In the Art Room: ASL in the Art Room

A couple of year ago, my students created a giant collaborative piece that says Learning for All. We had a great time making and my P.E. teacher buddy Ali and I had a not so great time trying to figure out how to assemble it (thanks, Ali!). But now it proudly hangs in our front lobby. Here's look:

 At my school, we have a few deaf students who have interpreters. And, while the interpreters speak for me, I often feel there is a disconnect between myself and those children. At my school, every morning on morning announcements, students throughout my school are taught signs to better communicate with everyone. Recently, I decided to start doing the same in my art room. We have an Art Class Catchphrase as well as an Art Class Greeting. We recently learned how to sign them. And, slowly, we are adding signs to more areas of our art education. Here's a clip of us signing our greeting and the colors in Mouse Paint.

The interpreters in our building have been WONDERFUL at helping my students and I learn how to properly sign. It is not easy! It is a new language to learn so it does take time. But I'm so glad we are doing it and hope to continue to reach all of our amazing learners. If you've not tried introducing sign language to your students, start with something simple, like color. You won't regret it. 

Early Finishers, Part 3

 Ah, yes. Early finishers. I have spoken so much on this here blog about my early finishers area that I thought I'd do a little bit of a recap...and share with you my latest addition! But first, you might want to check out this podcast episode as I cover the biggest question I get: How do you get kids to slow down and not rush to (what I call) Early Finisher Land? Take a listen here:

One of my early finisher options is reading...and my wee library has NEVER been touched. It makes me so sad! The other day, I found this adorable wooden house at the thrift store. I decided to paint it and add my art room collection of stuffed animals. Now the kids have the option to "read to a stuffed friend"! I'm hoping this inspires more visits to this spot. 

To see more of my Early Finishers Land, you should click on over to these here linky-loos: 

Early Finishers, Part 1

Early Finishers, Part 2

Or you can check out this video:

And if you'd like to watch more about Sketchbook Town, here you go:

 I'll keep you posted on how this goes in my art room! Here's hoping my students want to read to these sweet fuzzy friends!

In the Art Room: More Art Games!

Recently, I shared with y'all a new game I introduced to my students: The Gallery Game (click the link for a couple of free downloads too!). I let my second graders give it a shot the other day and I noticed something: after playing the game, they still were confused on painting genres. Oh man! Such a bummer and the game had worked so well with my older kids. Here, let me tell you what happened and what we're doing in addition to the Gallery Game:

After that lesson (for me), I decided that my students needed another 30 minute art class to review painting genres. I was going to review and then let them tackle the Gallery Game again...but instead I created an anchor chart. We reviewed the genres and filled in the chart. Then I explained the Yes! No! Maybe! game and I told them we'd play a couple of rounds. You all...they BEGGED to play more!

I purchased the buttons off Amazon and now we use them for EVERYTHING. I play games with my kindergarten if they finish early, asking them color mixing questions. Instead of me answering, I use the buttons and it's an instant hit. They are battery operated and I just hung them on my wall to keep them out of my way. I love them there, they are within the perfect reach. So many uses for something so small and silly! We do what works, right?!

In the Art Room: Teaching Kindness and Teamwork

This year, my students sit at "table teams". Typically, I do a red table and an orange table and the rest...but this year, I switched to calling them teams. I've been keeping track of table team points on Class Dojo and it has really been making a difference in behavior. Now, just to be clear, I don't do a Mrs. Smith's Orange Team...instead it's whoever sits at the orange table in the entire school. This makes keeping up with points a whole lot easier. My students can earn points whenever we transition from directions to work, clean up or whatever I see fit (cuz I'm the boss, Applesauce). To encourage a teamwork vibe, I recently created these bingo dauber GIANT table clothes for my students to work on and write kind messages to one another. Here's a video to share some more:

Each of these banners was created with bulletin board paper and my bingo dauber hack. Each dauber is filled with diluted India ink.

Y'all know I love making big banners for my students to color and/or paint. For these, my students will use construction paper crayons.

Since I cover my table clothes with giant messy mats, I think these will make it for quite a while. Thinking of having them laminated so they could make it until the end of the year. I'll keep you posted.


Do you have table teams? How do you inspire teamwork, cooperation and kindness?

Here's hoping my students love them as much as I do! 

School Wide Collaborative for our Library!

Way back in May, my students worked together during field day to create some artwork that was requested by our amazing librarian. Well, I'm excited to share that last week, their work was hung and the library looks incredibly colorful because of it! Check out this tour:

My excited face and vein popping neck say it all, folks. 

School wide collabs (a project that all of your students work on that remains in the school as a permanent display) can be a big task. Especially when you only see your students once a week. That's why I love to do my school wide collaboratives on a day when I see all of my students at once: FIELD DAY! In the past, I was supposed to do sidewalk chalk for a day as apart of field day. You all...I did that one time in the 90 degree humidity that is Tennessee spring and I decided never again. And that's how our Field Day collaboratives was born. You can read more about it in detail here. Or you can hear more about it here:

I have about 350 students in my school. I had to have a lot of options available for them on field day so they would each be able to take part. I loved how each piece ended up turning out. 

We painted on 8" X 11" canvas board for the numbers and letters. However, matteboard would have worked as well. In a pinch, cardboard might even do the trick if it were primed with gesso first. 

 If these look familiar to you, that's because we did our first large painting like this the year before. It was such a hit it inspired several more. You can read about our first attempt here. 

 The set up for the day was pretty easy. We simply used up the paint we'd had at the end of the year. My chairs were gone because we'd just had our art show . All I had to do was move some tables around, make some signs and prep. Okay. Not gonna lie...the prep did take a while...

 Like making these big banners to be used at the start of the school year...

And these giant canvases...

 But, you know what, totally worth it. 

I think the letters make me the most happy. I drew the letters in pencil on canvas board. The kids could either paint the letters in all cool or all warm colors and then use the opposite for the background. 

 I thought they looked amazing...and then we framed them. Fabulous!

We've done so many school wide collaboratives now that I think I'm long overdue for a recap post! I love doing them because it's like we are leaving behind our own little fingerprint on our school. Just thought I'd share!