What the Art Teacher(s) Wore #133

Meet Sarah Brooks, über colorful art teacher outta Fairfax, Virginia. You know I totes love a pop of color and this art teacher is dominating the Roy G. Biv look, y'all. 

Whuz goin' on, party people?! I present to y'all today, in lieu of my regularly scheduled what this art teacher wore, what a whole buncha other art teachers wore. I decided to do a lil switch-a-roo on Friday as I'd not taken a single solitary wardrobe selfie this week. Ya see, I fell into a lovely lil patch of poison oak and I just didn't think the Red Rashy Look was something y'all would wanna see (unless you're into that sort of thing. And, if that's the case, might I suggest Craig's List. He's got a ton of freaky friends). So I declared Friday, F-Artsy Fashion Day and asked fellow art teachers to send me some snaps of what they wore. This was so fun that I just might have to do this sort of post again (this time without the whole "falling into a patch of poison oak and looking like I'm covered in The Herp from head to toe", ahem.) So without further ado, let's meet some art teachers and check out what they wore, y'all!

 So Fridays are usually casual days in Teacher Town, amiright? So we've got a lotta lovely art teachers in their fave art t-shirts. I do love how Jennifer Gironda spiced hers up with some fab jewelry (that necklace! that Hello Kitty ring! Ahh!) and that pink leopard print sweater. I think I need that in my life. By the way, Jennifer isn't only a snappy dresser, she's also a super active artist who creates several pieces of artwork...a day! You can find her blogging here and here. 

 Lindsey Ostafy is this super cute and always stylin' art teacher outta Delaware. I know I like Lindsey because she and I have similar tastes -- girl, I have that very same Frida top! We're Twinkies! I dunno if y'all are aware but ForNever21 (ahem) currently has some clothing with artist repros on 'em. Just this week I scooped up a sweet Keith Haring sweatshirt and t-shirt. They also had some Jean-Michel Basquiat. By the way, Lindsey's been on this here blog before, she participated in the Best Dressed Art Teacher Contest. Which made me just realize...I bought that same scissor skirt from ModCloth after seeing Lindsey's on that post. Does this make me a Lindsey-Ostafy-Single-White-Female Stalker?! Sorry, Lindsey! 

If you can find a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon/Art Teacher mash-up shirt then, by golly, you are a near perfect human in my book. And that's just what Suzanne Finn. Not to mention, she's a fellow Hoosier which means that, by Indiana law, I have to like her. We Hoosiers like to stick together. That shirt is simply the best, dontcha think? 

 Don't hate Kelly Moncure because she's beautiful. Hate her because she lives in the land of sunshine while the rest of y'all are up to your eyeballs in snow. This San Diego-ian teaches photography to some lucky high schoolin' kids. I love her sporty cowboy hat, don't you? Kelly is a super sweet gal, I know her students must love her.

 Hey, look, it's Heidi O'Hanley! If you don't know Heidi, she blogs over at Tales of a Traveling Art Teacher. She just wrote this AWESOME post yesterday where she shares the best places to find...wait for it...art teacher clothes! And jewelry! AND a hair accessories! Thank you so much, Heidi! I can't wait do a lil online shopping based on your tips.

 You might not recognize my buddy Jane Shores without one of her handmade art teacherin' skirts! If you recall, I interviewed Jane a couple months ago about her new fave fashion accessory: art teacher skirts! She explained in this post how she got into the whole wild world of stitchin (it's addictive, y'all. Especially that fabric-buying part!). 

You know what's great about having an art teacher mama? She can help you create the best Spirit Day ensemble everrrr. Moheekan Moe and her son stand as proud Trojans. And as they should, that helmet and shield are the totes amazing! 

 Daw, don't you just love Rebecca Dupree's musical number? She said that her school was holding a school-wide music even that day and so she just had to dress the part. Like, yeah. And totes nailed it, if I do say so. I also love the sweet music-infused collages I'm guessing her students creating. So sweet. Thanks, Rebecca!

Oh, snap, Biz Craft, no you didn't! I currently have a Mondrian-inspired dress on one of my mannequins and this here girl beat me to the punch. AND she made her hand painted skirt. Like, did you hear me? That's hand painted? She looks straight offa the runway, y'all. So adorbs, girl!

Again, thank you all for playing along! If you didn't hear about this spectacular What the Art Teacher Wore event and would like to know more about it when the next one pops up, you might wanna follow me on Instragram, Twitter or Facebook (or "FacePlace" as one of my administrators once called it, ha!).

