Sunday, August 14, 2011

New year, new room!



School has started here in Nashville, and I have been very busy in the art room, getting it ready. I'm in a new room, which was a very bland navajo white color. I painted the room two different blues (seen in an earlier post). Then I had to wait...and wait...and wait some more for the custodians to clean my room and wax the floors (it's a new room and I was a little anxious, ok!?!?) Once I got into the room, the the unpacking ensued. This room has way less storage built in, with only one little sink and cabinet in the corner, and a set of open cubbies
that someone had bolted to the original chalkboard.
These cubbies are great, but open to the room, so not the best thing for storing supplies that you don't want the children getting into. So I have used this as my classroom library area. To solve the storage issue, I have 2 large 2-door cabinets, one for paint and printmaking supplies (I have a lot of paint, I admit that I am a hoarder in this area, I unpacked 84 trays of watercolors, not all of them useful, but I hate to throw them away!), the other cabinet for paper and other supplies. Since there is only one bulletin board in my room (albeit a really long board!) I have used the doors of the cabinets as more board space. On my paper cabinet, I have placed my behavior board, and on the paint cabinet, I have attached my scissor storage. The scissor storage is magnetized tool racks found at Home Depot for $12. The scissors hang on the racks until needed, and are high enough that the kindergartners can't reach them.

I found this idea on Pinterest, with someone using knife storage bars from Ikea, but since Nashville doesn't have an Ikea, I improvised. In this classroom I have a door that goes outside, and a window. By the door, I laced my word wall, and by the window, my reading area. Between the door and the window is my long bulletin board, which I have split up into smaller boards, and will post better pictures of later.


I have used the theme of outer space this year, and if you are aware of the blog http://artwithmre.blogspot.com/, you might recognize the big mama alien hiding behind my door. Ted (Mr. E) is one of my friends, in fact, more like family, and when he found out I was going with an outer space theme, he offered me the alien and other things that he had make for his art show last year. I jumped at the offer, and Big Bertha (as I now call her) is now part of our classroom. She will have a sign that says "is your name on your paper?" around her neck, since she is setting beside the artwork storage cabinet. Continuing with my theme, the tables have been numbered with aliens, one at each corner, the numbers of which correspond with the pockets on my behavior board. On each table is a basket that has crayons, markers, pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners. This cuts down on time passing out supplies. On the bottom of the chairs, I have rubberbanded 2 layers of felt to cut down on the scraping of chairs on the floor. This keeps the classroom quieter, and save the wax on the floor longer.
My next post will be better pictures of my bulletin boards and hallway displays.






6 comments:

Mr. R said...

I love how you keep your scissors.. Where did you get that big magnet??

http://mymessyartroom.blogspot.com/

Art From Chaos said...

the elements and principles boards look great! :)

Art From Chaos said...

also love the scissors idea, yay pintertest!

Janet said...

Mr. R- the scissor magnets are actually tool storage items from Home Depot. They are made to go into a garage to hold wrenches, hammers, screwdrivers, etc. I just went into Home Depot and asked for large magnets and this is what they showed me. They were $12.99 each, and I bought 2.

Miss said...

Thanks for sharing these photos. I love seeing how other Art rooms look- I always new ideas to improve my own. Will have to check out my local IKEA for that knife holder. I also really like the felt on the bottom of the chairs. Have you done that before, and if so, does the felt last all year or do you need to replace them?

Mrs. Forney said...

Oh, I DO LOVE the bulletin boards on the storage cabinet idea. I'm limited on bulletin board space. So this is a creative idea that I may pursue - if the fire marshal doesn't get me first. He,he!