Back to School Banners for your First Days of Art!

Well, my friends. The time has come...it's back to school we go! 

For many of us, anyway. I know some of y'all kept on teachin' until, like, the end of June which is absolutely WILD to me. First of all, the temperature here in Tennessee during that time of year is literally the surface of the sun. I cannot imagine trying to teach, let alone put kids on a bus, in that type of heat. And, second, let's be real: I'm tapped out come May. Okay...I'll be for-real for-real...I'm tapped out the week after spring break. So those of you that teach into June, y'all deserve a break.

BUT for those of y'all that are heading back, I thought I'd put together a blog post of a simple, fun and IMPACTFUL project for your Back to Schoolin' days. 

Let's talk Back to School Banners!

One of the biggest back-to-school stressers for me was "what am I gonna teach on the first couple days?!" Because, honestly, that's not of great importance. What's VITAL is establishing Rules, Routines, Do's and Please-for-the-love-of-God Don't's. For that, you may want to check out my book, my videos or my podcast. BUT be sure and pop back here later this week as I've got more coming your way. 

BUT...I always want a project that gets the kids excited! AND that gives me something fun, vibrant and happy to hang up as soon as possible. So, for that reason, I'll be sharing my fave tried and true 

...Back to School Banners!

If you tap the link, I've got a video with more detail on these from how they are made to how I use them in my art room. Full disclosure: I usually create these at the END of the school year for my students to paint/color on field day. Then I hang them up in August to have some bright and happy color in the halls when students return. However, they could easily be created and utilized during Back to School!

Here's how I created these:

* Using large bulletin board paper and an ink filled bingo dauber, I draw the designs in yellow or peach chalk. 

(SIDE NOTE: If you'd like to see/read more about bingo daubers and the lessons I have done with them, check out this blog post!)

* The chalk makes it easy to adjust and erase my drawings before tracing them with the "paint marker" or ink-filled dauber.

* No time to create these? That's okay, I made some for you! You can purchase the banners I created right here. 

Ideas on how these banners can be used in your art room:

* So...you could go the route that you see above if you are feeling brave enough to bust out paint...on the first days of school. I would HIGHLY not recommend that. Trust me...I speak from experience.

* The above photo was taken before I discovered tempera sticks! These work far better than paint as they are less messy and the kids love them. That is what I'd recommend.

Now don't feel limited to creating giant coloring sheets as I have done. In fact, why not take it a step further and have students create a huge self-portrait banner?! 

How to make this happen with a room full of kids:

* Create stations! Have students rotate from table to table. One table could have a banner with frames like this where students can draw their self portrait. I provided construction paper crayons and Sharpies for this. A short selfie demo was given first by instructing students to use ONE frame only (ahem) and draw with their marker before adding color with Sharpies. We made the frames extra fancy by coloring those with metallic tempera sticks.

* The other table stations could include your banners! So students are always active, creative, coloring and moving around the room. This would also be a great way to get students acquainted with your art room.

* Why not include a Gratitude Banner where students draw portraits of their teachers and the faculty and staff in the frames? That's similar to a lesson that I did here and here. 

Now, let's take the Back to School Banner in a totally different direction and make Back to School table covers! In my book Art Teacherin' 101, I talk about how I have my tables color coded as I'm sure many of you do too. Each table is referred to as a 'team' and expected to work together. As they do, I give them points for their table in Class Dojo.

Here's where it gets interesting. On Class Dojo, where you would normally put in a student's name, I put in the table color. EVERY class has the opportunity to earn points for their table team. So...if the Red Team earns 5 points in Ms. Smith's first grade class, those points are earned across ALL of the Red Teams in ALL of my classes. This creates a School-Wide incentive to do well of the team. 

Does that make sense? Let me tell you...it works great!

During those first days of school as we get used to our table and the idea of table teams, I roll out (literally) these color coded mats. After hearing rules and routines, we often don't have much time left in class. So we spend that time adding color and kind words to our table covering. 

Students use construction paper crayons to add bright colors to these banners. 

In the past, I ALWAYS used paper to color code the tables on those first weeks of school. After a month, the banners were a mess so they were tossed. Usually,  I only had them to signify the table colors those first few days and after that, my students knew their table. 

However, when they made these, I really wanted to save them. So...here's what I did:

* Fold the table covering in half LENGTHWISE.

