What the Art Teacher Wore #156

First Day o' Feb Monday: Are you kidding me? I've been counting the days until I could bust out my heart-tastic, LOVE-ly wares, y'all. heart print top: Buffalo Exchange; belt and palette print skirt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; hat: New Orleans; tights: Target; shoes: Fluevog

What's happening, my friends? I feel like it's been ages since we last chatted even tho it was only Tuesday. I do try my hardest to see you here three times a week but sometimes the week gets ahead of me and the next thing I know, it's Sunday. How does that even happen? Time flies when you are a procrastinator, y'all.

In other news, Monday was the first day o' Feb and I was beyond ready to bust out some heart-y/love-y outfits. I also am leaving you with my latest filmed sub plan! I had to pop outta town for a coupla days and I was thrilled to have my same sub from jury duty land. She was very excited when I told her I had another filmed lesson ready for her. Hopefully, her day went well. I thought I'd share it with y'all in case you need a quick fun project for Valentine's Day! 

Until next time, love y'all!

This lesson is based around the book Love Monster by Rachel Bright. I don't own the book so I had my sub read aloud the youtube video below and then dive into my sub video you see above! For this lesson, the kids needed Lost Love Monster sheets, glue, scissors, Sharpies, googley eyes and paper to create hearts. 

The story is super sweet and one that my sub could play for all of my kindergarten through fourth grade kids. For kindergarten, there was a modified worksheet that didn't entail as much writing. 

Sadly, I forgot to save the word doc of the sheet or I'd share it with y'all here! But I did make a couple of examples that I had on my white board which shows what the copy at the bottom of the sheet said. You can also sneak a peek in the video.

If you wanna keep up with my video'd lessons, you can subscribe here, kids!

Love and Kittens: I made this dress (and matching sweater!) a coupla years ago and it's still my fave V-day, kittentastic look. I can't believe I didn't stitch up a single Valentine's dress this year! My lil sewing machine is gather dust at the moment, boo. dress: by me, here; belt: amazon; boots: Hunter

Jim Dine Heart Dress: Okay, let's be honest: Valentine's Day in art teacherin'land is also known as Jim Dine Projects Day, amiright? Love this artist so much I needle felted this dress dedicated to him! 

Color Wheel Skirtness: I realized the other day that I'd never worn this bad boy to school! The kids loved it but mostly the big bow. The lady at the bank was not as impressed by my big bow, I'll have you know. Color Wheel Skirt and Top: DIY here

If you follow me on Instagram, then you've seen this photo already! We did some color mixing experiments in first grade this week and they loved it! I thought I'd share with y'all how. I used three clear cups for the mixture of each secondary color. In front of the kids, I put an inch of water in all three cups. Then I put drops of food coloring in the outer cups. In this case, yellow and red. I folded a paper towel up (I used Viva paper towels, if that matters), placing one paper towel from yellow to the clear cup and another paper towel from the red to the clear. Immediately, the colored water began to creep up the paper towel. To help the process, I raised the height of the outer cups with stacked CD's. By the end of art class, the kids saw some progress but the following day yielded the best results. They loved it and it was so easy! 

100 Day of School!: I forgot to share with y'all my outfit for the 100th day of school...or, as I should call it, Any Excuse to Wear My Rainbow Wig to School. The kids were curious about the rotary phone pattern so we busted out my old phone and played on it! wig: Gothic Lolita; dress: ModCloth; hat and cherry pin: vintage; faux fox sweater: DIY made by me here

Until next time, you crazy kids!

Read more »

What the Art Teacher Wore #155 and a Video Sub Plan!

 Monday, You Ain't Right: I have a super hilarious coworker who loves to tell me, "Stephens, you ain't right!". To give her credit, this was after I explained to her that, no, my stockings were not purchased this way but created with a little creative tucking. It's no wonder that I usually get a side-eye and a head-shake from my work budz. crayon hair clip: made by me, DIY here; crazy sweater: vintage; dotted dress and tights: Target; flats: Payless; shoe clips: made by me, DIY here

So a while back, I got a big thick envelope in the mail. The return address looked boring and official so I threw it on the dining room table where it sat for more days than I'm willing to admit. "You better open that letter soon," el hubbo warned, "It looks pretty important." 

