Category Archives: Art room organization

More Photos from Art Show 2014

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Here are some more photos from Art Show 2014.  Thanks again to Devan, our art show chair (and party planning/layout genius) and all the AMAZING art show and art room volunteers who put this show together.

Sixth grade foil name art. Click here for lesson plan

Upper grade display

Foil name art (and those awesome decorations!) in the upper grade area.

Primary grade display

First grade clay self-portraits on table top. Click here for lesson. On skirt: marker and foam prints lesson plan at shine Brite Zamorano. Above on wall: baby oil and oil pastel herons. Click here for lesson.

Marker prints, clay faces and great blue herons in the K-3 area.

Marker prints, clay faces and great blue herons in the K-3 area.

Kindergarten Kandinsky CD Case Circles Mural

Click here for the lesson plan. The lesson went incredibly well. The mural was mounted on foam core using the 3M clear mounting tape.

Primary grade display

Kandinsky CD case circles mural

Shoe Art and Sport Trophies:

On the table skirt: fourth grade shoe art. Click here for lesson. This is a 100% successful lesson.

Fifth grade sport trophies. Click here for lesson.

Upper grade art display

Shoe art and sport trophies in the upper grade area.

Upper grade display

Calder wire hands

Want more pictures? Check out our first post from Art Show 2014. And check out Art Show 2013 and Art Show 2012! Click here for more on Devan’s space-saving displays.

Our volunteers are the best! Our school is blessed to have the help of parents year-round in the art room. We had some amazing, hard-working parents who hung this show in just three days.

It was our last show with Devan as chair. We will really miss her vision and energy. How fortunate we are to have had her help these past four shows.

Enjoy!!!!!

What’s your best tip for a successful art show?

 

 

 

 

Art Show 2014: A Rainbow of Color

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art show 2014 stage

SSF art show 2014: paint cans spill a rainbow of color down the stairs; Bob Ross painting video plays throughout the evening.

We had our annual art show last week. It was amazing! Over 1000 pieces of art; at least two from each student. This show featured a rainbow theme (designed by Devan, our AMAZING parent volunteer art show chair), a FEAST! food art area, and an iPad photography/digital art showcase.

Rainbow theme:

Devan used real paint cans purchased at Home Depot. The colored ‘paints’ are plastic table cover rolls. The 10 cans on the stage were drilled and hung on monofilament. Hidden PVC pipe stands hold up the freestanding paint cans.

Spilled paint decorations

The show featured Devan’s amazing freestanding paint can decorations.

Giant crayons and a rainbow of color.

Giant crayons and a rainbow of color in front of the plaster masks.

FEAST! Food Art

I taught food art projects in grades K-4. Click here for kindergarten cookie collage, first grade feast collage, second grade Wayne Thiebaud geometric dessert, and fourth grade Seurat pointillist food. Devan decorated the tables with real cooking utensils and ingredients.

Five FEAST! art projects (clockwise from left): clay cupcakes with roses and alphabet pasta; Seurat pointillist food; Thanksgiving feast collage; cooking plate collage; Wayne Thiebaud geometric dessert.

Andy Warhol activity:

We had a coloring contest again this year. I used a blank Campell’s soup can sheet courtesy of E is for Explore blog. Click here to get yours. We used a real soup pot and real cans of Campbell’s soup.

Our interactive coloring contest ties in to the FEAST! unit.

Our interactive coloring contest ties in to the FEAST! unit. Check out the pot of crayons!

iPad Art Showcase:

We put the iPad showcase right up at the entrance. I printed out a few samples of the second grade iPad photography project, then stationed two iPads looping slideshows of our other digital art projects.

This achieved three goals: 1) display student art, 2) advocate for the art program and 3) thank the parents who raised money to bring iPads to our school.

iPad photography print outs, plus looping slideshows at the iPad art showcase.

iPad photography print outs, plus looping slideshows at the iPad art showcase.

 

Thanks to our PTO and parent volunteers

Our entire art program is made possible by the parents at our school. A big thank you to the art room and art show volunteers for all their hard work during the year and for three CRAZY days hanging the show. We also had the help of a college student, Abby, who spent two weeks observing our art program. The gorgeous room layout and decorations are the vision of our amazing art show chair, Devan, a professional party planner. We are so lucky to have Devan on board.

100% of our art program is funded by our school PTO. Thank you.

Enjoy!

What’s your best tip for a successful art show?

Texture Collage

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Want to introduce your students to texture? Try a texture collage project.

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Collage and Construction in Grades 1-4 by Lois Lord, 1970 edition.

I found great instructions in the book Collage and Construction in Grades 1-4 by master art teacher/author Lois Lord. You’ll need large paper for the background format, glue, stapler and scissors, plus ‘materials of contrasting texture’:

Rough textured materials include corrugated cardboard, burlap…used sandpaper, wood shavings, egg-crate dividers, excelsior, and orange, onion and potato sacks.

