In the Art Room: Sketchbook Decoder Sheets

Hey, y'all! I'm trying, once again, to give sketchbooks a go in my art room. It's always been tricky for me with 30 minute art classes and I've tried doing sketchbooks a BAH-ZILLION different ways. Here's hoping this works. MORE sketchbook details to come (I even created insert pages, y'all...I'm crazy) but until then, I thought I'd share with you a previous post on how I have done sketchbooks in the past . AND I wanted to share with you this free PDF on how they created these sketchbook covers!

Now if these decoder sheets look familiar it is because this is the same idea I used for our Getting to Know You Sculptures!

For our sketchbook covers we used 6" X 18" paper and paint sticks. But really, this would be a great activity for sub plans, the start of abstract painting or simply Getting to Know You works of art!

 Here is one Sketchbook Cover Decoder Sheet.

And here is the other titled MORE Sketchbook Cover Decoder Sheet.

The reason for the smaller format of the sketchbook decoder sheet is that these were later added to their sketchbooks when assembled!

 The kids loved creating these and I loved how colorful and creative they were. These could be done with just about any art medium too!

You'll have to keep me posted if you give these sheets a dry with your students! A fun line and shape review as well!

Sketchbooks in the Art Room!

Here we go, trying sketchbooks once again in the art room! This time around, I'm calling it Sketchbook Town. If you'd like a tour, then here you go: 

My face says it all, don't you think?! 

To kick off sketchbooks, we created our covers! We used 18" X 6" pieces of drawing paper, paint sticks and these decoder sheets. More information (and a download of those sheets!) can be found here. 

Inside each sketchbook are six handouts that I created for my students. I'll be sharing these soon. My students are loving them! Also included are 10 sheets of 6" X 9" pieces of drawing paper. 

In the past, the problem with sketchbooks was storage and accessibility. Where would I store them? How would I make them easy to access? How will the kids know when they can sketch? AND what will they do in their sketchbooks. 

SO MANY QUESTIONS! Let's start with storage. I began by painting this abandoned cabinet I found in an unused classroom. More on how I painted that right here. 

 The cabinet only came with four shelves but I'm thinking of having more made as this seems like a whole lot of wasted space. But, for the time being, each shelf holds a different grade level. Now, I do work in a small school with just 4 classes of each grade (with only 3 of fourth grade!). That means sketchbooks for me are a little more doable. However, the whole 30 minute art class does make it kind of tricky. All that to say, we all got our struggles, right? Here's my solution to one of em: storage. 

Fun fact: if I find a blank surface, I'll paint on it. Usually after a long day at school. While Netflixing. Back to Sketchbook Town!

 I decided to place the cabinet in a rather strange place: right next to the door that leads outside. It works here because it is close to all of our sketching supplies (which I'll get to in a minute). Here you can see the set up. 

 This week, I came up with three rules for sketchbook down. We've had a bit of a "soft opening" over the last month. This has helped me see what issues we'll have in Sketchbook Town...and these were some of them. Finishing too quickly and leaving my S.T. a bit of a mess. NO MORE, artists. No.More.

To insure that my artists are ready for S.T., they gotta follow those steps: finish their work, clean their area and write an exit slip (more about that in my video). Then they are free to draw from observation, instruction or imagination!

I'm hoping to expand this area of options but for now, I'm happy with it. If you'd like to see more, be sure and check out the video. 

Welcome to Sketchbook Town!

In the Art Room: Sketching Art History

Hello, party people! I'm excited to share with y'all today some things that are goin' down in the art room...namely, just how my students are using their sketchbooks! I see my third and fourth grade students for an hour (my other classes are 30 minutes in length). For that reason, I decided to introduce them to sketchbooks this year. We created our own sketchbook covers on the very first day of art and had a big time doing so. 

Here's a blog post explaining how they are created. We did these a couple of years ago...and while the kids loved making them and sketching...I dropped the ball. I wasn't super sure how I wanted the kids to use their sketchbooks. Here was my initial thought a couple of years ago:

This time around, I decided to make some changes to how we use our books. Here's the plan:

* We will be taking a journey through art history with our sketchbooks! Every other week, my students will sketch in their books. We will do this every other week so as to not eat into regularly scheduled creative time. To make this process of distributing and collecting sketchbooks easier (because I have two classes at once and things can take a little longer/get a little hairy if I don't have a solid system), I created this video with the help of my awesome co-workers. My kids FLIPPED when they saw their teachers cutting up for the cause. Here's the Do's and Don't's of Sketchbookin':

* On sketchbook days, my students will watch two 1-minute videos. The first one will be a Hot Minute of History (which I've shared here before) and the other will be a sketchbook prompt based on that history. Here's our first installment!