In the Art Room: A Village of Kindness, Part I

So y'all might recall me mentioning that we're doing a lil Be Nice campaign at my school. Quite simply, it entails us doing something kind for others. In the art room, we created a Gallery of Gratitude for all who work in our school, we wrote letters to fellow artists praising their hard work, and my fourth graders created a Legacy Mural as a gift both to the school and our principals. And just last week, we began work on our latest creative effort in being nice: our Village of Kindness!

Our super fab cafeteria manager has been saving the morning milk cartons and rinsing them out for us (I told you she was super fab) which is great because the smell of sour milk makes me do that Ima-bout-to-heave wobbly neck chicken dance. I seriously have hundreds of 'em in my room right now all in the process of becoming this awesome. The concept is that each house in our village has a door that opens with a nice message inside. This one reads: "Your cool litraly soooooooooooooo cool." Gotta love third grade.

 I'm always pushing the idea of being your unique self in my art room. It's kinda been my mantra this year what with words like original, creative, non-conformist and unique being our Words of the Week. So this message of "UR the Best YOU!" is one of my faves.

So just how did this project get started? Well, every kid in the school is creating a house for our village. To start, we did a quick review of the warm colors and in our first thirty minutes together got about this much accomplished. I only had a coupla rules: don't forget to clean your paint brush and write your name on the bottom of the house. Other than that, paint away, dudes!

On the second thirty minute art class, I read the book The Big Orange Splot. I LOVE this book and so do the kids. If you've not read it, it's about a dude who paints his house "to look like all of his dreams" and inspires his neighbors to do the same. It's a great example of conformist vs. non-conformist. And it serves to really inspire our second day of house painting.

On that day, the kids are given smaller brushes and cold colors. They were encouraged to add any sort of line designs and details they might want. These kids were also introduced to Rizzi at the start of the school year which was a great tie-in for this portion of the project.

 On our third day, the kids were given a wide variety of media to work with to finish off their house. I got out the "funky monkey" scissors for cutting and creating a door and a roof. Oil pastels, paint and colored pencils were available for the kids to finish off their masterpiece. I found that by giving them a ton of media to pick from, they really got creative.

When writing our messages, I told the kids to write something that they would like to hear from a friend. What kind words would really make your day? It was funny to read their responses. I got one that read, "Like your top, bro" and another that said, "You are the best gamer IN THE WORLD!" Many others said kind things about being an awesome artist or smart student. They were such a pleasure to read after the kids had cleaned up.

Since our focus is on kindness AND because I really enjoy reading aloud (just ask my mom-in-law as my fave thing to do when visiting her is read to her the Dear Abby column), I have been reading The Hundred Dresses while the kids are working. It's a chapter book (so the young kids love it for that reason alone) that's all about a girl who is teased by others for claiming to have, you guessed it, a hundred dresses. Turns out she does have that many only not in the way you might think. It's such a sweet book that all the kids (even the dudes) really enjoy. And it fits in so very well with our chats on kindness. 

ADDED BONUS...Here's something super interesting that I found: when reading the book, the kids don't ask for help or even reminders of what to do. They magically remember! They also magically seem to have more focus on their creation! When I discovered this on my first day reading to them, I was all "why has it taken my 17 years to figure this out?!" 

 I can easily say that each and every kid loved this project. And each and every house is totes presh. Our end goal is to attach our village on a painted backdrop. Usually I share with you projects at their completion but I really wanted you to see our works in progress. Mostly cuz they are just about the cutest thing everrrr.

 My goal is to have our Village of Kindness up and ready by Valentine's Day but that's sneaking up on me rapidly so I'm not holding my breath. I'll be certain to come backattcha with a  Part 2 so you can see the finished results. 

 I mean, c'mon. Is it just me or are these not the happiest lil houses? I'd totes live in this wee one. 

Or perhaps this one! They are all just too happy, bright and colorful for me to pick a fave.

 So until then, I hope y'all have a happy, bright and colorful week!

DIY: A Big Fat Knitted Scarf/Blanket Thingie

 Have you ever found yourself neck-deep in a craft and been like, "Ugh, why am I doing this?! I hate {insert least fave craft here. Like friendship bracelet braiding for zample. Man, I never could get the hang of that. Which was fine cuz I only had, like, two friends growing up and one of them was imaginary. Okay, they both were}." This reminder of my distaste for knitting flared up big time whilst I was in the midst of casting on and promptly de-casting (un-casing? non-casting? whateves) the hot mess that was on my knitting needles. When I finally DID get myself rollin' in the right direction, I was all, "wait, what? Who am I and why am I holding these knitting needles?!" And by that time, well, it was just too late. 

