Cassie Stephens: primary art

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Sunday, August 14, 2016

What the Art Teacher Wore #169

Monday, Here We Go!: The first day back with students is usually a lil spooky for me but this year, I was surprisingly calm. I shoulda known that was a sign! The days did go smoothly but I did change and improve my little chat before each class. Next week, we are on to the fun part: art makerin'! dress: made by me, details here; belt and crinoline: Amazon; shoes: Converse, Zappos

Hey there and welcome back! It was our first week back to school with the wee artists and we kicked it off with a bang. Each year, I try to do something a little different to start the school year. I noticed that I've written several blog posts about those first days of school so I thought I'd make a list of those here. Some ideas I still use and some have changed and evolved. Regardless, I hope you find 'em helpful:

* The First Days Back, Welcome to Asia! That time I kicked off the school year with an Asian theme.

* The First Days Back, Artists, Vocab and More! Here I'll walk you through exactly what I say and do during those first days with a couple of video clips.

* The First Days Back, A Room Tour! This post shares with you more tips and tricks as well as a room tour.

* This Year's First Days Back! I just shared this the other day, but in case you missed it...check it out here for my older students and here for my younger.

* Art Teacherin' 101: Also, to get you in the swing of things, I've chatted quite a bit about going back to school in some recent Art Teacherin' 101. You can view all of those here. I share a new Art Teacherin' 101 nearly every Wednesday so if you subscribe to my channel, you won't miss! Also, if you have anything you'd like me to chat about, just leave it in the comments and I'll make an attempt.

I hope y'all have a great start back. I'll be back with you real soon. Until then!

My third and fourth grade students LOVED playing the Art Rocks Escape Game to learn the rules, routines and way around the art room. This is definitely something I'll be bringing back again.

Sharpen Your Pencils Tuesday: I so love the little pencil print on this dress by Love Ur Look London. I shared it on my Instagram and Love Ur Look said that they were bringing that dress back soon. So if you don't see it on their website, stay tuned! shoes: Converse, DSW

I love taking photos of how happy and clean my art room looks before the Fire Marshall comes and loses her mind and the kids come and create masterpieces. Ah...the cleanest it will be all year!

Splatter Me Wednesday: If y'all are a shopaholic like your girl, then you know ModCloth is a dangerous place. I've had my eyeball on this dress for a long while so when it dropped down in price to the lowest I'd seen it, I scooped it up before it was sold out. Another dangerous site? Zuilily, y'all. Check out those Tom's! necklace and scarf: thrifted

This weekend, I've been trying to reach outside my comfort zone and work on some new projects that I'm super excited about. I'll be sure to unveil my new project here first...I can't wait to share it with y'all!

Portrait Dress Thursday: We're all in self-portrait land on my end of the art teacherin' world so this dress seemed like the most appropriate thing to wear! dress: made by me, details here; necklace: from an artist in Charleston; shoes: Cons, Zappos

So this is the first time I've ever shared four blog posts in one week, y'all. It's been a goal of mine for a while but I gotta tell you, it's a lot! Because I've got some "adulting" to do this weekend (reading rewrites for THE BOOK I wrote {ahhh!}, video-lesson planning and plowing the field, aka, cutting the grass), I don't know that I'll get to that DIY I've been dreaming about all week. But, while it lasts, I hope y'all enjoyed the four blog posts. Hopefully it wasn't too much for ya! More on the Shibori dying here.

Fun Friday!: Not even gonna candy coat it, it was a long week, kids. Friday was a much welcome sight! dress: ModCloth, also on super sale!; Rainbow Brite Belt: Buffalo Exchange

Several of you have asked about my new choice in footwear. My feets are fine...I'm just over wearing the heels. I noticed that by mid-day, my dogs were tired and I just wanted to sit down (what I usually did was just switch to my Fast Flats, those ballet style slip ons you can pick up at the drug store). Over the summer, I picked up a pair of Chucks on a whim and I loved how they looked with my vintage dresses. And my feet are happy! So now I have a super serious Chucks-obsession to add to my long list of shopping-obsessions. And there you have it: the unfascinating story of my shoes.

