In the Art Room: Sketchbooks for Kids!

Hey, y'all! I'm so excited to share something that I'm sure many of you already do but I feel like I just discovered: sketchbooks! In the elementary art room! I've never successfully attempted sketchbooks with my students before as I just couldn't figure out how to afford 'em if we bought them and how to make 'em if we didn't buy them. Recently, however, art teacherin' buddy Jane Shores recommended using old manilla folders with paper stapled inside and I was like, ahhhhh, I think we can do that! I'm thrilled to say that my students love the result and have enjoyed working in them. I made a wee video to walk you through the sketchbook-making/how we're gonna use 'em steps. 

 

I hope you can focus on my video and not so much on the fact that I missed a button on my sweater! Geesh. 

 To make our sketchbooks, we used the following:
* Recycled manilla folders. The central office in my district was kind enough to send me a mountain of the ones they were going to otherwise recycle!
* 20 sheets of copy paper per folder. 
* Dollar Store faux-duct tape. Works just as great for half the cost.
* Baseball card sleeves. For holding our Artist Trading Cards, thank you SO MUCH for the idea, Nic Hahn! 
* Electric stapler. I picked one up off Amazon. Works like a dream going through the folder, papers and sleeve. 

 On the first day of sketchbook making, I gave the kids the folders and told them they could paint their folder either all warm or all cool colors. They could paint fast and furious or delicate and detailed but they had to have it done in 30 minutes. The following art class, when they came to art, I had already stapled the 20 sheets of paper and the baseball card sleeve into the folders. We were ready to start sketching! 
 
 For that we met in the "Jungle Lounge" in the art room (more details on this and my painted window to come). Once the sketchbooks and pencils were passed out, I did a palming activity with the children (video clip below). While their eyes were closed I played my rainstick and told them to imagine a rainstorm in a jungle. What are the animals doing? Is the wind blowing? Is the weather getting worse? When they opened their eyes, they were allowed to sketch at their seats or on the floor but they were not allowed to talk. 

Palming is a great way to chill those kiddos out and help them refocus! Worked like a dream for this sketching activity! 

While they sketched, I called them up to add the duct tape of their choosing to the spine of the book and to create a label. This really was a special moment for them as it really made their sketchbook their own. I was able to catch a glimpse of their sketches as they came to see me. I was floored by their great drawings.

Most of these third grade students sketched without stopping for a good 45 minutes. I did ask them to take a break with me on the floor when I was finished with the taping. We chatted about our experience sketching so far (consensus: they LOVED it!) and how it would look during a normal art class. I plan to use this as an art class starter for the first 5-10 minutes of most art classes...I'll keep you posted. 

At this point, I told the kids about Artist Trading Cards. These are baseball-sized works of art created by artists of all ages. I told the kids that their ATC cards were going to be kept in those baseball sleeves. I have a sign in my room that lists the Topic and the Media for the ATC cards. This week, it was "Tigers" and "Colored Pencils and Sharpies" (yes, we're on a tiger-kick. Lesson details to come!) 

So, those finished with their sketches, were allowed to start their ATC's. 

The great thing about those sleeves is it's the perfect spot to keep unfinished ATC's! 

"In my jungle, a mysterious animals is afraid of the rain and is hiding". ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Love! 

The kids absolutely loved their sketchbooks and I'm thrilled! I'll definitely keep y'all updated on their progress...but I gotta know:

Do you use sketchbooks in your art room? How? Any tips or tricks? Please share in the comments, friends!

What the Art Teachers Wore//Back to Art Teacherin' Contest!

 Dorie Mishael! Isn't Dorie just the cutest thing?! I totally wanna join her on that fun -n- funky carpet and create some art. Check out that super cute skirt she made AND that rug for her art room that she's both sewing and needle felting. What a fab-o Back-to-Art-Teacherin' ensemble!

Welcome to the What the Art Teacher Wore/Back to Art Teacherin' Contest! These incredible educators got all dressed up to teach the best subject ever, ART! If you would take a moment to vote for your favorites, that would be much appreciated. If you are viewing this from your laptop, the poll is to your right. If you are on your phone, click on "view web version" way at the bottom of the page. These contestants stand a chance to win a free subscription to SchoolArts Magazine as well as an opportunity to see their beautiful faces there! Thanks all y'all who sent me snaps and for those of you taking the time to read about these hard working art teacherin' peeps. 

