Getting Ready for MY First Day!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been enjoying life! I've been having a wonderful summer with my husband and four kids, reorganizing and renovating our home (yay! new bathroom!) camping, attending an online art conference and reading all sorts of non-scholarly books.

But, it's time to get serious. It's time to get ready for MY FIRST CLASSROOM! Yippee!! I'll be teaching 7th and 8th grade part-time at Amherst Middle School. I have a very large classroom and I am taking over for an art teacher that was VERY neat. The room was like a blank canvas and many of us know what it is like to sit staring a blank canvas: Blink. Blink. What am I going to DO?

Well. I just took a step and began. I decided the pressure was off to get my room 100% "DONE" (as if it ever would be!) for the first day of school. I feel as though the classroom is a very organic space where there are certain things that are constant (signs for where materials are located, the elements and principles bulletin board, the standards/competencies board), but I need to be able to have places to display student work and visuals and inspiration that pertain to what they are working on. So, I got a couple of the constants done and today I'm labeling my supply cabinets.

Here's are some of the highlights:

My Teacher Zone

Teacher Zone: I covered the old metal desk with contact paper. I think it needs a little something in the center or some inspirational art quotes on it...I'll work on that. My computer hasn't been set up, but will be soon. In the bookcase to the side, I have a couple of gallons of water (I try to drink a lot of water during the day) and a teacher toolbox for my supplies. I got the printables for the teacher toolbox on TeachersPayTeahcers--love the imagery!

Labels by Teach Create Motivate

The banner above the desk was done using the freebies I got at the Art of Ed Online Teacher Conference I attended this summer. This is NOT my idea, but rather a copy of an image I saw on Pinterest. I loved it and knew it would be perfect for the students at my school since we are using the Courage to Care Program and I believe that courage can come in many forms and I truly believe that it takes an amazing amount of courage to be yourself and take chances (i.e. be creative in middle school). 

Standards/Competencies Area: I am a BIG proponent of the standards/competencies in the classroom. I want EVERYONE to know what they are--parents, students, community members, etc. So, here's the place that I have them for everyone to see. I have the NH State Standards, the National Visual Arts Standards, and the strategic plan that our district is working on (this is an important document for our district and really relates to everything we do in our classrooms and as a district).

Those little art images are postcards I got a while back from IKEA. I plan to keep this up all year.

Standards/Competencies Board

Elements/Principles Bulletin Board: OK, as a graphic designer, I love the elements and principles and feel they need to be displayed and referred often. I saw this great bulletin board idea on the interweb and then saw these great posters on Teachers Pay Teachers by Mrs. Nguyen and knew they would work perfectly! The painting in the center is from Goodwill--I just really liked the colors and the op-art look of it. I just pinned these up and haven't committed to the arrangement yet. But I will need to soon! I plan to keep this up all year.

Elements/Principles Board

I'll post more pictures of the room soon, I'm going in today (with some of my kids!!), so we'll see what we get done. This is probably my last classroom-focused day and the rest of my prep I'll do at home on my computer...

Have a wonderful start to YOUR school year!!

6th Grade Greek Pottery (Traditional and Modern)

While I was doing my long term substitute teaching at Amherst Middle School last spring, I wanted to tie a couple of art lessons to what the students were learning in their other courses. I had missed the Egyptian unit in Social Studies (they covered that before my time), but I was there for their study of ancient Greece. I thought they might like to learn about ancient pottery.

Look at this pot design-how cool is this?!

 I gave them a presentation on Greek pottery (a PowerPoint presentation that introduced styles such as Geometric, Red Figure, Black Figure and White Ground) and I found it helpful to give the students a double-sided graphic organizer that would help them take notes on the presentation. After my presentation, I left the following link open for the students to play around with: Greek Pot Painter from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. It's an interactive website the students can use to learn more about Greek Pottery.

This double-sided graphic organizer followed my talk
exactly and was easy for the students to fill out
as I went through the slide show.

Students then created two pot designs: one traditional Greek pottery design using traditional pot shapes and imagery and another pot design using a modern pot shape and imagery. The students had lots of fun designing both!

I then showed them how to use oil pastels and watered down tempera paint to make their own scratch boards. When the scratch boards were dry, students could choose to scratch one of their designs into the scratchboard (this is loosely based on sgraffito where potters scratch designs into colored slip). The great thing about doing this project is that the 6th graders took a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts during this time and saw actual Greek pottery on display--they thought that was so cool!

These came out so neat--definitely a keeper!

Here's our Greek Cupboard full of wonderful Greek pottery!

The pot on the right was inspired by Minoan Pottery
(I showed the students the famous Octopus pottery from that region) 

I like how this pot has multiple layers of imagery.

These pots have some unique shapes and designs inspired by nature.

The middle pot shows an alien abduction! So clever!

Some students worked very hard to create detailed imagery
depicting soldiers or mythological beings and then painstakingly
scratched their designs onto the boards. So great!

My SEUSS-ical Bulletin Board

Here's a bulletin board I created for the PTA at the local Middle School. It's my first bulletin board ever (given my art-on-a-cart status), and I'm pleased. I tried to choose Dr. Seuss quotes that would inspire middle school students and catch their eye. Hopefully it works and we drum up some interest in the PTA play coming in April and the cake decorating competition the PTA will be having--so fun!

Complementary Color Crazy Quilts

This amazing "quilt" was done by some of the students in my home school art class. This past summer, I picked up a book called, "Using Color in Your Art!" by Sandi Henry. I LOVE her books--they are always full of wonderful, kid-friendly projects! One of the projects she calls, "Dancing Stripes," is really a  lesson in complementary colors and color mixing. It reminded me of a crazy quilt square so I thought my home school students would enjoy making these and then we could group them together at the final art show for an amazing art piece.

