I never realized just how much I loved drawing and doodling until I wrote my book Art Teacherin' 101. That book is sprinkled with drawings that helped me share my ideas about teaching art with you in a way that felt natural to me.
I have also created numerous doodle banners for my students to color and paint in and you can check them out here.
I even created doodle rolls for YOUR students to color and paint on and you can buy them here (they are a steal for four HUGE banners!).
I printed the book on 70 lbs paper which means you can use markers, color pencils, crayons...and I've even been using my watercolor pencils!
Some of the pages can be used to color and hang in your art room as either decor or...not so gentle reminders that the art room is not a supply closet (ahem...see below!)...
While other pages are meant for you to jot down funny things the kids say, ways for you to reconnect with your creativity, gratitude doodles and even jotting down your favorite art teacherin' songs.
I wanted this book to be like a warm hug from a fellow art teacherin' friend. I do hope you love it as much as I did creating it!
For the record, I do think you are much more than OKAY...but this is your reminder that okay is fine too! I know I struggled a lot with having the perfect art room or amazing lessons...it's fine to let that go. Your creativity and rest is just as important! So...it's okay to be okay!
Ahem...said reminder!
Thanks for letting me share, friends! Have a happy summer!
Before we dive in, I just wanna say that what you're about to see here is how I run my first 30 minute art class with my first though fourth grade students. I have shared a lot of videos in the past about my first day of art...and really, this one is no different. EXCEPT...I'm going to walk you thru the method behind my madness so you can understand not only HOW I'm doing something but what and why. I'm also sharing my FREE downloads with ya as well as links to the items I share. But before we dive in...
Now, I share several items in this video from my classroom. If you'd like to take a closer look at those things like my Open/Closed sign, my dry erase board and more then you can find links to all of them right here.
In my book, Art Teacherin' 101, I talk about this "cheat sheet" and how it helps me remember all that I want to cover on that first day. For this free download, just click here!
If you'd like a copy of my Getting to Know You questions, just click here!
Just a reminder: I'm sharing these with y'all so that you have a great start to your school year. Please do not sell these on TPT...I hate that I have to say that but it happens to me and other educators...a lot. It's stealing. So please don't.
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
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.
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!
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.
Hey, y'all! I'm trying, once again, to give sketchbooks a go in my art room. It's always been tricky for me with 30 minute art classes and I've tried doing sketchbooks a BAH-ZILLION different ways. Here's hoping this works. MORE sketchbook details to come (I even created insert pages, y'all...I'm crazy) but until then, I thought I'd share with you a previous post on how I have done sketchbooks in the past . AND I wanted to share with you this free PDF on how they created these sketchbook covers!
Now if these decoder sheets look familiar it is because this is the same idea I used for our Getting to Know You Sculptures! For our sketchbook covers we used 6" X 18" paper and paint sticks. But really, this would be a great activity for sub plans, the start of abstract painting or simply Getting to Know You works of art!
Is your art teacherin' clean up time a real pain in the, well, you know? I've tried EVERY clean up trick under the sun and I've finally found what works. There's a whole lot of bells, whistles and moving parts when it comes to my routine...some may work for you, some may not. But that's the trick. Finding what works and sticking with it. In my podcast episode this week, I am sharing an audio clip of my kids cleaning up from the alarms I set...
(And there are a lot of alarms I set because each day of my schedule is different AND each of my classes is 30 minutes in length) to the Clean Up Drums and Gong, to the Table Caller and the super easy reward system I use to encourage a quick, quiet and amazing clean up. I'll also be sharing a whole lot of alternatives to what I use as I don't assume most of y'all have a drum set or a gong. I hope you will take a listen AND I hope you'll share what clean up routines work for you. Here's the episode:
Hey there, friends! Just popping in to share my second day of art class with my students. If you recall, I shared my first day here (with video!) if you are interested. My classes are 30 minutes in length and we have SO MUCH TO COVER. I filmed a video of what I (mostly) cover on the second day and thought I'd share it with you:
Now...here's what's not included in the video...after covering rules, I show my Art Room Etiquette video which is this:
It's just a fun and quick reminder of my routines and procedures. From there, I have the kids file to their seats as a reminder of where they sit. We spend short bit chatting about emergency drills. We line up for fire, tornado, room clear and an intruder drill. To end art class, we all gather around my drums (yeah, I got a drum set) and we each take a turn playing a fill. This is what the kids will play if chosen to play the clean up drums.
This insures that each child knows how to play a fill on the drums during clean up time from here on out.
Before heading out the door, I give a quick demo and chat about the Clean Up Gong which is played right after the drums...and that's it! After all that, the 30 minutes is up and we gotta go. Next art class: we be painting! I'm so ready to get to art makin' with my people.
And, just in case you missed it, here's my podcast episode all about my first days in art class!
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
