2nd grade Oaxacan-inspired sculptures

At the beginning of the school year as I unpacked all the goodies in my new art room I could not BELIEVE how many boxes of wood shapes I found, both left over from the previous year and on my hand-me-down supply list from the previous art teacher. I couldn't imagine how so much wood could possibly be used in one year. I put a dent in the boxes with a mobile project I did with 2nd grade early in the year, but now we've nearly demolished the wood supply with our latest project: Oaxacan-inspired wood animal sculptures.

 It's so hard to choose photos to share, because their sculptures all have so much character. We started off by examining examples of Oaxacan wood sculptures- especially how the forms, colors, and markings of the animals were exaggerated from real life. We considered adaptations an animal needs to live in an environment and selected features from known animals to create an imaginary animal. Students drew a sketch of what animal they would like to create to finish off the first art-looking and art-planning day.

 On the second day, we pulled out the wooden shapes and noticed their forms- most of which were in the cylindrical or rectangular prism category. I asked students to pull out pieces and play with the arrangement of forms a bit before deciding how to construct their animal. They were also asked to pay attention to how their pieces connected- the more surface area touching between 2 pieces, the stronger the attachment would be. We used tacky glue for this step because I shouldn't find where I hid the wood glue!

 On the third day I asked students to choose 1-2 colors to paint a base coat on their sculpture. After 3 classes of messily painted sculptures, I limited the 4th class to ONE base color! On the fourth day we looked at the Oaxacan sculptures one more time to remember how they were decorated. This time we used skinny brushes and added pattern details like stripes and polka dots. We thought about how some animals try to blend in to their environments with camouflage colors and some animals have warning colors to show they are poisonous.

On our final work day, students had an opportunity to add some final details with feathers, beads, googly eyes, and sequins. They were asked to be RESTRAINED in their choices and not go overboard with the doodads. They also created a written description and a drawing of their animal in its environment to serve as a label for their sculpture when they go on display. Their written description had to include what animals they combined, three things their sculpture had, and explain how their sculpture was or was not like Oaxacan sculptures
This project is a real winner- students got to work in 3 dimensions and use a lot of creative problem-solving as well as connect to concepts in science.  The process and product are nicely balanced, and the final pieces are amazing!
 PS. For good photos of sculptures, hang a piece of black construction paper so it is half on the wall, half on the table and place the sculpture on top.

Art room trash into treasure

While setting up my room last week I cleaned out the old crayon boxes of broken pieces and filled them back up with fresh crayons. (Oh the beauty of a box of new crayons!!). I soaked off the paper from the old crayons and then found two ways to transform them. A selection of sorted crayon pieces in neutrals, warms, and cools ended up in my "ART" mosaic on the door. The rest have been recycled into new multicolored chubby crayons.

 At home I found an egg poaching tray which I have NEVER used (and will never use again for cooking). Each compartment was filled up with crayon bits sorted into analogous colors centered on secondaries. I placed it on a cookie tray and set it in the oven for 15 minutes on 250.

 They're beautiful when melted together. A little jiggle of the tray helps swirl the colors together a bit. I wish there was marbled paint like this that wouldn't mix together into mud. I'm reminded of a certain old Looney Tunes cartoon with Easter bunnies dipping brushes into multicolored paint cans and slapping patterns onto eggs!

Since I only had the 3 crayon batches going at a time, it's been slow going. However my bag of crayon crumbles has now transformed into about 30 new multi-colored crayon disks that fit very nicely in the hands. The best use of these, I believe, will be for doing texture rubbings. The analogous color blends create instant interesting color on the page. I've also considered using these as reward prizes throughout the year, but maybe that's something to do with next year's batch of crayon bits. Maybe by then I can also find a nice silicone candy mold to make cool shapes instead of discs.

Moral of the story: no kid wants to use a broken crayon, but every kid has fun with a multicolored crayon, and this project saves money in the budget while creating something awesome for the art classroom!

Before and After

Before..... I was working primarily as a long term artist-in-residence at public schools. I would cart around art supplies in the back of my car and tote everything in an out of all the classrooms I visited. Supply prep would be done at my kitchen table the night before a residency session, and extra supply items were stored in my basement and in various bags littering my living room. I would work with other teachers in their classrooms, dependent on their set-up of space and management of behavior. While I loved making art with the kids in my residencies, there was a lot of inconvenience associated with the life of an itinerant teaching artist.

