Sub Plans

My husband and I are expecting in August and little did I know with a bun in the oven the Dr. wants to see you all the time!  I am taking at least 1 day a month off and that is if I don't actually get sick or need a personal day. Needless to say I have missed more school this year then ever before.  When I am not there I never really know who I might get and what they might know about art so I try to just leave quick one day projects with basic instructions and materials.  I had a few ideas of my own and have added to my arsenal thanks to Ms. Malone's blog on sub plans (the link to that blog is below).

My ideas:
- If I know I am going to be out I will do a large drawing with the students the day before that they have to color with the sub while I am gone.  They love learning to draw new things like a dragon that we might not normally do for an art project.

- I might have the students make up a creature.  It has to be 1 part animal, 1 part bug, and 1 part human.  Questions to think about: What animal bug and human parts did I use and where?  Does it look to much like anything I have seen before?  Where will this creature live (it's environment)?  Is this creature the only one of its kind.  I have them draw and color the creature but there are always a few that rush it.  For this I suggest that the sub have them answer the above questions on the back of their paper.

- Draw and color a hand monster.  I will leave some large lids I have for tracing with the other supplies they will need for the project (paper, pencils, crayons).  The students must trace the circle in the middle of the paper then trace their hands overlapping the circle fingers pointing out.  They may trace their hand as many times as they want.  Next they add some sort of face inside the circle and whatever other body parts their monster might need.  I never let them leave the background empty so again they have to create an environment for their monster to live in even if it is under their bed or in their closet.

- The students start by drawing an egg that has broken open.  The question is "What's inside your egg?".  The students can draw anything they can imagine coming out of their egg.  The possibilities are endless!  On the back you could have the students do a little writing.  Your egg falls to the floor and breaks open but instead of a big mess all over the kitchen floor a _____________ pop out.

http://msmalonesartroom.blogspot.com/search/label/sub%20plans- This link will take you to an awesome art teachers blog where she has posted more sub plans.

Hot Air Balloons

There is a big contest locally in the fall every year revolving around the Kentucky Derby Festival.  It is not to be confused with the Derby Museum contest.  The Derby Festival contest artwork can not have anything horse or Churchill Downs related in it.  There are several other options though, one of which is the big Balloon Race.  This project feels like it takes forever and there are several steps but in the end I really like how they look with all of the lines, patterns, colors and textures.  If you really want to know how its done just let me know.  

A Pirates Guide to the First Grade...Arrgh!

Children's books are such a fantastic way to introduce a project especially to the little ones.  I read a lot to my Kindergarten and 1st graders.  One of my favorite stores is Half Price Books.  My sister often goes with me and we sit in the little chairs while we hunt for good books.  A good children's book must have a fun store, good message, and fantastic images in my opinion.  For the project above I read "A Pirates Guide to the First Grade" by James Preller.  The kids giggle through the whole store because of all the silly pirate talk.  The day before I read the book we go over the proportions of the human face and do a practice self portrait.  After reading the book we talk about what the pirates look like, their clothes and such, and we review the proportions of the human face.  Then they turn themselves into pirates.  I so look forward to this project every year!  They make me smile every time I walk past them in the hallway.  Ms. Kings class really gets into it because her room has a mermaid/pirate theme.

*Disclaimer: Ignore the corner suns!  I do not allow my students to put the sun in the corner but this class was almost finished and their teacher offered to let them work on them in her room so we could hang them quickly.  They came back with the suns:(

Kings and Queens

 

 

This is the 1st time I have tried this project.  Every year I go through the proportions of the face and then we make some sort of fun self portrait.  Making 2 faces proved to be the trickiest part of this project.  I had them draw the 1st one then trace the 2nd one but some had trouble keeping their 2 sheets of paper lined up or seeing the lines from the 1st portrait through the 2nd sheet of paper.  If anyone has any suggestions to making this step go smoother please let me know.  Once they were both drawn and colored we glued them to a larger piece of white paper.  I think next time I might have them cut the heads out and glue them to a colored piece of paper, there's to much white the way they are now.  Each student could decide if they which face card they wanted to be (Jack, King, Queen), and what symbol they wanted that face card to be(Spade, Club, Heart or Diamond).  The letter in the corner had to be a bubble letter!  The last thing they added was their crown.  It could be whatever color they wanted as long as both were the same.  Next year I think I might try and have some metallic paper for their crowns.  If they finished a few minutes early the student could add a little embellishment to their crown and the empty white areas but I was very strict on symmetry!  

Line and Color Hands

I saw this project on several other art teachers blogs and thought this would be a great way to review line and color with my 5th graders.  I had them trace their hand and part of their arm on the paper with a black crayon (we rarely use pencils in my room).  They position their hand anywhere on the page and could position their fingers anyway they would like as long as it was school appropriate.  Most of the students chose to just lay their hand down and trace around their spread fingers but some tried ok, peace, or I love you signs. After their hand was traced they had to pick a line (we discussed several options), and pick a direction for that line to move in (horizontal, diagonal, vertical, or radial).  The line was also drawn in black crayon and needed to run through the hand as if the hand were not even on the page.  We colored the hand drawings with oil pastels.  I love the crayola brand oil pastels!  They are so user friendly.  I just wish they would come in more colors.  I had the portfolio's when I first started at this school and while they looked beautiful they were so soft and messy I couldn't stand to let my students use them.  The hand had to be warm colors and the background had to be cool colors.  The contrast really catches visitors eye when they come into our building and see them hanging in the front hallway.   

Can you read the students name?

