Managing the Material Prep for Elementary Art Teachers

hey there it's Katie Jarvis with

managing the mess and I'm a k through 6

Elementary art teacher in this video I'm

going to bring you along and show you

some of the magic and madness that goes

on when you're prepping art materials

for an elementary arts

class today my kindergarten students are

going to start on this mouse paint

project Mouse paint is a book for

elementary students about color mixing

and they're going to mix the colors to

make the mice that you see there in the

background so here's what the prep for

the lesson looks like I've got my

magenta turquoise and yellow paints out

those work the best for mixing for me

mix a dinosaur purple a macaroni and

cheese orange and a slimy green we're

using these art uh craft swaps just kind

of like a Q-tip uh for mixing so we can

simply just throw those away at the end

of the lesson and I have a plastic

container with a lid and this is where

I'm pre pouring my paint I've poured the

paint into half of an egg carton so that

each student can have their own

opportunity with mixing to fit the whole

class in this bin I've just put a little

tray in there so that I can have two

layers of paint that is all set up and

ready to go I did pour this yesterday

after school but it will be good for

about 24 hours set up like this in those

paper cartons I have a couple different

systems that I use for prepping and

preparing the paint and they all revolve

around recycled materials so at the

beginning of the school year I send a

note out to my families that I'll be

collecting things like greek yogurt cups

and egg cartons and they can just send

them in whenever they have some

throughout the school year I don't have

students and staff come in and interrupt

me when I'm prepping and I'm teaching I

haven't put them in a container out in

the hallway and then each afternoon I

bring these in and then prep them as

needed so I would cut the lids off of

the egg cartons and then I sort them by

type so I collect the the paper ones the

styrofoam ones and the plastic ones and

I use each for different things in my

room for the older kids I would use the

plastic or styrofoam and I put them in a

smaller container so they can just carry

this back to their table and then use

the paints right out of the container

and using these Sterilite bins like this

the paint will last for several weeks I

would say any project that I'm doing

even if my classes are all in a

different space um on a different day

this will still work for that entire

project and not dry out another system

that I use is I will use like these big

under the bed storage containers and I

will put a bunch of egg cartons all

filled up and ready to go inside of

there for students to use as well so

they just take the egg carton then right

to their table to use I wouldn't

recommend these systems with the younger

grades second grade can probably

handle the egg cartons but Kindergarten

first, if you teach PreK I would just use

something like a yogurt cup so that they

would be using one color at a time and

that paintbrush would be staying in that

color so I love the system of putting

the lids on it just helps the paint to

last a lot longer and I'm putting

different colors inside these Greek

yogurt cups and then I would have a

paintbrush in there ready to go if they

want a new color they're just switching

yogurt containers and I think that's

easier for them to see um what's going

on and keep them organized so that

they're not mixing your colors

for erasers I really just prepped this

at the beginning of the year I love to

buy the white erasers that don't leave

marks on the paper when they erase and I

recommend that you cut them in half so

there's a less eraser to be

destroyed I think you're living on the

edge if you store them at your tables

like in table baskets I keep mine in my

little art Buffet here and they're in

ice cube trays so at the end of class my

students know that if any of them are

missing or they're severely um destroyed

it counts as a frown for our happy and

sad board for the class so they really

monitor each other they're the ones that

notice oh my goodness we're missing five

eraser and kind of call that out at the

end of the class and look around and

find them the white ones are the same

color as the floor that's really the

only downside to this system many of

these erasers we've had since the

beginning of the year a recent art

teacher Discovery are these little white

pencil caps I think everyone can relate

that the Erasers on the pencils just are

not big enough for art classes so what I

did was get these little white eraser

caps and I hot glued them to my pencils

and I did a little bit of a test I had

somewhere I just placed it on the pencil

and put them in my pencil cups and

others where I hot glued them it's

definitely worth your time to hot glue

them or Gorilla Glue them onto your

pencil and again I don't recommend

storing your pencils at your tables this

spot here next to to my erasers just

sort of an extra pencil spot for pencils

that we might find laying around the

room but I store my pencils in

Pennsylvania and then we just pass those

out as needed and the Eraser system is

working really well so

far I feel as though Clay is the biggest

mess that we have to manage where I

store my extra pieces of clay is inside

of these like Dollar Tree dish pans

these are great for all sorts of things

in the art room what I recently

discovered though is instead of putting

the clay right into these containers you

can

line your container with a plastic bag

first so I put it inside of the trash

bag then we're putting all the scraps of

our extra clay then you can put wet

paper towels or spray this and then you

take another trash

bag and you put it inside of there just

