DIY: Superhero Dress with Rainbow Cape!

 Y'all! Last night was our school-wide art show with the theme Superheroes! I have SO MUCH TO SHARE WITH YOU from the big night...video tours and tons of photos so brace yourself...the Art Show Blog Posts are Coming! I thought I'd kick the series of posts off with a post of what I decided to create and wear for the occasion: my Superhero Dress with Rainbow Cape!

 Every spring, when we crack open our 500 lbs of kiln fire clay, I try to come up with a theme for our clay projects. All of the clay projects are displayed in the art room as that's the biggest space to showcase our 3D work. The first year we went with a theme, the art room was transformed into a 1950's diner. We all wore 50's style clothing and it was a BLAST. The following year, our theme was Pet Shop where all the kiddos created animals out of clay. This year, I thought Superheroes would be a fun theme and the kids LOVED it! Each artist created either a ceramic superhero, a superhero car, a bobblehead superhero, a superhero shield, you name it! I'll be certain to share all of those with you in upcoming blog posts. To display these pieces, my early finishers created Rizzi city buildings with construction paper and black paint. That was added to our covered tables and whiteboard to serve as a backdrop for our display! 

 A couple weeks ago, I decided to create my own superhero dress. I popped into Joann's and thought these three primary color prints would work well together. I used my standard mashup of patterns: circle skirt, fitted bodice and a wide waistband to create this look. 

 I'd had the idea of a cape in the back of my mind...but I just wasn't sure what it would look like. Initially it was just going to be a yellow cape with a palette appliqued to the back. Then I got the idea to use this stash of satin rainbow fabric to create a cape. I've NEVER made a cape before...so this took some toying around. I made a mock cape out of muslin to work out the kinks. I'm so excited with how it turned out! 

I created a giant palette shield out of cardboard, insulation foam (for the paint blobs) and paper towel tubes (for the brush). 

 I simply safety pinned it to the back of my dress and there you go! I think it will be so much fun to wear throughout the year to teach about rainbow order and color theory. 

 I let the kids know that on the night of the art show, they were to arrive dressed as a superhero or wearing a t-shirt with their favorite hero on it. We had so many AMAZING little heroes running around! I had the chance to take superhero selfies with so many of my artists...it really was the highlight of my NIGHT/YEAR/DAY/EVERYTHING.

This precious little girl's mom made her superhero costume...isn't it the cutest!? So many homemade costumes made an appearance along with store bought. 

Y'all best stay tuned...much more art show coming your way! Until then...xo! 

In the Art Room: Everyday Heroes!

Teacher Appreciation Week was last week and I FINALLY managed to get the fourth grader's portraits of our faculty and staff up just in time. If you recall, we created these some time ago...but I'd been saving them as a surprise for the teachers and staff on Monday of appreciation week. So I sneaked in on Sunday and got 'em all hung. They were a huge hit!

 Our theme for our art show is Superheroes...so I thought that calling this The Everyday Superheroes of Johnson Elementary would be fitting. If you recall, I did a similar project to this a couple of years ago and we called it the Gallery of Gratitude. For that, we simply created drawings. This time around, we used modeling clay. More information here. 

Here's the video I created for my students (and all y'all) to help them learn the process of creating a portrait with modeling clay:

I got a lot of questions about this project so I'll try to answer them here. 

*How did the kids pick the person they were to create a portrait of?

I had them silently draw the person's name after the video. If they knew the person, then they could go to their seat and get started. If they did not know the person (maybe they are a newer student or perhaps they simply have not had interaction with that person to know them well), then they could stay seated on the floor. After everyone drew a name, they could chat amongst the other kids on the floor and either swap names or do a redraw.

 * What about the people that didn't get their names drawn? Who did their portraits?

I had some kids who I learned were VERY fast at creating these mini portraits. And they loved creating them. So for those early finishers, I'd have them create a second or even a third portrait...or help those who were having trouble with their portraits.

 * What supplies did you use? Does modeling clay dry?

We used modeling clay from the craft stores...I found that some could be hard and some easy to manipulate. If they clay was hard, I simply told the kids to warm it up in their hands (see the video). I really found that all the modeling clay we used worked well. We used matte board cut to 3" squares as our base. Modeling clay NEVER sets so I added a varnish to the top to seal and protect it. For that, I used Crayola's Model Magic Glaze. The "frames" are actually plates from Hobby Lobby!

* How did you do the written portion? 

I didn't...the classroom teacher's handled that for me! I sent them an email letting them know what we were up to and asking if they could help me out. Not only did they talk to the kids about the written portion and have them write it up, they also had them type them! A parent volunteer then added them to the fancy paper frames. 

 * How long will this stay up?

I'd love to leave it up until the start of next school year...but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to take it down before school's out for the summer. I'll be passing these back to the teachers and staff. 

