Field Day Activities for the Art Room

Two years ago, our school reformatted our field day. I'm not sure if your school does a field day but, previously, the field day activity time took place during our students' specials class. Now, the kids do field day all day, rotating, by class, from one activity to another every 15 minutes. Most activities are outside. Our first year, I was placed in the sidewalk chalk activity and, ya'll, lemme tell you, it was THE LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE. I was hot. The kids were hot. We ran outta sidewalk. We ran outta chalk. We ran outta patience. At the end of the day, I decided never again. 

The following year, rain was predicted but the show had to go on. I decided to do a different activity indoors. Last year, we painted Welcome Back banners to be hung at the start of the following school year. You can read all about it and watch a video here. 

This year, I decided to change it up again...well, really just add more to it, by having multiple painting stations for my students. Here's the set up:

I created 3 painting stations and, just so there was no confusion, overcrowding or the normal mayhem that ensues on field day, I numbered the tables with the amount of kiddos who could create there. They had to pick a spot and stay there. No chairs. Just grab a brush and go. Here's a little video with more of a look-see:

The day was so much fun and it seriously flew by! We worked on three things: 4 Welcome Back banners for the new school year, 4 2'X3' giant canvases for the school library, 9"X12" canvas board alphabet and numbers 1-9 for the library also. 

 Last year, during field day, we made this sign...and our school librarian loved it so much, she promptly claimed it and requested a series of paintings for the library. It only took me a year to get around to doing it with the kids...but they are complete, thanks to field day fun!

We painted with tempera paints on the canvas. The canvases were purchased with funds from our school (not my art budget!). The morning crew of younger kids painted the flat colors while the older students painted the patterns. 

Once the kids were done painting for the day, I went back over my black lines and added the white pops of paint.

 The kids did paint on top of my black lines...which I wasn't worried about. I just touched them up.

 I love how happy and whimsical they are. I cannot wait to see them in the library!

 I also retouch the banners but those I do with a bingo dauber so it goes really fast.

 These will get rolled up until August!

 It's a great way to jazz up the otherwise boring walls when we return to school. 

 Out of everything we worked on tho, these letters and numbers might be my favorite. This was actually a lesson I did with my third and fourth graders...as well as a collaborative I'll be sharing this week! I simply give the kids two paint trays, one filled with warm colors and the other cold (tempera paint is what we used, Sax Versa Temp is my go-to!) and ask them to pick one color family for the number and the opposite for the background. 

 They painted as much as they could and then the next class just picked up where they left off. They were to use dots, dashes and dabs of color. 

Aren't they the prettiest?! I need a set for my home too. 

What field day activities do you all do? I'd love to hear more!

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!

In the Art Room: A Collaborative Painting for Field Day!

Disclaimer: Since discovering Instagram and my love for it, I've gotten super bad about snapping photos with my camera and simply using my phone. So what you have in this blog post are phone photos and for that, I apologize. If you'd like to see me overshare my art room happenings (as well as just my hot mess of a life), you can find me here. 

In my last post, I shared what we did for the art station portion of Field Day...when I thought it was going to be rained out. The night before Field Day, while I was head scratching what we could do, I thought creating a collaborative canvas painting would be fun (this is what happens when your brain is fried, y'all). So I pulled this giant canvas out of my closet and went to town. 

 I've had this canvas for years. I had started a painting on it years ago and never did anything with it. So I simply painted over it with a cream color paint (cuz that's all I had on hand) and used watered down black acrylic paint to create this. Why watered down acrylic? Because it has better viscosity that way. I began by sketching out four wavy lines across the canvas. Then I wrote out the letters of our school. Once I was happy with the placement, I painted it with a flat brush and called it a night. 

 Along with our other painting station, I let the kids go to town on this. My only "rule" was that one color go in one space...and TRY to stay within the lines. As you can see above, that was a struggle. But it was field day, we were wound up and I knew I could lean up the lines by simply going back over them. So no worries. 

 This was after the first day. I was tempted to leave it this way...and then I added the little pattern on the top and thought it would be fun for the kids to add patterns the following day. 

 Again, so sorry for the grainy photo. My only rule for the patterns was that the kids had to pick one pattern and color and stick with it. For the dots, they used wine corks dipped in paint (fave part of the day? A kid saying, "oh my mom has TONS of these!" Ha!) and thin brushes for the designs. Again, other than that, little direction was given. This was on the last day of school where I had free choice centers set up around the room. This just happened to be one of them. 

 Once dry, I went back over the black to once again clean up the edges. Then I thought it might be fun to add some white highlights to make the letters pop. Look, even the edge got painted!

The admin had no idea we were creating this painting. When I was sharing it with them, our school librarian saw it and LOVED IT. It was decided that this painting would go in the library for everyone to see. AND I'm really excited to share that now the librarian and I are collaborating to create an entire ALPHABET WALL in this style! The kids will kick off the new school year painting a canvas for each letter in the alphabet to showcase in the library. Y'all I'm so stoked! This project was so easy, colorful, happy and fun. I'm looking forward to making more. LOVE to hear if you give this a go! 