In the Art Room: The Art Rocks Escape Game!

Welcome back to school! Over the summer, my husband and I played an Escape Game. If y'all aren't familiar, the concept is that you are "locked" in a room that is filled with clues to help you escape. The clues usually involve code-breaking, riddle-solving and just plain old hide-n-seek. We had so much fun that I decided to bring the concept to the art room. I thought it would be a great way to introduce my kids to the rules, routines and the space that we call the art room. It was such a blast that I thought I'd share it with y'all!

As the students entered the art room, I had one kid stand at the door and pass out these small slips of paper. There were 7 different colors with about 5 of each. This year I average about 32 third and fourth graders per class so I needed to make sure I had enough for everyone. Once seated on the floor, I started this video:

A whole lotta (poor) editing went into this bad boy. Apparently I forget to edit the part where I adjust my wig. AND, if you make it all the way to the end of this video, you'll catch a look of how I really felt wearing that too-tight head piece and super-sweaty pleather jacket. Regardless, the kids ATE.IT.UP.

Just before I let them have at it, I read them the wee rules of the game...

Now, if you're worried that the kids will get a lil to wild playing this game, I found a sure-fire trick: Tell them there are SPIES watching. I fibbed to the kids and told them that before class had started, I had pulled aside a couple of kids to be my spies. Their job was to listen and share the secrets they overheard with other teams. Oh my goodness, y'all. Those fourth graders took that so seriously it was bananaz! My only other rule was no running...I have a big room and there was A LOT of excitement. But we can't be running in the art room, y'all.

Once I gave them the go-ahead, the kids immediately teamed up and went to their coordinating table. There they found this:

To make things easy for myself, I made all the puzzles identical. Some kids figured out that they were just to look for the yellow heart...but my rule was that all puzzles had to be solved before moving on to the next. My favorite was when one team said, "our puzzle is too hard!"...and I'm all, "Dudes. They are all the same."

Once the puzzles were solved, the kids went in search of their heart. I made sure to hide these pretty well so it was a bit like an Easter egg hunt.

Once they found their box, the kids discovered the following inside:

A dry erase board and marker, a decoder and a code to solve. Each of the seven boxes contained riddles which revealed the class rules. They were to solve the riddle and return to our spot on the floor with their dry erase board.

Just in case you'd like to use the code feel free! The Rockin' Riddle Rules the kids solved here: have fun, be respectful, follow directions, raise your hand, take pride and be nice.

They were highly engaged, that's for sure! Once everyone had their rules, I played the next clip in the video where I chat about each rule. Then we were on to a self-guided room tour complete with a back-stage pass.

(Yes, we refer to the place to put our dirty paint brushes as a "hot tub". Don't judge.)

I tried to think of the places in my art room where the kids would visit the most. I also came up with fun clues to help them find those places. I had specific dry erase marker colors in each spot so they couldn't just write the answers in. Also, I had them go to the places on their pass in the order listed so we wouldn't have any traffic jams.

A peek at how I labeled the places and placed the markers.

Where we play the Smartest Artist game.

After the passes were full, we met again on the floor. In the next part of the video, I take them on a tour explaining the different places in the art room and emergency procedures.

The final phase of the game was a "solo mission". Each artist was given three Post-It's and a Sharpie. They could pick from any of the six questions on my board to answer in a complete sentence. Once finished, they returned to the floor where we played a quick round of Smartest Artist before heading out the door.

You.Guys. I hadn't had a chance to read what they had written until this morning. It made my day!

I mean...

This was only after a couple of classes had a chance to write. I can't wait to see these filled up! I plan to hang them around the school for our Open House Night.

Because my focus is Peace, Love and Kindess this year, this is an important question for my kids.

Their responses let me know that they KNOW the answer...we just gotta make it happen.