Now.... I'm starting my first job as an (almost) full time K-5 Art Teacher at a small charter school in South Philadelphia. I have been given the keys to a virtual kingdom (in my eyes), and have my very own space to teach in. It is stocked with supplies I was able to order for the whole year, and there's storage space for it all. I got to determine the furniture layout and make my own rules and consequences for how students should behave in class. Instead of a look of panic upon my arrival on the faces of my colleagues ("what? our residency session is today?!?") I will get looks of relief from my fellow teachers ("oh, thank heavens I have a moment to catch up and hit the restroom!")

So! Welcome to My Blue Art Room! Anyone who knows me knows BLUE is my favorite color, so how wonderful to walk into my cerulean surroundings last week! I had 3 short afternoons last week to start setting up the room. This is what the room looked like BEFORE:



my entire supply order was sitting in boxes on the window ledge
and everything was stacked and stored away for summer.
This is actually a picture from after I arranged the tables, as when I first
arrived everything was clumped into the front corner.

I quickly set about rearranging furniture, unpacking, and reorganizing everything. This was not too difficult, though as the previous art teacher was a wonderfully organized teacher who actually taught me all I know about supply storage, distribution, and classroom management. It's a small L-shaped room, which presents its challenges, but I think I've got it ready to go for the arrival of my students next week. While school started for grades 1-5 on Wednesday, they did not see the Specials this week. Thankfully that gave me plenty of time to REALLY prep the room and materials for them.

So, here's a tour of the new and improved Blue Art Room:



I thought a self-portrait would help the students get accustomed to
seeing a new face in the art room this year.

  I had a lot of fun coming up with my door decorations! While setting up the supplies I sorted through the old crayon boxes to get rid of broken ones. Some of them ended up in my crayon mosaic below. The rest are getting recycled into jumbo multi-colored crayons by melting them into an egg-poaching tray.


This crayon mural gave me grief the first time I tried to hang it.
PS: there's no substitute for 3M command strips!

  When you walk in my door there's so much light from the high south-facing windows! I love it, but we might end up pulling the shades down if the kids think the light is too much on their papers while they work. The entrance area houses my desk, classroom folder flatfile, demo cart, drying rack, and bulletin board to the left, and my filing cabinet, projector cart, and free-activity area to the right. I'm really happy to have this entrance space as it allows plenty of room for lining up to leave, and also allows for a circle area on the floor for reading stories.


The entrance uses one part of the L for certain kinds of activity
The light and high ceilings make the art room feel airy.

  I've arranged my 5 tables to utilize the other part of the L. Luckily my maximum class size this year is 23, so I'm able to have 3 tables of 5 and 2 tables of 4 without feeling too crowded. The back section has 2 utility shelves for miscellaneous paper and all the painting staging areas, the double utility sink, and a small cabinet for all the paint. Above those features are 3 tiers of wire shelving to house materials I don't use on a daily basis. Along the window ledge are more paper shelves, and underneath are construction paper (away from the light), crayons, markers, glue, and colored pencils. All of those supplies are sorted in baskets for each table, and are accessible to my table helpers.


the view from my board corner. A 5th table is at the front of the room to the left

I've really enjoyed setting up my bulletin boards and classroom decor. The main board currently has a fish-theme to match our school-wide positive reinforcement system, "Caught in the Act" (of being good). The board also provides some extra opportunities for review questions while lining up. 

I drew my own fish and added in some fish from art history
At the bottom of the board are questions about the artwork
to reinforce the Elements and Principles of Art and Design.

 Here's the view from the sink area towards the front of the room. I have a cabinet filled with office and printmaking supplies at left, shelves for my mini-library and open access to pencils, erasers, scissors, rulers, compasses, and glue sticks; my new whiteboard, a place for exemplars on the blackboard, and my sentence strip holder for vocabulary.


There's a whiteboard for posting objectives, and I've written
myself some supply and procedure reminders.

Some classroom management tricks I'm keeping from the last teacher are weekly table helpers, and a 3-star noise and classroom-wide behavior system.

I've got my first exemplars up too! The whole school is doing
a collaborative self-portrait mural



A clean, organized, and inviting space is quite important for an art room. Starting off and keeping it cleaned and organized sets the tone for students to help maintain the space. It tells them that it's a safe and orderly place. Having certain materials and tools completely accessible tells them it's a space for them to work and find what they need easily. Having clear visuals around the room makes it easy for students of all language and ability levels follow along. I hope this classroom arrangement will be efficient for me and my students!

We have a long weekend for labor day, and then I see students for the first time on Tuesday!!!!