Turns out it was. I've been summoned for el jury duty-o. 

Looks like I'll be outta the art room for five days spread across two weeks. Now, I've slapped together I'm-so-sick/night-before/please-don't-vomit-on-these sub plans before but that was when I was in a pinch and knew I'd prolly only be out for a day. However, knowing that I'd be missing this much time with the kids, I really didn't want to deprive them of a fun and art-ucational experience. So, my Friday afternoon looked a lil like this: 

If you follow me on Instagrammerz, you already know that I decided to create a video'ed sub plan! I've been showing my students videos of myself lately which has been super awesome because 1. it allows me time to prep; 2. it allows me not to forget anything that I'm supposed to say; 3. [truth be told] it allows me to kick back and drink my fourth cup of coffee. There. Cat's outs the bag. After sharing this photo, I had a lotta questions about what the lesson entailed, which, fingers crossed, will be a Romero Britto-inspired Pattern-tastic Heart Mural Collaborative! So I thought I'd share it with y'all! PLEASE keep in mind that this is me addressing my first through fourth grade students. I promise I don't talk to adults this way (well, okay. I do. And, for that, I apologize). 

Now. I've never done this before. I do plan to go in every morning of my JD to prep the technology. Thankfully, the courthouse is just a couple blocks away from my school so I have the luxury of popping in and doing a little prep. I also created a two minute video of myself chatting with the sub so he/she knows what our routines are and some housekeeping biz. I'll be sure to keep y'all posted on how it goes. Until then, back to the What the Art Teacher Wore (or shoved in her hair) show! 

 When I shared this DIY with y'all a while back, my sweater got more interest than my hair clips! It was quite the conversation starer with the kids as well. One said, "it's like you have crayon worms crawling all over you!" Yikes, kid. That's the stuff of nightmares. 

 I actually have a wee shoe clip problem. And a love for making stuff outta Sculpey. You can see this DIY here. 

 Thank You for Being a Friend, Tuesday: Thank y'all so much for the very positive feedback on my art teacherin' videos! My goal is to share more videos weekly so if you wanna stay in the loop, you might wanna subscribe to my channel as my videos go up before they appear here. Smooches! sweater: thrifted; eyeball top: Urban Outfitters; scissor skirt: Modcloth; tights: Target; shoes: Dolls by Nina

 #OnWednesdaysWeWearArt: Y'all check out my awesome "I like to ARTY hard" shirt? It was created by artist My Friend Court (Courtney Pilgrim). Court is a former art teacher turned full time artist. Her work is as happy, bright and colorful as she is (if you don't believe me, just scroll thru this Instagram account, kids). Each Wednesday, Courtney does a lil #OnWednesdaysWeWearArt where we can dress with an artist in mind, snap a photo and use that hashtag on ole Insta. I decided that Court was my muse by wearing her shirt! top: My Friend Court; skirt and belt: PinUp Girl Clothing; dotted tights: Target?; shoes: Sofft

 But What Will You Wear?! Thursday: So, I've been letting my classes know about my upcoming absences. Which led to a nice chat about jury duty and civic duties. I could tell I was making real headway when I was asked, "But what if they find you guilty?!" Once that issue was resolved, ahem, this convo went down: 

Kid: What will you wear?

Me: what do you mean?

Kid: uh. Like. Will you be dressing like how you always do? Like (with a wave of the hand) that?!

Kid 2: She only has crazy clothes, what do you think?!

Couldn't have said it better. sweater and dress: thrifted and vintage

Gone Cuckoo Friday: Anytime I've procrastinated the daylights outta my life, which always means my Fridays are a mess, I go a lil cuckoo. So what better day to wear this number, eh? sweater and tights: Target; boots: Anthro; belt and crinoline: Amazon; cuckoo dress: made by me, DIY here

Read more »