I am a huge fan of being organized and having things measure and fit just how they should. This means that I do the extra 10 steps when planning. For example, a bulletin board... we always have the best intentions and hope that everything will fit and will look great.

My trick - Google Slides. When starting, I change the page size to match the measurement of my bulletin board. Then I just format each piece of the board to fit the large document. When I am ready, I take each piece of the document that I may need to print and place it in a google slide that is formatted to 8.5x11".

I tend to format many of my slides to be printable meaning that I start with a document that is 8.5x11". When starting a project, always think about your end intentions. If you are planning to show with a projector - leave your document as is, printing - change size to 8.5x11", or making a display - change to the size of your display.

Our school started back on Wednesday and we are ready to explore, create and play our way though art! I spend some time this summer developing a game called "Pick One". I haven't seen a game like this anywhere but I believe that ideas are recycled and recreated many times over again. It is based on traditional JENGA with a color theory twist. My students LOVED it!

Here are a few photos and the link to the game.

All materials except the blocks included (directions on where to buy blocks and how to paint included in the TPT file) (click the link below to go right to the download on TPT)

Pick One! TPT

Yikes, what a fast end of the school year. I sit here and reflect on the end of the school year, the start of some "normal" activities and the return of some sense of normalcy. The end of the school year in the art room was filled with lots of cleaning, sorting, packing and more cleaning. I am so thankful that I have a strong relationship with my students and they understand how things should be. As silly as it sounds, my students know me as much as I know them. They are eager to help me organize and clean and know that I am a bit extra with how I like things in order and that's OKAY!

As the year ended, I decided I was going to hope for the best and unpack all of the individual supplies. While this is a big hope, it was a good move for myself and my classroom. IF I need to go back to individual supplies, I can always recreate my bags for each student, but for now; everything is in it's home and ALL sorted thanks to my students. This was a HUGE undertaking as we took apart about 250 supply bags, sorted all the materials and then my students took it one step further (on their own), by sorting all of my crayons and colored pencils by color! When I go to set up my room in the fall, things will be ready.

While the end of the year is exhausting, I really do think the best way to leave for the summer is with everything tidy, picked up, put away and organized! My family used to take a yearly summer trip and my mom would always do extra cleaning before we would leave and when we would return, it was so refreshing to have an extra clean house. I use that same approach with any school break.

Now onto coordinating summer school at my building. Lots of new ideas, posts, products and TPT listings coming this summer!

My classroom has been filled with all sorts of wonderful, creative, good messes! As I take a moment to catch up on data, paperwork/book keeping and uploading work to Artsonia over this week which is my Spring Break, I am reminded of the wonderfulness of being back in the art room and the level of creativity and messes we are able to make once again!

A little break down of what has been happening:

Kindergarten and 1st grade are exploring mixing the primary colors to create the secondary colors with tempera paint.

2nd grade is exploring geometric shapes, patterns, overlapping, layering of watercolor and primary colors!

3rd and 4th grade are finish their landscape printmaking.

Up next:

Kindergarten and 1st grade will add collage elements to their primary/secondary color circles to turn them into Birds of Color.

2nd grade will be doing a "woven" turtle based on the tradition of creating God's Eyes.

3rd and 4th grade will be exploring hue, tint, tone and shade by creating the Values of Ice Cream.

Pictures and links to the materials/lesson plans coming soon! Somehow things feel that they are speeding up once again and there are not enough hours in the day. In time, it will all happen.

I love paper crafting! I have been personally creating origami and works of paper goods for over 10 years that I sell on my etsy, local galleries as well as craft shows. I love having the opportuinity to teach different mediums to my students, like quilling! I have shared this lesson at our state NYSATA conference for a few years

Here is my breakdown of how I conduct quilling with my students. I typically do this project with 4th grade and up, but you know your students best!

Materials:

• • White tag board for the base surface of the quilling

  • Colored Copy Paper (this is my favorite! amazon link)

Precut into 1/2" strips - stored in plastic shoe box (amazon link)

• • Fiskars paper slicer (amazon link!)

  • Tacky Glue (in small bottles for less needs to share=more work time! (link!)

Setting up the project:

• • I use adult coloring pages of animals that I have preselected to start a discussion with my students about lines, the use of decorative line within a space. (Dollar tree for the win!)

