Hey, friends! Last week, I shared with you the Pirate Gallery, which was one of the three galleries where my student's work was featured at our school wide art show. Today I'm sharing with you our Glow Gallery, the HIT of our art show. Each student had at least one work of art on display with my kindergarten friends having THREE works of art featured. Whew! Here is one side of the gallery with the lights off and the black lights on.
And here it is with the lights on. Still just as beautiful, says me! I thought I'd take you on a tour of this gallery, complete with lights we used, projects each grade level did and supplies that work the best for black light. So, let's go!
I LOVE going through art shows, don't you?! So much happiness and color, baby, color!
Full disclosure: This is a spare classroom. I had the luxury of having an entire room to dedicate to the gallery. I spent one entire day with the help of a parent covering the window and setting up the displays. The artwork was simply hot glued to the wall. The best way to do that without damaging the artwork or the walls is to add a flat bit of masking tape to each corner of the artwork on the back. Then add a small dot of hot glue to the tape and stick to the wall. When taking the art down, simply give the work a gentle tug and it will pop right off the wall.
My kindergarteners created three pieces of art for this gallery. The first were these clay slab fish. You can find this lesson here and in my clay book!
They also made these fun snails from cardboard pizza rounds. They started by painting a spiral with a bingo dauber. Then they added color with fluorescent oil pastels and fluorescent paint (details on supplies in a moment). From there, they were attached to a paper towel tube and antennae were added. So cute! More details on this lesson soon, I hope!
Some of my third graders made these amazing plaster and paper parrots! I think they are one of my favorite projects from the show.
Another lesson which I hope to share with you soon...the kids loved making them!
And they were so striking in the black light.
But also great with the lights on.
Let's talk supplies for a minute because it's important you use the right stuff. * Sargent Brand Fluorescent Oil Pastels * Jack Richeson Fluorescent Tempera Cakes * Fluorescent Liquid Watercolor (optional) * Fluorescent Tempera Paint (optional) The last two we didn't use...we just stuck with the oil pastels and tempera cakes. But I will be getting the other paints for next year. In a pinch, when time was running short, we did use fluorescent poster board and bingo daubers for some of the drawings. We did this because I only had one 30 minute art class with the kids before the big day...so we worked with the time we had. I wanted to insure that every kiddo had a work of art in this special room.
On the night of the art show, we did have a couple of teachers at the door to act as Black Light Bouncers as I knew this room would be busy. I didn't want a crowded room to ruin the experience for the kids or have any artwork potentially be damaged. We did have some glow face painting happening which was also fun for the kids. More details on all of the crazy things we had happening at our art show in a future post.
Let me walk you thru who made what! By the way, each of these 2D works of art took only an hour (or two 30 minute art classes for me) to complete. Some first graders created the octopus (by following along with here) while some of my first graders drew the crab...a guided drawing lesson of mine. I'll be sure to share that with you too. I have a lot of sharing to do! Some second graders created the GIANT angel fish by following here while others created the octopus on the neon paper due to time limitations.
Now, let's talk lighting because that is the true key. It's the reason I avoided doing a gallery like this for so long because I just didn't have a clue what lighting to get. We ended up purchasing three kinds and I'll tell you, this one was easily my fave. Starting out, one is all you need IF you block out all the light in the room, making it completely black.
We left the gallery up for several days because my admin loved it so much, she called in nearly everyone in the district to drop by and see it. Even with the lights on, it was stunning.
Have you done a black light gallery before? What tips do you have? This was my first so I'm sure I have A LOT to learn. I would love to hear from you!
Super excited to start our black light gallery projects next year...even if it's MAY and I'm on summer break, ha!
Real talk for a minute here: the last days of school are INSANE. With schedule changes, field days, assemblies, field trips, art shows, awards days and all the rest, there is lil teachin'/learnin' taking place. The kids are hot, tired and ready to go and the teachers are right there, ready to hold the door open for them as they run off into the sunset of summer. So, instead of fighting that Last Days of School beast, why not embrace it? Ditch the tables and chairs, pull out the blocks, games, drawing books and more, crank up the Alvin and the Chipmunks album (it's what we've been rockin' out to) and HAVE FUN. Here's how I set it up in my art room:
I started by pulling out all of my Early Finish centers. I've accumulated a TON of items for my early finish centers over the years...but the big hits are always the following: blocks (with dinosaurs!), Fashion Plates, spirographs, stitching cards, origami and my how to draw books and drawing prompts. If you click on this link, I'll walk you thru those centers.
