Let's Make Mask Emotions!

After one week of teaching my students, I noticed something. I am having a hard time gauging their emotions. And, right now, I know they are experiencing many feelings. On Tuesday, I had the amazing opportunity to sit down with Dr. Gilboa and I learned so much about how to manage my own stress this new school year. She also touched on how our students may be feeling and letting them know that their feelings are valid and valued. You can listen to part one of our chat in my Cassie Stephens podcast right here.

Her conversation inspired me to create this lesson that I'll be doing with both my virtual and in person first grade students this upcoming week. I'm even thinking that I may do it with my second graders as well. 

I think the kids will not only enjoy this lesson but, hopefully, find a way to express themselves. Even if this activity just gets them talking about sharing their feelings, then my job is done. Ultimately, I plan to take photos of my students "wearing" these masks while talking about emotions. For example, "I am happy, when..." But that is still a lesson I'm working on. For now, we are starting here. 

My older students will be working on these too. If you haven't seen this lesson, you might want to give it a try. 

I share my lessons freely but lately I've noticed that some folks are taking my lessons, recreating them and selling them on TPT. I beg you to stop. If you use my lessons, all I ask is that you just give credit when it's asked. Taking someone's intellectual property and selling it as your own is stealing. So, like, don't. 

Have a great week, y'all! Stay tuned for Part 2 of my interview with Dr. G to be out soon!

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DIY: Art Room Decor

If you recall from this post, I recently picked up a bunch of oars (or paddles, whatever you fancy callin' 'em) from a local big box craft store. Initially I was just going to paint the primary colors...but they looked so good, I decided to do the secondary colors as well to create a large color wheel. I finished off the color wheel last week and thought I'd share it with y'all today. 

In case you missed the Paddle Painting Mayhem, here it is in 60 seconds or less:

 If only I could work that fast! I do consume a ton of coffee...but I've not reached Level: Lightening Fast...yet. 

Because the grouping of paddles ended up being so stinkin' big, I had to completely rearrange my art room to find a wall space big enough for it. That meant a complete overhaul of this part of my art room. I was fine with that, as I was ready for a change. In fact, this summer, when I popped by my art room, I noticed some of my displays were falling. In a fit of annoyance, I tore it ALL down. You can see what this area previously looked like here. Getting rid of the previous displays forced me to rethink my space and my displays, making both more intentional. 

By the way, I created a video of my desired art room routines...and showed it today on our first day of art. That's what you see on the big screen. I'll do a complete blog post about that soon but in the meantime, you can check out the video here:

It was a huge hit with the kids today and...IT WORKED! Yay!

Having this big space also allowed me to hang my ART room rules. I shared them recently here. You can hear me go over them a little bit in the video above. I plan to do a more extensive chat about my rules soon...they really tie in with the growth mindsets that we are working toward in my art class this year.

After I hung up the oars, I noticed that I had enough space to allow for the tertiary colors. So I cut out some cardboard with an Exacto knife, painted them and attached them to the wall with hot glue. The oars were hung up with Command Velcro Strips and have worked like a charm!

Over the summer, I managed to pick up several folk art pieces. The Mojo Man and the Big Love signs are by my friend Bebo. The other paintings are by Okra Girl. I painted the Stay Sharp sign using a wooden picket fence I found when shopping for those wooden oars. Here's a video of how that was created in 60 seconds or less:

 I'm currently addicted to painting all things found in the wooden aisle of my craft store! 

 A couple of art teacher buddies have really taken off with these ideas and I love seeing what they create! One buddy painted the saying, "Draw Light Until You've Got It Right"...how perfect for those pencils!

Another painted hers into crayons, hung it horizontally and it is going to display her art jobs. Y'all better believe I'm doing that very same thing! Great minds, I love it.

By the way, if you have not entered to win the book giveaway, GET YOURSELF OVER HERE AND DO IT ALREADY. Please and thank you! 

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