Art Teacherin' 101: Episode 3

In last week's Art Teacherin' 101, I chatted about my three big tips of putting together an art show: deer mesh, parent volunteers and a day off the day of the show. Next week, I'll share with y'all how incredible the two-dimensional displays the parents put up of all the students' work from all year. I have been greatly over-sharing here sneak peaks of the 1950's Diner theme for our clay displays. Well, it all went down last night and I gotta tell ya, it was BANANAZ in the best possible way. To best explain it to y'all, I thought I'd give you a guided tour of our JES Diner in this week's Art Teacherin' 101!

This was our first thematic art show and I daresay I'm totally addicted (as are the young artists, faculty and staff who all joined in on the fun). Not sure what I'll dream up to top this one! Here are a handful of snaps from the clay displays. 

To build excitement, I shared a countdown to the Diner opening on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Gotta get that social media buzz going, y'all!

Even with the day off the day of, I found myself struggling to get everything I dreamed up ready. Thankfully, I had my helper mamas, my OWN mama and some former students who are now in middle school help me. They put finishing touches on the mural, created displays, made labels and helped me hang the paper chains...all at the eleventh hour. It takes a village, people. And, sometimes, even The Village People if they know how to handle a hot glue gun. Let's talk projects!

We all learned about the artist Peter Anton who creates large realistic sculptures of food. Here you see my Kindergarten Tacos!

I put out an email for displays to the teachers and I got cake stands, cupcake holders and these chip and dip platters which were perfect for our taco displays. 

First grade town made these precious coffee and donuts. We even used our little weavings as small placemats. 

Cups and saucers were glazed and re-fired while donuts were painted with tempera and puffy paint (a crowd favorite). 

Although, in first grade town, it's referred to as "puppy paint". Y'all. It's not made from puppies!

Second grade made cupcake containers with two pinch pots. 

All clay projects were create in one week known as CLAY {CRAY} WEEK. To make my life a little easier, I did film all of my clay lessons and show them to the kids. This freed me up to prep clay while they watched. You can see more of that video-watching-demo-doing here. 

For third grade, I wanted to do both hamburgers AND pancakes...so I split the lesson. Meaning two of my classes did burgers (and anything extra, time permitting) and and two did pancakes (and, again, anything extra. Only requirement was that it be a food). 

The burgers HAD to be displayed in these sweet paper wrappers and trays, right?! I mean, that was a no brainer. By the way, when one of my students pretended to eat his fake food, I got the idea to snap photos of the kids with their food either as a chef, a server or a customer. All photos were printed and the kids used those to create advertisements for the show (seen above)...

I then dropped all of the photos into a vintage-esque slide show which played on a loop during the art show. Along with some 50's tunes, of course!

Both the burgers and pancakes are containers! Many students painted their plates as well, which I loved. 

Some were so realistic it was pretty crazy!

I mean...awesome, much? 

For fourth grade, I had them create pizza, pie and cake containers. These really blew me away. We looked at a ton of cake photos which inspired many. 

I mean, just looking around would give you cavities! Many of the kids took their projects home today and they were so excited.

Another class made pies. I am loving the detailed crust of this one. 

Key lime pie is actually my fave...how did she know?!

Displaying them in pie pans from the Dollar Store really set these off. 

Sbarro at the Cool Springs Galleria donated pizza boxes for this display! Big shout out to them, thank you so much. It really made our display so much more pizza-y. 

Extra food by fourth was created and added to the displays as well. 

 Before the art show, I created a video lesson on what a diner is (you can view that here) and we looked at images of clothing worn during that time. All students and faculty were encouraged to dress for the big day. I brought in a ton of clothing, scarves, sweaters and brooches to "dress" the staff. On the left you see my awesome specials teammates and on the right you might recognize my Christmas Tree Skirt friends!

We have close to 400 students in our school...we had over 600 folks show up to the art show! My room was so insanely crowded (as were the halls) that my husband who took these photos could hardly move! 

I saw later on Facebook, so many families sharing photos of their children dressed and happily smiling with their art...it really made me so happy. Makes the exhaustion worth it!