Contrasting soft -textured material include pieces of fabric such as velvet; scraps of fur; cotton; bits of sponge; and feathers…

Materials with smooth textures include shiny metallic papers bought or salvaged from Christmas wrappings, chewing gum, and other packets. 

–Collage and Construction in Grades 1-4, p.10.

Lucky you – you get to actually watch Ms. Lord teach this collage lesson. Please enjoy ‘Collage: Exploring Texture’, filmed back in 1961.

http://vimeo.com/33304500

Not only to I love Ms. Lord’s teaching style, I love how she organized her collage supplies by texture and how she distributed the supplies. I wish she had been my teacher! Although this film was produced back in 1961, it is still inspiring.

You may have noticed Ms. Lord’s students used jars of liquid paste applied with a brush. It reminded me of this no-spill paint cup filled with glue at the collage station at San Diego’s New Children’s Museum.  The cups come with lids so you can cap them up at night. You will need to soak the brushes in water after use. (note: this may be a good use for the brushes that come with your pan watercolor sets). Want more glue options? Click here and here to see other glue cups in the classroom.

White glue in spill-proof paint cup at San Diego's New Children's Museum

White glue in spill-proof paint cup at San Diego’s New Children’s Museum.

Thanks to Wendy Apfel for sharing this excellent video on Vimeo.

Enjoy!


Happy Throwback Thursday! Stop by next Thursday to see what I’ve discovered in my vintage art education collection.

The Glue Sponge: Great for Paper Collage

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the glue sponge 1

If you like to do collage projects with young students, this post is for you. I just discovered the glue sponge! It is perfect for gluing small pieces of paper. It is much easier and neater than glue bottles and glue sticks, especially for kindergarten and first grade.

To make your own glue sponge, click here. You’ll need a lidded plastic container, sponge, white glue, and a spray bottle of water. It was a great way to use my half-empty glue bottles leftover from last year. We made one glue sponge per table, to be shared by four students.

glue sponge shared at a table

Kinders collaged origami paper, construction paper and copy paper. They loved it. The papers dried smooth and flat. Nothing fell off!

Benefits

  • much less messy than white glue in the bottle
  • easier than glue sticks
  • no waste
  • easy to share
  • easy to store

Just mist with water before closing, and turn sponge occasionally. Tip: don’t saturate with water – these work best when tacky.

Take a look at the kindergarten paper sculpture in this post from Art for 1170. The glue sponge is good for paper sculpture too!

We’ll still use glue sticks for larger pieces of paper, and glue bottles for beads and such. For collage with small pieces of paper, I’m sticking with the glue sponge 🙂

Enjoy!

Art Room Opening Day Photos 2013

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art room opening day photos 2013

 

Ah, the first days of art. It is so neat and clean and organized in the art room….I just had to share some photos before the room reverts to its natural ‘studio’ state. Here are seven photos taken on opening day.

1. Table Colors and Numbered Seats

In the photo above you can see tables organized by color. All the seats are numbered – four seats to a table.

2. Rotating Jobs by Seat Number

Last year I rotated jobs by table. This year I am rotating jobs by seat number.

seat jobs

3. Rules Poster
IMG_5092

My rules poster underneath the amazingly helpful Time Timer.

4. Elements Bulletin Boards

elements bulletin boards

New Organization Projects!!!!

I did three big organization projects:

  • Grade level prep boxes
  • Lesson plan organization
  • Free draw area

5. Grade Level Prep Boxes

 

grade level prep boxes

These boxes fit perfectly on my shelves, and are big enough to hold 12×18 paper and all my supplies for each project.

I have a big shelf unit on wheels.  I filled it with these yellow catering boxes from the local Jamba Juice smoothie shop. Three boxes fit perfectly on a shelf.  The boxes are large and great for organizing all the supplies. They will be really helpful for organizing prep for our parent volunteers.

(Note: see all that cut wire in the 5th grade prep box? Our parent volunteers just cut 100 3-ft. lengths of it in preparation for our Calder wire sculpture project next week. It all fits in the box with room to spare!).

6. Lesson Plan Organization

Lesson plans go into individual manilla envelopes. Turn the envelopes sideways, and they fit perfectly in my file drawers.

Lesson plans go into individual manilla envelopes.

I completely cleaned out all my lesson plan files this year. Each lesson plan (plus samples) is stored in an individual manilla envelope. I turned each envelope ‘landscape’ and labeled each one. Once turned sideways, they fit perfectly in my file cabinet. This makes me SO HAPPY. Imaginary angels sing when I open the file drawers and see all the organized glory.

(NOTE: I read about the manilla envelope method on Deep Space Sparkle. If you are looking for more ideas check out these great lesson plan organization ideas from Deep Space Sparkle).

7. Free Draw Area

free draw

On top:

In the cubbies below:

  • copy paper
  • origami paper
  • markers, one box per table
  • crayons, one box per table
  • peeled crayons
  • crayon cakes
  • art games

Let the games begin! Have a super new year everyone!

Enjoy!

P.S. Click here to see our 2012 Art Room Opening Day photos

Did you make any changes to your art room this year?

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