In all seriousness, knitting isn't that bad. I mean, it's great for traveling cuz I feel like I'm all productive and stuff, just knitting away in the passenger seat. Normally, I'm passed out like a drunk sailor when we go road trippin, but while knitting, I'm actually getting something done. Even if that something is creating a Big Fat Knitted Scarf/Blanket Thangie. I mean, seriously, y'all. Have you ever seen a scarf that wanted so badly to be a blanket? I've nicknamed it my Blarf for that very reason. 

So why knit if I dislike it so? Cuz when I visited these precious babies a while back, I bought some alpaca yarn from their owner. I mean, I got to meet the sweet lil girl that the yarn came from and everything! How could I not knit something with that?

And, okay, can I just tell you how very much I love the smell of alpaca wool? I might have a Blarf-sniffing problem. Ima bout to be the next Mary Catherine Gallagher...

'Cept instead of the hands-previously-in-armpits sniffing, I'll be alpaca-Blarf-huffing. Which is prolly equally as weird, I know.

 But really how could something this cute not smell precious? Daw, would you just wook at dat sweet widdle face-y wace-y!

Whilst at the farm, I bought myself three skeins of alpaca wool. On the way home, I scored some cream colored wool at the Joann's, aka where-I-deposit-my-paycheck. I had this Anthropologie throw in mind for my scarf. I loved the stripe-y look and the size of the thing. Just right for a scarf, dontcha think?

The thing really is a monster but that's kinda what I love about it. It's ridiculously large but that's part of the charm, says me. Also, I figured once I get tired of the thing I can simply unravel it. I used a super simple garter stitch (which is the most basic of knit stitches, y'all) because of my limited intelligence. It's good to know your limitations, says moi.

Speaking of Anthropologie, when I was going through their most recent catalog, I totes cracked up at this photo. OMG, this model is SO OVER knitting, y'all. There are so many things that I absolutely love about this photo that I must share them all with you in bullet-y bullet points:

* Obvi this model has never knitted before, right? I mean, would you look at how she's holding those needles? You know the photog was just all, "Hey, hold these needles and act like you're knitting" and the model was all, "Man, I dunno how to knit!" and dude was all, "Me neither! Just hold 'em and look exhausted." BOOM. Nailed it.

* Should we be concerned that this poor girl appears to be housed in someone's woodshed? She appears a little thin and tired looking, albeit exquisitely dressed (thanks, Anthro!). What if she's being held hostage in some rando woodshed in some rando backyard? My neighbor has a shed, y'all. And I have seen him throw balls of yarn into the shed and yell, "Get back to knitting!" before but I never really thought anything of it. Come to think of it, it's prolly nothing.

* I did a little math. Added total cost of that knitting ensemble? $622.56. It costs a lot to look that good whilst not knitting, y'all. 

 Despite the fact that knitting's not my fave, I really REALLY wanna learn how to knit a sweater. Do you guys knit? Can you come over to my woodshed, er, house and teach me your magical knit-witting ways?! 

Oh and speaking of Anthro, that tulle skirt is one I created based on an overpriced version of theirs! You can read about my tulle-making madness here. 

Until next time! Hope y'all have a fantastical knit-free week!

What the Art Teacher Wore #132, Giveaway Winner and a Sewing Swap!

 Monday-ish: So this prolly isn't something one should wear on a Monday morning. Instead a night out on the town in the 1950's or something. But, you know, that's how I roll. The kids loved this scarf from UncommonGoods although a coworker did say it looked as though I'd deflated a globe. Which I thought was hilarious cuz it kinda does! dress: vintage, Buffalo Exchange; scarf: UncommonGoods

Hey there, y'all! Can I just dive right in and tell you what a wild week I've had (and then I'll get to the giveaway winner, pinky-swear/spit-shake)? I mean, it started out as your average art-teacherin' week that is til Tuesday when I was given the honor of District Teacher of the Year. Like, whuh? It went down a lil sumpin like this:

I was in the middle of a third grade class. And we were all over the place. Some kids were finishing a painting project, a couple others were creating miniature Ojo de Dios to accompany their large one, and one rando always-finished-first girl had started weaving on my large loom. All this was going down when outta the corner of my eye, I spy my principals, superintendent and an entourage of folk outside my door with balloons. BALLOONS, people. And it's not even my birthday. 