 I think that about covers the questions I've been asked. My students loved making these so much that I followed their portraits up with a self portrait project of the same nature. They look so adorable for our art show!

 Were there tears on Monday morning? Y'all better believe it! This is one of the most favorite projects that I've done...it means so much to everyone involved!

 I loved reading the kind things our students had to say. Each and every person working in my school is so well loved!

 I'll definitely be doing this project again. I'd love to hear if you've done something similar!

Have a great week, superheroes! 

In the Art Room: Maker's Kit Grab Bags

Well, howdy, friends! Have you started the End of the Year countdown yet? I have not...as I'm in the middle of the Art Show Countdown (Tuesday, May 15th, eep!) and cannot seem to focus on the end-of-the-school-year/light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel as I still have SO.MUCH.ART.SHOW.PREP.TO.DO. Thankfully, I'm surrounded by my amazing Art Show Mom Army who are handling the bulk of the work (matting, hanging, finding my coffee/sanity/half-eaten-burrito all at the same time). As most of y'all know, it's really just a matter of getting the kids to FINISH ALL THE UNFINISHED THINGS.

Case in point: I scored an extra hour with my doubled up fourth grade classes on Friday (doubling my fourth and third grade classes is the only way I can get them for an hour. It's busy but it's worth it!). I created a To Do list for them that I posted on my big screen T.V. Here's what was on their agenda:

That's a lot! Thankfully, it's a matter of finishing projects...so no new set of instructions was required. However, you know how this can sometimes go: THE UNENDING ASKING OF QUESTIONS. 

What do I do next?

Where does this go?

Where can I find that one thing that is always in the same place every time but I'm going to ask you again just to test the limits of your sanity?

Insert waving of white flag here. 

Recently, a class reminded me that they'd never "cashed in" their Awesome Artist points because their art teacher is an inconsistent hot mess. Well, they didn't say that last part but it was HEAVILY alluded to. So, I told them that the following art class they'd be able to. "What are we doing?! Are we having a party?! Will there be pizza? CAN WE MAKE SLIME?!"

No. No. ANNNNNNND no. 

 I don't have time for parties (c'mon, y'all. Everyday in the art room is a party anyway!), I ain't got money for pizza and IF I NEVER HAVE TO MAKE SLIME IN MY ART ROOM IT WILL BE TOO SOON. And, just 30 minutes before classes arrived...I got the idea for Maker's Kit Grab Bags. Here, let me 'splain:

If you follow me here, then you know I'm in the middle of cleaning out. I'm decluttering like a crazy person...it's been put to kind of a standstill for the sake of the art show...but the minute that's over, I'm going right back to decluttering. I've managed to knock out cabinets in the art room and corners of my INSANELY PACKED storage closet...

And I've set most of it aside for the EPIC YARD SALE I am planning to host. But a lot of it...I started thinking...the kids might want. 

 So I popped open 34 lunch bags (another item I have a TON of) and started throwing my unwanted craft supplies inside: popsicle sticks, stickers, construction paper in weird sizes, tubes, yarn cones, ribbon and just all the stuff that I have been donated over the years and never found a use for. 

 I LIVED for grab bags as a kid. Whenever I had the opportunity to buy a toy, I always sprung for the grab bag. I told my students that these were Maker's Kits. They were to inspire them to create something, ANYTHING, with the aid of supplies they might already have here at school or home. The hitch? They had to work their tails off all art class, in order to cash in their table points and score their bag. Y'all. I never ONCE had a kid ask me what they were to do next, I never ONCE had a kid off task, I hardly even heard a peep out of them. But, best of all, they started coming back to art with their creations...even sharing them with me on social media!

This was just a spur of the moment idea that I am so excited about! Next year, I hope to create a competition out of this...to really inspire my kiddos to keep on creating. As for now...it's helping me clean out and keep them motivated to the bittersweet end. Do y'all do anything like this?! I'd love to hear how it works in your art room!

In the Art Room: Paint Tube Sculptures

 So, a while back I shared with y'all that my students were sculpting art supplies. My first graders made pencils, some of my fourth graders made glue bottles, my third graders made crayons, and my second graders made glue sticks and scissors (which I've not blogged about yet! Stay tuned!). Two of my fourth grade classes made tubes of paint. We JUUUUUUST finished them off this week as I totally forgot about them in the middle of us working with clay, sewing our pizza pillows and end-of-the-year/art show madness. So, without further ado, here they are! 

 For this lesson, we used toilet paper tubes as our armature. We wrapped them with Activa's Rigid Wrap and created the paint with Celluclay. Here's the video tutorial I created:

Instead of having the kids paint the words on the tube, which proved to be a touch difficult for me, they came up with their own names and wrote them on a white label. That was then attached to a black strip of paper which I hot glued to their tubes. 

