First Days of Art Class 2020-21

Wowza, y'all. School began last week for me with days of professional development and just yesterday for my students and all I can say is that in my 22 years of teaching, I've never had a year like this! And...it's only Tuesday.

Just to give you a little info on what my school district is doing for our elementary students: kindergarten thru second grade have the choice of going virtually or returning in the classroom. If they are returning, they are to be wearing masked, spaced 6' apart and washing or sanitizing hands frequently. My older students in third and fourth grade have the option of being remote or virtual. Remote means that, when allowed, they will be back in the building. My district plans to reassess in two weeks. However, we do have some of our third and fourth graders at school as they may be the children of teachers or learners who need to be with teachers. So, what that means is that every 3rd and 4th grade teacher has about 3-4 children in her classroom and is asked to teach them and her remote learners simultaneously via Zoom. Which is...a lot. 

As for me, I've been asked to prep lessons for all the virtual and remote learners as well as teach my in house students. Because of some schedule overlap, I have not been going live with my remote learners. Instead, I've been providing them with prerecorded videos for them to listen and create at their own pace. 

All that to say...it's been a rollercoaster so far and that was BEFORE the kids even got here. I had to much prep to do for those remote and virtual learners that I nearly neglected my in person kiddos. However, on Sunday, I came in, finished setting up my art room (new room tour to come) and recreated my Rules and Routines video. I was able to salvage the first have of the video (originally recorded in 2017) but had to completely redo the second half as we have new routines to follow. 

Here you go!

On our first day, here is what we do:

* I meet them in the hallway. If you know me, you know that I use the acronym WELCOME on the first day. 

Normally, my students would go straight to the floor and be seated...you can see my USUAL first day routine here. However, this year, we had to do two new things: get our hands immediately sanitized as I demonstrate in the video and go stand on a spot that is 6' apart. In future art classes, we'll go straight to our seats but on that first day, we wait a pinch while we all sanitize and enter the art room.

* I got everyone quickly to a seat. The tables are color coded by messy mats (not sure if they will stay but they are working for now). I also have color coded circle stickers on the back of each chair that has the table color and number on it. My friend Andrew @elementaryarts recommended them to me and I found them on Amazon. 

* Once seated, I do my greeting.
* We learn our Art Class Catchphrase.
* I introduce the Word of the Day.
* We talk about the Open/Closed sign.
* We talk about the Happy/Sad board. 

I did it just like you see in this video...except students were at their tables:

* From there, we watch the video I shared at the top of this blog post. 

* We stretch!
* We greet each other and I ask a list of silly questions (more on that in an upcoming blog post!). This you can also see in the video from last year. 
* We review the clean up routine with drums, gong and a table caller.
* We learn the lining up routine...and that's it!

And that...was our first day. I LOVE the idea of doing art in art class on the first day but with 30 minutes and so many new things...this was all I could pack in. I'll share with you what we do on the second day...and I'll continue to share with you as I learn new things about this new art teacherin' world we find ourselves in. Sending y'all hugs. We've got this!

 

DIY: New Decor for the New School Year!

We are getting new updates on what our new school year will look like...often. And I get it, who knows what our future may hold. I know my school system is trying their very best and I certainly would not want to be in their shoes! That being said...it looks as though I may be in my art room for some of my grades and teacher virtually for others (with the idea that I could be on a cart at some point too). 

One of my favorite things to do to get excited for the new school year is to create something for my art room. I was a little bummed thinking "why bother?!" for the longest time. That is until I decided to change my outlook and create something that could be used for my art room, a cart or even virtually. Here's how I made my new art room/cart/virtual learning sign:

I know things are tough right now but I will say this: creating this sign changed my attitude. It made me begin to think of this new school year as a challenge. As someone who has taught for over two decades, I had gotten pretty comfortable in the way that I teach. Now I have this new, ever-changing, challenge coming my way. I can't control anything about this situation except my attitude. Here's my attempt at doing that. 

Season 2 of the Cassie Stephens Podcast!

I'm baaaaack!