"Mrs. Stephens! Do you know why we're here?" I was asked when the mob walked in the door. To be honest, back of my mind, I see a dude with a buncha balloons, I'm half expecting a big fat check from Publisher's Clearing House, y'all. 

"Um," trying frantically to think of something, ANYTHING, to say, "You're taking us all to Chuck-E-Cheese?!" To which a couple kids cheered while the rest looked at me mortified. Even they knew better than to say something so ridiculous.

Because I was no help, the question was posed to the kids who replied, "Because she's Teacher of the Year!"

"Oh but now she's also District Teacher of the Year!" 

Stunned silence by both me and the kids. Maybe one of them cheered. The rest just looked as astonished as me. 

After it all finally clicked, we snapped a ton of pics with me and the kids and had a grand ole time. It was such a pleasant surprise. I mean, I work with outstanding educators in a school district that is renowned for it's awesomeness. To be recognized by my school was one thing but by my district...well, that's just incredible. 

Happy Surprise Tuesday: Such a fun and surreal kind of day. And of course it was the day I decided to skip hair-washing in exchange for more rolling around "I don't wanna go to school!" time. Which is always to no avail as the only one in the house is the cat who just gazes at me momentarily and then proceeds to clean her rear. sweater: made by me, DIY here; dress and tights: TJMaxx; belt: UncommonGoods; gold dotted boots: made by me, DIY here

On a dif note, can I totes confuse you and completely switch gears? Please? I mean, if you've read this blog before, you know the drill: it's ADD-enhanced for your reading dis-pleasure. A while back, an art teacher friend threw out the idea of a fabric swap. AND a while-while back, I threw out the idea of doing another Sew-Along this time for Dress-A-Girl-Around-the-World. By the way, the Dress a Girl dress is a simple pillowcase number, perfect for beginner sewers. So! I made this lil clip to explain my wild and crazy idea. Here ya go:

So! If you are interested, all you gotta do is the following:

1. Leave your email in the comments along with the state you live in. I'd love to pair you with someone close so you won't have to pay extra for shipping.

2. I'll send you an email introducing you and your swap partner by the end of next week. Y'all can chat and decide how much fab fabric to send and when. Remember the minimum to making a dress is one yard. But you might want to do one yard of two types of fabrics. This way your sewing buddy can create a pocket or a ruffle with the extra fabric.

3. Send out your goodies by mid-February. This way your partner can receive them in time to start stitching! I'll be sharing the Dress-A-Girl dress making steps on this here blog soon. So you won't wanna wait, y'all!

And that's it! I do hope you'll consider joining the fun. Just leave your email and state in the comments below!

 Wacky Wednesday: I dunno even know what made this day wacky apart from that it was Wednesday. Sorry, I got nuthin. sweater: vintage; tights and top: Target; pencil skirt: Anthro, last year; scrabble "Artsy" necklace: from my buddy Phyl over at There's a Dragon in my Art Room! Thanks, Phyl!

Thurs-daze: When I was a kid, Thursday was my ab fab day of the week. It was the day before Friday and it was the night of the Cosby Show and that was my jam, y'all. I think I still have a soft spot for ole Thursdays for that very reason. sweater and shoes: thrifted; palette belt: etsy; necklace: The Paper Source; floral still life skirt: Anthro

And the winner of the UncommonGoods $50 Giveaway is...

Allison of Artfully Yours! She wrote: 

"Your blog has me very intrigued about needle felting! I am a fellow art teacher and would totally get the hedgehog needle felting kit...my daughter would love those cute little guys too!"

Congrats, Allison! Big thanks to UncommonGoods and all who entered to win!  

In the Art Room: A Unit on Shape for Kindergarten, Part 1

Hey guys, if you've not entered the UncommonGoods Giveaway yet, scoot yourself over here and do it! The come back for this here post. Thanks!

Hi, y'all! I'm here today to share with you some of the latest kindergarten masterpieces that the wee-est of wee ones have been creating in the art room. Because these lil dudes had never been to art before coming to me, I like to start with the super duper basics. Like the elements of art! Which is why, at the start of the year, I introduce 'em to a big fat hairy unit on line. We create paper line sculptures, paint a variety of lines, create abstract line paintings. Y'all, we are all about lines. And since a line creates a shape, shape is our next unit o' study!

But, before I get to said unit, can we chat about painting with small children for a moment, puh-lease? Let's be honest: they don't come by this kind of loveliness without a whole lotta proper painting how-to's, am I right? Namely, how not to jack up the paint tray (which also translates to "how not to drive your art teacher to drink the paint water"). My kindergarten kids pretty much hit the ground painting. And I've found that with lots of practice and constant reminders of proper painting technique, they can do just about anything. 

