Donated supplies!!!

I am ecstatic about the uber amount of donated items I received from a parent who works at a recycling plant. My was blown away by the amount of items brought in! I have no where to out slot of it either! Hahah

Anywho, donated items are the best way to go when having a limited budget. Did you know that there are many items companies and businesses throw out and they could be great for many projects? Here are just a few ideas.... 

1. Contact billboard companies! The vinyl used for the billboards get thrown out and they have bundles! This is great to cover tables, you can paint on these and display murals in your school or can be hung as banners!

2. Go to local newspaper companies they have huge rolls of newsprint and cardboard rolls the newsprint comes in. When it gets close to the end they throw the roll out with still a small amount of newsprint paper. 

3. Local frame places have huge boxes from supplies and left over Mat board. These are great for projects.
4. Home Depot or Lowes is also a great place to get cardboard. In the back where they get shipments are TONS of "damaged" cardboard boxes that are broken up and ready to be recycled, why not take them, cut them up for painting lessons, 3-D sculpture lessons, masks and more!

Hope this has got you thinking and inspired. I love recycled materials!!! Happy hunting. 

Here are images of the donated supplies! So incredible and thankful!

Art Shows are around the corner!

It's that time of year again, the time when us art teachers gear up and go crazy for volunteers to help mount, label, and display artwork around your school for the community and WORLD TO SEE!!! Ahhh!

I love this time of year! It's a great time to see what great things YOU did, yes YOU worked so hard to teach these kids and to see the talent, imagination, and creativity you pump into these children's minds. Oh the wonderful life of an art teacher. We have such important jobs to keep these students loving, appreciating and continuing to understand the importance of art. What great ways do you display your students artwork? Here is a recap of my district art show display last year. Can't wait to see the wonderful displays you all put together soon :)

Toodles and Creative Wishes, Ashley

My Artist in Residence Adventure Begins!

Woah, so this snow this past week was a bummer! We had nothing but delays and two days off and an early dismissal which pushed my Artist in Residence program BEHIND! I am so glad the snow is gone and warm temperatures are on the rise! I hope that was the last of it.

This entire month of March I have an amazing artist who is working with my students and I to transform our Greenhouse into a rainforest environment. We are integrating science into art and vice versa big time! The kids are engaged, motivated, and excited and the integrating has been spectacular. 

We are using paper mache' techniques, form, sculpture, and recycled materials to create the creatures, plants, trees, leaves, mammals, amphibians, etc. We have each grade level focusing on a different layer of the Rainforest and thus collaborating and teaming up as a school to create a beautiful space. The Greenhouse is an amazing space but it is lacking color, life, and well educational inspiration. Of coarse, I love to color-fy my world, so my thought was why not the Greenhouse. 

This Thursday, my after school arts club I created last year called The Creative Minds will be making mosaic pottery to decorate the greenhouse as well. All of the mosaic pieces were donated from my staff, parents, families and students. It has been quite an experience to involve everyone in every aspect of this project and to have the students not only build and collaborate but the fact that they brought in their own materials AND sorted them. We have an organized clumping of materials around the room which gives the choice based art feel and allows them to explore, create, problem solve, and imagine. Everyday has been fun, exciting, inspirational and just amazing. The students are so engaged and we are integrating lessons and concepts hopefully into some classroom curriculums. Have any of you every gotten an Artist in Residence? If so, what project did you do, I would LOVE to hear and see some visuals of your wonderful experiences. 

It's been such fun and an interesting environment working in the Science Lab and Greenhouse space this  past week. Great views and for once my art room is clean everyday! hehe

We have been working in the science lab and greenhouse, so art came to visit there this month. No art class in the regular art room, we have transferred ourselves to the Greenhouse space!

Here, Kindergarten is making textured paper using a variety of green hues(Yay! For Tints and Shades!)

Greennnnnnnnn for March...Greeeennnnnnn for plants! GREEN FOR RAINFOREST PLANTS!

I love ART! Thank you for visiting and exploring with me today! 

Exploring The Tropical Rainforest

Because of all of this snow, I have been busy working in my art studio, cleaning the house, and redecorating! What fun! It has been nice catching up on life and "me" time.

Anywho, there has not been much action on my blog lately due to the many snow days AND I have an Artist-In-Residence right now! More pictures will be coming soon within the next week. We are transforming our Greenhouse into a beautiful rainforest using paper mache' and recycled items that the entire school and community has donated. It has been such fun jump starting this program and my artist is awesome to work with! Have any of you had an Artist-In-Residence this year or plan on having one? They are so inspirational and they give a nice boost especially during these yucky winter months!

As for lessons and prep, I created an awesome Rainforest themed Power Point presentation for anyone who is interested in doing a Rainforest theme, wants to do individual integrated science lessons on specific animals, or are interested in integrating some science into art! Check out this 92 page Power Point presentation that you can use to invigorate your classroom with science!

Here is a sneak peak of the presentation and I hope you can utilize some of these slides below for your classroom!

Essential Questions, facts, images, and great information are integrated into this package.

Tropical Rainforest on Teachers Pay Teachers-The Magnificent Paintbrush