Check out these sweet kindergarten artists! Y'all can see the skirt I'm wearing that the kids helped to splatter paint here. 

I can't wait to share their two dimensional hall displays with you as they are incredible! Until then, I'm just gonna sit here with my feets up. 

DIY: A Kid-Created Paint Splattery 1950's Circle Skirt

Do you know anyone who suffers from the And-Ands? Unclear as to what this ailment entails? Lemme paint a picture for you. Those suffering from the And-Ands might find themselves in a situation such as this:

"I'm going to have all the kids create clay food sculptures for the art show. AND we're going to have a 1950's diner theme to showcase their work. AND I'm gonna get them all soda jerk hats. AND I'm going to encourage them to get all 1950's-ized for the art show. AND I'm gonna make an outfit for the occasion. AND I'M GONNA HAVE THEM SPLATTER PAINT THE FABRIC BEFOREHAND." 

Symptoms may include: waking up in the middle of the night with another AND; interrupting conversations by shouting, "Oh! I have another idea!" and running away abruptly only to return with a wad of Christmas lights (deets to come); constant lip biting and talking to oneself. Sometimes in tongues. 

When to see a doctor: When you look like this...

So, yeah. I got the And-Ands. I think this time of year does it to many of us art teacherin' types. We just have so much more we wanna do and have so little time to do it in. Not that I want more time, I'm beyond ready for summer, y'all. That was just a silly figure of speech. 

My case of the And-Ands spiraled completely outta control when I was in JoAnn's a couple weekends ago stocking up on the ushe: puffy paint and glitter. I happened by the pattern department and decided to plop down and flip thru their books. I spied a 1950's poodle skirt costume and was all EUREKA! I need to make one of those! It was then I remembered the drop clothes I had purchased from Walmart EXACTLY a year ago. This lead me to the idea of having the kids do this outside my art room door...

Just after my trip to JoAnn's, I hit Home Depot in Franklin. I'm telling you the exact location because this is seriously The Best Home Depot there is. I met a very kind gentleman named Dave who not only helped me pick and mix the colors of paint I wanted but, after I explained the project to him, he also generously gave me a discount. As a teacher, I don't often ask for any sort of discount (duh, gonna start now!). I loved that Dave, Miss Mary and QT were excited to help a crazy art teacher out. BIG shout out to them, they have a customer for life!

Word to the Wise: If you are gonna do splatter painting with non-washable paint and children, have them suit up in aprons and go barefoot. Even that won't keep them clean but it will help just a pinch.

Once I got the fabric home, I threw it down in our living room just to start planning my next course of action. Of course, Inspector Asha had to take a walking tour of the fabric. 

Busted, kitten!

I wanted to use as much of the fabric as possible to really showcase the kid's splattering. For that reason, I settled on my vintage Simplicity 4884 that I picked up from Etsy a while back. I used it to stitch this shower curtain into a skirt last summer. 

Are you gettin' just how BIG this piece of fabric is? A circle skirt requires a lotta fabric but, like, not this much. Which can only mean one thing: I get to stitch more stuff out of it! I'm thinking a handbag and a tote and a jacket AND, AND, AND...(oh my goodness, it's starting again!)

For now, the only extra thing I did make was a hair bow. 

For fear that I'd be busting sewing needles right and left, I did invest in a couple industrial strength needles. I only had a few times when my sewing machine sounded like it wanted to die. So, really, no more than normal. 

Did I mention that I also have the And-Ands when it comes to shopping? Um, yeah. It's bad. "I'm gonna need saddle shoes and poodle socks and a new crinoline and pink cat eye glasses..." 

The temp has dropped a pinch here in Tennessee (just heard from a buddy that is SNOWED in Michigan this weekend. It's May, Michigan. Get with the freakin' program). So I just might have to wear my snazzy Gap Kids jacket to complete my ensemb.

Which, by the way, wasn't spluttery painted enough for me...so I added some more drips and drops. 

AND there you have it! I'm so looking forward to sharing the art show with y'all...and kicking this case of the And-Ands until next art show time!