So, what do I tell 'em? The same thing every time we paint, from kindergarten all the way on up to fourth grade. It sounds a lil like this:

"Remember! Your paint brush is like a ballerina. She always dances on her tippy-toes. So you only need to put paint on her toes. She never scoots around on her bottom. So we would never smash our brush into our painting. It will ruin your ballerina's toes! And she won't be able to paint you a beautiful masterpiece. "

So, that's Thing One. Thing Two is all about changing colors from one to the next. I don't know what your paint set up is but mine goes a lil sumpthin like this: paint colors distributed in empty egg cartons, two per table of four children (I'm currently a Versa Temp by Sax paint convert. I looove this paint!); tray of water for cleaning and sponges for wiping excess water, two per table of four. And then my lil reminder routine for cleaning goes like this:

"Before you get a new color, your ballerina needs to take a bath. Put your brush in the cup of water and you should hear that paint brush scrub the bottom. It should sound like it's brushing it's teeth! Don't tap your brush on the cup, it will splash on your neighbor's painting! Instead, gently wipe your brush on Dirty Ole Sponge Bob (what we call our filthy painty sponges). Now you're ready for your new color!"

I have found that by making the process of painting and cleaning the brush silly and fun, the kids will do it. Sometimes we'll tell our brushes, "oh! Time to take a bath!" or "Ballerina! Do not scoot on your bottom!" It's hilarious to hear the kids having a full blown convo with their paint brush. But, hey, whatever works, right? So long as the principal doesn't walk in and wanna know why the kids are chatting with animate objects and drag 'em to the guidance counselor. 

Now! On to shapes!

So when I introduce the kids to shapes, I go about it a coupla ways. First we take a gander at this book. I love Lois Ehlert's books, don't you? This book especially is great because the shapes are bold and beautiful and easy for the kids to see. We count them, name them and count their number of sides. Going through this book with the kids helps me gain an understanding of their knowledge of shapes. As does playing a short round of this game.

I usually play this game once when I have a bit of down time with the kids. Again, it helps me gauge their shape knowledge. By this time in the school year, my kindergarten friends have learned quite a bit about shapes. So I like to spice this game up a bit. Instead of just calling out "pink triangle" I might say, "a shape that has three sides that's pink".  But even this simple game doesn't have all the shapes that are in the kinder-curriculum.

Which is why I love this lil handout from guruparents.com. My students are well beyond circles and squares and are now in deep with trapezoids and parallelograms. I used this handout to make flashcards that we run through at the start of our lessons based on shape. We even did a couple vocab games just to get those words stuck in our heads. Here's a lil clip of some of the vocab games we play.

So, what's our first shape-based creation? Well, it's a total rip off our first line-based masterpiece. But the tie-in is just perfect and it only takes one class. Our shape box!

 Now, you can go about creating this shape box a coupla ways. Either have the kids create the box from two strips of black paper (which is great because they'll learn how to make a square but also sucks because it will take them a million years to make said square). OR you can have a glorious parent volunteer bust 'em out in less than 15 minutes. Which is what I opted to do after a class of kinder-kids spent entirely too much time creating a box and not having enough time to create the rest of their shapes. 

 So, let's talk shape making. How'd they make 'em? Well first you start with a strip of paper which is a line. Then ask them..."how can this line become a circle?" Immediately, they'll respond that you need to glue one end to the other. Then show them that if you pinch it once...it's a drop shape! Pinch it twice...you have a crescent! Three times, viola, a triangle. And four, well, perhaps a square or a rectangle, you decide.

Kids found ways to create hearts and even stars. That pretty much made my day. 

What to do after that? Paint shapes, of course! We had many a chat about painting different shapes. The kids were intent on learning to paint stars and hearts. So many demos were given. I also have the tables covered in paper. I always encourage the kids to "practice and paint on the table". This way, once they feel comfortable, they can then paint on their paper. 

By the end of the first day, their paintings looked a little like this. We talked about how to create "rainbow shapes" by outlining the shapes in different colors. 

And one last painting day. It was funny, when some of the kids were finished and put their paintings on the drying rack, they asked if they could work on their shape sculptures again. Ermkay (cue Twilight Zone music).

Now, lest you think we be el finito with this here unit o' shapes, we've got some more work ahead of us. I'm 'bout to introduce organic shapes to these dudes with one of my fave artists, Henri Matisse. Tis time these kids take to creating some scissor-shapes, don't you think? 

Til then!