* Slowly put the table covering through the school laminator. Ours was the width of the paper folded lengthwise. 

* Once through the laminator, cut along the unfolded edges of the folded banner.

* And Ta-Da! You now have a banner that is laminated on one side!

Because of the crease, you do have to flatten a bit. I simply taped mine to the underside of each table. 

Added bonus: now you can draw on them with dry erase markers!

And there ya have it! Some ideas for creating fun and impactful Back to School art!

Stay tuned...I've got more projects coming your way!

AND if you are feeling like you need some classroom management tips...I would really recommend you check this out. 

Read more »

Videos for those First Days of Art

During those first days of art class, there is a whole lot we gotta cover: Rules, Routines, More Routines, Consequences and, again, Routines. It can be taxing on our voice (not to mention energy level) and, inevitably, we forget SOMETHING to SOME CLASS and can never remember just what it was we forgot or to whom. It's all very exhausting...and that's just how WE feel. The poor kids literally spend their first week hearing all the Do's and Don't's until it all just becomes a blur. Usually, by the time they reach our door, they are just dying to do something, ANYTHING, other than hear Rules and Routines. 

So, like, what to do?

I can tell you something that has worked well for me: videos!

Creating videos is something I've done for a very long time (subscribe to my YouTube channel and check out all of my teaching videos!). I started with creating lesson videos and noticed just how closely the kids pay attention. I always say they listen to TV Stephens far better than Real Life Stephens (and I don't know how I feel about that but whatever!). So several years ago, I decided to create some Welcome to the Art Room videos, as well as What is Art and Routine videos and I thought I would share them all here today. 

In this post, I'll share with you some tips on creating your own videos or...feel free to simply use mine! You can always pause the video and interject. Let's start with the most recent video I created for the first day of art. Here's the graphic I created for the video (on Canva, a free website for easily creating graphics just like this!)

This video is short and sweet where I quickly cover some things on the very first day. I do go back and cover the rules the following art classes but this is just a way to catch a glimpse on that first day. If you'd like to see what a first day looks like for me, check out these videos. This is how I run my art room for first through fourth grade:

Not shown: when I stop to play the video. I usually do this after we go through our introductions. 

For more behind the scenes of my art room routines, you can check out these videos. It may explain the method behind my madness:

These are routines I establish that first day and how I start each art class. 

Throwing this video in here since I reference the behavior system that I use. It's a hit with my students!

I thought I'd also share some older Welcome to the Art Room videos that I created in years past. This might give you some more ideas of what a video you create may need. 

This one was created during Covid...so you'll notice how different the routines were.

And this is my original video.

I promised some tips on creating your own video so...here we go:

* Keep It Short! Don't overwhelm the kids. Think of this video as the fun "Cliff's Notes" version of all that you plan to cover. A brief tour, a quick introduction and a general view of how you operate your art room is perfect. 

* Involve the Staff! Kids love to see their teachers ham it up! This video I created on Art Class Etiquette was always a hit:

I also created several "routines" videos and this one they loved because their favorite teachers were featured in it:

* Use Your Phone! I'm always asked "how do you make your videos? What software? Lighting? Microphone?" Guys. GUYS. Your phone is fine! Just prop it up someplace and hit record. And be YOURSELF. Now that is easier said than done. What works for me is to hit record and then make faces at yourself for a minute. Loosen up. Don't worry about messing up. Don't hit the stop button and record again and again. It will just make you frazzled! Just record and know you can edit later. Or not! A bloopers reel may be fun for the kids to see!

If you have an iPhone, iMovie is the easiest editing tool! Watch a 5 minute How-To video on YouTube and you'll have all the basics down. The kids aren't lookin' for perfection. They will love it regardless! Unless they are in 5th grade. Then they pretty much don't like anything ;)

No iPhone? There are PLENTY of free apps out there for editing. Or create the video in TikTok or Reels! That will REALLY get their attention. "YOU HAVE A TIKTOK?!" Yes. And please don't follow me.

So, there you have it! I added this last video in case you are interested in sharing it in your art room. All of the drawings were made on my iPad and I simply recorded myself while drawing! 

Need more art teacherin' tips and tricks? Did you know I wrote a whole book on it? And I can tell it's Back to School season as I'm backing up tons of orders each day. You can find it here. 

Have a great start to your school year, friends! And be sure to check out my last blog post for a ton of back to school art lesson ideas!