What the Art Teacher Wore #162

Monday, y'all: Here's a dress from way back...I try to create a Back to Schoolin' dress each year and this was one from a couple years ago. It's rather plain for my taste now...but I guess I was just working towards my wild side back then. dress: here; sweater: Buffalo Exchage; owl sandals: Anthro, old

Well, we're down to the single digit days in our lil who's-counting-we're-teachers-we-don't-even-LIKE-summer-vacation (wink/nudge) countdown. Of course, because our art show is THIS FREAKING TUESDAY, I've got tunnel vision with a laser like focus that can only see the mountains of clay projects to be displayed, the random artwork to be put up (shout out to my mama helpers for making those stacks shrink daily!) and other stuffs. I'm super excited about this year's theme of a 1950's diner. I can't wait to share photos with y'all. 

In other news, it's #MeMadeMay! Non-sewists, #MeMadeMay was started several years ago by sewists who wanted to share all their me-mades throughout the month on their various social media outlets. I almost-always forget to participate and I always-always forget to share...but I'm gonna try this month. So here's a lil what I wore (and made!) and what I over-shared (that wasn't me-mades!) in social medialand. Enjoy! 

The excitement is building. All students are encouraged to dress 1950's style (after a prezi of what that entailed) and I managed to purchase each a paper soda jerk hat that will be available for the taking at the show. I also took a snapshot of each student in the diner with their food. Those photos were used in their advertisement for the diner...but I also dropped the photos into a slideshow that I'll have going during the show. All these deets will be in an upcoming blog post (complete with video tour!) next week. When I'm fully recovered. 

 Tuesdayness!: Just another day in so-much-to-do/so-little-time paradise. dress: created during that crazy series of snow days we had last school year; scarf: vintage

 Of course, to get into the spirit, I HAD to purchase some saddle shoes, poodle socks and sparkly cat eye glasses. DUH. 

 Sad Feet Wednesday: When it's hustle mode, there's no time for anything but flats. Which I totally hate. I was even asked by the kids if I'd shrunk. another back to art teacherin' dress: here

 Because I've little time for anything, I decided it would be a good time to create a skirt for the occasion. I was gonna make a poodle skirt...but opted to have the kids splatter paint a drop cloth for me to stitch into a skirt instead. In other news, a splatter painted drop cloth circle skirt is stiff enough to, like literally, stand it's own ground. 

 Thursday!: You can tell I'm tired when I can't even come up with a clever name for the days of the week. I'm just running on fumes at this point, in case y'all haven't figured that out. dress: here; sandals: Shoe Carnival

 Oh, this makes me so happy! Our awesome bookkeeper, who also doubles as our yearbook editor, decided to use the first grader's tiger mural on the cover of the school yearbook! I love it and what  a happy memory for my firsties. You can see more about this lesson here. 

Fri-YAY: Thank you so much for your kind words about this IKEA dress the kids colored! They were literally spellbound when I wore the dress on Friday. They just looked and looked at it and for their coloring. I have a couple more kid-made fabric ideas in mind that I can't wait to work on this summer! dress: here

In the Art Room: Abstract Painting with Fourth Grade

Confession: I'm not an abstract artist. By any stretch of the imagination. I just can't seem to unwind my mind enough to even think that way. So teaching abstract art kinda sorta freaks me out. However, with the help of Nashville artist Hannah Lane, I was able to happily, easily and, if I do say so myself, successfully introduce my kids to creating abstractly. 

For this three class period project (with an hour class time each), the kids learned about the artwork of Hannah Lane, met Hannah and then wrapped up their work with me. And, by the looks of how colorful and happy these pieces are, I'd venture to say that this was one of their fave projects this year. 

Because Hannah visited one fourth grade class, I only did this project with them. My other fourths were neck deep in other projects so just giving this lesson a test run with one group seemed like a good idea. I will definitely be doing this project again next year...with a bit of a twist. 