 Amanda Holloway and her mama! I seriously think that I just about died of cuteness overload when I saw this sweet mama/daughter art teacherin' duo. They made their dresses outta just about the cutest fabric I think I've seen. Both teach elementary art in Jacksonville, Florida to some seriously lucky young artists!

 Jennifer Love Gironda! If you don't read Jennifer's blog, you really should. She's truly inspirational to me because she's creating art ALL THE STINKIN' TIME! Truly! I believe she creates a painting a day all while whipping up super cute crayon necklaces like this one. I need one of these, stat.

Cheryl Burchett! Cheryl is a serious art teacherin' force to be reckoned with. She recently switched to teach at a new school and then raised over $2000 for the art program. And she stitched up this art teacherin' dress which I seriously love. You can follow Cheryl's awesomeness on her blog here! 

 SuzAnne! SuzAnne wore this super awesome get up on the first day to go over rules. Her school's theme is S.A.I.L. which stands for "students active in learning". To incorporate that theme as well has Monay she created that Capt. Mona you see on the left. What a clever and fun way to welcome her students back!

 Amanda Koonlaba! Amanda is a seriously sweet art teacher in Tupelo, Mississsippi. She welcomed back her students wearing a flower crown inspired by everyone's fave unibrow artist, Frida Kahlo. I'm sure her students were thrilled by her floral headpiece awesomeness!

 Karen Williams! Karen has amazing taste, I mean, check out that super cute palette fabric she used for her dress! Karen has recently started stitching again and is excited to begin creating more art teacherin' outfits (it's additive, Karen!). I love how she accented this dress with different colors at both he waist and the hem. She looks so colorful and cute.

 David Meade! Oh my goodness, this photo just cracks me up! Elementary art teacher David wore this glorious tie-dye number to greet the kids on their first day back to school. David crocheted his beret and wears his tie-dye coat daily to teach art! Imagine how thrilled the kids were to have this fun -n- funkiness open the door for them. I can't decide if the mustache, the beret or those pants are my fave. So much colorful goodness!

Cynthia Gaub! This pop-art themed dress worn by the lovely Cynthia Gaub is so fun! In fact, sewers, you can find this fab-o fabric at fabric.com! AND, non-sewers, have no fear, this dress can be found at ModCloth. Thank you, Cynthia, you look delish!

 Marcia Beckett! Y'all might recognize Marcia from her awesome art teacherin' blog, Art is Basic. What Marcia doesn't know about this back to art teacherin' t-shirt of hers it that I have the very same one in black from Forever21. If y'all haven't picked up their artist-inspired duds, you might wanna. You could look as cute as Marcia!

 Katie Romantic! Okay, this girl, lemme tell ya, she's killin' it. Katie made this entire zentangle dress using Tulip brand fabric paint. Now, while you digest that, I'll have you know that she also embellished those shoes and that hair bow. Not to mention, this is one of a handful of incredible outfit snaps that Katie sent me! You know I dig her style!

 Lauren Luna! Lauren sent me so many super cute photos that it was hard to chose! Isn't she totes adorbs? I'm lovin' this t-shirt of hers. Y'all have go to check out her art teacherin' blog here and her personal art making blog here! Love her energy!

 Amy Neiwirth! When super cute art teacher Amy Neiwirth sent me her photo (love that dress, gurl!) she failed to mention that she's also an incredible creator of cuteness. You guys have gotta check out her website, you won't believe the adorable jewelry this art teacherin' rock star creates!

Ashley Gonzalez! Doncha just love Ashley's apron? So did her student! She dressed just like her on one of their first days back to school, complete with a Starry Night apron! I love Ashley's hand painted apron, don't y'all?

Natalie Friedl! Can I just go all pun-tastic on y'all? I mean, let's face it, Natalie is looking sharp. Her dress is on point. She's not in the slightest bit sketchy in this super cute ensemble. I love this dress so much I have one myself. That's right, Natalie and I are twinkies! 