Read more »

First Day in Art with First through Fourth Grade

I know, I know, I can hear you now:

STOP! NO! I DON'T WANNA THINK ABOUT THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL DURING MY SUMMER VACATION!

Juuuuuuuust hear me out: isn't it far less stressful to think of it now, with your feet in the kiddie pool and your bowl of ice cream-for-lunch slowly melting in the summer sun? Instead of, let's say, stressing during those dreadful back-to-school faculty meetings as you count the long list of endless things you need to do before the kids arrive? When you are so busy setting up your room that you lose track of all that you want to cover that very first day? 

See? It's not that bad!

My first day with my first through fourth graders is an easy-peasy one. You'll see it in this video, complete with a breakdown of why I introduce what and when. Please pardon the location placed on the video...it's clear that me and iMovie are still getting to know each other after all these years. Anyway! I know it looks like a bunch fun and games BUT there is a method behind my madness...and that's teaching kids my routines: 

* Our Art Class Greeting

* Our Art Class Catchphrase

* Our Open/Closed sign 

* Our Behavior Management System (not that we call it that!)

* Call and Response and how it works

* Learning my name...and me learning theirs

* Becoming comfortable with making our voice heard

* Learning how to become an active and considerate listener

What's not shown is how we get our seats, practice emergency drills and lining up properly. 

I have art class with my students for 30 minutes twice a week. We manage to knock out ALL of that in the first 30 minutes. And, you may notice in the video, the kids already seem to know a lot of the routines. That's because I taught them in kindergarten. And even though my first day with kindergarten looks a lot different...we do eventually cover all of these things. 

AND if you just want more...I wrote a whole book on this topic! I lay it all out for you in my book Art Teacherin' 101. It has ALL that you need for a successful year no matter your teaching situation. You can find it right here. 

I also have a TON of videos on this topic on my YouTube channel. If you subscribe, you can stay posted because with it being 'the season', I'll be adding a lot more video content on back to school soon. 

Read more »

First Days of Art Class 2020-21

Wowza, y'all. School began last week for me with days of professional development and just yesterday for my students and all I can say is that in my 22 years of teaching, I've never had a year like this! And...it's only Tuesday.

Just to give you a little info on what my school district is doing for our elementary students: kindergarten thru second grade have the choice of going virtually or returning in the classroom. If they are returning, they are to be wearing masked, spaced 6' apart and washing or sanitizing hands frequently. My older students in third and fourth grade have the option of being remote or virtual. Remote means that, when allowed, they will be back in the building. My district plans to reassess in two weeks. However, we do have some of our third and fourth graders at school as they may be the children of teachers or learners who need to be with teachers. So, what that means is that every 3rd and 4th grade teacher has about 3-4 children in her classroom and is asked to teach them and her remote learners simultaneously via Zoom. Which is...a lot. 

As for me, I've been asked to prep lessons for all the virtual and remote learners as well as teach my in house students. Because of some schedule overlap, I have not been going live with my remote learners. Instead, I've been providing them with prerecorded videos for them to listen and create at their own pace. 

All that to say...it's been a rollercoaster so far and that was BEFORE the kids even got here. I had to much prep to do for those remote and virtual learners that I nearly neglected my in person kiddos. However, on Sunday, I came in, finished setting up my art room (new room tour to come) and recreated my Rules and Routines video. I was able to salvage the first have of the video (originally recorded in 2017) but had to completely redo the second half as we have new routines to follow. 

Here you go!

On our first day, here is what we do:

* I meet them in the hallway. If you know me, you know that I use the acronym WELCOME on the first day. 

Normally, my students would go straight to the floor and be seated...you can see my USUAL first day routine here. However, this year, we had to do two new things: get our hands immediately sanitized as I demonstrate in the video and go stand on a spot that is 6' apart. In future art classes, we'll go straight to our seats but on that first day, we wait a pinch while we all sanitize and enter the art room.

* I got everyone quickly to a seat. The tables are color coded by messy mats (not sure if they will stay but they are working for now). I also have color coded circle stickers on the back of each chair that has the table color and number on it. My friend Andrew @elementaryarts recommended them to me and I found them on Amazon. 

* Once seated, I do my greeting.
* We learn our Art Class Catchphrase.
* I introduce the Word of the Day.
* We talk about the Open/Closed sign.
* We talk about the Happy/Sad board. 

