Home at Last!!

 Those of you reading this blog on a regular basis probably know I have been located for the last 2 years in a middle school down the road, from my elementary school, waiting for MY school to be renovated. AND for all of us to move back. The moment has finally arrived.....drum roll please!

 I walked into my BRAND NEW room, in a BRAND NEW location on campus over a week ago. VERY EXCITED to see NEW tables & NEW chairs, everything bright and shiny!

Containing ALL those boxes I packed up, starting last March and finishing after all the students were gone in June. WOW!!!

It didn't take as long as I would have thought to unpack. I think that was because I decided to open a few boxes and set them up near where I was planning to put things.

So how and where and why do things go where they go? Great question. I figured that out my first year there. I needed a place to gather up students, a place to store art work and room at the sink for all the messy stuff.

 

 In the first picture you can see the yellow chair I sat in and the carpet the students sat on. The blue cabinet held what was necessary for me to teach the lesson. The second picture is how I stored art work. The boxes are from cases of water purchased at Sam's club. (A very long time ago.)

By the sink are paint trays and brushes and containers for water. This worked out pretty well, so when we were relocated temporary, I configured the room out the same way.

 

 Since the science counter was in the way, I worked off the little table in the middle. Students gathered on the colorful floor mats. Storage was a little tighter, so I put art work into tote trays by my desk. Below by the sink, are the paint trays and everything else messy.

So in my new room again I have my teaching area, art work will be stored on my new shelves. I plan to use the colorful bins (thank you donorschoose.org) for class sketchbooks.

 

Here's the room from all 4 sides.

 Standing at the entrance to the room.

 The wall with the entrance door.

 Back by the sink.

Wall opposite the entrance. Below is my storage room and kiln room.

 

Okay, not completely unpacked.......... 

I want to label the cabinets for everyone to find things easier. So I took photos of stuff and will stick them onto the doors.

 

 

Not allowed to hang stuff from the ceilings, so the cool plastic crayons are gone. I feel that I still need to personalize the space, especially after seeing all the art teachers posting photos of their rooms recently. It WILL HAPPEN! Eventually..............

If you are an art teacher in FLORIDA and are planning to go to the conference in Naples in October, you can register for it starting tomorrow. I will be doing a mini studio titled: Look! Listen! And Learn! on Thursday at 8:45 am. It will be about learning to use museum activities in your art room.

And on Friday at 11:45 I will be presenting Born to Blog about how to start your own blog.

I do believe both will work with all grade levels! Hope to meet some of you there!!

Thanks for reading!!

Off to See The Wizard....

If I have not made in clear in the past, I shall make it very clear now! I LOVE MUSEUMS!!!
I love walking around, taking my time, reading wall text AND learning amazing things. It is just SO inspiring to ME! Really gets my brain fired up to do fun things.

In addition to loving museums, I am rather partial to The Wizard of Oz. It was the very first show that I directed for my community theater. And yes, that is my husband in the back row, he played the wizard. Besides directing, I made costumes (Dorothy and the trees) and did set design.

 

Soooooo when the opportunity presented itself to go to a museum AND there was a Wizard of Oz exhibit on display.............. I was pretty excited!!!! Now since this exhibit is at a children's museum, you MUST have a child with you to get in. And thankfully I knew just who to take! Okay, the reality of this situation was my daughter told me about it and drove me, along with her 2 children, my grandchildren to see it. The display is in Tampa at the Glazer Children's Museum.

 

 

 

Above are some of the photos that I took, but if you really want to see it all check it out here.

 

You may want to check out the schedule of future tour dates that I also found on the Curiosity Corner blog along with all the awesome photos!!

Some of you might be doing some head scratching about now as to what this has to do with teaching art. But I see so many, many ways to use what I saw there that day. Either with The Wizard of Oz or another favorite children's book. How amazing would it be to use a book as an interactive exhibit to inspire learning in art? How about if the older students work together to create some exciting centers for the younger students? Students could design games, signs or posters, costumes, puppets, prizes or merchandise for the book OR write a book together and develop an exhibit for it. WOW!!!

Just how many future art careers are we exploring with this concept??? WOW again!

What children's book would you use or like to see as an interactive exhibit? Please leave a comment and please consider following me!

Thanks for reading!!!

This Year's Theme: HATS!

I have mentioned in past blogs that I am involved with community theater. Last night was our awards dinner, which I attended with my husband. He was nominated for 2 awards, very stiff competition and unfortunately he didn't bring any home. (He did win one last year!)

We still had a great evening out with friends. Anyway the theme (and we always have one) was Ascots and Gavottes. Translation: wear a hat and dance! We were to wear seriously crazy hats, like the women who attend the Ascot Races in England. Here are some photos I pulled off the internet.

   

 

 One show I worked on this past season was Moonlight and Magnolias. Where I had fun making fake banana peels that I threw all over the stage as the stage manager. Soooo I thought that my hat should reflect that theme, especially since I would be sitting with most of the cast and crew from that production. That should explain the photo at the top of this post.

I thought there might be some of you out there that would like to know how I made it.
Started out with some sketches. Did some research on the internet. Had some foam in the closet, which I used to cut out the moon shape.  Went to the fabric store, not quite sure what material I wanted for the moon until I saw the shiny crepe lamé silver fabric. Picked up buckram for the base and glitter tulle for the netting. Total cost was under $20.

 

 I traced the foam moon onto the buckram and cut 2 pieces to sandwich the foam. Then I used the buckram moon shape as a pattern for the silver lamé, I added seam allowance as I cut out 2 pieces. I sewed them with right sides together.

   

 Since the moon is a non-stop curve, I had to do little cuts along the seam allowance to have a smoother look after it was turned right side out. Then I stuffed the foam and buckram into the silver fabric.

 

Next was the base. I cut out two 5" circles from the buckram, made a slit, and overlapped the ends to turn it into a cap. Covered it with the silver lamé.

 

The magnolias were provided by my friend, the director of the show. Once everything for the hat was ready, I sewed it all together by hand. Tulle to top of base. Moon to the base. Flowers in front of the moon and more tulle and a big bow on the back.

     

Last was the headband on the bottom to hold the hat onto my head. I choose a headband that would blend well with my hair.  And there you have it: My Moonlight and Magnolia Hat!!

 

Oh and of course, being an art teacher I had the most outrageous hat there!

This was actually the third hat that I have made. My husband and I have done some steam punking and I have made hats to match my outfits. Recollections, which is where I bought the outfit below included a fabric swatch that I was able to incorporate into the hat.

 

 

With both of the hats, I used a girl-sized straw bonnet from the dollar store as my base.

It's so much fun to get the chance to do something a little different for a change.
And I just LOVE my moon hat! I can't wait for Crazy Hat Day at school!

Thanks for Reading! And share a crazy hat photo if you have one!

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