Target Dollar Spot

 Well it has started already! The target dollar spot is stock full of teacher goodies. Here are some school stuff I have already scooped up!

 Lesson plan book...not sure if I am going to keep this! I bought it before I remembered I already have a teacher binder
(yes target steals my memory)

Yay useless pages inside the planner!

Grade book 

Some of my favorite art pieces from the 2015 art show!

Links to templates

Here are links to my templates for the weekly lesson pages. They aren't perfect, but they work for me!

Monday + Tuesday

Weds + Thurs + Friday

For "time" I entered the class time, such as 10:10-10:45
For "subject" I entered the teacher's class I taught, and grade level.

I included lunches, planning periods (I wish), and so forth. If needed, I can merge boxes, or delete them to fit the schedule.

Teacher Binder

The new Erin Condren teacher lesson plan book came out today. I tried to make myself buy it (its soooo cute!) but it is just not practical. It is too much wasted space in pretty packaging. I am going to stick with my teacher binder I made last year, and just update it when I know my schedule. It is a bit of work upfront, but really it will be easy to refill each year.

Target binder $8. 1 Inch. I could probably upgrade to a bigger binder if I wanted to hold more "stuff" (grades, rosters, etc). I choose one that had a plastic sleeve cover, so in the future I might take this sleeve off and get a new binder (sans sleeve) and put the sleeve on for protection! I could have written/stickered "Lesson plans" but really this binder is always laying open on my desk, so it is not necessary.

 When you open up the binder, you see my name. New for 2015/16 I have slipped a calendar inside the sleeve. This calendar is $6 at target. I may use this instead of the monthly calendars, which you will see in another picture.

I bought these tabs for a few dollars from target. They are easily removable, and I stuck them to the page protectors. I also bought cute page dividers for about $5.

For each month, I made a calendar (using a word doc template) and I also created a monthly lesson plan overview. This is where I wrote the standards, vocab, etc. If you have someone really looking at your lesson plans, this is necessary. I stopped using this overview by December.

I created this weekly lesson plan page after I received my teaching schedule. Even then, it changed a few times throughout the year. I liked this because if someone walked in, they could see what time it is, and what I was teaching. I actually did not end up using any "morning to-dos" or notes areas. I always left this binder open to my current teaching week. This is great for walk-throughs and I wouldn't have to say "oh my lesson planner is in my bag!" Every monday I would "sketch out" my plans for the week.

For me, it was essential to create this custom schedule, instead of trying to use a pre-made plan. On some days, I teach 5 classes, on some days, only 3. Some classes are 40 minutes, while others are a hour. I switch some grade levels after the semester ends! I would be writing in all of these details in by hand every week if I hadn't gone this route.

Hypothetically a sub could even use this to teach, but I always end up writing detailed sub plans. 

Pouch $3 and extra weekly lesson plans 

So for the new school year, I will need to print out new calendars (if I choose do a monthly calendar, I may just use the pull out calendar I bought from target) and 1 copy of the weekly schedule. Then I just copy the schedule at school using the copier. I already have the page protectors, so it will be very little cost to update this binder for the new year!

Lesson Plan: Perspective

How do you teach perspective? Here is an image of an in-progress lesson of perspective that I was working on with 5th grade. 

Here is how I teach perspective...I make it a unit!

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Day 1: Introduce Perspective with PPT...show images of how to make a box 3D, photography and perspective, 1 point perspective vs 2 point perspective, Da Vinci's last supper, etc. A nice overview of the horrors to come! Mwhahahah

Have students put shapes into perspective...such as a box, a circle, a rectangle, a star, and a triangle.

Day 2: Review perspective powerpoint, review how to put a box into perspective. Show them how to make block letters, and students practice putting their name into perspective. They can color it when they are finished. (I use a block letter "cheat sheet" that I created for the students who struggle with block letters)

Day 3: Final review of perspective. Introduce city project. Students need to make at least 5 building in perspective for their city. Creativity and detail is key to making their city interesting!

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I like teaching perspective this way because it gives students multiple days to try to "figure out" perspective. On the first day a lot of students think that making a box is easy...until they try it and get really frustrated! I try to help as many students as I can...but I can't reach everyone that first day and a lot of them give up early. But on day 2, we use perspective in a different way with letters, and then some of the people who didn't get it before suddenly get it! Also...some people who had it lose it with the more difficult letters. By the end of this unit, 90% of students can put 5 boxes into 1 point perspective.

