First Days of School ... The Art Room Edition!

Guess who has her very first day of school tomorrow?! 

That's right, this gal right here! Our tiny but amazing school district begins returns tomorrow and we always kick off the school year with a welcome back bash and a motivational speaker. From there we dive into our art PD...and we'll be learning from a weaving pro! I'm so excited...it's such a fun way to return to school.

My kiddos don't come to art for a couple of weeks so that gives me a minute to rehang LITERALLY EVERYTHING that fell off my walls and figure out what we're gonna be creating this year. In case you missed a room tour, I got you, boo. Check it here:

But that's not why I'm here today. While I try to wrap my brain around just what it is we'll be doing this year, I'm also reflecting on how we start our school year. Y'all know that means an intro to rules, routines and just how we "do" this art class thang. I've written many posts about my First Days of Art Class over the years. If you are interested...than this post is for you! Loads of links with videos for you to check out. 

If you need a lil cheat sheet for that very first day, I've got you COVERED, y'all! You can check out a video chat all about my WELCOME philosophy for the first day as well as more details right here.

 I don't know what your schedule looks like but mine is a lil crazy. Such is the life of a special's teacher. I'm not on a rotation schedule but one where I see the same classes on the same days of the week. Which is great because I always know what my Monday will look like...same as last Monday. It's not so great when we have a Monday off and then a snow day Monday and then a field trip Monday and the next thing you know...

A way to stay on top of all that is being organized. I'm organized-challenged but I like to play an organized art teacher on T.V. (or YouTube). Check out a blog post with video all about that here. 

I've shared a lot of videos about how I run my first day(s) of art right here and my YouTube channel (where I often upload first then share here...if you'd like to be "in the know", than you might wanna subscribe). And, honestly, it changes from year to year. I switch it up, change, "improve", decide something was NOT an improvement and change again. You can check out how I ran my first day of art back in 2015 right here. Please note how DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT my art room is now right here!

There are so many fun ways to introduce your students to your art room rules. One year, I created an Escape Game for my 2nd-4th grade students. They LOVED it! You can check out the video they viewed and the resources they used right here.

 Last year, I created a super fun video with my faculty! They pretended to be my students and shared the Do's and Don't's of art class. It was such a joy and happy memory to make this video with them. I plan to share the video again this year as all the rules still apply...and it cracks me up EVERY TIME! You can see the video and more details about my first days of art last year, here.

 Now...let's talk about that bird of a different feather: KINDERGARTEN. I totally go about my first days with kindergarten MUCH differently. I've created many videos of myself teaching kindergarten and sharing lessons for their first days. If you are interested, go here.

I'm pretty big on mess-making on the very first day. My philosophy is this: THE KIDS HAVE HEARD NOTHING BUT RULES ALL DAY! It's important for you to cover yours...but, let's be honest, by the time they reach you, they are checked out! You have many art classes to establish rules and routines. Dole it out over the first weeks and month...and make sure to make messes in between. I've shared MANY of my first day art lessons here...check it out!

Have a super return to the school year, friends! If you'd like to follow my adventures, do so here!