* As they view the videos, students are to silently take their sketchbook from the bin and pass the bin. They did this beautifully. Here's their sketching prompt video:

I made my rules very clear: Silent Sketch Time and One Page at a Time. I then set my timer for 7 minutes and the kids went to work. I was so loving their first sketches! I thought I'd share...

 We used texture plates and fabric for the rubbing. I did end up swapping out the vine charcoal for black oil pastels as the charcoal did not work very well on the oil pastels. 

 I had one student say they had "messed up" and that they wanted to start again on another sheet. I said, "If you were a cave artist, you wouldn't ask for another cave wall...you would make that drawing work!" And they did. It was a fun lesson on beautiful oops'ing!

One of the main reasons I thought it would be good to sketch through Art History is that it is one area that I often fail to teach. There are SO MANY THINGS TO TEACH IN ART that I find I have to squeeze in as much as I can. This is one way I hope to do that. 

 I introduced A Hot Minute of Art History before (more details here) but then it was just me chatting...and I tend to be long winded. Not only that but it didn't really resonate with the kids as they didn't have a creating-connection. So, hopefully, this will help. I am showing the one minute videos to my first through second grade students...they just don't do the sketching portion. 

 I also created a song to go along with this journey. You can find the song here (it's a work in progress). Here's a clip of me teaching it to a group of third graders a couple of years ago:

We still get up and sing the song...but now we do it with a before video and a sketching intro!

 I was so excited by the sketchbook drawings and I know the kids were too. I can't wait to share our next Art History video with them!

 I also loved the variety of drawings. I did do a quick google search of cave paintings and placed a couple of simple sheets on each table for inspiration. My students are used to these Idea Sheets, as we call them. I know that I work best when I have some inspiration so I always provide that for my students. 

  As I create the lyrics to the song, I've been working on paintings myself. Here's my take on Cave Painting:

These paintings will later become posters to hold the lyrics of our Rockin' Art History song!

You can find the pdf for this here if you are interested! Feel free to use in your art room. All I ask is that you share your source when other's ask. I would rather not post what I share to TPT...I would like to continue sharing. However, it is sometimes sad to see folks not give credit where it is due...especially when they got the information for free. So I ask politely and say thank you!

 Getting back into sketchbooks with the kids meant finding a place to store them. Earlier this year, I found this great bookcase that was in an abandoned classroom. After a little bit of paint, I was happy with the result.

 My bins from Target are the perfect fit! It really helps to have the folders divided by class and gender as that makes passing the sketchbooks our much faster and easier.

 I'll be sure to share our sketchbook adventures as they continue!

Until then, have a super week!

Best Back to School Art Lessons!

There is so much stress at the start of the school year. All the set up, the creating the rules and routines, the prep and organization...it just doesn't end! AND THEN the time spent in meetings and ice-breaker-land when all you can think about is

I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!

Well, have no fear. I've put together a blog post with some of my very favorite Back to School art lessons. Many of these links to blog posts contain FREE handouts and always free videos lessons. I'm here to help, y'all!

Speaking of help...if you find yourself needing more on all things art teacherin, have you checked out my book Art Teacherin' 101? I can tell it's back to school season as I'm packing and shipping them out as fast as I can. This book walks you through everything to survive your first few weeks and create the best art teacherin' year EVER. You can pick it up here. 

As I share my fave lessons to kick off the school year, I've broken them into a couple of categories. These are my favorite ways to start the school year:

* Collaboration Projects...where students all create a piece of art that will contribute to a large scale piece. I have a blog post of my favorite collaboration lessons here. These are great for BTS time!

* All About Me Projects...what a better way to get to know your students! And for them to feel comfortable in their amazing uniqueness. Those lessons can be found in this post with plenty of links to handouts.

* Sketchbooks...I love doing sketchbooks at the start of the school year and I've done it a ton of different ways. I added all of those in this blog post. Again, lots of free handouts and videos just for you and your studetns!

* Dot Day! More to come on this as I have SO MANY Dot Day lessons. But I did add several at the end of this post. 

Collaboration!

Let's begin with my favorite way to kick off the school year: collaborative projects! This builds community and school pride. We created these painted shapes on the first few days of school. 

Working with our table team, we came up with a positive four letter word to describe our school. 

We even created a bunting to explain our word choice. This one was a lot of fun and very impactful to hang throughout the school.

One year, I got a donation of paintsticks from the hardware store. Each student either decorated or painted the stick for this large-scale piece. Tap the link to see where we hung it and how we created it!

Many of our collaborative projects are based around a theme. One year, we based it on the song Wonderful World. This was one of my all-time favorite collaborative lessons!

Busting out paint on those first weeks of school can see...bananas. So why not try your hand at a less messy collab like this one?

I mean, check out that result!

Another low-mess and low-stress lesson that yields a high impact is this one! 

