Line Song and Dance

I had this crazy idea that I should totally make a dance and song that would go into my line unit for my kindergarteners and First graders, but I couldn't come up with anything.

Low and behold, the power of shopping strikes again. I was on my way home from a productive day of clothes shopping and the words came to me... SOOOOO. Here it is.

This is basically sung to the farmer in the dell, but as a Chorus.

Blue is the teacher and Black are student lines.

When they sing the lines are everywhere they should point at a line they see.

 Horizontal Line movement is to hold your arms out at your sides.

For Vertical Clap your hands together over your head.

For Diagonal Line do a two armed disco point. (One arm up and one down at an angle)

For Zig-Zag, walk like an Egyptian (look it up for your young'ins).

For wavy lines wiggle your arms like worms.

For wide lines flex your arms out at your sides.

For thin bring your hand in the middle like you are praying.

Finish by pointing at lines you see. you could instruct them to specifically point at vertical or horizontal, etc..

PowerPoint Download

KbZipaDeeDooDah Font Download - you will need this to see the fun font in the file.

I would just like to say thank you to KB Designs for your AWESOME fonts... I know we have them all over our school. Also thank you to Pixabay, your free photo stock images are awesome to use for powerpoint background images.

First day with parents...

I was happy with the way the room came together. My parents really seemed to like how it looks in there and the kids were pretty excited.

I got to meet one class of 5th graders who seemed awesome and are really excited to take art.

I have gotten a good chunk of my lesson plans done...

For my first week everyone is going to decorate a hand outline to tell me about them. Those will be hung up in the hall with a sign that says something like "hands up for art!"

The next week I will start focusing on line.
Kinder will learn the "line dance" movements for horizontal, vertical, diagonal, etc. Then we will practice doing lines on a sheet with crayon and watercolors to make it stand out... followed up by line sculptures. We will ready the Squiggly Line.  Pictures will come soon.

First grade will learn about Mondrian and make a tree drawing (early style, using watercolors and crayons) and animal cutouts (decorated in later style, using tempera paints and permanent markers) to make a landscape with animals.

Second grade is studying Keith Haring and outlines. They will trace each other, color with paint and outline with white or black tempera paint.  They will as a group decorate two sculptures made of foam board that are cutouts like Haring' s style.

Third grade will look at Van Gogh and make landscapes with emotional lines. They will make a glue and pastel drawing so they can see the lines and then will write a letter like van Gogh did to talk to a friend or family member about their artwork.

Fourth grade will look at op art and how lines create illusion of space and volume through hatching. Then we will look at how we can create perspective using lines.

Fifth grade will finish the unit with contour line drawings inspired by Georgia O'Keefe.  They will learn about her life and style and do one, maybe two, contour lines and add watercolor over permanent marker.

I am still finishing my examples and I am always trying to create my resources to match... hopefully by next week I will have some hand pictures to post.

A final look around the room. .. finally ready to really get into planning.

I am finally happy with my classroom set up.  Helped that my classroom neighbor was getting rid of some things.  Mainly an awesome book shelf.  I traded the one I had,  which was taller than I wanted.  Happy to say the staff has been really happy with the set up of the room.  I did check with my neighbor, who is the EBD specialist, because I was concerned with over stimulation from decoration.  she said that while it was a bit more than it had been,  but less than most people's rooms, so don't worry.

I also started on my welcome side,  just waiting for four some paint to dry. 

I was happy to finish my artist corner so I can put up info about whatever artist we are studying.  Now I just need a collection of artists that will align to my curriculum.

Decor day

So I have been continuing to add decor as I go,  I am about to head in today to do a few more things around the room toward set up,  and then I am ready to start planning. 

I decided to re-arrange the room one last time and I am pretty happy with it now since it allows for more access to the white boards.

Happy another teacher said the room looks good.

Never ending Re-Arranging

I was so proud last week to have finished re-arranging my room. Setting everything up just the way I wanted... THEN TODAY HAPPENED!

I went into the classroom to drop off some items that were shipped to me, mostly books, but also some command strips and contact paper for decorations. So I started to decorate. As I put up my color wheel and color families information I was happy to see how it was coming out. And then I moved onto putting contact paper on my desk to decorate. As I added it I realized I had ordered too much. Looking around the room I remembered the wonderful paper cabinet I had hidden because it looked ill-kept. I became determined to make it look better. I used the second roll on the cabinet only to realize now it was too nice to hide. I moved things around about three times and settled on putting two cabinets side by side and removing two pieces of furniture I really didn't have any intention of doing... thankfully I just learned how to get rid of these effectively... Then I had to move the mobile display boards. These are awesome to have, but are TRULY obnoxious! In all seriousness, who designed these? They can't be stacked they can't be pushed together with any ease... they are just there! and I don't have room for them in all reality... although as I type this I am thinking I have an idea... new plans are hatching and maybe later this week I will head in to fix this..

As I continued to arrange things I had two of my co-workers pop their heads in. One I had met before but sadly I am terrible with names and I have completely forgotten it... the other was a kindergarten teacher. They were both very excited as they looked around the room, they commented on how good it was looking and how far it had come along. The kindergarten teacher did notice my tables which I had split into six sections using electrical tape. She commented that it was a good idea for me to divide the space, especially for the younger grades so they don't try to use too much of the table. The only statement they made was that we might only need 4 per table (Enough for 24 instead of 36). I debated how to handle that and realized that I think that I could easily move the horizontal tape to make four sections instead or I could use two sections for supplies... I am still debating. Each section is currently 18x24... So I think it would be big enough... I guess I will have to wait for my class lists.

I did forget my camera today so I wasn't able to take any photos. I won't go in until Thursday most likely so no pictures until then. I am also debating if I should order two more rolls of contact paper... I will look on amazon tonight.

I can't stop making decorations...

Posters... Posters... And more posters...

Job poster... I change the colors each week so the students have a different job... The alliteration was me just being stupid...

And my rules poster... 

Slower day... But wanted to share...

So I made some table ID badges to hang from the ceiling today...

I had been marking glue bottles, linoleum cutters, etc. with red, yellow, blue, green, black, and white electrical tape. That way my material managers would collect their tables supplies and I can track who is misusing materials or who is missing materials more easily. 

One last update for the day... Saw another teacher's idea to do Behavior Intervention Punch Cards for students who need motivation to stay on task. After (up to) 10 punches they would get a special reward... since I see them 30 some times hopefully this wouldn't last more than two cards per kid before they learn the rules of the classroom.