I did it just like you see in this video...except students were at their tables:

* From there, we watch the video I shared at the top of this blog post. 

* We stretch!
* We greet each other and I ask a list of silly questions (more on that in an upcoming blog post!). This you can also see in the video from last year. 
* We review the clean up routine with drums, gong and a table caller.
* We learn the lining up routine...and that's it!

And that...was our first day. I LOVE the idea of doing art in art class on the first day but with 30 minutes and so many new things...this was all I could pack in. I'll share with you what we do on the second day...and I'll continue to share with you as I learn new things about this new art teacherin' world we find ourselves in. Sending y'all hugs. We've got this!

 

Read more »

Art Teacherin' 101: My Favorite Art Teacherin' Hacks

I've been sharing so many classroom management hacks on my Instagram lately (and getting such a great response from teachers, thank you!) that I thought I'd put 'em all together in a video! These are the classroom management hacks I use on the very first days in art class...and they help me out so stinkin' much. I hope you find them helpful too. Here you go:

 Also, if you wanna hear about what my first day(s) of art were TRULY like, take a listen to this podcast. I didn't exactly practice what I preach (insert eeek-face emoji!):

 In my hacks video, I fail to mention that one of my fave hacks are showing some videos that I've created. I do chat about these in the podcast episode. Here are the videos I share on the first and second days of art:

First day Rules and Routines video!

Second day Art Room Etiquette video!

 I got a LOT of requests for these questions but, honestly y'all, there is nothing magical about them! They are literally random questions I ask each and every kiddo. Make up your own, I promise you'll love them and so will your students. 

I LOVE this hack: these are my daily schedule folders. I teach the same classes on Monday, same on Tuesday, etc. Since my schedule is different every day, it gets to be...a lot. So I staple my schedule to the front of a daily folder. Then I color copy my class lists and place the color matching list inside the folder. On that class list, I also write my seating chart. What I love about this is that everything is color coded and easy for me to keep up with. AND I love it for a sub! She now can easily see my schedule, my matching class list and seating chart. Been doing this for a couple years now and love it.

 And this is my Happy/Sad board for individual behaviors! I tried hard to explain this in my podcast but it was close to impossible without a visual. So here you are! The goal is for me not to move the button down. If I do, it's after a couple of warnings. Once it's moved down, the kiddo can work to improve their behavior and have it moved back up...if they do, fantastic! If not, well then I need to have a little chat with their teacher. It's such an easy tool and works well for me. 

 The colors of paper match my tables and the numbers coordinate with their individual seat spots. 

And it was simply made with flat marbles, puffy paint and velcro on a clipboard!

I hope you find at least a couple of these hacks helpful. Have a wonderful school year! 

Read more »

In the Art Room: Teacher Fill-In-The-Blank for your PD!

For fun, I created these Teacher Fill in the Blank forms for our first day of professional development (I know, my nerd status just got elevated to Uber Nerd). It started with one I created after getting the idea. I ran it past my admin and she suggested I make a couple more for our opening meeting. I ended up creating these three. They were such a hit today that I thought I'd make them available for you! 

Feel free to download and use! Here they are...credit to yours truly would be greatly appreciated!

To kick off the meeting, I placed just the fill in the sheets on the tables, not the story. I did this so that the teachers would be more random in their word choices and thereby making the story more funny. The teachers worked in groups at their tables to compile their lists. After about 5-7 minutes, I passed out the paragraphs and the teachers dropped in their words in the order that they'd written them on their first sheet.

Table by table, one teacher would pop up and read their paragraph. Y'all...they were HILARIOUS! We were dying laughing and it was just about the most perfect way to start our school PD...says me. I love a good belly laugh with friends in the morning. 

If your school, or just the folks at your table during a PD, are looking for a fun time, this is it. Let me know if you do it, I'd love to hear what you think. Have fun and WELCOME BACK!

Read more »

First Day of Art Class!

Well, all this week I've been experiencing my first day of art over and over and over. All y'all know what I'm talking about...with 20 classes, you have the joy of hearing yourself say the same things on loop. Most of my classes, kindergarten through 2nd, are 30 minutes in length. I thought I'd share today what I do in that very first 30 minute art class...and stay tuned. I'll be sharing my second day of art (and what I do with my hour long classes) later on this week. For now, here you go!