All you need are colored pencils and sharpies! AND then a lotta help to put the beast together ;) But worth it, I promise!

This collaboration was a first grade lesson but, really, I think all grades would enjoy this one! We began by painting on paper plates which is perfect at the start of the year if your supply order of paper has yet to arrive. Anyone else always late with that supply order?! Lesson here. 

One of my favorite parts of creating large murals like this is getting the kids involved with creating the collage papers for the background. We call them Painting Parties and they are a fun activity for the start of the school year!

You can find out details on our Painting Parties in this here blog post!

Check out this fun Rizzi-City we did as a collaboration with our papers! 

We did a mascot-themed series of back to school lessons one year. As the tigers, each grade did a tiger lesson. I share more about all the different grade-level mascots here. 

These cuties were created by first grade. Lesson video can be found in this blog post. 

I love doing Monochromatic Selfies with ALL o f my students at the start of the school year. And the video I created to teach this lesson is one of my most viewed on my YouTube channel. You can find the complete lesson and video here!

Now how you decide to display those selfies is up to you! We created a map and featured them all. I explain the process in this blog post. 

Encouraging individuality is this collaborative lesson based on the book You Be You! We each created a colorful fish and added the to a large collaborative mural. Check it out here! And for a look into how we created these, check out this blog post. 

A collaborative mural that I put up and just could never take down because it was right outside my art room door and I LOVE it is the It's Okay to be Different mural!

I mean...SO CUTE!

All About Me!

Back to school time is the best time to get to know your students...and for them to get to know one another! That's why Get to Know Me lessons are always a hit. I've done this a couple of different ways. One is by having the kids create a sketchbook with designs that share a little about them. This page was ultimately added to their sketchbook so they could share with family and friends when they took it home. Free sheet can be found here. 

If you want to take it a step further or have older students, why not have them create their own decoder sheet? I know they would love it!

I REALLY love doing the same lesson with all grades at the start of the year (have you noticed?!). There's just so much stress at the start of the school year already. Why not make one thing a whole lot easier and set up the art room for a lesson for all. 

I mean look how pretty! This is another lesson I shared that was a big hit: Getting to Know Me paper sculptures! Lesson details here. 

We work on these for the first 3 art classes (where we learn rules, routines and the rest) before calling them complete. Then they immediately go in the hallway for the most colorful and fun display! See more here. 

This is the same lesson I love to do with kindergarten...but without the decoder sheet. It's always a hit!

Sketchbooks!

Sketchbooks is another great way to kick off the school year. I've done sketchbooks many different ways. One of my favorites was upcycling file folders that were donated from the school secretary and let the kids experiment with paint and texture tools on the first days of art. Then we proceeded to add paper, staple and decorate them with fun Duct tape. All the details you could ever ask for right here. 

Looking for something a little less messy? We did our names on our sketchbook covers one year. I also tried my hand at having the kids use folders that they could add paper and handouts too. I liked this process a lot. You can find the free handout in this blog post. 

Did I mention I like to change things up?! Here's another version of our sketchbooks. These are half the size. On the first days of school, we used tempera sticks to decorate the papers which was a lot of fun. Each line told the view a little about us! You can see that lesson here. 

And if you're uncertain how you'd set up Sketchbook Town (as I call it), I got you! I lay it all out here. 

I also...created my own sketchbook series with my pals at Prang! You can buy them on Blick, Amazon or any place you buy your art supplies! My kids loved these the best. I actually have created two sketchbooks. One is sold in packs of 12 called Sketch Smart and it's designed for the art room. The other is called Amazing Artist Sketchbook and it's sold individually...but has great pages that would be perfect sheets for Early Finishers!

Dot Day!

I actually have so many blog posts on the different Dot Day back-to-school lessons we have done that I think I may have to make it into a separate post! I'll drop several of them here...but stay tuned. Or, if you just can't wait, you can use the search bar on my blog and most of them will pop up.

One of my most recent first day/Dot Day lessons was done on pizza pans! This was a HUGE hit with my students and it got everyone, kindergarten through fourth, painting within the first days of art class. You can check out the lesson here. 

Seriously, y'all. There's a rabbit hole of art lessons about The Dot on this here blog! I promise a whole post is coming sometime this week. For now, here's another super easy Dot Day lesson!

Let's be real: covering all that you need to on those first days doesn't always leave a lot of time for big and elaborate lessons. So...try this one on for size! I have a great handout here. All you need are markers, crayons and circle stickers from the dollar store!

Still want more?! Here's a post on Dot Day ideas.

More first day of school lessons that I may have forgotten can be found here.  And here! Oh, my....and HERE. This is what happens when you've been blogging and teaching FOREVER. 

The lesson I ALWAYS do with kindergarten on their first day!