  • After this discussion, I typically do a demo where I do, we do, you do. I show my students how to start rolling a strip of paper using the edge of their paper, a pencil, or just their fingers. (I will add a video here when I think of it - email me if I haven't... sometimes I am a scatter brain). I teach my students to glue the tail of their quills to create a closed circle shape (creates more stability in finished project)

  • Students then trace the animal of their choice (subject choice is endless!) onto their tag board. They ONLY trace the outline of the coloring sheet and then begin creating quills.

  • I encourage my students to roll a few quills before starting their project. They are each given a sandwich ziploc bag to keep their quills in which I write their name on with a sharpie. These bags all go into a plastic shoe box (above) for easy storage between class times.

  • Once students have a collection of quills in the colors of their choice, they start placing their quills by applying tacky glue to selected spaces on the tag board (in a thin layer) and pressing the flat curled surface and counting to 10. (a trick I ALWAYS use when teaching gluing) Press and hold and count to 10 (in your head!)

  • This process continues as students build their animals and TA DA a quilled animal!

If you are a person who ends up doing cardboard projects, because lets be real - who doesn't love free materials... you need these cardboard scissors! They are amazing! Battery operated, great ability to cut curves and all around great! (amazon link)

This yarn wrapped rainbow project is coming up for my Kindergartners, were they will be learning to knot!

This week is full of new lessons, inspirations and creativity. I am still thriving and loving being back into my art room. It is refreshing and exciting and I am finding my rhythm with cleaning, setting up and transitioning between classes while keeping with regulations and guidelines to keep us all as safe as I can.

This week 2nd grade is starting a new project where we are refreshing our brains with primary colors and geometric shapes. Students were introduced to artist Sonia Delaunay and then traced 3 geometric shapes 2 times to create overlapping shapes. This was the set up for the next class where each shape will be painted with a primary color using watercolor paint. This will create a space for primary colors to shine and overlapping spaces will fill with the secondary colors.

It is week 2 of being back in the art room. I am finding the grove of things, setting up, transitions, sanitizing, student spacing and all the new things. One things remains the same, my dedication to be the best art teacher I can be for my students.

This week we started relief printmaking in 3rd grade. Next week my 4th graders will start with this same project as well. We are a bit of a scheduled chaos with a 3 week rotation to accommodate all students with hybrid learning schedules as they are.

Printmaking is a thing that I try to add into each grade level, but at times I fail to bring printmaking to life the way I wish I could. I hide behind supply management, class sizes, time restrains and other reasons in past school years. We do stamping and discuss printmaking but I have not done full on printmaking with ink and brayers in a few years. This year, that's changing.

The other week, as I started to figure out where I wanted my lesson to go, I found myself in one of my favorite zones - inking a brayer and pulling a plate! Ahh... can you hear that ink sound? Beautiful!

Here's the breakdown of what I have for a set up, what is working and how you can make it work for you with social distancing and needing more materials (no sharing). A lesson with all sorts of materials is coming soon to my TPT so check there ---> www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/msabart

Registration:

I printed registrations on bright paper and laminated it. Easy clean up, easy sanitizing, individual student registrations!

Plates:

Dollar tree for the win once again! I bought flat styroafoam tray like plates (rectanlges). I cut them down and decided on on a 4" square.

Ink and Brayers:

I was fortunate enough to have some ink and brayers in my classroom. I also found some ink on amazon (check out links) for some of the ink I bought! I added some brayers too! I only have 10 students at the most at a time currently. I have a class set of brayers that a previous art teacher had purchased.

Ink Block:

I used a piece of aluminum foil folded in half and taped to the table. To place ink on the block, I cut a piece of cardboard into pieces.

My students were introduced to the work of Jen Aranyi. I had set up their plates with a circle already. I also printed design pages for them to create their image before starting on the styrofoam.

This week feels like a dream. I have been pushing into classrooms since school reopened for hybrid learners in September. We have had changes, stretches of remote learning and more changes but this latest change makes my heart so happy - have my students back in the art room creating!

I began my week back in my room with some big "messy" lessons. I have been keeping things very minimal while pushing into classrooms and zooming into classrooms. This means using basic materials (what the students have) and doing one day projects in our 25 minute specials time.

This week my 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders are mixing paint colors and as many commented making "custom" colors. I gave them only the primary colors in tempera and told them to play and experiment. The one big "rule" was they couldn't use the colors I gave them as they were; they had to mix and experiment. Check out the drying rack with some awesome custom colors!

My Kindergartners and 1st graders are working on creating LEGO self portraits on a LEGO mini figure base that I provided for them. They were encouraged to start with an emotion and then add features to make their mini figure look like them!

