preparing the art classroom!

ok, so this post doesn't go into extreme detail about how i store my supplies...that is a WHOLE other beast in itself.  i originally wrote this post a few days ago on my galaxy but it refuses to completely save it so, i guess i will start all over!!

students don't go back to school until august 5th but i knew i had WAY too much stuff to get done before meet the teacher, etc. next week so after i received the keys to my classroom, i started hanging stuff.

when i entered my classroom this year, everything had been moved from the floor cleaners coming in and rearranging EVERYTHING.  at first i was upset...MORE work to do!!! but then i realized it was a great opportunity for change.  so i went with it.  it might not be a huge change to outsiders but for my little artists and i, it will hopefully make us even more successful in the art room this year :)

the above picture is right by my desk, this year i am going to use it as my inspiration wall.  (last year a giant bookshelf was in the way, that i hardly used).  i love getting inspiration from anywhere...movies, pinterest, books, magazines, television, other students' ideas, so i like to make a visual wall of things that keep me motivated and/or inspired.  

the ARTIST poster is an idea i stole off of pinterest and added my own expectations to.  great visual right above my desk for students to see as a reminder.  love how that turned out.

because of all this new-found wall space, i decided to only put up the necessities for my students. above is a poster breaking down mediums we use in the art room.  i forget to use the word media/medium a LOT so this is my way of reminding myself as well as reinforcing it to my artists.

  

above are some more examples of small clusters of vocabulary words we use for individual art processes.  i do collage a lot throughout the year so it's great to highlight some words and have a visual reminder of what the kids are doing.  sorry some of the pics aren't the best...

here is one of my favorite posters i have made.  (i have geometric shapes posted to the left of this on my wall).  great visual reminder in bright, eye-catching colors.  the font is taken from dafont.com - which i use ALL the time.  my amazing co-worker told me about it.  wonderful fonts for art teachers to jazz up signs, labels, etc.  

bittersweet endings!!

pictured above: construction paper crayons - great for dark papers but are really expensive
gallons of primary colors donated along with the light blue tempera artista ii that i LOVE - it mixes better greens than the dark "blue" - ALL DONATED :) i'm in heaven...feelin' really spoiled!!

things have been stressful lately!!  summer school went by way too fast and now i am finding myself trying to organize my classroom supplies to start the upcoming school.  as much as i don't want summer to end, i am really excited to roll up my sleeves and get things rolling in my classroom organization.  

saying good-bye to my summer school students is always hard.  we grow really close in such a short amount of time.  but on the flip-side, my amazing co-worker donated TONS of supplies for the KTA art studio!!! i have SO MUCH paint that i honestly don't know where i'm going to store it...but i guess that is better than not having enough.  i do not think i will need to even purchase paint this year, which leaves my budget open to more expensive luxuries that i don't normally get to purchase due to funding.  

i will try to relax as much as i can before school starts but it is really hard when i practically have an art store warehouse in my small apartment!!! :)