A couple years ago, I created a little video explaining this end of the year set up, which you can watch right here:
In the past, I relied on the kids to read the small labels on the bins to know how many young artists could work at a center. Those little labels are hard to read...and not all the bins are labeled. I used these plastic picture frames from the Dollar Tree for our Field Day activities that worked so well, I decided to use them again here:
I loved fashion plates as a kid and my students use the set that I once had! I also have a couple more sets that have been gifted or found at the thrift store. Amazon sells a great Super Hero rubbing set that has both boy and girl super hero characters for the kids to create.
When I picked up a set of Spirographs from the Dollar Tree last year, I wasn't sure how great they'd be...or how well my younger students like first grade would work with them. But check out that amazing design by a firstie! I usually have to give a hand over hand tutorial for the kids because there is a learning curve. I also allow them to use mechanical pencils as they are the only ones with lead that is long and lean enough to fit into the holes of the wheel.
In this blog post, I share with you how I set up my drawing books for early finishers. I got so tired of the kids just randomly placing the books where ever...so I spray painted the binding of each book to make it easier for them to clean up. Also...I limit them to one paper per artist.
If you are a new teacher with few centers, just know that I don't have a ton either. To be honest, with 30 minute art classes, it's a RARE occasion that my students are able to visit these centers. That's why I love having them available these last days of school. It's fun for me to see what they gravitate toward...and gives me ideas for the new school year. If you have limited resources, keep in mind that the following are free and/or cheap: * Origami printouts! * How to Draw printouts! * Blocks borrowed from a kindergarten classroom! * Random objects around the art room for observation drawing! * Pictionary! You don't even have to have the game. Just a dry erase board and a group of kids that can come up with an idea of what to draw on their own as the kids attempt to guess.
My favorite places to find early finisher/end of school year activities are Target Dollar Spot (where these stitching cards are from), the thrift store, yard sales, end-of-the-year email to teachers asking them to send old games/toys your way and the Dollar Tree.
When my older students came in, I busted out the dry erase boards and my Pictionary game. I found it at the thrift store and, really, all you need are the cards with the drawing prompts. We sat in a circle of kids (the ones who opted to play) and had a great time playing. One of my favorite things about these days is that I join the kids on the floor! I chat with them, play games and build.
I do tell the kids that after 10 minutes of exploring, they will be given the opportunity to change centers. They can either opt to stay or go, AFTER they've tidied their spot. During clean up, I simply ask that they tidy which ever spot they were working at and then stand silently beside their area. To encourage a quick, calm and quiet clean up, I silently walk around and just place a couple of stickers on the kiddos who rocked their clean up. I learned this trick from my P.E. teacher buddy. She doesn't announce that she's giving stickers, she just places them on the kids who are on task. She only gave out a few and if the kids asked for a sticker, they didn't get one. It worked SO WELL in her gym that I had to try it on the last day in art...it was MAGIC.
Do y'all do something similar on your last days of art? I'd love to know what you and your kiddos are up to!
Now that the art show dust has settled and I'm able to have my life back (like I have much of one in the first place), I thought I'd share our art show with you! I've been giving a ton of sneak peaks over on my Instagram...but have not really given a proper tour. So, let's get started! I created a video tour of the portion of the art show...I hope you enjoy it!
I know the video tends to sweep over the projects and displays so I thought I'd share an overabundance of photos here. Sorry not sorry, y'all. This show was epic!
The theme of our art show was Pirates! That's right, we had a Pirate Art Show and it was easily the biggest and bestest one yet. I cannot wait to share with you all of the details that went into this show...but there is so much that I'm going to spread them over the course of several blog posts. To summarize, our art show was a showcase of three galleries: The Pirate Art Gallery (which I'll be featuring in this blog post), The Glow Gallery (our first black light gallery that was a HUGE hit!) and our Grade Level Galleries which feature every work of art that the kids have created all year long.
