scraptastic.

i think it is safe to say that i am fanatical about organization. and i adore efficiency. when it comes to organization and efficiency, my art classroom is a work of art. it is also a work in progress. since day one, the scrap paper boxes have been one of the most vexing corners of my room. i try to save as much paper as possible, for use in future projects, but storing it is a constant struggle.

before. blech.

a lot of projects require semi-specific sizes of paper, so i thought it would be perfect to categorize the scraps by size. but then reality hit. do i put the smallish large scrap in the medium or large bin? what about the large small piece? oy yoy yoy.

glum. glum. glum.

and then i saw this.

ms. naples' scrap boxes. (picture from orange beautiful blog.)

oh my mama llama. after i picked myself up off the floor i got straight to work sorting. and sorting. and sorting. i scrounged up some extra boxes, made a label for each color, and dropped the paper into the new boxes. and then i fainted. 

gloriousness.

victory.

the corner still seemed a bit blah, so i figured i should follow the lead of my inspiration, ms. naples, and make a sign. i am not usually one to toot my own horn, but seriously people, this sign? it is awesomeness. for reals.

love. bring on the scraps.

can i get a hallelujah?

día de los muertos.

day of the dead. paint. sugar skulls. art. eleven year-olds. glitter. awesomeness.

for the record, i had nothing to do with the yellow paper and blue borders. standard issue school decor. my classroom is waaaay cooler.

fauve fauve fauve.

when selecting projects to do with my students, i have been avoiding painting. why? because the reality of painting with large groups of young children and limited time is daunting. but a few weeks ago, i braved the craziness and took out the watercolors. love. the kids behaved. love. the cleanup was easy. love. the pictures turned out awesome. love.

we made fauve portraits. [fauve: characterized by the use of bright colors and simplified forms.]

seriously people, i love my job.

wonky windows #25.

this installment of wonky windows is brought to you by paper. as an art teacher, paper is essential. unfortunately, i took over a classroom with a shockingly limited supply of paper, but i was so delighted to be teaching art that i was not about to be fazed by a little thing like no paper. and then a colleague suggested i cross my fingers and submit an order to the principal. lo and behold, my principal approved it and the order was promptly placed. so a couple of weeks ago a stack of boxes appeared in my classroom. super exciting.

what is behind curtain number one?

 

paaaaaaaaaaaaper!! this sight makes my heart go pitter patter.

wonky windows #22.

a window into my working world.

cut paper faces. this was the second project i did as an art teacher. i gave every student the same materials and then sat back and watched their personalities emerge.

as the sign says, these are collages. magazines, novels, textbooks, wallpaper, construction paper, glue, and scissors... a lot of the students did not grasp the concept, but these students took to it like ducks in water.

some more awesome collages.

one of my sample collages. i was showing the students that collages can be designed around color instead of objects. fun times at work!

this student finished her work early, so i asked her to draw a self-portrait and this is what she came up with. i adore the hair style and hat.

art shmart.

hard to leave this little face at home.

three weeks ago marked the end of my maternity leave. (obviously it also marked the end of my free time, hence the abrupt end to blog posts.) it was a bummer because as a happy homebody, i do not suffer from a burning desire to be employed. alas, there are bills to pay, so back to the grindstone. but the exciting part about returning to work is that at the beginning of the year my principal did some finagling and managed to hold open the art position just long enough for me to get my art certification. and now, that's right, i am an art teacher. and it is divine. i teach art to all the students in the second through fifth grades. it is official. i love my job. 

two fourth grade classes at one time. crazy, but we survive.

now i am not one for complaining. well actually, that's a lie. i complain a lot. however, at work i try to keep my chin up, because i have learned that the place is what you make of it. i wander the halls with a big smile, because my personal motto is "a happy face makes a happy place." are you gagging? sorry. now where was i? oh right, about to tell you about the trash pile i inherited that is supposed to pass for an art classroom. yikes.

six 1" squares of fabric clipped together and stored in a box. what the what? why save these?

floppy discs from 1993. how did we manage with 2mb of storage?

okay, so i am thrilled to have a classroom - not all art teachers are so lucky - but this place was a dump. bursting at every seam with bits of paper, jumbled up crayons, oozing tubes of ink, lumpy paint, broken pencils, and dust. oh my god, so much dust.

politically correct crayons. i heart crayola.

the good news is that under the craziness, i unearthed a surprisingly good selection of art supplies. three weeks of tossing, scrubbing, sorting, cleaning, and organizing, and i can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. i still have six boxes of paper scraps to sort by size and two hundred large art reproductions to organize, but then i will have a dream classroom.

making adinkra "cloth" with a third grade class.

and my days will consist of wrangling children to create gloriousness, wandering the internet for project inspiration, and creating sample projects. did i say, i love my job? i do. i love my job.

wonky windows #14.

thursday afternoon rain clouds. i know people come to florida to enjoy the sunshine, which i like, but i love the rain. it is amazing. one minute we have sunshine, the next a torrential downpour, and five minutes later it is sunny again. sometimes it pours on one street and not on the next. this picture captures it perfectly....sunshine on the playground with black clouds rolling in. since there was no thunder or lightning, we stayed outside until we felt the rain, when one of my space cadet kids said to me "ummm...teacher, i do not like the look of those clouds over there." my response? "my name is not teacher and if you had listened, you would know that we are going inside right now." hmmm...not exactly gonna win any awards for being sugary sweet, but the entire class made it inside 7 seconds before the clouds burst.

this week's art project. i never intended my blog to be a stream of all of my students' artwork, but i cannot help it. i LOVE kindergarten art. it is so whimsical, so perfect, and well....so wonky! and it is a huge point of pride for me that unlike many of the other teachers at my school, when it comes to art i do not stop at drawing with crayons. not me. no sir. when it is art time, we take out all kinds of goodies and the kids are 100% responsible for the creation of their project. in my classroom the wonkiness is not a mistake, it is cherished. to that end, i limit my assistance to demonstrations, explanations, and unclogging glue bottles. and the results make me smile every time.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.