But first, let's talk supplies. We used the following:

* 8" X 8" canvas board (although gessoed cardboard would have worked)
* Warm and cool colors of tempera paint (I like Sax Versa Temp)
* ModPodge 
* Collage papers
* Stencils
* Puffy paint

The week before Hannah arrived we looked at a prezi I created about her work. We talked about her series of paintings and her style. I fielded a bunch of questions from the kids to ask her on the day of her arrival. Shortly after our chat, we painted monochromatic-ish paintings in either all warm or all cool colors with an abstract design. Here's an example:

The next art class, Hannah arrived. She brought her large crowd series painting (shown above) as well as a huge box of glorious paper scraps that the kids went gaga over. Once she shared more about herself and her work, the kids began collaging the paper in any manner they liked onto their canvas board. We used ModPodge to adhere the papers. 

I loved how each unique paper was precious! I heard lots of squeals at finding just the perfect paper. 

Hannah was so sweet with the kids, they truly loved her! I secretly thru some shiny fabric scraps into the mix just to see how that would work. I can't wait to use up my fabric scraps for this in the future!

The room smelled of ModPodge and excitement (which also smells like ModPodge, in case you are wondering). 

At the end of all that collaging, many pieces looked a little something like this...

They made me so happy! And the kids were thrilled.

After we said goodbye to Hannah, I was left with a bunch of happy artists...and collaged canvas boards. What to do with them from this point? I felt like they needed something more. Hannah had spoken about how she reworked her canvases after the collaging stage and I felt like the kids needed to do the same. Enter stencils and puffy paint.

Earlier this year, I had a huge assortment of stencils donated to the art room. For the occasion, I busted them out along with my sponge stampers. After a quick lesson on stenciling (as well as a chat about composition), the kids went to town. 

My students all have a deep love for puffy paint. As do I. It's the New Black in the art room, y'all. We had used it the previous week for our diner sign project (more to come!) and I knew they loved the stuff. I did have to remind them to show restraint and not go bananas with the stuff. It's like the salt and pepper, sugar and spice for your art work, kids. Not the main course. Don't get carried away. 

And they didn't! Seriously, these bright happies are my new fave! I see so many possibilities with future projects based on this. 

Have y'all done abstract collage/painting with your students? What have they created? I'd love to hear more!

Art Teacherin 101: Episode 2

Hey, y'all! Thank you so much for your positive response to Art Teacherin' 101 (notice how I've already failed to even remember the name of this series in the title above. Tired brain, much?). I'm excited to share with you my TOP THREE TIPS to art show success: deer mesh and Gaffer's tape, amazing parent volunteers and a day off the day of the art show! Take a listen, I promise it's short and sweet unlike me...

I will share with you two (yes, TWO) blog posts about our show with video tour. It's a big one, y'all! You'll see the 2-D show as well as our 1950's diner with our 3-D food. Until then, here's just a couple of the things mentioned in the clip:

Deer mesh and Gaffer's Tape. Both can be purchased from Amazon. About four rolls were used outside of each classroom. My hope is that the classroom teachers leave the mesh up so that 1. We don't have to rehang and 2. So they can utilize it when it's not Art Show Season. Last year it pretty much got trashed due to the annoying paperclip tangling. I'm confident that this year the clothes pins will prove to be much better. The Gaffer's tape isn't cheap...but it's the one thing that we've found to actually adhere to those annoying painted concrete walls. It's holding the mesh to the wall as well as carrying the weight of the artwork. The parents do a fabulous job of hiding the tape behind artwork. You'll also need to invest in some Blue Dapp that can anchor any fly away corners of art. 

Here's a rather fuzzy view pulled from my instagrammerz. More photos to come...but I did want to give you a sneak peak of first grade. In the clip, I was standing in front of just ONE portion of ONE second grade class. Like I said, we hang everything that every kid has made. It's wall to wall wonderment, y'all! 

I'm so fortunate to have the best administration that not only supports the art program but the art show as well! Having a day to set up clay in my room while the kids are working on other art activities with a sub in another location is super fab. I'd be a hot mess without that extra time to finalize art show displays. 

AND, most importantly, parent volunteers. I have the best...THE BEST...and the art show would not be hung without them. Special thanks to them all with a big hug to Molly, Terri and Donna. Y'all are super stars!

So, what are your fave art show tips? For more, you can visit this blog post of my other Top Ten Tips to Putting Together an Amazing Art Show!