My art room, shown here, was the Pirate Gallery. Each year, I use my art room as a gallery to feature our 3-D projects. You can see what last year's Super Hero themed gallery looked like here, here and here.
This display is one that was seen upon entering my art room. Normally, this area is used as our "early finisher" area with a foam rug and lots of building activities such as blocks and sculpture toys. About a month before the art show, I packed up the carpet and started prepping displays in that area. This first display showcases the work by all of my fourth graders and two classes of my first grade.
My fourth graders created these Coral Reel Relief projects from kiln fire clay. This was a one hour clay project that they totally rocked. I've not had a chance to share the lesson details or a video with you but hope to very soon. Instead of glazing these, I decided to have the kids use metallic craft store paint. I started by dunking the bisque fired pieces in diluted India ink (any brand works great) and having the kids paint them with inexpensive craft store paints. The results were so pretty!
The fish were glazed and had to be fired on metal stilts as they were glazed on both sides. The base was dunked in diluted sand-colored paint and the kids painted the bases with the same metallic paints as the fourth grade pieces. Then I had the pleasure of gluing together with a hot glue gun and a chopstick!
At the bottom of the table are the fourth grader's Pirate Ships in a Bottle...another lesson I'm excited to share with you soon. More closer photos in a moment...but let's move on from here and over to the next couple of displays.
I created these giant banners a month before the art show. I plan to tell you how but here's a little secret: they were easier than they look. In a future post, I'll also share how I hung these to the wall. This was a great way to add more excitement to the pirate art show AND hide that big mess of an art room behind it.
Under the treasure chest banner was a display of my second grader's treasure chests! This project was easily everyone's favorite and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you. These second graders were STOKED to take these home.
The treasure chests were created from boxes covered in plaster and decorated with Model Magic details. We even created "gold" coins from scraps of cay and metallic paint. Each student got a "loot bag" that I stamped with a Jolly Rodger. I just happened to have a bunch of draw string bags in my stash so that worked out perfectly.
My third graders created two clay projects, one of them being these pirate ships!
The ship lesson is actually one adapted from my clay book! You can scoop up my clay book here...it's written for kids who don't have access to a kiln. So if you are a kilnless art teacher, this book is for you! BUT many of the lessons can also be used for kiln fired clay. So it's an equal opportunity book.
The ships were also dunked in a terra cotta colored paint and sparkle was added with metallic.
Sails were created from...can you guess? Toilet paper tubes! The kids had to hole punch through the tube to slide the straw down. I had a stash of paper straws in my closet for us to use. I did have to hot glue the sails in place which didn't take too long.
Around the corner from the other displays was this one. This display featured the work of my second and third graders.
My second graders, in addition to creating their treasure box sculptures, they also made these Pirate Parrots! These are pinch pot birds with fun dangly legs.
Some had made their parrots with eye patches, pirate hats, you name it. Each had a wonderfully fun personality, just like the artist!
Third grade, in addition to their pirate ships, they also made these coral reef relief.
These were created similarly to the fourth graders pieces but on a smaller scale. They were also painted in the same manner.
When finished painting, the kids used Twisteez wire and beads to create a hanger for their piece.
Around the corner, we had more second grade treasure chests, more first grade fish and more third grade pirate ships.
Fourth grade also created these ships in a bottle which were a lot of fun. We used cardboard recycled from the cafeteria, painted papers and Model Magic for the boats. More lesson details to come!
This project was a big hit with the kids!
A lesson that I'd definitely do again.
To display, I simply hot glued them to the bottom of the paper table cloth.
The last displays I'm sharing featured the work of my kindergarten, more treasure chests by second grade, more pirate parrots by second and some fish by first.
My kindergarten actually created two clay projects...one was displayed in the glow gallery and I'll be sharing that in a future blog post.
This is a clay project from my book also! I've been doing it for years with my kindergarten kiddos and it is ALWAYS a success for each child. Gotta love that!
Thank you for joining me on this tour of the pirate art gallery! Be sure and pop by at the end of this week...more videos and tours to come!