I took a small hiatus from my podcast back in March when I learned we were not returning to school. Suddenly my focus was on distance learning...and not much else! I had no intention of taking a break but, for me, it was necessary. However, I'm so thrilled to announce that I'm back with two episodes of Season 2! They're titled How to Prepare for the Unknown, Part 1 & 2...kinda appropriate, right? I do hope you enjoy. If you know other teachers who might, please feel free to pass this along. I would also love to read your comments so feel free to leave them wherever you listen to the podcast. Thanks, ya'll!

Behind My Mask: A Super Kid Self-Portrait!

 Hello, friends!

I have created a lesson for my students and any kiddos who wish to create titled Behind My Mask! When my students return in the fall (and, yes, I said 'when' as I am very hopeful and optimistic), they will be asked to mask-up. We always seem to start out school year with a selfie so I was bummed when I thought of the idea of my students drawing themselves with their best facial feature hidden. And that's where the idea of this surprise drawing came from. Here's a video! Feel free to use and share (with credit given, please and thank you):

I simply used paper, permanent marker, coloring markers and crayons. If I happen to teach virtually this fall, this lesson could also be done by my students at home. 

 This video is a short and simple one...when teaching, I plan to share with my students a variety of self-portraits and talk a lot more about lettering, fonts, skin tones, craftsmanship, good character...the list goes on! As you can see, I'd have a hard time fitting it into a video short enough to capture their attention. So, if you use this video, feel free to add on whatever you wish to include!

No one is excited about wearing a mask but...it's for our safety. And the best thing we can do for our kiddos is to put a positive spin on it, right? I hope to do that with this lesson. Enjoy!

Let's Make a Pop-Up Card for Father's Day!

It's time to celebrate dad! All dads: step-dad, grand-dad, uncle who is like a dad...really any dude who makes your life better. It's time to let 'em know how awesome they are! All you'll need is paper, scissors, glue, crayons and markers. Here we go: 

Summer Vacation Week: A Wrap Up!

Summer Vacation Week was so fun! And the perfect way to kick start summer. We wrapped it on Friday with this pop-up hot air balloon. Here is the video:

From there we made this Origami Ocean Collage! This one was a huge hit. Kids love origami!

Our last salt dough clay project (for now) was making this garden. It was so fun and the Art Class with Cassie kids got so creative!

We kicked off the week with this Summertime Selfie. I'm actually thinking of starting our school year with this one!

Have fun!

We Are Woven Together!

I've been thinking of new art lessons to bring into my art room this coming school year. I always want my lessons to have a focus on kindness, acceptance, empathy and love because, to me, that's what art is all about. I have put together a list of my favorite books to use when teaching and I thought I'd share it with you. 

As for the weaving project, you'll need a piece of white and black paper; yellow, red, white and black paint; a paintbrush and a cup of water; scissors and glue. Here we go:

I've been getting a lot of questions lately on how I plan to approach these types of lessons in my art room. Honestly, I'm going to be spending my summer reading, listening and learning. I don't know the answer to that question...yet. But I am open to learning. For now, this is my starting point and I thought I would share. 

Origami Ocean Collage!

Happy Summer Vacation! In case you missed out on creating an Origami Ocean Collage last week, here's the video! These are the supplies you'll want to gather:

Now let's create:

Have fun! 

Pet Week: A Wrap Up!

Did you miss any of the creative fun of Pet Week? Not to worry, all the videos are now up on my YouTube channel! Let's do a little rewind and start with Friday's art lesson...which was Hipster Pets! Let's draw together. Here we go:

We kicked off Pet Week with a little self-portrait with a puppy filter! This one was so fun:

We had a blast creating origami cats and dogs:

Of course we had to do a little Salt Dough Clay action with this project:

And we wrapped everything up with our Pet Shop Puppets! 

I hope you have fun! 

Summer Vacation Week!

 It's officially summer! My summer vacation began last week but I'm going to continue to teach live art classes one more week! Here is our line up for this week. I go live every week day on my Instagram and my Facebook page. You can of course catch my videos afterward over on my YouTube channel. New videos are added all the time so be sure to subscribe! 

Here is our line up for this week. We'll kick things off with a Summertime Selfie!