The video I play on that very first day of art is one I created last year. My art room looks SO DIFFERENT NOW! It's kinda crazy to see how much I changed and redid last year. My students LOVE this video and it's such a great reminder of what is expected of them. Here it is:

Creating videos is a great way to share with kids important information without putting yourself on repeat. My students love to see the adults in the building cutting up and misbehaving in this video!

 I've been using a variation of this "cheat sheet" for years...and it really helps. I call it my security blanket. I'm sharing it with you in case you need a lil bit of security!

Here are the random and sometimes off the wall questions I ask the students. These questions are all over the place...which really holds their attention and keeps them on their toes. 

Much more to come on how I do my first days...but I did want to share with you what I cover on that very first day when I have 30 minutes or less. Happy New School Year! 

Read more »

In the Art Room: Fourth Annual Chalked Ceiling Tile Event!

Well, here we are...it's that time of the year, y'all. Time for ALL THE THINGS TO HAPPEN ALL AT ONCE: Clay Week, Art Show Prep and our fourth annual Chalked Ceiling Tile Event!

 That's right...it's been four years now that my second grade kiddos have created legacy ceiling tiles to be permanently displaced in the ceiling of our school. What started out as an "alternative project" has quickly become a school-favorite and an annual event. You see, four years ago, I had a visiting sidewalk chalk artist come to our school with the idea that my students would also chalk outside right along with her. But on the big day, rain was in the forecast so we had to improvise. My admin had been requesting painted ceiling tiles...knowing that, I had my custodian buddy Mr. Scruggs (see here!) get me a tile and I played around with drawing on it. After fiddling with the front of the tile, I realized that the back actually worked better as it wasn't as porous. And that's how our Chalked Ceiling Tile Event was born. You can read all about our first event here and here. 

So what do you need for an event like this? The following supplies:

* Faber-Castell Chalk I used to swear by a brand called KOSS but I can no longer find it. So we started using Faber-Castell and it turns out I like it better! The colors are so vibrant and the shorter size is perfect for my student's hands.

* Ceiling Tiles We always have a ton on hand as we do this every year. We ALWAYS use the backside of the tile. One tile per kiddo.

* Foam Brushes These ceiling tiles are huge and would be much too difficult for the kids to blend colors with their bare hands. We use foam brushes for blending. I've had the same set of brushes for years now.

* Baby Wipes This is a messy task, not gonna lie. But with me being in charge of four classes of second graders, I'm not about to let them all loose on the bathrooms. So baby wipes it is!

* Bulletin Board Paper Again, this is messy...like having rainbow dust everywhere. So we try our hardest to control that by putting paper down on the floor of the multi-purpose room.

* Hairspray I always fix the tiles when we are finished by dousing them in hairspray. It will dull the colors slightly. However, the spray doesn't matter too much...the tiles are in the ceiling and therefore no one will be able to touch them and cause them to smear. 

So, how does it work? Well, I usually create a video to walk the kiddos through the process. This saves my voice in a loud space like this big room. I block out about an hour and a half to two hours of time for the kids to spend on their piece. I pool all of my second grade classes together and, well, we just go for it! It's loud, messy but beautiful and so much fun!

 Usually the classroom teachers will take 30 minute shifts during this time or my specials team will help out. Really tho, it's an easy event. Once all the kids are rolling and understand what to do, it's just fun to watch them roll up their sleeves and create. 

 Every year, we do something a little different. Our first year, we did the butterflies. The following year, we created flowers and last year, we made fish! You can watch the action here:

Here's the video I used to teach last year's tile: 

This year, Ms. Rebecca, our cafeteria manager, has requested healthy foods for the ceiling tiles. We're going to be creating fruits for our tiles...you'll have to stay tuned to see how they look!

  These tiles will remain on permanent display. I've been asked before how the kids react to this, knowing that they won't get their artwork back. We spend a lot of time chatting about what a legacy is and how important it is to "leave your mark". I've not had a student yet get upset about having their work up in the ceiling.

The only wear I've noticed from the tiles is some slight fading on the first year's butterflies...but I think that is hardly noticeable. Thankfully, Mr. Scruggs loves to hang these tiles. I hung the ones that are up in my art room and I ended up with a ton of chalk in my eyes! 

 He does a beautiful job of spacing these out and getting them up!

 On top of this big event, I also have first graders painting their clay projects and third graders FINALLY finishing their plaster crayons...the art show is quickly approaching so we are in "wrap it up" mode. 

Read more »