Our Turtle-Y Awesome Art Room!

Well, it's been about a year since I've last blogged. Oops. Last year was very tumultuous for our school...we had a new, extremely demanding ridiculous schedule that threw all the Specials teachers for a loop (3, K, 2, 4, 1, 5...all back to back with no passing time in between). I know there are worse schedules out there, but between that and absorbing 17 behavior students from another school we just had a really rough year. 

I'm going to be better this year, starting today! HA!

I have never done a "theme" before. My two boys are SO into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at home and I was TRYING to explain where their names came from this summer to them...

Deaf ears, I tell ya.

Anyways, I digress. So this year's theme is "Turtle-y Awesome" and this is my main bulletin board in the hallway. I bought the little Ninja Turtle masks from Wal-Mart in the party section and added a quick bio about each turtle....er...artist.

I made this sign for my classroom door..Ninjas Only!

Here are my table colors. I made little turtles for each table and each has a different colored mask. When my students walk in, I give them a colored piece of paper and they have to match it up with the turtle's mask and sit at that table. This is how I determine their "assigned" seats.

I found this cute little ninja printable here and thought it would be a good transition sign for my exit door. 

This is my schedule, but more importantly I used twin-sized bed sheets as my bulletin board paper! I don't know about ya'all, but we have to use fire-retardant fabric on our bulletin boards (oh yes, the Fire Marshall checks!) and kids' bedsheets are flame-resistant. Now you know!

And last, I found this hilarious graphic online and had it blown up into a poster at FedEx. It was a little pricey (and when I had it laminated it got wrinkly...UGH!) but I think it's hilarious and hopefully by the end of the year my students will appreciate it!

So just what am I going to do with this "theme"? I could hardly teach an entire year of Renaissance Art (well, I mean I could but I think my students would fall asleep...no offense to you Renaissance lovers!) so I am going to introduce one Artist each quarter. We are going to start out with Michaelangelo. For my 2-5th graders I am going to have them do the standard "Sistene Chapel" lesson on the first day of school. I figure after the seating, rules, expectations, etc this will be a good 20-minute filler lesson. 

For my kids K-1 I am going to give them each a white paper plate, a dab of blue and yellow finger paint so they can make green, then add a ninja mask for their "art ninjas". I will post the project(s) in a different post. 

I am excited about this school year and excited to blog again and share our crazy art journey with you! Have a great beginning of the year!

-Joanna