Sometimes I forget...

I still have not learned my schedule yet this year, partly because it has changed, partly because I have missed almost 2 weeks of school, so the other day when I pulled paintings off of the drying rack, I could not remember whose class the projects belonged to. So I decided to make some markers for my drying rack to help me. I took small pieces of cardstock and wrote all of my class names on them. I also wrote the grade level in the top corner, and the day(s) that they come to my room in the bottom corner. I laminated them, and then punched a hole in the corner and used a small piece of pipe cleaner to make a "hook". Now, when the students put their artwork on the drying rack, I know exactly who the artwork belongs to!

Crazy beginning of the school year!

It has been quite a school year already, I almost want to start over. My school is almost 100 students over projected numbers, so we have been adding classes and moving students like mad, which means that my schedule has changed as well. Due to personal reasons, I have had to miss about a week and a half of school, and now it is close to the end of the 9 weeks and I am scrambling to get the 3rd and 4th graders projects finished for their upcoming art show. Phew!
On a good note though, the second graders are finishing up their collage projects, and they are turning out well. First the students tissue paper collaged a 9x12 piece of paper for the background. Then they traced their hands on a thicker piece of paper. We took about 20 minutes to brainstorm words that describe personal qualities, which the students then write all over their hands with sharpies. The students then cut their hands out and attached spacers (some plastic beads that were donated to the art room) on the back of their hand, and then glued them to their background. Many of the teachers have been impresses with the range of descriptive words the students have come up with.

Back to school!

Metro schools have already gone back to school. The teachers had to come back July 27 and the students came back Aug. 1. I have been crazy busy setting up my room this year. All of the tiles in my room were removed due to asbestos, so my entire room had to be packed up as if I were moving rooms. As well as new tiles, my room was re-painted. They matched to colors of my room, and did a much better job than I did last summer, probably because I am so short that even standing on the ladder, I had to use a paintbrush taped to the end of the broom handle (lol!). Anyways, I just realized that I forgot to take pictures of my room until today.the black and blue quote board is in the hallway, and the inspiration comes from Painted Paper's blog. The other bulletin boards are in my room. One of the boards has my "kid friendly" standards on it. These are the TN standards re-written in language that the students understand. Our new teacher evaluation requires that we post the standards and objectives in the room, and this is how I have chosen to display them. The large monster was a gift from my friend Ted (Mr. E) last year. My students have named her big Bertha, and she sits on top of the student storage area, reminding everyone to put their names on their paper.

Art-al-Sol 2012 (a little late, I'm sorry)

This summer I taught Art-al-Sol again. There was not a specific theme, but I did pull most of the lessons from Pinterest. The kids had a blast, and the projects turned out great! Here are a few of them to check out.

Kindergarten is going buggy!

We had the last art show of the year tonight, and it was kindergarten's turn. I figured since all of the students are starting to get antsy, we should make some bugs. They had a blast, and the parents were very pleased. Even the teachers have been commenting about the bright and cheerful pests (I of course mean the art bugs, not the children!) We created the bugs by folding a 9x12 piece of paper in half, and the the students picked three colors to add to their paper, making sure that they picked colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Once we added the tempera paint we re-folded the papers and then opened them to dry. The next class time we cut out around the paint, and then added heads, legs, and wiggle eyes. My older students were so jealous!

They're finished!!!!!!

The bottle cap sculptures are finished and installed!!!!! After the generous help of Mr. Gilley, one of our PE teachers (he dug the holes and sunk the "stems" for us) some of my second and third grade students helped to install the flowers today. The students did a fantastic job! While we were installing them today, we had many people stopping to look at them. There are a total of 18 flowers, three in each alcove of the school. Later on this month, volunteers are coming to place new mulch around them, and maybe add some real flowers as well. The front of our school is now very cheerful. They were a lot of work, but well worth it!