I began by showing my students some books I have on quilting (both traditional and "story quilts"). I also had a beautiful poster of crazy quilts that was perfect to show them. We then created the pieces using acrylic paints on canvas boards. One of the parents had donated three sets of acrylics to the class, so I was able to introduce "real" paint and canvases to the children. The children enjoyed mixing primary colors to achieve secondary colors and then mixing the complementary colors and watching an array of earth tones and neutrals appear.

I think the final pieces came out great and it allowed me to teach the children how to use acrylics  as well as color mixing and brush techniques, but I think that next time I may structure the class a little differently. Here are my tips:

• If the children you are teaching are young, use tempera paints instead of acrylics. Color mixing can use A LOT of paint when kids are doing it. Ours were donated and grown-ups are in charge of dispensing paint in my classroom, so we could monitor it a bit.
• Begin with a color wheel. I teach 2nd-5th graders in my class. The older kids had a good grasp of the color wheel, but the younger ones weren't as sure. Have the children do a color wheel before or along side their canvas. 
• Sandi Henry suggests breaking the canvas into four sections: 1 for each primary color and one for black and white. I'd only stick to the primaries. My younger students got confused dividing up the canvas into so many sections.
• Maybe work in some "hands-on" color mixing. I thought that next time I may break the students into groups and have them mix secondaries in plastic bags and then squirt the resulting color onto a palette for the group to use. It might pace the class better and the older students could help the younger ones. Plus, everyone loves squishing paint in a zip top bag!
• Have better definitions of color terms as well as examples where artists have used complementary colors in their work. I want the students to understand WHY color mixing and color theory is important.
• I may use different sized canvases next time. I had wanted to display these as a "quilt" all linked together. One idea I saw online for displaying artwork like this (that would have been perfect) was duct-taping zip-top bags together at the seams to create a quilt. Each baggie forms a reusable "pocket" for a child's artwork allowing the teacher to display the pieces together as a unit and change them out when s/he likes. HOWEVER, the 9x12" canvases I used won't fit in standard-size baggies. Maybe 8x10" canvases would work (gallon size freezer bags are roughly 10x10"). SIGH. 

I will certainly do this project again, but I'm going to try some tweaking to make the process easier and hopefully more understandable to the children. Ah...live and learn!

Dollar Store Preschool Art Ideas

I have two little ones under 5 and there are some times when I need to keep their hands occupied, but I don't want to have a mess on my hands (like just before dinner!). In my travels around cyberspace I've collected a couple of age appropriate art ideas that would work perfectly!

Yarn Art on a Sand Paper Board

I made a list and went to the dollar store and bought much of what I needed! These ideas are not mine and they are out there in abundance. Make a couple of these for your little ones for busy time, a car ride or to give as a birthday gift for your favorite preschooler! ENJOY!

Mini Salt Sensory Table

Supplies Needed:

• Small tray (a dark one works well)
• Salt (about 1/3 cup)
• Miscellaneous stuff: paint brushes, cookie cutters, small scoops, little trucks (we like construction/snowplow ones)

Directions:

1. Place 1/3 cup salt in the bottom of the tray. Too much and the child won't be able to "draw" in the salt properly.

2. Play! Actually, this is a great way for children to explore drawing shapes and letters. They can "draw" in the salt or push it around with the construction vehicles for a mini sandbox experience. This is the messiest activity of the bunch, but cleanup isn't too bad...

Cost: $1.50 (not including Misc. "stuff")

This salt activity tray idea is from "Teach Preschool" blog. I LOVE this blog! It is full of wonderful activities and experiences for the younger set. Deborah is so creative, I look forward to seeing what she comes up with!

Salt: messy, but fun!

Mess-Free Fingerpainting

Supplies Needed:

• 1 gallon-size zip top freezer bag
• About 1/3 cup tempera paint
• Piece of foam core or heavy cardboard, optional
• Duct tape

Directions:

There are a couple ways to do this: you can either put two colors in the bag such as red and yellow and have the child mix them and learn about color mixing (red & yellow make orange) OR you can just put paint in the bag and move on to the fun! Either way, you'll want to put about 1/3 cup paint total in the bag (too much doesn't work well) and then squeeze the air out of the bag and zip it shut. Then use duct tape to further seal the seam closed. I taped ours to a piece of foam core so it is portable.

Cost: $3.00 if you use cardboard you have at home for the backing

Oldest son says "It's like an iPad!" So sad...

Sand Paper Board (With Variations)

Supplies Needed:

• Coarse Sandpaper Sheets (Yep, I got a pack at the dollar store!)
• Hot glue gun with glue sticks
• Heavy cardboard or foam core
• Duct tape, optional
• Sharpie or black paint, optional
• Yarn bits

1. Glue the sandpaper sheet to the cardboard or foam core using hot glue. Cover the edges of the piece with duct tape, if you'd like a more "finished" edge.

2. On some of the boards, draw lines (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, wavy, curved, zigzag, etc.) with a marker or paint. Another idea is drawing shapes such as circle, square, triangle, etc. 

3. Cut bits and pieces of different colors of yarn and have your child press them onto the sandpaper (following the lines you drew, if desired, or making his/her own pictures). The yarn will stick to the sandpaper and can be removed and reused over and over! Felt and cotton balls also will stick to the board.

Exploring shapes and lines.