 Carrie Mann! Okay, y'all. I think Carrie should when in the special Awesomely Electric Ensemble category. Did you see, her skirt LIGHTS UP! She created it to read to her students The Very Lonely Firefly. You know they'll remember that experience for years to come.

 Jamia Weir! Sometimes, when I see people have a genius idea, I shake my fist at the heavens and say, "Argh! Why didn't I think of that?!" This here TWISTER GAME APRON was one of those times. That's right, Jamia created her back to art teacherin' apron from a vinyl Twister mat! How smart is that, y'all?!

 Joan Wheeler! Joan has caught the needle felting bug! I am so loving her Forever21 dress that she needle felted the palette onto, aren't you? Not only that but she created her jewelry using paint from a watercolor tray. How smart! I love her happy, colorful look.

 Kim Schulster! Kim doesn't know this but I have some serious fabric envy. If you look closely, there are lovely Frida's around the bottom of her dress! She looks absolutely fabulous. She and Amanda need to teach a Frida Kahlo unit together, doncha think?! Adorbs, Kim!

 Nicki Leatherwood! Art teacher Nicki from Austin, Texas chose her fabric based on her students love for Dr. Who. I'm sure they loved her skirt! She stitched it herself from the book Love at First Stitch by Tilly Walnes, a book I'd love to get my kitten mittens on. It looks like she did a fabulous job!

Teresa Euken! I have been going bananas over Teresa's top every since she sent me this photo. I love that fabric, a JoAnn's score, as well as that blouse pattern. She looks fabulous! I'm sure her students got a kick out of her back to art teacherin' top!

Lisa Hirkaler! Lisa is a high school art teacher who wore this dress back to school to introduce her students to Monet! You know, I bet not too many high school teachers go too wild -n- crazy with their outfits so I'm sure Lisa's students were thrilled to see how she'd coordinated her lesson with her flowery frock. Way to go, Lisa!

What the Art Teacher Wore #147

 A Purple-ish Monday: So, thanks to our fab-o kindergarten teachers, we're still dressing in colors! Monday was purple day and, as it turns out, I must not like purple because there is next to nuthin of it in my closet. Which is really saying something because my closet, as you mightah guessed, is jam-packed with clothes. So this lil purplish ensemble was as close as I could get! dress: vintage, Buffalo Exchange; headscarf: vintage, thrifted; shoes: my new favorite! Minnetonka

I hope all y'all are having a wondrous three day weekend! Just so you know, when I become Princess Cassie, Ruler of the Universe and BEYOND, I will make three day weekends the law. No longer will poor ole Monday be that dreaded day of the week. In fact, I'll have it's name changed to Mon-YAY! and change Tuesday to "Tuesday, You Suck!" It's a working name. Don't judge. 

In other news, since this is a What the Art Teacher Wore post, lemme tell you what happened to me on Monday. As I was putting my students on the bus, one fourth grade girl stopped, looked me up and down and said:

"Mrs. Stephens, I have art tomorrow. Can you try and wear something more crazy?" 

Me, stunned: "What's wrong with this?!" with a flourish of my hand going from my purple-bowed head down to my hot pink moccasin-ed toes. 

"Eh. It's just kind of, you know, bor-ing."

Y'all. My critics are not foolin' around. You better believe I did it up right on Tuesday. 

Speaking of doing it up right, my email inbox has been BURSTING with photos of the World's Best Dressed Art Teachers! The What the Art Teacher Wore/Back to Art Teacherin' Contest goes live on the blog this coming Tuesday. That means if you wanna see your sweet face here (and possibly in School Arts Magazine!), email me some snaps at cassieart75@gmail.com. Be sure to check back here on Tuesday and cast your vote for the best dressed! 

 Just a couple of sweet snaps of my first grade friends for y'all this week. I can't wait to share their masterpieces with you! All of my students are currently "in the jungle" and learning about the work of Henri Rousseau. If you follow me here, you've seen quite a few of  their pieces. I'll share the complete lessons here in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned! 

 Lovin' the focus on this sweet boy's face! Now that my firsties have finished their works, they are creating a jungle mural to place their artwork in. My plan is to have that up by open house. Cross those fingers for me, would ya?

