That Little Art Teacher: June 2014

I hate being gone because you feel there is 10x more to do when you get back. I hate that feeling of "Oh no! I need to call so and so to have them set stuff out for my sub!" if you weren't prepared to be out. I hate keeping track of what plan this or that class did and making sure not to do the same activity twice. I hate searching for handouts and making copies for sub plans. I hate the "sub tub" because half the time even when I sat it out in my chair the sub never looked at it. I hate, I hate, I HATE!!!

So I made an easy "leave it on the desk" sub plan.

All you need is a folder, page dividers, your plans printed out, and a routine already established.

Before I begin, let me say some of you are not going to want to try this plan. As I stated above, you need a routine already established with your classes. My plan is simple and it is a routine that my Pre-K and Kindergarten classes already do and what my 1st - 4th grade classes do each time they finish a project.

I bought a plastic folder that I hope will last FOREVER and I have it clearly labeled. I sits under my plan book on my desk at all times. When I pack up my plan book at the end of the day the sub book is sitting on my desk ready to go if need be.

My dividers are set up in the following order:

Welcome

Procedures and Rules

Schedule

Pre-K and K

1st - 4th

Comments

Below is a link to my EXACT plans. Feel free to use them and change them up to your liking.

Elementary Art Sub Plans

I was asked by the wonderful Dixon company to put their products through the ringer. Well, my students sure did do that. During the whole school year I used Ticonderoga / Prang products along side of some of my typical art supplies to see how they performed.

Below is a picture of Prang markers alongside of my go-to markers Crayola. You already get two bonus markers in the Prang pack, Yippee!!

I always purchase Crayola markers for the school year so I placed all 12 of the Prang markers in one basket and Crayola in the other 5 baskets. During lessons the Prang basket was always used along with the Crayola. During one of our sketchbook assignments one student wanted to use them both, and her experiment summed up our testing quite well.

Below you can see how she divided her paper.

On the left side she used Prang markers and on the right Crayola.

Prang markers provided a richer color. Though they do tend to bleed through… a lot. They also bled into other colored areas. Below you can see a picture of the back of the paper. The sketchbook paper is the same weight as my drawing paper at 60lb, so the bleed through is pretty ominous.

If you want richer color and don't mind bleeding, go for Prang. I do think however that I will stick with Crayola in the marker department.

The next product were the Prang Large Triangular Colored Pencils vs. my classroom choice Crayola colored pencils.

I provided one table with Prang and the others with Crayola and Cra-Z-Art colored pencils. I never have to buy colored pencils because they are a required supply for our county, but our teachers don't use them much so they give them to me at the end of each year.

Below is a color wheel review exercise. Students only used Primaries Red, Yellow, and Blue and mixed to create the Secondaries.

Prang color wheel

Beautiful and rich color that mixed very well. Students loved the triangular grip and larger size. One student said, "They're not like Kindergarten big, but they're bigger and I like it."

Crayola Color Wheel

Color was not as rich and they didn't mix as well.

Cra-Z-Art Color Wheel

Color not rich at all. We could never really get the secondaries we wanted.

Cra-Z-Art pencils after one use.

Crayola pencils after one use.

Prang pencils after one use. Best tips!

Prang pencils come with their own sharpener in the box and it does an awesome job. Larger pencils equal larger lead and they don't break easily. Heck, they didn't break easily during use!

I think I'll be requesting Prang colored pencils from now on.

Next up we have the Ticonderoga pencils against regular Target brand.

These pencils have held up great! Their erasers have lasted longer. They sharpen with little to no breakage in the process and they take the longest to dull.

Below you can see that with the same pressure you get a darker color with the Ticonderoga (top) pencil then the Rose Art (middle) and Target (bottom) brand. I prefer Ticonderoga.

(this picture was after 3 weeks of use)

Finally, the last product are the Prang (left) Watercolors against Crayola (right) watercolors.

I choose Prang watercolors over Crayola every time because of what you get for the price in class packs. Also if one of your paint wells runs out you can take it out (as seen in the bottom pallet below) and replace it with a new one. With Crayola you will have to replace the whole pallet or use two at a time when colors run low.

When you buy a class pack of Prang watercolors they come with refills. You can refill the whole pallet or one well at a time. I take all the refill wells out and separate the colors into empty oil pastel class pack boxes for better storage.