Summer Vacation Has Ended

I took a little break from this blog. Between my laptop breaking and just all the things that summer brought it was hard to sit down at the desk top computer. Our family hosted a child from NY City through the Fresh Air Fund Program for the first time. I had heard from others how awful there experience was and I heard how wonderful it was. I think it just depends on the child and how your family dynamics are it's like a game of chance. We won the chance and had a lovely girl about my daughters age stay with us. I hope she will be able to join us next summer. I really recommend especially you teachers like me who have time in the summer to try it. My daughter got just as much out of it as the girl who visited. Other summer things was horse riding camp. We have 3 horses that we keep on our property. My daughter decided to take her horse to summer riding camp. She had a wonderful experience but we did so much running back and forth to the barn that I don't know how people who board at the barn are able to do it.

As for art I have tested out all sorts of art projects, scoured art magazines and catalogs, and whittled down what I plan to do for the first 12 weeks of school. I will share a few art projects that I have found that are new for me this year that I am going to try:

Sax catalog mini self stick notebooks I wanted a book making project for my middle school classes to use as a sketchbook. I know the paper is small but that also makes them portable and I am going to incorporate that into thumbnail sketches.

Paper weaving baskets I have a limited budget this year as I have heard many schools do. My friend had her entire order canceled so no art supplies at all until October! Well mine wasn't that bad. However basket making materials is expensive so I cut it. I still wanted to do weaving so I picked a few different types of weaving one being the paper weaving basket.

 

Examples???

During the summer I like to test out art materials and try different projects. This week I was playing around with crayons. Drawing on wax paper, crumpled brown paper, and fabric to see what creative things I could do. I also got one of those crayola crayon maker (picture) from a yard sale for a $1.00 so I cannot wait to play with that. I need to get to the store and buy a light bulb.

I have had discussions with other art teachers and it seems to be divided. Do you show an example of an art project or just show a certain technique and not show a finished example. I have no real definite pull toward either method. Sometimes I show a finished example and other times I demonstrate a technique it depends on what the lesson is about. I had one art teacher that was horrified that I used finished examples! She never used examples because she believed it hindered the creative flow of her students. I can see her side I don't use a lot of finished examples with K-3^rd grade because many will copy mine and get frustrated, so I usually will do a technique demonstration and my example is usually ½ complete. For my older students 4^th- 8^th I usually just have a finished example and also will show a demonstration of a technique if it is a new concept. Unless they are new students most have learned through the demonstrations from earlier years and the older students have their own ideas so they rarely copy my example.

End of the year

I have not been able to sit and type much in the past week, due to closing up the art room for summer. It is amazing what I find stashed all over the room. Projects that disappeared are stuffed in a drawer or under a cabinet that was just moved. So I have been deciding how to reorganize the storage in the room for next year. For an art room it is fairly small about 25' by 25' with a limited amount of storage, closet and sink. Not much area.

I use to have 3 large 8' tables but I had them replaced with regular desks. I thought they probably would not the best for an art room, but much easier to work with than those tables, but actually I really like the desks. I have portfolios for each student in the desk they sit at, so project usually stay clean and safe. I can rearrange the room for large group projects and smaller individual projects depending on the class. It is easy to separate students who don't work well together, or the middle school sweet hearts that get nothing done. So overall since I booted the large tables two years ago, I have been really happy with the desk arrangement.

This next year I am going to concentrate on storage solutions. Last year I bought wire shelving cubes on sale for 14.99, not the best idea. Every time a student dropped a box of art supplies they fell down in between the openings and made a terrible mess. So I am going to use those next year for books and I have decided to just suck it up and get either a plastic shelf system or those plastic storage drawers.

Art Show

My schools art show ended, I have finally purged my room of about 600 art projects I had stuffed in all empty spaces available. Art shows a hard work to put together I have a few tips that I have found makes it a lot easier.

1. Keep it small.
   
   1. I try to have the students do small art pieces no bigger than a 9x12. This allows me to display more projects in smaller spaces.
      
   2. I have also found that the middle school students do awesome small projects with a lot of detail. Even the students that are not the best at art, they don't get overwhelmed.
      
   3. One project is artist trading cards it is a small project, brings in art history, and can be displayed easily.
      
2. Try to get displays done ahead of time especially like me I only have a few hours due to lunch being in the cafeteria first.
   
   1. I tape together black strips of paper to create a 7 'x 2 "section and laminate it to make it stronger.
      
   2. Then measure how many art projects will fit on the 7' length and hole punch where the top and bottom of the art piece would fall.
      
   3. Next attach paper clips, I use gold toned, so the art piece can easily slid right in.
      
   4. I actually attach all the art work a few days ahead of time and they are all ready to hang up that afternoon
      
3. Use a dark colored fabric for the tables that sculptures will be on. I use black and dark blue.
   
   1. I also place card board boxes at different heights and drape the material over the boxes and place the sculptures on different levels. It just makes it look more interesting then sitting on a flat.
      
4. Have a spotlight section.
   
   1. I take the larger best art pieces of students and contest winners photos, newspaper articles, or artwork in this section. This year I had 4 contest winners. One student that went on to a National art contest in D.C. this summer.
      
   2. I take pictures of all contest entries so I can print and display the art work from the winner since usually entries are not returned.
      

Those are a few of my tips. If you don't have an end of the year art show, consider doing one. I also use an online artsonia.com year round as a fundraiser and online art gallery. My schools gallery.

 

Other book authors and illustrators

If you have access to a computer you can always show all different illustrator and author interviews from Reading Rockets. If you don't have access to show the interview you can also print out a transcript of the video, but I really recommend trying to show the interviews they are a wonderful addition to a lesson that you can also bring in literature to your art class or bring art into your literature class.

National Teachers Day!

My art lesson for today for 3^rd grade I bring in National Teachers Day. I use the Scholastic DVD Miss Nelson Has a Field Day. I show the first segment Miss Nelson Has a Field Day, and then the getting to know James Marshall. This is a wonderful segment about the author and illustrator behind the books. Then I have the students draw their teacher in marker. This is a simple yet very fun lesson.

What do you do?

What do you do when you don't have one single class that day, but need to be at school? Today is field day so no classes.

My list:

#1 Clean my room it is starting to pile up.

#2 Sort art work

#3 Start mounting art work for the all too soon art show

That is my top #3 things to do today.

 

Since I missed last week's favorite art material pick I am going to give you one today: Tissue paper

It is fun to use and cheap to get. I buy mine at the dollar store. I get pastel, bright and the student favorite glitter. One great lesson is Eric Carle style painted paper and collage. I have the students create their own book.

Here is a list of several projects I use tissue paper with:

One hint I use liquid starch as glue for most projects and if I want it more durable modge podge is the glue I use

• Mask Making
  
• Collage
  
• Jewelry making
  
• Sculpture
  
• Mock Stained glass
  
• Holiday Christmas ornaments
  
• Spring Butterflies
  

  These are just a few.