Sunday, May 27, 2018

In the Art Room: A Giant Painting Banner for Field Day!

This past Monday was our school's field day. There was a 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms for the occasion (of course!). I was in charge of the Art Station which was a new thing last year. In the past, I'd always been in charge of the Face Painting Station with parent and student volunteers. Last year, some changes were made and I was given a box of sidewalk chalk and told that was my station. Y'all...I don't know if you've ever sat outside all day in the blazing sun while kids rotate every 15 minutes only to write words like "fart" on the sidewalk and then ask when they can go to the next station but I can easily testify that it is NO BUENO. I decided to do something different this year...
And this was NOT it. My grand idea would have involved being outside (I'm keeping it a secret in hopes that I can make it happen next year!) and Mutha Nature was given me a big fat "no" with those impending storms. So I arrived at school at 6:30 am to start plotting what my Art Station might look like. I created a video to kinda walk you through what we did:
 I already have several "stations" or centers in my art room that the kids are familiar with as they are my Early Finisher Centers. In addition to those centers, I also created two painting stations for the kids to explore. This HUGE banner was one of them and what we created on canvas I will share in an upcoming blog post. 
 These banners are about 18' long. I simply rolled out huge pieces of bulletin board paper, laid it across three tables and went to town with my good ole bingo dauber. I'm about read to retire this set as we've used them a lot this year and the tops have lost their fuzzy marker-ish-ness. But they work so well for big posters!
 As soon as the kids walked in my room from their outside activities (I have an exterior door making it easy for them to come in), I invited them to take a seat on the floor. I was concerned the kids would be bummed that they were inside (cuz, y'all, IT NEVER DID RAIN!) but they actually loved it. 15 minutes in air conditioning with a chance to go to the restroom if needed ended up being a good thing. I told their teachers, who were rotating with them, to take a little break and come back in 15. It was a good moment to relax for everyone. 
Once everyone was seated, I reminded them of their centers choices and talked to them briefly about the banner. Then I released them. 
 I told the kids that they could rotate to a new center if they wanted but first had to leave the old one as they found it...or even better. 
 Painting friends were reminded to slap on an apron as leaning over the giant banner could get paint on clothes.
 I gave no instructions when it came to painting other than be sure and clean your brush between colors. To clean it up a bit, I painted over the whole thing with my black outline and added pops of white once it was dry.
 And now we have two huge banners to decorate the halls when we come back to school in August! I'm so excited as our hallways are usually so sad when we return. 
Have you ever done anything like this? Love to know what you did in your art teacherin' world!
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11 comments:

  1. Brilliant project, thank you for sharing. from ilona

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  2. I can easily say your Instagram account is my #1 favorite account. Every time I see your/your student artwork I feel happy, grateful, joyous. This banner is amazing. We need more of you in our schools!!

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  3. Something like this has been a standing station for our end of year Buddy day. I write out big grade numbers and locations (like the library) and inspiring words (character traits). I make the letters Britto style and have my graduating fifth graders paint the black outlines during the last week of classes. I tell them it’s their parting gift. On Buddy day the kids sign their names with their buddies and a few doodles to fill in the spaces. Last year we used up cray pas (very messy). Year before we used up markers. This year we’re trying color sticks.

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  4. This is a really wonderful project! I'm sure the kids loved it!

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  5. Thank you! I read this post a week ago or so, and I'm so thankful I did! Today, about 45 minutes before our end of year fun day was supposed to start, they decided to move everything inside because of the rain. Of course my original station was no longer an option. Thanks for sharing...we made a huge long banner and the kids loved it!

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  6. Thank you so much for this idea! I'm usually all about conserving supplies (especially paint) at the end of the year and try to have students involved in easy drawing projects so I can get my room cleaned and ready to end the school year. However, I love this! I can't wait to try it with a few of classes who only have 2 class meetings left!

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  7. The vinyl banner is a very popular way to do outdoor advertising. Nowadays most of the banners are printed digitally which are capable of printing a full-color outdoor billboard on a single piece of material. If you want to print the best quality vinyl banner then you can visit our site. Best vinyl banner

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  9. Where can we purchase the banners?

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  10. I think this is such a great way to finish off the year and get a head start for fall. I love your drawing style!!!

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