Is It Procrastination? Or Perfectionism?

Teachers in my district reported back today for meetings and work time.  I spent my time changing out hallway displays (which needed to happen) and avoiding doing the things I need to do for our artist of the month program (choosing/hanging/writing the letters--all still needs to happen before I can leave today).  I took down first grade landscapes and put up first grade owls:

We did our owls similarly to previous years, except our backgrounds were warm-colored-crayon leaf rubbings with black paint over.

I had decided to do a cute little Leader In Me connection on this board because it's the one that every child who rides a bus sees (all 700-800 of them).  The spacing of the letters drove me NUTS, so switched some around, leaving a gap, so I had to go find another owl from another class to fill the void:

Much better! Now, what can I find to avoid doing the artist of the month stuff that needs to be done in the next 45 minutes??? Wait! That one on the far right needs to be adjusted. . . can someone else do artist of the month for me this month????

About Me Books To Share At Parent Teacher Conferences

I started fifth grade off a little differently this year, which was both good and bad.  Good because it made me think about each step along the way more than usual.  Bad because later I went to grab their sketchbooks and realized we never started them (I hadn't even copied them).  But it's all working out.
We started the first art class with some brainstorming about themselves.  What do they like? What questions (about anything) do they have?  What are their goals.  Then each student got a piece of 12 x 12" white  paper that we folded into fourths. They drew some things like right now in two squares diagonal from each other, and free painted in the other two squares:

The next page in this project was their names, drawn block style, and colored with neon crayons (again, the 12 x 12 paper was folded into fourths):

The two squares are intentionally left blank.

The final page was a 12 x 12 piece of construction paper we collaged with goals for our future.  One fourth was for home goals, one for goals with friends/relationships, one for goals for school/academic, and the final one was personal goals. About half way through I was really wishing I had a broader selection of magazines, because the going got rough there for a while finding images that fit student goals.

Close up of some school goals.

The final step was to glue the three pages together and fold along the diagonal.

The first and last pages were folded artwork sides out, the middle was folded blank/back side showing:

Name side folded in. You can see the backwards fold line
in this photo for the first page.

So at the end it's a neat little 6 x 6 bundle, and we added a cover with marker.  Here's a video of it unfolding (thanks to a co-teacher for being the model):

I did give them to the fifth grade teachers to hand back during parent teacher conferences because I couldn't figure out a good way to display them. My goal was for them to have a little snapshot of themselves as fifth graders for their future (and also to get them thinking about their future goals, Leader in Me style).

Poster Outside My Door This Year

Every year I do a different poster outside my classroom door to welcome students to my class/be interactive/let students know more about me and my family.  You can read about previous posters here, or here.  The 2015/16 poster went over really well because it was interactive, so I went back to that buffet and made a spinner for this year's poster:

The top says "Mrs. Fresia likes to begin with the end in mind.  She uses Habit 2 when she. . . " 

It's our third (?) year as a Leader In Me school, so our students are working to live the seven habits.  I wanted them to see it as it relates to real life (thus this year's poster).

The spinner choices are:

• plans activities with her family
• makes dinner 
• plans and grows her garden
• makes artwork
• develops art lessons for YOU

The spinner arrow is cut out of foam core.  For the spinning parts,  I pretty much wandered the hardware section of my local Westlake Hardware and found flat-head screws, washers and the end piece that I thought would work (I think I spent 53 cents total).

I (of course) had the photos developed super last minute and the colors are horrific, friends.  I kind of doubt elementary students are going to remember that the colors of the turkey-and-stuffing-dinner-that-my-husband-actually-made-and-not-me are way off, so I just went with it. The mirror is one of those breakable locker types that I found in my basement from my oldest daughter's seventh grade locker (she's 21, don't judge my hoarding-ness).

It's been a fun poster for students--there's lots of spinning as they walk by my room. It's always interesting to watch the students who won't touch it and then ask incredulously, we can touch that?!  The edges of the arrow are getting a bit frayed, so I may have to add some tape, but this poster is a winner winner!

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!

Ready or Not, HERE THEY COME!

If you've taught for a bit you know that back to school means more meetings than prep time, and if you're one of those come-weeks-early-and-get-your-room-perfectly-prepared then this is probably not the post for you.
Here's my room two days before students return:

Randomness abounds and NOTHING is up on the walls.  No new supplies in bins.  See those piles in the foreground on the table?  Those are all the sketchbooks that need copying.  I did try to copy them, and broke/jammed the copier.  Twice.
I did get two real things accomplished before Meet Your Teacher:

The hallway bulletin board that every child getting off the bus sees.
And my poster outside my door for this year:

The black strips are photos of student projects made to look like
old film strips--all thanks to my fabulous with Photo Shop husband.

It will all come together, I promise.  This year WILL BE FABULOUS.  Students will learn, time will march on.
Happy art teaching, friends! Hold on to your hats!

Leader In Me Door Decor

It's coming, whether we're ready (or not): the Leader in Me Symposium.  Because it's our first year as a Leader in Me school, we're not very far in the journey.  To be somewhat pretty/decorated for the symposium, we've been asked to decorate our doors.  Here's mine: 

Hard to see, but the top says "Artists everywhere practice and LIVE the seven habits"

I wrote the habit on a piece of paper and had the students write how is related to art.  I love how Kenja wrote "Get your things done on time when she sasy" [says].

Some of the habits were harder for students to relate to art.  Hey, it's our first year, and the habits are not really ingrained into our culture yet.

Here's the rest:

It has brightened up my door and several people have commented on it.  Symposium is next week!

Just Outside My Door

There is an easel just outside my door, with a poster that I change every year.  It's actually a piece of poster board securely taped to a piece of foam board that is tied to the easel with pipe cleaners (can you tell I've had things knocked over before?).  I like to do a totally different one every year, and this is what this year's looks like:

Hard to see in the photo, but it says:
Knock Knock WHO'S THERE? a few things that make Mrs. Fresia smile

I was really torn between this idea a sort of "Sweet Sixteen" theme (for my sixteenth year teaching) but in the end, this idea one out and I'm very happy with it.  Each door opens:

First/red door

The black is magnet strips, so the doors will stay closed.

The blue door got a smear of red on it from someone opening it.
Kind of like what happens on your front door at home.

Gardening!

I googled "front doors," looked at the images and painted from those images.

I need to photograph my artwork more often,
but this is my purse for the year.
It's Gelli-printed on an old running shirt,
then appliqued--it says:
MAKE ART TODAY,
or
TODAY MAKE ART
depending on how you're looking at it.

Last door. . . 

This is an acrylic mirror.  I have a class set of stand-up
acrylic mirrors and one broke.
I saved it, scored it with an Exact-O knife
and cut it to size.

I'm enjoying the interactive aspect of this year's poster, and I know the students are too.  Every single day children are opening the doors and commenting (or maybe checking for spinach in their teeth).

Not 'Lion,' I Really Like These Lions (Now)

After help from some readers (thank you, Christie & Connie for being supportive readers) I do now really like our lions.  What started out as some cutting practice really came together well:

We drew our lions together with marker, cut them out and assembled them.  Thanks to Christie's brilliant idea, we added some tempera paint (two finger printing for clouds and cardboard edge for grass).  I had pre-cut 4 x 18" strips, and we added paint to that too.  After drying, more cutting (the grass) and some glue, we were done:

And because our building is in our first year of becoming a Leader In Me school, I had to throw that in too:

I was so excited to get it all put up that I did it just after they were finished, so I'm betting some will be glued to the bulletin board! They are just delightful, and right off one of our attendance offices, so I think they'll get lots of admirers.