While I have done these lessons before with different groups, it felt like brand new creativity was pouring out of my students! I am excited to continue building new and exciting lessons and exploring more mediums that I don't typically get into with my large groups of students. I am finding a new level of creativity in myself while creating lessons. My confidence is building with trying all sorts of different things with the small setting that this hybrid and socially distanced model is giving me. At the most, I currently have 10 students.

Up next, printmaking, sewing, weaving and more!

Working on your upcoming art show, virtually? It can be a lot but creates a wonderful display!

Check out these layouts for a simple way to put together a virtual art show!

FREEBIE Virtual Art Show Layouts (TPT)

I consider myself a pretty organized person when it comes to all things Art Teachery. For lessons, there are always teacher samples, lessons plans and other pieces that need to be kept in order. Here is how I manage it all.

File Folders

I have file folders for each lesson. These file folders are stored in file crates during the summer and live in a filing cabinet next to my desk at school. In these file folders I put teacher samples, templates and visual directions in each file folder. The file folders are color coded by grade level with Kindergarten being Red, 1st Grade being Orange and so on. The name of the lesson is written on the file tab. I try to keep my files in alphabetical order (Google Drive helps with this).

Google Drive

I then have a Google drive folder for all lesson plans. In this folder lives a folder for each grade level with the same grade level color coding system used for the file folders (and everything else in my classroom). In the grade level folder is a folder for each lesson. Each lesson folders contains a digital lesson plan, any resources that I print, the visual directions and anything else digital I need (slide show, etc). These folders are color coded based on the medium used. (see photo below)

Grade Level Binders

I have binders for each grade level with the printed lesson plan which is color coded with flags that match the folders for the mediums.

..................................................................................................................

Overall, its 3 systems but it works great because I can always have my digital files, bring home binders if I need to prepare or plan on a break and have the file folders to keep everything safe.

I teach elementary but did this for K-12 in 2 schools before.

Need an activity for YAM (Youth Art Month=March) for #MakeArtMonday that's simple, limited materials but celebrates art? I have you covered!

Here is a Make Art Monday Challenge that has a weekly art activity that can be done in classrooms with limited supplies and high student independence.

Use as is or make a copy for yourself. Perfect for adding to a Google Classroom!

Make Art Monday Challenges!

My break has been fun filed while creating new items and resources. Here is a run down of a some of my new items.

In my Etsy shop - Magnetic Bookmark, Student Punch Cards, Pencil Flags.

On my TeachersPayTeachers Store - Mystery Artists Bulletin Board Sets and Art Show Layouts.

I have come across so much inspiration in various groups that I am in as well as Teacher TikTok. One of these ideas was students solving math problems within a Google Sheet and it fills in a pixel image. How cool! Now to make it fit my students a bit better. I am all about cross curricular work and encouraging students math practice, but I wanted to create a more simple ART activity. Now introducing Pixel Art meets Color By Number in the form of a Google Sheet! I started simple with a pixel heart with a rainbow fill. This is a FREEBIE in my TeachersPayTeachers Store if you would like a copy for yourself!

Pixel Rainbow Heart (TPT)

Now off to create more and turn this idea into a bundle! There are so many ideas that I have including focusing on famous artworks! More coming soon.

I find myself always reworking things that I use frequently. With the use of digital tools, attendance and assignment tracking are simple. I use Google Sheets to track student data easily. This means that if a snow day may happen (yesterday), I can easily access materials and data from home when I leave hard copies in my classroom.

My trackers use formulas to count number of students who complete a given assignment in a day and then calculate individual data. I myself love to color code things so of course I have my documents color coded for my needs. I got creative today and decided to make a collection of tracking sheets for 1 to 4 assignments a day with all formulas ready for YOU for FREE!

Check it out on my TeachersPayTeachers.

Rainbow Attendance and Assignment Tracker FREEBIE (TPT)

A quick note to share this cool website that I found today!

Check it out with your students to create an interactive "action" painting digitally!

www.jacksonpollock.org/

What starts as a blank canvas can quickly be filled with an action painting. Click one to change color. Double click to clear the canvas and restart. Slow movements mean large spaces of "paint" and quick movements are thin fast lines of paint. I took a screenshot after I had "painted" for a while.

Welcome back to hybrid learning - again...

Before the holidays, we opening for a week and then had a snow day thrown in. In that week, it was decided that Specials would be teaching from our office/classroom and using zoom to teach to our students in their classrooms. This took some figuring out, but you know what... we did it! Then the holidays happened and we were fully remote for a few weeks out of precaution.