Traffic Light and Artopoly

Time for another classroom management post. Now that you know about "show me the Mona Lisa" I'd like to introduce you to my traffic light!

The traffic light works not only as a visual reminder, but as way to play Artopoly! Here are the rules:

1. The traffic light determines their behavior/sound level.
• Green Light: You can talk in a normal inside voice
• Yellow light: You are being warned for being too loud or unruly! Whisper until you have earned green light again!
• Red light: Stop! You are too loud! Silent art for 1 minute, or longer if the class can't follow the traffic light. Sometimes I even have the class put their head down until they can be quiet and under control.  They can move back to yellow if they work silently!
2. AFTER cleanup (this is key! Sometimes its the only way I can get the kids to clean up) and everyone's head is down, I will roll a giant dice.
3. Whatever number I roll, their pin moves on the board. Each pin is labeled with their grade, and teacher...for instance 2M.
4. Sometimes they land on prizes such as radio day, switch seats day, etc. If they make it the whole way, EACH student who didn't get their name written on the board gets to pick a prize out of my treasure box.
5. **I only roll the dice if they are on green light! If they end they day on  yellow light "they have to go slow" and only move 1 spot. If they are on red light, they don't move at all**

This game was a BIG hit with all grade levels. Even my "too cool for traffic light games" six graders would whisper if they went to yellow light. My best classes even made it to the treasure box twice. Between "show me the mona lisa", the traffic light, and the artopoly game, I was able to somehow control my classes! The kids love this game!

My artopoly game was inspired by this pintrest post. However, I am not a huge fan of Monoply and I wanted a more whimsical "candy land" like feel!

More assessment!

Here is what my assessment looks like for older students, grades 4-6th.

We talk a lot about self assessment and reflection, and how it makes us grow as artists. Believe it or not, I get really honest self-assessment scores...nobody ever just gives themselves all 4s! Next year I am going to add a visual rubric poster  in my room, to help students remember to color in their art completely, take their time, etc.

Assessment

Here is what my assessment looks like:

 

Sorry that the image is a little blurry! 

It took me the whole school year to get to this. I tried quizzes, artist statements and rubrics, but I combined them all to make this! Here is how my assessment works. 

1) All students, k-6 write an artist statement.

2) Older students 4-6 complete a self assessment (not shown)

3) Students glue this to the back of their art, and turn it in to me!

4) I complete the rubric and add a comment. I put it in my grade book, and it either goes up on the wall or goes home!

The pros to kind of assessment is that it is all in one place, easy for an administrator to find, and it is attached to the art for the parents to see. The cons is you can't read the artist statement while it is up on the wall.

Lesson Plan: Landscapes (Watercolor and Chalk)

Are you sick of chalk yet? I am! For some reason I went crazy at the end of the year and made all of my grade levels do chalk at the same time. Easy for clean up and distribution...but spraying the fixative was the worst! But you have learned from my mistake and YOU are going to spray after every class finishes, RIGHT?

I am not going into a full lesson plan because I am feeling lazy and these pictures are self explanatory. By now, you get the chalk/glue process, because you read my earlier lesson plans, RIGHT?

4th/5th Grade Van Gogh inspired landscapes:

And now, 6th grade's watercolor landscapes:

For both projects we talked about foreground, middleground, and background. We also looked at van gogh's landscapes and style choices. Other than that, I left this project completely up to them. I told them the rules are "its has to be outside. It has to have a foreground, middleground, and background" and this is what they created!

Lesson Plan: Chalk Self Portrait

This lesson is great because I truly think it can work for any age level. I taught this exact same lesson with 1st grade:

And 6th grade!

Here is the lesson plan:

Procedures:

1) Use powerpoint to teach students about portraits. (I taught them about da Vinci and the Mona Lisa. I also talked about Van Gogh's self portraits)

2)Have students do a quick "pre"test by drawing a self portrait with NO help.

3)After the pretest, I taught the students about symmetry, facial proportions, emotions, and so forth. Then they drew themselves again!

4)After all this practice, students used a regular pencil to draw on black paper. 

5)Students used a glue bottle to trace over their lines.

