Glue Pictures

I love teaching art. When I was first hired at the school I am currently working at I taught elementary and jr. high art. Even though it was tricky at times I really liked teaching art. I love finding new ideas and trying them out. Some of them work and some of them don't, but hey that's life! When I first found out I was going to be teaching art 3 1/2 years ago I found this book. First of all I need to say that I love Usborne Books! This book in particular has so many great ideas! I completely recommend it for teaching art in the classroom. As you can see there are a few sticky notes in it.

One of the best ideas I found in it was "glue pictures." It takes a few days, but it is worth it!

1. The students create a picture using elmer's glue on cardstock or cardboard. You want the glue to be thick so that when it dries it stays bumpy. 
2. Once the glue is completely dried paint over it with gold paint. It is ok if the paint isn't overly thick on the paper. Let the paint dry overnight. 
3. Finally rub brown shoe polish over the entire picture. This gives the picture an antique look. They are beautiful. 

My students did this during February. I asked each one of them to do some design using hearts. They are currently looking beautiful in the windows of my classroom. 

Valentine's Day

Found a similar idea on Pinterest. 

Our memory verse this week was 1 John 4:9. 

We had a great talk about how God loves us!

The students thought of ways they could show God's love to others. I requested they list 2 ways and most of them did more. It was great to see their desire to show God's love! 

They are hanging from the ceiling in my classroom!

Teacher Introduction

On the first day of school I wanted my class to get to know me so I made a photo board about myself. The kids now know my parents, sister, niece and friends. I also typed facts about me. When we did a classroom scavenger hunt I included a few facts from my board. You don't have to go into a lot of detail or make it extravagant. Keep it simple and don't spend too much time and money on it. 

Class Agenda

Instead of having an agenda this year we are having a flight plan to go with the airplane theme. 

Used my handy dandy Cricut Cutter to cut out the letters. 

It is on magnets on my chalkboard. 

Cricut

My cricut paper cutter is my favorite decorating tool. Unfortunately they aren't cheap. But they are a great investment. 

If you can't afford one then find a friend who has one! 

It is a must. 

I have the small one, but a I have friends with larger ones. They are nice and let me borrow it when I need to cut out something larger. 

Even with my smaller cricut I'm able to cut out 5 inch letters for my bulletin boards. 

The letters and airplane are done with a cricut. 

I laminated the letters so that I can use them again next year. 

I'm told that they best time to get them is on Black Friday. 

I'm hoping to get a bigger one then. 

Class Library

Using your space to the best you can is a huge asset. Over the summer while I was thinking about the layout of my classroom I realized that I wasn't going to need all of the cubby space for my students. What a perfect place to put our class library! The cubbies even made extra storage space for books and the gagillion (not sure how to spell that) dictionaries in my classroom. I'm also able to store any pillows or cushions I have for when my students are reading around the room. 

Wall Stickers

I was so excited when I found these at Michael's Craft Store. And I'm pretty sure they are reusable! Awesome!