Friday, August 19, 2011

Bulletin boards & art room views

My room finally is ready for me to set up; yeah! All the problems I was upset about are OVER. So today I spent the day getting started - here's what I've done. My "theme" for my bulletin boards is Art is Fantastic - I'm planning on finding ways during the year to incorporate fantasy stuff - castles, dragons, and lots of shimmery shiny stuff. I've chosen this because it's likely that I'm retiring this June, and I want to go out with style - and especially with lots of dragons!

By the way, you can see my rules above; the kids all know the #1 art room rule is NO WHINING. The art room should be a happy place.

The middle photo is my class reward chart. After considering several options, this year it's a castle. The left-hand photo is of colored stickers that I will be using for bricks. Every time a class has a good day, they will get a colorful brick added to the wall. The class that reaches the top first earns a "pop-pop party" (popcorn and popsicles). We usually get through the chart twice in one year, so the second time around I will use star stickers instead of the bricks.

On the right is my word wall, as yet empty, though my recycle box (paper) is full from June cleanup.
On the left - the empty space will be filled... just not today. And I'll talk more about "the 6th grade zone" another day. On the right - the principles of art - I've posted them for Mr. E, who has been discussing the various incarnations of these principles. These are the ones I chose for some reason or other... And of course there's the wonderful Mr. Brush posters.
I haven't hung these up yet - but on the left is a list of all the elementary classroom teachers. I like kids to see them for proper spelling. On the right, is my schedule for the upcoming year. Note that we are on a 6-day cycle. It's a great way to schedule, very flexible. And if there's a snow day, we pick up where we left off, so nobody misses a class.
This bulletin board used to say "Artist of the Month", and it's where I display the artist we are currently studying. But I changed it this year because I wanted more flexibility, so that different grades could be studying different artists, and it doesn't have to be a monthly thing.
On the left, inside my storage closet I have shelves for each class. And what's that on the right? (oops it's sideways) It's a box of sheet rock scraps and you'll have to check in probably later this fall or winter to see what my 6th graders do with it. Hint: I think I mentioned this project as a newish blogger a year and 1/2 ago.

And here's more views of my storage closet, full of random junk and what-nots. Our wonderful school building is 11-1/2 years old. Prior to that, the district existed in 3 tiny buildings in 3 towns. One was a primary, one a middle school, and one was a high school. I taught in both primary and middle. All the casework in my closet came from the other buildings. When you have something that works, why not re-use it?

I forgot to get pics of my super-duper color wheel table, but I posted about it here last year, plus you can see it, along with my "it's always sunny in the art room" window shade, and more at my "My happy art room" tab, though I still need to work on this page.

15 comments:

  1. Love what you're doing with your room. I thought about picking up my keys today, but decided to put it off til next week. (I still have a few weeks before I actually start with kids.) I have school bulletin boards to get ready for the first day of school (the 30th), so that will come first. Then I can start on my own boards. I share a room with a primary reading teacher (although I have most of the board space) so the room has to reflect both subjects. I must say, every time you post pictures of your storage room I turn a bit green with envy!!! Looking forward to seeing your kids' work this year!

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  2. can you tell us more about 4th, 5th and 6th grade create times on your schedule?

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  3. Your room is looking awesome, Phyl! I especially like your creative castle you will use as an insentive for good behavior. Enjoy your whole year.

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  4. Love the Mr. Brush posters! Where did u get them?

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  5. Looks great Phyl. Makes me want to go set up my room...sort of:)

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  6. Mrs Art Teacher - CREATE began as a program to get kids out of the lunch room, which is VERY noisy and problematic. You will notice the word EAT is in the middle of crEATe. Thus the name. Because the concept of coming to Art during lunch is very popular, and my schedule doesn't always jive with theirs, it had to be limited. The kids (grades 4&5)know which day is for their grade, and if they want to escape the cafeteria, they stop in the art room in the morning, pick up a numbered pass, and sign up. There are 20 slots available. If more than 20 kids want to sign up, the kids who are shut out sign up on the next page, and therefore are automatically on the list for the next day. They eat their lunches, clean up their messes, and work on current art projects, or free choice stuff. They also love to take down bulletin boards, sort artwork, mix paints, and clean. Sometimes I have specific fun artsy things for them to do, keeping in mind it's only 1/2 hour including eating. Sometimes they come in with a goal - to make a birthday card for dad, or a holiday decoration. Sometimes, only a few kids sign up, but usually it fills up. By mid-year, a core group of kids seems to always come; they are sort of the "art room groupies". It's often an oddball mix of kids - artistic ones, shy ones that don't like the cafeteria, and groups of boys or girls that want to sit together and giggle and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere.

    The 6th grade is different. Their schedule is a middle school schedule and doesn't jive with lunch. But they have a study hall at the end of the day, and after much arm twisting, I convinced the 6th grade teachers to allow the kids to use this time for art. They do not sign up, they simply come on in. They particularly use the time to work on art projects. The kids who come in 6th grade tend to be the real artistic ones, who take on bigger challenges in art and need the extra time.

    CREATE has simple rules - be nice to each other, put away what you take out, clean up your messes, and put the chairs back, 5 to a table. (I let them crowd a bunch of chairs at one table if they want to all sit together.)

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  7. Erin, "Royal & Langnickel Mr. Brush" were given away by a distributor at my state art teachers association conference, and the kids LOVE them. Mr. Brush actually has a facebook page, and I'm wondering if you could ask "him" on his page how to get his posters. I happen to be a big fan of the brushes, too. His FB page mentions a new activity pack that could be interesting as well.

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  8. oops I meant Royal & Langnickel Mr. Brush POSTERS.

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  9. The company will send you the posters free of charge. Just send an email.

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  10. Phyl, your bullitin boards put mine to shame!! They are just beautiful and sparkly and inspiring! and I can tell you put alot of work into them! What a fabulous environment for creating!!

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  11. Hi Phyl
    I am ordering acrylic paint and seem to remember you posting about your favorite tempera. I have Sax True Flow now. Do you have a favorite??
    Thanks.
    Christie

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  12. Favorite tempera (good price, good consistency) is Sax Versatemp, though I enhance with some Crayola Artista colors, most notably the turquoise, magenta, and violet (Versatemp turquoise and magenta are "eh" and their violet is DARK). My favorite acrylic (for school grade) is Nasco Bulk-krylic. Blick's Blickrylic is similar. The colors are nice and the paints dry with a sheen that I like. Some school acrylics are dull when dry, and then there's the Chromacryl that looks so wonderful but is so thick you can't get it out of the bottle and end up throwing half of it away. Hope this helps, Christie!

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  13. Wow! Didn't expect immediate feedback!! It helps a bunch. Thanks, much!! Christie

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  14. Phyl, so beautiful! I like the featured artist instead of artist of the month. It's always important to make things as flexible as possible for when things get busy. I love your lettering. I wish it could be made into a font. I know another art teacher who has gotten asked more then once to get her handwriting made into a font, she always declines. Back to school letters. . . do you make them? I am playing with the idea of adding a section in the back to school letter for parents to tell me about their child with a questionaire (a fun one.) Just a thought that I will have to get done soon as it will have to be translated. Anyways, that might be interesting to see everyone's back to school parent/student communication.

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  15. Love the displays! You room looks fab! Hey we do the 6 day rotation too and I love it! Have a great year. :)

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