Family Art Night

Last school year I held my first family art night. 

Because we are a Title 1 school we have to hold several parent involvement nights. I was approached by our title 1 staff and was excited to give it a try. Art Night was held on the same night as parent teacher conferences. If you want more people, host these events on a night when most parents will be sure to attend. Another good example would be book fair night. Here are some of my Pinspirations:

http://hsesartyparty.blogspot.com/2012/04/family-art-night-2012.html

http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2009/11/20/family-art-nights/

http://www.2pas.org/blog/2010/02/raymond-family-art-night/

January Show

The Set up

I used table cloths from book fair and covered all the cafeteria tables I needed. 

 5 stations with 2 tables for each. I also had many specialist, sped teachers, and assistants help out. I couldn't have done it without them.

 Drawing

 Painting

 Marble painting

 Pinch pots with model magic

 Stamps

 Printing for stamps

 All materials were purchased with Title funds and not my art funds. This was to make sure we could have more art nights in the future and other teachers could also use the materials for projects in their classes. I used Patty's idea from Deep Space Sparkle to create boards with directions. I used science boards and painters tape to display the directions. The painters tape allows me to easily peal off the directions for future ones. Parent volunteers helped me put these together. 

I never got a chance to take my own photos. These are scanned from our year book.

It was a huge success. Not even the impending ice storm could keep families away!

 Doing what I do best, talking. 

 Marble painting was the most fun station!

Signs were on tables reminding everyone to write their name and child's teacher on the back. They were told to take them home tonight if the papers were dry. I returned all others the next day. 

This is a table for Kindergarten work.

Family art night was a lot of work, but a whole lot of fun. It was such a joy seeing families creating art together. There was no fee for admission. 

Good Behavior Art Party / Reward Party

I love to reward my students. I began good behavior art parties my first year of teaching after one of my student teacher placements did them. The parties are not only fun for the kids but they are a part of my behavior management plan.

It all begins with my whole class behavior chart.

With this chart each class had to get 9 green days to earn a party. This made it so classes could only earn 4 parties a year at most. Some classes would only get 2 a year...

This is my new game board chart. At the beginning of class classes start with 3 points. If they get too loud, or whatever else, they lose a point. At the end of class I move their game piece the number of points they have earned. There are 27 spaces. 27/3 is 9 for 9 weeks. Again, classes can earn up to 4 parties a year.

If a class misses a day due to an event or snow day I will automatically give them 3 points for the missed day.

Closer look at the game pieces. I use Post Its brand bookmarks.

FYI students love the game board more than the chart.










PARTY TIME!!
Most of the time I use ART CENTERS. Sound familiar to my faithful followers? Check here if not. 
Good Behavior Art Party centers are a bit different, but the set up and execution are the same. 
I set up 3 centers. I have 6 tables so I set up 2 tables for each center. Students may sit where they want as long as there are still 4 chairs at each table. I explain it to the kids as follows:

"For your Art Party you will be doing three centers. You will be at each center for 10 minutes. When the timer goes off you will clean up your center and sit quietly. Change to the next center when I say "GO". You may begin the next center as soon as you get there. "

Center times will depend on the amount of time you have. Adjust accordingly. 

I like to change my centers up a bit each nine weeks. Here are pics from my first parties this year. 

Shaving cream! I buy the Barbor brand cheep good stuff. 3 squirt lines per student and one  "reload" line at the halfway time. Cleanup: Student use wash cloths to wipe their hands and selves clean. The last group cleans the table with the same towels.

Free Paint. Only one paper. Must write name first. Don't forget to Swish, Wipe, and Blot. Cleanup: Paintings to the rack and refill water cups.

Play Dough! Each student gets one container of play dough. No mixing or sharing.  Cleanup: mush up all play dough crumbs and put back into container. 

Easy as 1, 2, 3. Every nine weeks I change the centers up, but I will usually leave painting because they love it so much. Make sure to rotate around the room to monitor. I explain the clean up directions as I go around the room. They will be more likely to remember the clean up directions if you give tell them each time they are at a center. If you give them all at the beginning they will typically forget or not pay attention because they are excited.

Side note: If a student has had to pull their card through the nine weeks and has ended up in time out, they will serve the time out time again at their party. DON! DON! DON!

Do you have good behavior rewards? What are they? 

What are some other quick and easy centers you could have at your party?

Free Choice Center

One of my favorite things about my new art room is the FREE CHOICE CENTER.  Many followers may recall my post I'm Finished, Now What!? That was the center at my last school. I have revamped this year with more ideas and choices. Thanks to Jessica at The Art of Education I decided to explain how I do "free choice".

I have these wonderful cubbies in my room that stretch along the whole wall.  So to distinguish where the actual free choice activities are, I taped off the area with yellow duct tape.  I also put a big sign on top.  Students are instructed to choose materials from above or inside the yellow area. 

When do I use free choice?

 - When a student finishes a project and there is still class time. - Sometimes as an activity with a sub. 

- When majority of the class is not present due to a school program during their art time. 

FREE CHOICE RULES

Must have teacher permission

Choose one activity at a time

Work at your seat

Put things away neatly

Only get 1 piece of free draw paper during your free choice time
Crayons, pencils, dry erase markers, and chalk only!

WHAT ARE MY CHOICES?

- Drawing books: kept in a green crate. I usually order drawing books, cut the pages out, put them into protective sleeves, and place them by category into plastic folders.

- Reading books: kept in a pink crate

- Free draw paper: copy paper

- Free drawing: students may get a drawing book and one piece of free draw paper to draw on the front and back. They can take it home with them that day or they may keep it in their table's folder to finish on another day.

I'm so proud of their ability to follow drawing directions! Both these photos were first graders.