6)The next class, the glue was dry and students used chalk to color in their self protrait!

Materials:

Black Paper 12x18

Pastels

White Glue Bottles 

Mirrors (from the dollar store!)

Skills Learned:

-Van Gogh and Da Vinci Facts

-How to draw self portraits

-Chalk pastel exploration

Reflection:
As I hinted in the beginning, I taught this lesson several times. In fact I also taught it to Pre-K! Their self portaits are below. Probably didn't work the best with them. But 1st and 6th, it worked really well. Using the chalk was great, because students really had to mix it to get the correct skin color. And there is something so fun about coloring with your fingers! I will use this lesson again and again!

Classroom Management: The Mona Lisa

Classroom management is the hardest thing to teach. Even though (I guess) we talked about it in college, we did it in student teaching, and we read books on it...nothing compares to the horror that is setting up your management plan. I will argue all day that college taught me nothing about this, but at the end of the day....maybe you can't teach this. But if that was true...pinterest wouldn't have been my number #1 thing I turned to for ideas.

Lets start with the basics. How do you want your class to act as they are walking in? Yes, walking in. Day 1 they walk in like angels, but guess what, they aren't walking in like that next month. So, from day one you have to preach, PREACH how you want your class to act when they walk in.

I want my class to walk in quietly, not greet me or scream out "What are we doing today?!!?" just sit down, and stare at me. Perfect, then you need...Mona Lisa.

Yes, Mona Lisa, the most famous painting helps me every day to start my lesson. I'm not sure how it started...I know when I was doing observations as a junior back in college I saw an urban art teacher (my only experience at all in an urban school) let the students choose either Mona Lisa or The Scream as their "pose" for when they were listening. However, I never revisited this idea during student teaching...or subbing...so I am not sure how it resurfaced back into my classroom. Oh yes I know....PINTEREST to the rescue!

Show me the Mona Lisa

The only pic I could find of my Mona Lisa. Arms Crossed. Mouth Closed. Eyes on Me.

When the students walk in, I simply say "show me the Mona Lisa!" I then reward my Mona Lisa (the students doing what I stated above) with a school store ticket. It works like a charm for grades K-5th. 5th its gets a little hairy...but on a good day it works. 6th grade can't be bothered with this silliness, but that's for another blog post. I have heard other teachers call out "MONA!" and the kids respond "LISA!" which also is cute and works.

So I use this when students walk in. I won't start my lesson until everyone is doing it. That's start the lesson right away with high expectations. Yes, sometimes it takes 3 minutes or longer to gather the students into a state of learning. Sometimes they have to put their head down and then we try again. But it works. I use her for transitions....if I just finished a story I will say "show me the mona lisa!" as I get myself ready to demo or pass something out. I used to use her for clean up, but I find it is better if the kids put their head down. 

For clean up: Space/Table is clean, head is down, mouth is closed. I turn off the lights, and we end the day the same way we started it. Calm.

Lesson Plan: Van Gogh Pastel Vases

Well we can cut the procedures in half here, because you already know how I begin this lesson. If you don't, see the blog post right before this one!

Procedures:

 1) Students fill the entire 12 x 18 black paper with a pencil drawing of a flower and vase. We talked about adding patterns to the vase.

2) Students use a white glue bottle to trace the lines of their vase. 

3)Once the glue has dried, students chalk their vase with chalk pastel.

4) Teacher spends hours spraying fixative on the artwork :)

 Materials:

-12 x 18 Black construction paper

-Pencil

-Glue Bottle

-Chalk Pastel

Skills Learned:

-Van Gogh Facts

-How to draw flowers

-Patterns on the vase (should be review by this point)

-Chalk pastel exploration

Reflection:

I used this lesson for 2nd and 3rd grade, both did a great job on it. I was worried the boys wouldn't go for flowers but I had no complaints! I tried this with K, and I did the glue step for them, but the results just were not strong. They couldn't handle the idea of coloring on black paper as well.  If you are wondering about glue, I did this "glue lines" with every grade level from 1-6th and there were no glue wars, explosions, deaths, or anything bad. I guess sometimes if you give a student a big responsibility they CAN rise to the challenge! A big tip #3 for new teachers: Do not procrastinate on fixative. Always spray the same day they complete the project if you can. Just trust me!