What the Art Teacher Wore #163

 Field Day Monday: With only 2.25 days left of schoolin', we had a field day on Monday. What that meant for this art teacher was I spent the day in the shade transforming sweet innocent children's faces into tigers, pirates, Boba Fett, and the random requests of horses, unicorns and a rainbow cat. Yes, that happened. I didn't take face painting in college so there will be no photographic evidence of the damage that was done on that day. But me and my helpers buddies had fun! dress: made by me, here; shoes: Converse

Welp, the show is over, kids. The school year ended for me on Wednesday with another year of art teacherin' in the books. This time of year is exciting for me as I start to think about 1. All the Things that I've Done Wrong and 2. Dream Up Ways to Make 'Em Right. Plotting, planning and dreaming is in full swing. Along with resting, relaxing and vacationing, of course! We hit the ground running to sunny (albeit chilly) California on Thursday and it has been a wonderful way to kick off the break. I hope y'all are enjoying your extra long weekend as well.

In other news, my attempt at sharing with you my Me Mades for #memademay kinda flopped as I only did one other What the Art Teacher Wore blog post! My vision of MeMadeMay ended up being more MeIsCray. Pretty sure you understand. 

Until next time, have a super fab-o weekender and we'll chat soon!

 Last Full Day Tuesday: Between field trips and class parties, I only saw a couple of classes on this day. That by no means meant my day was chill. I still had to bag and tag over 100 clay projects and art show work to take down. Thankfully, the teaching assistants and some sweet fourth grade students came to my rescue! It never hurts to ask for help. I need to remember this and do it more often. sweater: thrifted; top, hair bow and skirt: made by me, here; shoes: Shoe Carnival

 Last Day, Hurray!: What better way to celebrate than a good ole fashion barbecue dress from the lady who never cooks out! It's funny, being from the Mid-West, what we think of as a barbecue is cooking on the grill and then slathering barbecue sauce on said grilled stuff. In the South, it's tooooootally different. To barbecue means to slow cook meat until it falls off the bone in shreds. Imagine my surprise when I first moved to Tennessee and ordered barbecue. I was all, "where are the grill marks and the red sauce?!" dress: made by me, here; shoes: made by me, here

Disneyland Thursday: On Thursday, we hit the road to Cali (okay, we flew because lawd knows I couldn't handle that kind of car ride). Disneyland and California Adventure are our faves. Right now, the parks are actually calm-ish (well, as calm as Disney can be. In fact, the hubs coined a new term: Bisney. When something is SUPER busy, it's as busy as Disney. Therefore, it's Bisney). We were actually able to try out a couple new attractions! dress: made by me, here; sandals: Chacos

 We got to ride Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters which entails mini-Italian style cars that "dance" in a synchronized manner to Italian songs. It was so fun! My fave part was picking out the car. 

 I had to get one that matched my dress. Of course. By the way, it's surprisingly chilly in SoCal in the evenings! I was all sorts of bundled up. 

 This ride was a total trip. But the spinning at the end just about did me in. 

 As a teacher, I find the Disney parks so inspiring. I always come away with new ideas and inspiration from what I'll teach to why and how. For example, our Diner Themed Art Show? Guess what inspired that? Carsland is all based on Route 66 and heavily vintage in theming. It's one of my favorite areas in the park. 

Shopping Friday: My other favorite thing to do in California? Shop! I am a diehard Buffalo Exchange fan (word is that there is one coming to Nashville...what?!). My faves are in Costa Mesa and Fullerton. If you've never hit a Buffalo before, you are missing out! Oh, and get you some grub at Native Foods, our other Cali fave. dress: made by me, here; belt: old, Anthro

How to Create a Paint-by-Number of Your School, an Update!

Hi, my name is Cassie Stephens and I like to start projects and then wait months, sometimes even years, before I finish them. 

Please tell me I'm not alone. 

Case in point: this project that my students began on field day last spring. You can read all about it here. You can also check out this video unless you are reading my blog from your phone...in which case you'll need to view this post from your laptop in order to check out the vid. Technology is super cool. 

We go all out on field day with collaborative projects. ANYTHING to keep me from sitting outside all day and doing sidewalk chalk or melty face painting. You can see our field day set up for the art room here. 

After the kids painted it in the spring, it looked a little rough (sorry, I don't have any photos). I was a little disappointed by the look of it until I realized that all it needed was to be outlined again. That REALLY made the colors pop and cleaned it up nicely. 

I went in over my fall break and really enjoyed listening to a podcast and outlining this beast. It took no time at all. And I used my fave new hack of drawing with a Q-tip dipped in ink. It works so well, provides a consistent line and holds quite a bit of ink! 

I did use a Sharpie to write the name of our school. I also would STRONGLY recommend using bottles of craft store acrylic for this painting. We initially painted it with tempra and it looked so faded, translucent and chalky. 

Like many schools, the front of ours is a little boring in that it has a huge parking lot out front. So I took some liberties by adding our country and state flag, our state flower and a banner with our school district logo.

And now I'm totally hooked on the idea of creating more paint by numbers with the kids for our school!

It was really easy by just snapping a photo of the school and tracing in Procreate. I am thinking that we need a giant canvas of our school mascot next!

Pretty sure this beauty will end up in the front lobby of our school. I cannot wait to see it up! Here's what it looked like the day we started painting it. I'll keep you posted on how it looks once up!