Now we are back to hybrid with students in the building for 2 days a week and remote the other 3 days along with remote students. This means, finding the right mix again. Thankfully, we had that practice week. A tip for those of you who may be checking in for an idea or advice... be flexible but know what and how you would like things to go.

We asked our classroom teachers to put us up on the smartboards so that students could see and hear us. Then we asked classroom teachers to place a computer at the front of the room so that we could see and hear the students in the room. This set up has worked well especially for our younger students. I am able to do demos, read a story and work right along with my students. For my 3rd and 4th graders, I have modified this by having each student join my zoom so that they can directly talk to me, see me or my screen and they can show me their work directly and unmute to talk to me. It has worked out well.

Lessons aren't simple in this format for what I would love to be doing, but given the situation, I have been taking advantage of the change to do some guided drawing lessons based on different stories.

This week, we focused on Leo Leoni's "A Color of His Own". I read the story, we had a discussion about the animal in the story and learned about a cool lizard called a chameleon! Then I lead students through a guided drawing using shapes as our basis for drawing and then set them free to create a location for their own chameleons - reasoning for why they are the color they are. I did prep materials for each classroom including blank paper and a printed activity for those students that I knew would finish early.

Each year, my building celebrates diversities including black history month. With black history month approaching, I have developed a new resource! I am so excited to hang this outside my art room this week in celebration of black history month. This display will features 15 female black artists.

Want a copy for yourself? Check out my TeachersPayTeachers!

Black Female Artists Bulletin Board for Black History Month (TPT)

Artists included in this resource:

Amy Sherald

Howardena Pindell

Kara Walker

Lillian Blades

Alma Woodsey Thomas

Lubaina Himid

Carolyn Mims Lawrence

Bisa Butler

Faith Ringgold

Glenyse Thompson

Ronni Nocole Robinson

Melarie Odelusi

Audrianna Woods

Lina Iris Viktor

Tamara Natalie Madden

Sharing this with my students has encouraged them to look into a variety of artists. Need some books to read with your students that include black history month and art? Consider some from this list from Scholastic. Books for Black History Month - Scholastic

• I LOVE of the book Hey, Wall by Susan Verde and Illustrated by Peter Reynolds. While it is not Black History Specific, it is a wonderful story about a wall in an inner city.

I don't know how I haven't discussed my data tracking systems yet. Need some ideas for data tracking and reporting in the art room? Don't worry, you have come to the right place! I am going to break this into a few sections, class data tracking/display, individual student data tracking, and individual student data collection tools.

Class Data Tracking/Display

For each lesson I teach, I mark what material and concepts each grade level has learned. I began this display in the 2019 school year and my admin LOVED being able to see the data and my students LOVED seeing the things they had learned and the things that we hadn't covered yet. I have adapted my data wall a bit and now have it ready for you here on my TeachersPayTeachers. Watercolor Art Room Data Wall (TPT)

Individual Student Data Tracking

I also track individual student data by using exit and entry tickets and this awesome data sheet that I developed. I use the margin on the right to allow me to add a date for when the information was assessed. I also use my colored pens for when I assess the same concept on different dates.

• Skills Tracking Sheet (TPT)

• Entry/Exit Tickets for Skills Tracking (TPT)

Use these 2 documents together to quickly track student data in the art room.

Student Data Collection Tools

I am a fan of using multiple collection tools when assessing my students skills, progress and comprehension. I use the entry/exit tickets for a quick assessment, but I also use workbooks which are my students settling activity and finished early activity. This doesn't look like a test or a collection of data, but there is so much information that I can gain from these pages about student skills, progress, understanding and comprehension. These are set up for the New York State Standards and help align what I am teaching to what students "NEED" to know.

Workbook Bundle (K-4) (TPT)

Our students are remote following the holiday break as many are. The numbers are high in our area and safety is the key at this point. With all students being remote, I found myself stumped about what assignment to post out for students to complete with limited supplies. Our engagement levels have been decreasing slowly and I fear that students don't have their supplies that I sent home at the beginning of the school year.

I took the idea from my tangram activity that I shared earlier, and adapted it to be an art history activity!

This activity is geared toward my elementary students but could easily be adapted for older students. This week I focused on a classic artist, Vincent van Gogh and the painting Starry Night. I wanted to start this activity with an artwork my students are familiar with.

I took advantage of my skills with Google Slides to develop an interactive puzzle for students to solve.

I have plans to continue developing more of these interactive slides - just like my other activities and post them to my TeachersPayTeachers store, but for now... here is the Van Gogh interactive link for FREE! Try it out and let me know what you think.

