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RSSSunday, August 22, 2010
My totally awesome, really cool art room!
Work week is over and the kids will show up tomorrow morning weather we are ready or not! I spent all last week puttering around in my room working on 5 things at once and getting sidetracked with another as I went along. Of course add in an all county meeting here and a staff meeting there...
I want to say thanks to all my blogging friends who gave me some great ideas this summer. Please comment with a link if you see something I 'borrowed'!
I am REALLY lucky as this is my third year at my school which is only 3 years old. This wonderful space was built to be an art room from day one. I have lots of counter space, two sinks, a storage room and a kiln room all built in! One wall has three large bulletin boards.
This is the view as you walk in the door. Three boards, three windows, materials counter, shelving below labeled with each teacher's name in order of arrival. AV cart with LCD and Elmo camera.
Standing in the room facing my desk area. The large ART banner is made of felt. The mentor teacher I had for Middle School gave it to me <3.
The view from my desk. Color laser printer, drying racks, cutting board, sinks, cabinets, door to the storage room.
The front corner of my 4 paneled whiteboard. This is where all the 'business' is: magnets, mini globe and US map, class score (5-1) which gets reported to the classroom teacher, seat helper, daily schedule, new grading rubric.
overall view from the back - notice a project on every table!
Bulletin Boards
Here is my color theory board, I am debating on what to do with the top - a big COLOR sign or I was thinking of horizontal and vertical examples.
I usually fill with one artists' work and change each quarter. This way there are examples of the work I talk about that students can refer to anytime, they don't have to remember them from the power point.
This is in the back of the room and last year I never put anything on it (yikes!) Actually stuff got piled up too high. Now I can refer to these as I teach and students can see the vocab in one place.
Storage/Kiln Rooms
It is really clean when the Fire Marshall visits :-)
I haven't even gotten my beginning of the year order yet! I got a lot of donations of random stuff I am still working on organizing.
Love my attached kiln room - when students glaze I have them bring it to me and I can arrange it on the spot and turn it on at the end of the day.
Room & Materials Management
Each table has a color palette with seat numbers contact papered to the middle. This year I had to add a table to make 8 tables of 4. Our 4th grade classes this year have 29 and 30 students! So I have six color wheel tables and two neutrals, grey and black.
This is how I organize materials. I haven't committed to taping down the labels yet. I added the wire shelving this year (WalMart - made for organizing your dishes in the cabinet.) I was thinking of putting upper grade materials on the shelf (harder for the little ones to reach). For certain projects I like to keep them separated to keep the nicer materials in good shape!
I set this up different this year. When students are done sometimes I have them choose a book to read silently. I found the books ended up all messy - so this year I separated them out and put the younger books in the bin below the counter - so for Kinder, 1st they can dig in and return easily without rearranging all the others! On the counter they are separated as Artist Bios and How to Draw books so if they are free drawing they can go to the left and silent readers can pick from the right.
The room still feels so bare to me. There is one wall that is usually clear which I will fill with some art posters. I am thinking I may need a mural project to get the kids involved in adding some decor to the room. I usually do not display kids art in my room - I save it to go outside in the halls.
By the end of this week every child will have a portfolio on the shelf with their first marks made for the year. I am excited to see my old friends back as well as meet all our new ones! I am so lucky to be able to have contact with EVERY student ~ all 635 of them...
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6 comments (+add yours?)
Hello! I'm a new follower, and I'm green with envy over your classroom. It's amazing! Lucky you for having so much space. I love the work tables and stools for the students. And, all that storage!!! SO jealous! To top it off...a kiln room??? Count your blessings, my friend. My small school district can't even see the possibilities because of our small funding. I will really enjoy keeping up with your blog and living vicariously through you. Ha!
Thanks Janie ~ I am very much counting my blessing! I do not ever plan on leaving! :-)
LOVE the seat helper pallet! Great idea. I like seeing your room. I think I will make a effort to post my room when it is ready. Good thinking. You can learn so much from how a space is set up. Very nice!
Out of all your pictures, I was most excited to see your monster pencil sharpener! I have the exact same one and he's my favorite thing!
It's hard to see from the picture, but first, I LOVE your seat helper art pallet! Does the paint brush move on the pallet? Is it a real brush or a paper made one? would love to know!
what size are your student tables?
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