youtube.com: "CBS This Morning: Artist Chuck Close Writes Note to Younger Self"

Pumpkins

 

 (Above: 1st Grade Chalk Pastel Pumpkins)

Here are a few pumpkin themed lessons I've come across online. I've lost most of the source sites for them so if one of these is your lessons, leave me a post and I'll add a link to your site. 
. Enjoy!

Deep Space Sparkle

Silhouettes

I love this decorating idea!!

The Crafty Crow

Vivid Layers

There's a Dragon in My Art Room