Today I had to teach art from a cart (well, not even really a cart, just some tubs!) because the book fair has taken over my classroom for the week!  

On the search for something not too messy but lots of fun, I found this paper line sculpture idea from a few different websites, including Texas Art Teacher's blog. The kids had a blast with it!

 K-3 did this project using paper strips and paper towel tubes cut into rings.

 The photo above is work by 3rd Grader James C.

When finished, we displayed work outside the art room door. This is 3rd Grade's display, and K-2's work filled the wall outside the other door into the room (pics coming soon). The kids have received lots of compliments on their work and several staff have said that the hallway looks great with all the color! It will remain on display until after the art show at the end of April.

My 5th and 6th grade class only meets for 43 minutes per week, so you can imagine how long it takes to do an entire unit! Our landscape unit lasted for one whole quarter, but I covered lots of standards and had high hopes that being so thorough with instruction and examples would help ensure good results. Not so much the case... with 26 kids in a room, elbow-to-elbow, using paint and being on a 43 minute set-up-to-clean-up-and-leave time restriction, they just didn't put much effort into it. But, as always, there are the few that did what they needed to do to get by with a C-, and those who strive to do excellent work. I'm always proud of my students who put effort into their art and produce something they can be proud of. Here are a few of the excellent pieces from class:

Top: Sarah B., Bottom: Alexys C.

Left: Conner R., Right: Jaden B.

The Kindergartners practiced identifying the folded edge of the paper and cutting symmetrical shapes by folding & cutting, resulting in this lovely place mat for someone they love. This one is my example because it was the only proof left of our project-- everyone was very excited to take theirs home to give to someone! I had some very creative arrangements. We did this project during one 50 minute class, then I laminated them and sent them home with the kids on Valentine's Day.

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My classroom has been converted into a book fair! For some reason I thought it wouldn't take up my whole entire room and there would still be space to have my speech and special ed classes....nope. For this week I will get a taste of teaching from a cart (or a tote bag in my case). I'm not entirely sure about my other classes though. I feel kind of bad because I had boxes of toilet paper tubes, cereal boxes, and newspaper sitting around waiting for projects, and I thought they'd be out of the way...nope to that, too.

As one of the first projects for Kindergarten, each student drew a portrait of each other student in class on a 2"x2" square. I collected each of those portraits, in this case of Abigail, and made a collection of everyone's portrait of her. This gave me a good idea of where we were starting out (ability-wise), and gave us a chance to talk about facial features and differences in eye shapes, skin color, hair lengths and textures, etc. It also makes a great keepsake! I will be displaying them in the end-of-year art show along side their later-in-the-year self-portraits.

Don't know what to do with those packing peanuts? If they're the biodegradable type, you can use small amounts of water to make them squishy and sticky and make sculptures. If they're the non-biodegradable variety, it's either reuse them as packing materials, art supplies, or toss them. Since I don't like to toss, I figured I'd use them in a way that I'd never used them before: as stamps. The backing seen here is a toilet paper tube, split lengthwise (and rolled the opposite direction to try to prevent curling). I used a regular glue stick to attach them to the cardboard in a patter, and dipped in paint to stamp with. I figured the kids would have fun making different patterns and designs, then we could display both the art made with the stamp and the homemade stamp itself.