Exploring Artworks - Starry Night FREEBIE TPT

I have been reflecting on the past lately. One thing that I think back to is my last art show that I held in February 2020. It was a change of pace from the biannual art show that was previously held in my building. Typically, the art show takes place with a concert at our middle or high school building. It is a 2 hour event at most and quite a bit of work to move artwork, hang on panels and get ready for the big night.

This past year, I decided to combine a few ideas from shows I have seen, helped with and held.

This has been a discussion in some of the art teacher groups that I am in, so I thought I would share some of the tips and tricks that worked for me. - keep in mine, I tend to be a bit over the top in just about everything I do.

My solution to a quick hanging art show was roll paper, packing tape, a single hole punch, masking tape, address labels and command hooks.

• Roll Paper - I used school colors in my past show, but in the future, I would lean toward a neutral color of black to highlight student artwork. I used the hallway tiles (1 foot squares) to measure out my roll paper to be the height that worked for my gym walls - about 6'. I cut one and went to make sure it was the correct height. Measure twice and cut once!

• Packing Tape and a single hole punch - Once I had cut my roll paper, I went ahead and taped the top corners of my roll paper and measured in about 2" in from the side and 1" from the top to punch a single hole through the tape and paper. This provided a space for reinforced hanging on the command hooks.

• Masking Tape or Painters Tape - Now it's time to start hanging the artwork. I choose to hang one class per sheet of paper. I put 2 command hooks on my wall for easy vertical hanging so I could back up and make sure I liked the layout. I rolled the tape and taped each artwork to the roll paper. This is the most time consuming process - but you could 100% utilize students who like helping, parent volunteers or any other help you may have. I found time during student work time and between classes because I could stay in my room and work at my own pace. I spread out this time over about a week before my show to hang my 18 classes worth of work.

• Address Labels - This is my labeling genius moment! I label my student artwork with address labels. I do teach elementary and don't feel that it takes away from the artwork by attaching a label in the bottom right corner. If I end up using an artwork for a regional or state display - I go ahead and place a matte on the artwork anyway which covers over the sticker so I can attach a show label. I use a 30 up label (linked in my amazon links and below) and an avery downloaded template. I spend some time in the beginning of the school year to enter student name, class and a "project" line. As students complete each project, I find the "project line" and replace it with the current project and print. I go ahead and add each label before I take pictures to upload student work to Artsonia. This takes some time, but takes a lot of time off at the time of an artshow!

• Command Hooks - This is the hanging genius moment! (linked in my amazon links and below) I take a small strip of the roll paper, tape the corners and punch as described above. This strip is just for hook placement on the walls. In my case, I was using our gymnasium. I took the hooks and measured using measuring strip of paper. It is suggest to put the hooks up ahead of time to let the command magic do its work. The night of the art show, I carried up the sheets of paper with the artwork already attached and quickly walked around and hung the sheets of roll paper onto the command strips. I added class labels on the wall above for easy access to families and students and ta da ART SHOW TIME!

Of course - in my overdoing fashion, I had a black light art show and activities. I will discuss these in a future post!

With creating planners, I was reminded once again of my love of office supplies and stationary. The next thing to make for my etsy shop seemed obvious; notepads! I used many of my designs from stickers and then created notepads. This new line of products has resulted in some upgrades to my home office, including a color laser printer and a stack paper cutter. I always pride myself on quality over quantity and am proud to include these upgrades to make EVEN better products for my customers.

Notepads are for sale in my etsy shop and as always, I can customize any design just for you! www.etsy.com/shop/msabart1993

With all that new things that we as educators have learned this year, why not keep going and try new things! I have been a fan of creating within Google Slides for some time now. It gives me the ability to create drawings using shapes, layer items easily and develop interactive pages for others.

Taking on a favorite classroom "free choice day" activity for the remote learning situation seems right for this time. Now introducing interactive tangrams in Google Slides with 4 different levels! As per usual, I can't just make one of something or make an item simple. I have made the Google Slides interactive by allowing students to move the shades to create the tangram and in the more difficult levels - rotate and move the shapes.

Tangrams and pattern blocks have always been a favorite in my classroom and I am excited to feature them digitally. Tangrams are awesome because like building blocks, tangrams can teach kids about spatial relationships. They may help kids learn geometric terms, and develop stronger problem solving abilities.

Want to try out the interactive tangram?! For FREE?