It wouldn't be a week of creating with me without Salt Dough Clay!  

 Last week, the kids really loved origami so I decided to do another origami project! 

 On Friday, we'll sail away to other adventures and beyond in this hot air balloon pop-up! 

See you soon!

Art Class Happy Hour: The Office!

I know so many teachers and art teachers are creating video content for their students right now...with that in mind, I decided I needed a bit of adult creating time! So I decided to do a little something called Art Class Happy Hour with a weekly draw. I've settled on The Office for my inspiration. I hope you will draw along with me and have fun! You might want to subscribe to my YouTube channel as more videos like this (as well as my usual art making videos for kids) are uploaded almost every day. Alright, here we go:

Prison Mike...so cringe but I love him!

Okay, Kevin spilling his world famous chili is easily one of my favorite scenes from the show. I laugh til I cry every time!

And my very first Happy Hour drawing was from the very first episode of The Office!

Let's Draw a Disco Ball!

Got markers? Then you have all you need (well, you'll also need paper, a plate or bowl to trace, a cup of water and a paintbrush too) to create your very own disco ball. Throw some crayons in there and write a little message under your ball as well. This project is fun, easy and SUPER COOL! Let's boogie, y'all!

Let's Make Black Light Clay!

Bet you didn't even know you could make clay that glows under black light! Let me show you how to make Salt Dough Clay with my simple three-ingredient recipe...and then how to make it glow! I'll also share how to create a deep sea scene. You'll need the following:

1/4 cup of water
1/4 cups of salt
1/2 cup of flour
Prang Fluorscent Paint
Cardboard
Crayons

Let's create!

Pet Week: Origami Cat, Dog and Cup!

Have you ever made an origami cat, dog or cup? Origami is so much fun and one of my favorite things to teach! Join me as I share with you how to create each one of these. Here is the list of supplies you'll need:

Alright, let's create!

Under the Sea Week: A Wrap Up!

Under the Sea Week was so much fun! If you missed any of the LIVE art classes from last week, they are now all up and on my YouTube channel! I add new videos there all the time, so be sure to subscribe! 

On Friday, We created a Mermaid and Poseidon and then did a cool printing trick in the background!

On Thursday, we had a blast drawing Sharks Eating Snacks!

Wednesday was big fun as we made Salt Dough Shoe Print Sea Turtles...a HUGE hit!

On Tuesday, we put our collage skills to good use by creating Coral Reef Relief Collages!

And on Monday we made Bubble Print Snorkelin' Selfies!

Be sure and tune in this week as we celebrate Pet Week! I go LIVE everyday at 11am CT on my Instagram and Facebook page!

Pet Week!

The Art Class with Cassie kiddos have been requesting Pet Week since we started doing LIVE art classes and it's finally here! I'm excited to share this week's lineup of creative fun. 

We are going to kick things off with a Pet Filter Selfie! All live art classes happen at 11am CT on my Instagram or my Facebook page. If you miss any art classes, don't worry. All of them end up on my YouTube channel. I add new videos to my channel all the time so be sure to subscribe. 

Origami is one of my favorite things to teach! We've not really done much origami yet in art class...my students always love creating these origami pets!

I know, I know, more salt dough! I love this stuff! Let's create a fish bowl this week. 

 If you've never made these puppets, you have got to join! They are so fun and easy to make!

 Honestly, I had the most fun drawing these cuties! I am looking forward to this lesson. 

See you real soon!

Let's Draw a Crab and Make Black Light Bubble Prints!

During Under the Sea week, I got a lot of requests for how to draw other sea creatures. So in this video, I'll show you how to draw a crab and his whole family! I'll also be sharing with you how to do bubble prints...that glow under black light! Bubble printing can be done with just water, dishsoap, food coloring and a straw. But if you want the bubbles to glow, you'll have to give fluorescent paint a try. Here we go:

Have fun!

Let's Create a Mystery Word Painting!

Here's a fun little project that you can do with your friends and family...a Mystery Word Painting! Grab a white crayon, paper, watercolor paint and a plastic gift card and let's create!

Have fun!