- Dry erase papers: During the summer I put copy paper into page protectors and put duct tape at the top. Students get one dry erase paper, marker, and a SOCK to erase with. Used CLEAN socks are great for this. Plus, the kids think it's pretty cool too.

- Texture plates: I don't really understand the fascination with these, but okay. I encourage them to use the whole paper, draw a picture then color in the different areas with the textures, and make up animals to create the textures on.

-TANGOES: These are excellent. They are magnetic tangram pieces with booklets to show the kids how to construct the pictures. I also encourage then to make up their own pictures. I only have three of these and they are one of the first things chosen off the shelf. I purchased my set from Target.

Modeling Clay: I have tons of modeling clay that was just sitting in a box left from the last teacher. Never used. I had two kinds. One works better then the other. I had lots of colors so I put them into ziplock baggies. Students are instructed not to mix colors, not to make "bad" things, and to seal the bag closed when they are done. I told the students that if I noticed missing clay they would not have it as a choice anymore. So far no stealing... that I've noticed...
Love this little snail family.

I like this modeling clay the best because it doesn't stain your hands. I've used the clay since August and it shows no sign of drying out.
The other kind are typically in rectangular blocks and are not sectioned like these. They usually stain your hands. Thus, I don't use them.

Chalk Boards: I have a shelf of small and large chalk boards (see first picture of this post), white chalk, and sock erasers. I personally can't stand chalk boards, but my students love them.

My free draw self will change throughout the year depending on what deals I see in stores. I have also had puzzles, blocks, and legos. After Christmas break I'm going to add complete the picture sheets in page protectors so they may use dry erase markers.

I hope this helps with your Free Choice ideas.

Abstract Warm-up

   The first day of class with my 6th graders can be a bit overwhelming. I preach rules, procedures, and expectations. They are usually surprised at the new things they will be expected to do in "Middle School" art and can be a little timid. 

   After all the speeches are said and done I like for them to start creating.  I always begin 6th grade with Abstract Art. I try to find an interesting youtube video to show that gets the kids excited. I won't tell them what abstract art is though. I ask them at the end of the video to tell me. 9 times out of 10 they will get it.

   It is now time to create. As wide a topic and endless the ideas for abstract is, I have always found that it is hard for most students to begin an abstract work. So I help them along with this abstract warm-up:

Materials:

Markers, crayons, oil pastels, colored pencils, or paint.

12"x18" paper

Teacher reads the directions as students follow along.

Please be sure to allow at least a minute for each step. 

Abstract Warm-Up:

1. Turn your paper in any direction

2. With your marker make three straight lines anywhere on your paper, but start each line on an edge and end on an edge. Lines may cross if you wish.

3. Make three dots any size, anywhere on your paper. Remember to color your dots in. 

4. Place the tip of your marker on one of the dots. Now make a curved line or a lot of curved lines that go in any direction as long as they go to an edge.

5. With your marker make one circle that touches something else on your paper. 

6. You may add to your design by making more lines and shapes if you wish.

7. Complete your abstract work by adding as many colors as you wish. Remember to leave only one space blank on your design. 

Abstract warm up with steps 1 - 5. I always use oil pastel on black paper. 

Wish I had taken more pictures of this lesson... The students always have great success with this project because they are given a little "push" into the creative process. I find that it builds their confidence. 

If you liked this warm up and would like some more ideas, send me your email. I have 3 more equally as popular with the students and greater in difficulty. 

Special thanks to Pam Hickman who gave me these abstracts when I was student teaching.

Plast'r Craft by Pacon Fish Sculpture

Thanks to the wonderful Pacon company, my 6th graders and I were given the opportunity to try out an awesome product! 

Plast'r Craft! 

Plast'r Craft is a plaster impregnated gauze that you have to wet in order to mold.  The students were so excited to try out this new material that we decided to use the Plast'r Craft to help study sculpture and form by creating a fish out of  recycled materials.

On day one and two of our 50 minute class, the recycled bottles were used for the basic structure of the fish.  Bottle caps, cone cups, recycled cardboard, and masking tape were used to create the fins and eyes. 

Once the body of the fish was built it was time to bring it all together with the Plast'r Craft on day three and four.  The packaging was a great design that allowed us to pull the gauze from an opening on the side of the box and then easily cut with scissors.

 Each table of students placed their gauze on a styrofoam tray along with newspaper and scissors for less mess and easy transport.

Newspaper was laid in front of each student to place their fish on while applying the Plast'r Craft.  The gauze was cut to fit the largest areas of the fish first.  Students dipped the gauze into a bucket of warm water that was sat at each table.  Creating very little mess, each piece of gauze was dipped into the water as students used only their fingers to slide down the gauze to cast off excess water.

Students would then place the wet gauze over a section of their fish and rub it with their fingers to set it in place and cover any tiny holes that were left in the gauze. Once the large areas were covered, they continued to cut, wet, and mold the Plast'r Craft to the other parts of the fish.  The fins and mouths of the fish were the hardest areas to cover, but the Plast'r Craft was easy to cut and mold around small areas.  Students made sure to overlap each new piece of plaster and smooth it out to create a nice sleek fish body. 

Most students were able to complete their fish with one layer of plaster.  Some cut small square pieces of gauze to cover any tiny areas that were left.

Day five began the painting process, which took two days.  Acrylic paints were used to create the vibrant colors.  Students painted their fish with at least two layers of paint for the best coverage.  

    

Overall, I am thrilled that Pacon gave me and my students this wonderful opportunity to try this great product. There was little to no mess, it could be distributed easily, the plaster set in about 15 minutes, and was very easy to paint. The plaster fish sculpture has now become THE favorite project! 
Thank you,  Pacon for letting us try Plast'r Craft!


Like Pacon on their Facebook page!