Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Ready for a NEW YEAR!


I am very excited for the start of a new school year in just a few short weeks. It's very bittersweet for me because it means the end of my "maternity leave" with my new baby. It's been a wonderful summer full of lazy days enjoying one another! My desk will be full of pictures of my baby boy and his dad!

Unpacking my classroom and organizing new supplies is such an exciting time. Here are a few pictures of the finished product. There's always more to do, but I think it's a good start!

The picture above is where the children gather when they come in to hear stories, talk about art, see demonstrations, and share their work. My "Share Chair" is a big deal to the kids-they all want the chance to sit there and have a captive audience! As you can see, I love using literature in the classroom. My library is much larger than this, but I like to keep my favorite books close at hand!

Music is a MUST in my Art class. I love to play music while the kids are working and they remind me to put it on if I happen to forget! They are so much calmer when music fills the air. I also found a large map to display because we often talk about cultures and different places around the world.

We have lots of wires for artwork criss-crossing our room. This year I took scrapbook paper and folded it to make a line of patterned flags. I also used patterns on my bulletin boards. I covered them with fabric instead of bulletin board paper and used painted paper scraps from last year for the borders.




This bulletin board has wide, glittery ribbon for the border. Needless to say, I was once again the "glitter queen" after this board was put up! And of course, we have to have lots of drying racks ready to be filled.

New to the art room this year is a smartboard. I am very excited, yet very nervous at the same time. I really could use some advice from any other teachers with smartboards, especially art teachers. How do you use them in your classrooms?

Class sizes for Art are large-most classes have 30-32, even Kindergarten! Hopefully the kiddos will be as excited about the Art room as I am!
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 18, 2011 at 11:06 PM

    You are a saint for teaching 30-32 Kinders at a time! I hope they send a para with a class that size.........

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  2. Expression of ImaginationAugust 19, 2011 at 8:18 AM

    I'd love to know your favorite children's books to use with art lessons. I'm trying to build my art library! Your room looks great!!

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  3. Ms. WalshAugust 20, 2011 at 3:13 AM

    I had a smart board my first year teaching. I LOVED IT!!!! I like to use it for Power Points. I don't have to rely on having a print of a certain artist available to show, I can take images from the internet and put together a whole show of images! I also take pictures of the kids' art and keep albums on an external hard drive. Then when I do those projects again I'm able to show the kids a whole album of examples of the past project. This eliminates the 'copy the teacher's example' problem as well. I often leave the photos playing on a slideshow while they are working.

    I also show videos from Vimeo, YouTube and TeacherTube to show different concepts, cultures etc. Normally they are only a few minutes long and I can switch from slideshow photos to movies to drawing over the slideshow pics etc.

    SO jealous.

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  4. JessDSeptember 4, 2011 at 10:59 PM

    The SmartBoard is a wonderful resource in the art room. In addition to using it for showing works of art, the Smart program is useful when teaching art concepts. The students love interactive lessons on the SmartBoard. Another great thing is that you don't have to create all of the SmartLessons. Just log on to the SmartExchange (the link is in the gallery tab on your menu) and search for lessons. I've found drawing lessons on the exchange and created some of my own lessons on Smart.

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  5. Joanna DavisNovember 4, 2011 at 2:25 PM

    I don't know much about SmartBoards, per se, but I have an ActivBoard. I think they are sort of the same thing? Anyway, like others have stated, it's great for PPs and for showing images. I'm about ready to ditch all of my posters to save space!!

    What I generally use mine for is for DEMOS!!! I have an AverVision document camera that I do a demo under and it projects it in real time onto my ActivBoard. This way I can really zoom in on a concept...AND i can paint without it dripping down my board, etc! The students really respond to the technology :)

    GOOD LUCK! Hope you're liking it!

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