2017 Art Show, In the Books

It was epic, friends!  I think we had our best turnout EV-AH, and if I wasn't exhausted I'd be more detailed, but here's some photos from last night:

Art work glued to black roll paper and ready to hang.

Sixth grade Africa-inspired work

Some kindergarten work

Second grade

First grade

More first grade

Fourth grade

If you'll remember, one of my art show goals this year was more/better signage for getting patrons down to the "Make Art" stations:

They worked well, and they were free.  I had some co-workers save gallon milk jugs and I used broken crayons to weigh them down:

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If there's one thing art teachers have plenty of it's old, broken crayons!

The foam core I used for the signs themselves was a pretty beat up donation that's been in my room forever, and the wooden stakes were dirty and given to me by the PE teacher 9 or so years ago, so total cost=FREE.

One thing I will do for next year, I'll add an arrow in my classroom door as I came back to a room full of people after checking on my Make Art stations.  I guess if you tell kids, "you'll get to make some art" they assume it will be in the art room.  Go figure!

I will be driving around with these signs in the back of my minivan when the weather turns warmer to get the crayons to melt into a mass for next year.

The Make Art stations were heavily attended, with the painting station at fourth grade being the most popular:

Third grade Make Art symmetry design station.

Sixth grade adinkra stamp printing Make Art station.
Run by a second grader because sixth graders are too cool for school events.

Fourth grade Make Art landscape painting station.

If you need more info on how I do set up and run our art show, you can read more here, here or here.If you need me I'll be napping under my desk while students paint. Come on, spring break--I could use a daily nap about now!

Mad Love for Monet

I know, I know, I know, I post about this lesson every year.  But REALLY, what's not to love???? Heres this year's kindergartners painting:

And here they are finished and hanging in preparation for the art show that's only a WEEK AWAY:

This year's art show is going to be amazing, I just know it.  I'm sure that my worrying and lack of sleep is really what will make the difference. 
Until next Friday, I'll be running purely on caffeine.
Happy art teaching!

Solution--Signs, More SIGNS

Parent teacher conferences were last week, and I don't know about you, but I didn't have lots.  I did, however, have LOTS of time to work in my room.  One of my goals for this year was to improve the signage for our spring art show.  I've blogged about the art show many many many times.  Something I probably haven't described accurately is the shear SIZE of a building that can comfortably house 1100+ students.  We have six of each grade level, K-6, plus special education rooms, two gyms, two libraries. . .it's the size of a high school.  And my room is located near the third-sixth grade classes, so very far away from k-second.  So I spent some of my not-conferencing-hours on signs:

I've got some ideas for how to get said signs noticed once the big night comes, but [thankfully] it's still nearly five months away!
With Leader In Me, I'm also toying with the idea of some sort of student guides to let primary parents know that there's fun going on in "the south."  I'll be sure and let you know how it goes (five-ish months from now, I'm sure you'll be waiting with baited breath).
Until then, eyes on the prize, people! Fun & fantastic student art making! Let's get to it!

2016 Art Show!!!

I have to say, I'm a BIG FAN of having our all-school art show in March (rather than April).  All year, it hangs over my head, but this year, I have the rest of March, all of April and May to just focus on teaching and not 'is this going to be in the art show? Does each student have two quality pieces for the show?'
Here are some pictures from this year's fabulous show:

And yet more photos of our student-led "make art" tables:

I've decided that I'll add more signage next year directing students and parents from the primary side of our building to the intermediate/upper grades.  And probably have kindergarten, first and second grade teachers add something about the "make art" tables in their newsletters, because we didn't get TONS of primary traffic down in the upper grades where the make art tables were.  The third grade helpers kept complaining "no one's coming for us to help!" because they were at the farthest end of the building.

And finally, some shots from our Selfie station:

I feel very grateful that the art show went so smoothly (and it's over before spring break!).  I'm looking forward to Chicago next week and my very first ever NAEA conference!  Happy art teacher'in! (and feel free to ask any questions about the set up/running of the show if something is unclear)