 Bust Out the Brown Tuesday: I seriously think I just grabbed anything brown and threw it on that morning. I had that vintage skirt in my etsy shop for a hot minute before I decided I loved it too much to sell off. sweater, belt and blouse: vintage, thrifted; skirt: vintage, Buffalo Exchange; shoes: Minnetonka; sweater clip: etsy

 A Colorful Way to Wear Black Wednesday: I didn't wanna wear head to toe black cuz, ya know, I already did the "alternative" thang in high school so I'm over it. Isn't funny how what we called "alternative" has gone threw so many name changes? There was goth then emo and now, what do they call those all-black-wearin' kids? Hipsters? Goth-Hipsters? Gothsters? Yes! That's it! dress: Modcloth; polymer necklace: Charleston; shoes: Swedish Has-beens, Anthro; Rainbow Brite belt: Buffalo Exchange

 White Day is Not a Good Day in the Art Room: Yeah, so who guessed that wearing this all white number was gonna end badly? I didn't even realize it did until I got home, took it off and noticed I had green paint splotches on the butt of my dress. I'm guessing I sat in something fun-n-funky. Good times. dress: Anthro

 Fave Color Friday: C'mon. I'm the art teacher! I can't pick one FAVE color, I love 'em all! And, let's be real, they all look SO GOOD TOGETHER, right?! You don't have to answer that. top and skirt: thrifted; bow tie and suspenders: gift from my bro; belt and crinoline: Amazon; shoes: Minnetonka

DIY: A Color Wheel Clock!

My dear moms was visiting this weekend and in between us hitting the local Farmer's Market, eating, shopping at a vintage fair, eating, visiting my long-lost aunt and uncle and, you guester-Chester, more eating, the topic of retirement came up. My mom is a nurse and has been for about a million years. I asked when she was going to stop sticking folks with needles and call it quits and she was all, "but if I didn't go to work, what would I do?" 

Like, whut?!  

Growing up an only child for the first 10 years of my life, I've always been super good at entertaining myself. I mean, I could craft, sew, color, paint and glue for dayz on end cuz my mental makerin' to-do list is so stinkin' long. For zample, this here color wheel clock idea is one I've been kicking around for-stinkin-everz. If I had endless amounts of time on my hands, I foresee that I'd spend weeks, neigh, months in my pajamas surrounded by empty coffee cups, dark chocolate wrappers and mountains of crafting mayhem. It sounds both glorious and horror film-esque all at once. So I suppose it's best I stick with the art teacherin'. 

But I suppose you didn't pop by here to hear all about my questionable dream-life, did you? Let's get to the craft at hand, ermkay? I thrifted this clock well over a year ago simply to take it apart and revamp in this colorful way. Only when I started redoing my art room, did I decide to buckle down and bust this bad boy out. I started by taking the clock apart and sliding the mountain of paint chip swatches I picked up at Home Depot under the hands of the clock. YES, I got permission to pinch all of those paint chips. And YES, I only asked permission after the suspicious sales person was all, "Um, can I help you?!" 

(By the way, if you follow me on Instagram-crackers, you've seen most of these snaps. If you don't follow me on insta, like, whuh? You totally should.)

Once I figured out how I wanted to lay out the colors, I created a template with one of the paint chips. This template was used to help me cut each chip to the correct size and slid it under the frame of the clock as you see here.

Good ole Aleene's Fast Drying Tacky Glue was used to adhere these into place. I opted out of using a hot glue gun. I thought that might make the paper chips stand up too much and prevent the hands of the clock from ticking. 

Bam, done. No time flat, really. And it looked pretty snappy with just the color on the inside, says moi.

But why stop there when you still have all of those pinched paint chips?! So I started to play with the idea of extending the rainbow of fruit flavor beyond the confines of the clock. 

 So I set my clock on some white matte board and proceeded to glue the rest of the chips with hot glue around the edge. I did have to cut a hole out of the center that was the size of the clock so that I could both hang the clock and change the battery when needed. So, without the clock, the background looks like a color wheel donut. Which, you gotta admit, sounds yummers. 

And, yay! The clock now hangs proudly in the art room. It makes me so happy every time I see it. Y'all best give a color wheel clock a go and lemme know how it works for you. And tell the kind folks at Home Depot I said, "haaaaayyy!"