Another art teacher, Ms. Kovac, showed me this project using the students name to create a project when talking about line.  This is the 2nd year I have used it and I love it.  The materials are simple, crayons and paper, and the results are beautiful.  We start by writing our 1st name really big on the paper huge, turning the letters, overlapping them and trying to stretch them from one side to the other.  Then we do the same with our middle and last name filling in any large white areas as we go.  With long names this is easy but some of my kids have short 1st and last names with no middle name so they have to add some extra lines or write both names again.  I leave it up to the individual.  Next we check for any hanging lines where a line does not touch another line or does not run off the edge of the page.  When that is all taken care of we start coloring.  I limit the colors to between 3 and 5 and talk a little about movement (moving the viewers eye around the page).  I do this project with my 4th graders with great success! 

Staff Paper Quilt

The school district I teach in does a program called CARE for Kids.  It's all about inclusion, community, and positive reinforcement. During training our staff (any employee in the building not just teachers) made a paper quilt.  Each square is a different staff member.  On their square the individual was supposed to include tidbits about them self such as what they do in our building, or what their hobbies are, a picture of them self, and their name of course.  Ours has been up for 3 years now and as people leave I take down their square.  Newbies are supposed to make one for me to fill in the holes but they do not always follow through.  Lots of people stop and look at this quilt as they come into our building and get an idea of our school community.

This is my square!  I use my own scrapbook paper to tell a little bit more about my personality.  The kids really do enjoy looking at them and asking me questions about my images.  Some of the teachers do a smaller class quilt at the beginning of the year to fill their bulletin board and let other class in on a little bit of their community.

I read the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andrede to all of my kindergarten classes.  After reading the book we go back and we talk about things we noticed in the illustrations of the book (what color the sky is, what color Gerald the giraffe is, etc.).  I like for my kindergartners to feel successful at painting so we work big and take it slow!  The paper is 18"x24" and the paint is tempra.  We draw all together step by step with a big fat black crayon.  Reading the book and drawing Gerald takes a whole 50 minute class.  The next day we paint the sky.  I put all of the sky colors into one bowl so they touch but are not mixed.  Since this is there 1st time ever painting with me we go over all of the painting expectations the biggest one being that we do not use our paint brush like a spoon; there is no scooping or stirring of the paint!  This takes the whole time for most all of them and anyone that finishes early just gets to free draw (usually no more then 10 min.).  The next and final day we paint Gerald and his leafy snake.  Although we all draw the same thing I love the differences in each Gerald!

My Art Room

This is my second year in the "new" art room and I am finally settled in.  

People are always giving me things they no longer have a need for.  This was once someones Christmas wreath  but after some slight modifications it is now my door decoration.

Outside my door I have a white board to let people know where I am if I am not in my room, a schedule of the class I will have that week, and a bulletin board that I fill with inspiring quotes about art.  I do not put student artwork on this board because it is at the perfect height for wondering hands.  I am very lucky that my school invested in some hanging strips for our students artwork.  They hang high (out of reach) all over the building in the hallways to display lots of student work. 

 This is my supply corner.  Not everything lives here (I have a supply closet too) but the things I have student helpers pass out can all be found on these shelves labeled with pictures.  Up over the supplies I have the elements of art posters.

My color bulletin board.  I love the mice from the book "Mouse Paint"!

Just some inspiration I have hanging around the room.  I peg sayings and jokes up on the cork board for kids to read when they have a free minute or two. 

 My drawing boards, more mice, the end of my massive drying rack, my principle's of art posters and my plants used for still life's.  

Wow this board houses a lot of important information for me and my students.  At the top is my no no board (thanks Mr. E), I can... statements, and the word wall.  It took me forever to create the word wall but it is totally user friendly now.

I call this my critique board.  I think it is important for students to be able to use the art vocabulary to discuss artwork whether it is their own, a famous work of art, or a peers artwork.  I got this idea from Mr. E also and then made a few changes to work for me and my classroom.  

Biggest pet peeve...no name papers!  This year I am trying really hard to crack down on this.  I remind students constantly to put their name on their paper, and have visual reminders up in the room.  It's helped but I don't think I will ever be able to totally fix this age old problem.  

My to small loanly old sink.  At lease I have one though.  This is where I store all of my paint supplies.  On the cabinet doors I have Mr. Brush posters.  Mr. Brush is a cartoon brush that talks about how to care for a paint brush properly on one poster and then talks about the different types of brushes there are on the other poster.  

I set my lunch on the edge of the counter so the kindergartners who come right before going to lunch know where to put their lunch.  On the wall I have my hall passes, setting charts, and class rosters.  This way if I am out the sub can easily access the information they need.

I framed and decorated my rules just to make them more visually appealing.

At the top of this board are some pictures of my students hard at work create masterpieces.  I call it "Artist in Action".  The rest of the white board is now covered with my brand new SMART board.  While I am having to adjust to not having the white board to write on I do love exploring the new technology.

This is my small but comfortable library.  

This mess is my catch all.  Any important notes from the office, cards from teachers and students, pictures, etc.  It is right by my desk.  At the top is my "I'm done. What will I do now?" board.  If a student in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade has completed their art work meeting all of the preset standards they have centers they can visit.

* Free Draw

* Ask for a job

* Help a friend at their table

* Read an art book

* Practice Symmetry and shape drawing on small dry erase boards

* Explore an art website

* Create a sculpture with the wiki sticks

This is a list of the approved art websites tapes to the desk next o the student computer.

This is the student computer

My tables are named after the Elements of Art.  I used to have them taped to the table but kids kept picking at the tape.  It drove me nuts all last year.  This year to eliminate the picking I hung them from the ceiling over top of each table.  The puffs are left over from my wedding.  I didn't know what else to do with them after the big day so my mom suggested hang them from the ceiling.  I think It worked out perfectly.

At every table in my room the chairs are #'d 1-4.  This is how I pick my helpers for the day.  I would explain my system of fairness but I am not sure I even understand it fully...lol!