Check out the FREEBIE Fish Tangram Interactive here on my TPT. --> FREEBIE Fish Tangram Interactive

For the full file and other interactive documents, check out my store.

Ms. A-B Art Teachers Pay Teachers Store

Well, we are back to remote learning prior to our holiday break. This week is already a shortened learning week and my students are being encouraged to play!

While delivering art education content, I find that my students soak up the chance to play and explore, the basics of art. This week, my students are being encouraged to play an art game through my Bitmoji Art Room. I have taken the time to select games that encourage learning and creativity.

Interested in some fun games to play in or out of the classroom with your students?

Check out the Technology Links for some of my favorites.

Today is our first snow learning day of the year. Here in New York, it has be determined that snow days are no longer and snow learning days are the new thing. I appreciated not having to head out early, clean off my car and commute to work, but I missed out on teaching my students and having a creative day of winter hats and rainbow fishes. We are privileged to work from home on Wednesdays during this time, with office hours and lots of productive screen time. Snow learning day is basically a Wednesday.

Some thoughts on this snowy day...

Learning can and should be fun!

There is no reason your content needs to be a bore. If your content isn't something that you enjoy, find a way to enjoy it. Students can tell when you love what you teach. It makes a difference.

Reaching and Teaching should be an always thing!

This phrase has come about in my presentations at the Annual NYSATA conference over the past few years. I have lead a workshop about access for all, stemming from my work with students who have an IEP. I have worked to develop more accessible resources for art education for all students. All students have the right to learn and access the content. Make sure you are trying your best to continue to reach and teach all.

Go with the Flow!

How many times have we heard this as educators. Too many! It is a hard thing to roll with, but we are here providing how awesome we are once again. We are the voices of education for our parents, our students, our schools and our communities. We as art educators are creative problem solvers who are capable of amazing things. Keep pushing on.

Well, one day down, many more to go. I am thankful that I was able to teach from the "safety" of my art room today into multiple classrooms via zoom. I rushed on Friday and got materials ready and from my side of the computer screen, I think it went well.

My day starts with 3rd graders, and they all joined in on my zoom through my bitmoji classroom. We walked through the project and then they got to work. While there wasn't the normal random conversations that have developed while being on a cart, it was nice to teach art and keep the creativity flowing. My 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders will be developing a winter patterned hat this week with a spinner to randomly determine which pattern each student will draw thanks to Google Slides!

My Kindergartners and 1st graders will be hearing a read aloud of Rainbow Fish, and then working through a guided drawing with me. Normally, this project is a collage project with colored circles and a special shiny scale delivery to each student (aluminum foil). This project was quick and easy to adapt to be a simple guided drawing with only pencil, paper and crayons and perfect for my reduced time classes (20 minutes!).

Like my other lessons, I have developed my rainbow fish lesson to be perfect for remote or hybrid learners with interactive Google Slides and step by step directions.

Here is the link to the TPT lesson --> Rainbow Fish Lesson Slides

After two weeks of having students all working remotely, and staff reporting to the building, things are changing. Students are returning to the building next week, meaning that I need to switch back to teaching both hybrid and remote art lessons. I am thrilled that I have been planning a bit ahead (do we ever really get ahead?).

Now it's time for the twist.

Thankfully, our safety is being considered as more bodies are brought into the building. There will be no more art on the cart for the time being. I will be staying in my art room and teaching into classrooms through zoom. I scrambled a bit and quickly came up with a lesson idea for how to teach to my students who are in the same building as I am but, not with me. I am pleased that I have been utilizing zoom to teach my students in the hybrid arrangement prior to our remote closure. I feel confident in being able to switch between my phone (document camera) and my screen/camera. I will miss being able to walk around and work directly with them, but given the time that we are teaching in, I will take any sort of teaching moments that I can get.

I have been working on developing some new resources during this time, because when I am busy, I feel calmer. I am excited to share that my Mystery Artist set is building and growing! I am also turning my bulletin board set, into a interactive bitmoji ready slides!

How does it seem that an active brain always has a to do list?

I have found myself able to settle and finally catch up on some of the things on my to do lists the past few days. One of these big things is updating my TPT store. I got busy with teaching during a pandemic and all, and forgot to upload my new lessons! These new lessons continue with the theme of one day wonders with limited supplies. Projects are designed to be accomplished at home with minimal supplies and support given that many of my students were on the hybrid plan (currently all are remote). These lessons have been coming out so well and I am so proud of my students for continuing to produce artistic work and preserve.

Here are a few highlighted lessons that seem to have been fan favorites that will be listed today!