Thank you for allowing me to share this super fun way to kick off the school year! Feel free to steal any ideas you see here. I'd LOVE to know if you do this kind of thing with your students. The kids told me that they are excited to play this kind of game again...which can only mean that this will be a new and fun way to introduce new concepts to the kids. An Elements of Art Escape Game, anyone?! YES, PLEASE!
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Art Teacherin' 101: Episode 12

In last week's Art Teacherin' 101 blog post, I shared with y'all my concerns about teaching peace, love and kindness this coming school year. I feel there is a great need to bring this teaching into our art rooms (and all classrooms, for that matter!) and build it into our curriculum. But how? It's not a "standard". We don't have an "I Can" for that. It's not required of us...and I don't recall learning how to teach kindness (like, whut?!) in college. We cannot expect children to just KNOW how to be kind. We don't expect them to KNOW how to hold a pencil, cut a piece of paper and not spread glue all over their hand and lick it off (ahem). We teach them these things. So, in that respect, we can't expect them to know how to treat each other with peace, love and kindness. We DEFINITELY can't expect that of them when our collective actions, displayed on every news outlet, shows we don't know how to treat each other either!

So, for that reason, I'm on a mini-campaign to bring peace, love and kindness into my art room this year. I do hope you'll join me...and share your thoughts, books and lessons in the comments below. United is how we are going to accomplish this goal. And we are doing it for the best reason possible: our students and their future.

My apologies for getting a little long winded here. And emotional. I was trying to keep it together!

I've been scratching my head and wracking my brain to come up with ideas. One way I thought we could kick off this campaign for kindness is with a little something I'm calling the #calendarofkindness and #peacefulheART. I do hope you (and your students) will feel free to join on your preferred social media. I know even my school district is already on board! I'll be posting in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and using those hashtags. I can't wait to see what you share!

I've also created a long list of books that I cherish and share in my art room below along with projects that I've found to be successful. Please feel free to add your two cents in the comments so that we have a growing list of books, resources and projects for peace.

Many of my art teacherin' buddies shared their fave books with me so I'll make sure to add them here. However, I only felt comfortable speaking about the books I've actually read and used in my art room. Love the What Do You Do with an Idea...what a great book to start the art year with! Also, The Hundred Dresses is a short chapter book. I like to read it aloud to my 3rd and 4th grade students while they work. It's a book that teaches about kindness...and makes me cry every time. As does The Giving Tree. Anything Shel Silverstein has written speaks to my students, they love him!

I love these books that celebrate our differences while explaining how we are also the same. The Colors of Us is read to my students every year before we learn to mix our flesh color for self-portraits.

My copy of The Big Orange Splot is so worn out, I've read it to my students to much. It's another book that points out our differences and explains how that is what makes us unique. It also does an excellent job of teaching how we should celebrate the differences of others. Remember: when we teach children to first love themselves, they will be able to love one another.

So anything Todd Parr writes is awesome. And happy. And colorful.

Have y'all read this? It's fan-freakin'-tastic. Get it in your library stat.

Also check out Linda Kranz's other book You Be You...it's excellent as well.

Now, let's talk projects. Here are a handful that I've done with my students to cultivate a culture of kindness. The Gallery of Gratitude was a huge hit.

Each employee of our school was drawn and written about. They cherished these images and words and have them on display in their offices and classrooms!

This hangs proudly right outside the art room door. From floor to ceiling. It really is OKAY! Different is grand.

The Village of Kindness was a successful collaborative project that used recycled materials. I loved how happy, colorful and sweet this display was for our art show last year.

Each house had a door that, when opened, shared a kind message.

This school-wide collaborative now hangs proudly in our school office. It was created by all students to show that we have heart!

This love-based mural was so easy that it was my sub plan! I've created a video to teach this lesson. Feel free to use it in your art room!

Here's an oldie but goodie that we created a couple of years ago, a We Are the World mural! It was a fun and impactful way to kick off the school year.

Of course, The Dot is a great way to start the year as well. It also promotes self-love and how that love can transmit to others. Here is a list of fun Dot Day art projects.