 Once the tubes were created, we did the 100 Color Challenge to come up with our own unique color for our tube. The challenge was apart of my evaluation. You can check out more of that here:

Once the kids had come up with their color, they added that and their own concoction of gray to the tube. 

 Dreaming up the color names was probably the best part!

 With our art show just two weeks away, I'm excited to see all of our art supply sculptures on display. 

 If we'd had the time, I would have loved for these guys to create palettes and paint brush sculptures too...but the school year just isn't long enough for all the fun!

 For our art show, we're going to have quite the mix of 3D displays: art supplies, super heroes and pizzas! I've tried to think of a way to have them all make sense together...but they just don't and that's okay. 

 I also coulda spent an entire year having the kids sculpt art supplies, it was so fun! 

 I cannot wait to share with you how are art show is progressing. I'm sorry I've been spotty here...it's just the busiest time of the year! You know what that's like, right? 

 To seal these projects, they were covered in Extreme Glitter ModPodge...yes, that's a thing. For the bottom, ModPodge was added and then sprinkled with silver fine glitter.

 The kids and I are thrilled with how they turned out! 

 I'm down to just a few more days of art classes with this fourth grade bunch...which makes me sad. I've taught them since kindergarten...I hope they have as fond of memories of me as I have of them! 

 Thanks for letting me share this project with y'all...if you've given it a shot, I'd love to hear about it!

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

 If y'all happened to read my last blog post, then you know that Monday was our fourth annual chalked ceiling tile event with second grade. Each year in the spring, second grade creates a legacy piece that gets a permanent spot in our school ceiling. This year, our amazing cafeteria manager, Ms Rebecca, requested healthy foods for the ceiling in the cafeteria. So we went with fruit. We created them Monday afternoon. By 8am on Tuesday, THE AMAZING MR. SCRUGGS had them all up in the ceiling. He loves this event as much as I do and always does an amazing job of placing them in the ceiling. I love his makeshift poncho from a garbage bag, don't you? GENIUS. 

 Here's how the event goes down: I borrow the multipurpose room from our P.E. teachers and cover the floors with bulletin board paper, unused ceiling tiles, chalk and foam brushes. It takes me about an 45 minutes to set up (if that, I've got it down) for my four 2nd grade classes. My Monday's are my lightest, schedule-wise, so I penciled them in to come in during my plan time and second grade block. That gave us an hour and a half to work. But these kids were FANTASTIC and finished their work in an hour! Here's a time-lapse of the event:

Now I have created a how-to video for the last couple years also and that really helps too. If you are interested, here is the video I created for my kiddos. We worked on the back of the tiles with chalk:

This would be a fun lesson on construction paper too! Definitely a lesson you could do in an art room, sans tiles. 

 My kids looked like they'd just finished working a shift in the coal mines when they were done but they were SO EXCITED with their work. 

 Initially, we gathered in the same area, all four classes, talked about what a legacy piece was and chatted about the others hanging up in the ceiling of our school. I let them know that a special request had been put in for healthy food for the cafeteria from our very own Ms Rebecca. The kids were thrilled that their art would have a permanent placement in the cafe!

 Once the first steps were given, the kids partnered up and found a place to work. When they finished the first phase, they could sit and chat with their partner. I encouraged them to work together and help their partner if needed and requested. I had my art class playlist going...I let them know that when the music stopped, I needed their eyes for the next steps. 

 I did provide templates for my students for the watermelon and the citrus. Teaching a large group solo can be difficult. I wanted all of my students to start with confidence and create something they were proud of in the time that they were given. 

 Our final phase was adding the black outlines. 

 I didn't even put black in their trays...I wanted them to use that last as I know how much it can spread EVERY.WHERE.

 The last step was for them to sign their name and MASTERPIECE COMPLETE! 

 With the help of my music teacher buddy (thank you, Kiera!) it took me about an hour to hose these down with fixative and clean up. 

 Once sprayed, I stacked them all on the dolly that my custodian buddy had placed them on and wheeled them down to the art room. 

 I left them outside the art room. I was tired and I was thinking, "eh, I'll take care of it in the morning."

 Come Tuesday Morning, Mr. Scruggs already had them up in the cafeteria ceiling BEFORE 8am!

 Y'all, the kids were so proud. I told them, "now you'll have THREE places to find artwork at the art show: outside your classroom, the art room and THE CAFETERIA!"

 We always host an Ice Cream Social during the art show which takes place in the cafeteria. So they'll be able to show their artwork then. 

 BIG SHOUT OUT to my admin for the support, my specials team for lending me their kiddos and their space, the second grade team for JUST.BEING.AWESOME. And, of course, MR. SCRUGGS!

AND, last but not least, the hardest working second grade artists I know. Love all y'all!