makes the cleaner but the and a little

bit easier now if I'm preparing slabs I

do have a secret my clay mats are Dollar

Tree Cutting Boards these are now two

for a125 I've had these for more than

eight years so in between uses I will

wash these down throw them on the drying

R to dry and then use them again and

what I do with these is I can prep these

several days in advance when I'm cutting

slabs I'm using this multi-lab cutter

this is a tool that you need to have I

don't really have a link for this but a

lot of the local clay companies will

sell this just make sure you're

searching multi slab cutter and lots of

these little things will come up it's

only about $50 it's definitely in worth

your investment because you're cutting

all the slabs exactly at the same size

and you're cutting them very quickly at

the same time and I will store these in

the Sterilite bins like a larger one and

then put them directly

on one of those cutting boards so these

are houses that we're making with

kindergarten and then I can just stack

up lots of them and just fill this bin

as I'm prepping um with all of those and

then it's easy to just pass them out and

they already have then a mat to work off

of if I'm cutting clay for Pinch pots or

coil pots I'm just using the regular

clay cutting tool which just has two

little wooden handles and a little wire

going across but I think about the shape

that I'm going to cut for a pinch pot

I'm just cutting little squares of clay

but when I'm doing coil students are

going to need that long coil shape so I

will cut the clay into what I call fish

sticks so it's long skinny rectangles

then when they get the little fish stick

they squeeze it and then they start to

roll so they're able to move through the

process faster and have a lot more

success than having them start off with

a little ball or a little square of clay

when you're prepping clay one thing that

I think you don't need to worry about at

this Elementary level is wedging the

clay I know when I was taught this in

college this was a huge deal we were

worried about air

bubbles I don't know this doesn't seem

to be an issue for me I get the clay

it's already wedged my students use it

even if my students are using the

leftover scraps I've never had trouble

I've never once wedged the clay I think

anything to do with explosions has to do

with with drying time now if you're

looking for some clay tips and tricks or

how to use a kiln I've got separate

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of

those one thing that I prep for my

students before they come to Art is name

tag labels so I have a label in my

computer that I print out for each class

it has each student's name the seat

number that they sit at their classroom

teacher and then I use this to label all

of their artwork so once I get these

organized I'm printing out nine of them

I have enough for the whole quarter each

quarter I'll kind of Review Who's moved

away who's moved in and I will make some

adjustments but this helps me so much to

keep organized because I can prep the

artwork when I take it off the drying

rack I can put it in seat number order

so I can pass these out in seconds it is

magical I also don't have any noname

papers because anybody that still has a

name tag here hasn't put their name on

their work if someone is absent I'll

just take a little marker I'll write an

A and I'll save a paper or the materials

that we're using that day for the absent

students but I have it marked then that

when I go to grade that artwork I can

see right there on their name tag that

they were absent another thing that I'm

might mark on these is if they got

teacher assistance to complete the

project or if they were assisted by

another student to complete the work I'd

want to note that just with a little

code for myself so I know what to do

with that artwork when I'm grading it

now another thing that I discovered I

don't know why I resisted this so long

because I saw the classroom teachers did

this um I started

using these little laminated pouches and

what I did was I stuck the name tag

labels in inside there and then used an

expo marker to mark off I was taking

photos of sixth graders okay like who

still needs a photo and I was able to

mark that off then simply just wipe this

off and use it again and then I got even

smarter I use my seating chart is a

little folder inside of the folder this

is where I would keep um all of their

name tag labels for the whole quarter I

have a little log where I keep track of

behaviors but the outside is my seating

chart so I stuck that into this little

pouch and this is just a dry erased

pouch from the Dollar Tree and then I

could go around and grade students and

Mark it down directly on the seating

chart because I don't know about you but

last quarter I got to the end of the

quarter and I was just so overwhelmed

with how many things that I had to grade

and I do think a better system is

walking around seeing the students in

action talking with them and asking them

questions about their artwork speaking

of talking connecting with your students

when I'm passing out these name tag

labels often I will pass them out myself

um for upper grades occasionally I will

take these clip them to a chair and then

have students like come up and take an

exit ticket put their name on the exit

ticket with the sticker and then go back

to their seats to complete it but I will

go around and pass these out very often

because that way I am stopping and

checking in with each student I

otherwise don't think I would slow down

enough to do this but this is making me

stop and also is connecting their name

in my brain to that cute little face so

it's a great way to learn your students

names my artwork then is already prepped

and ready for hallway displays and for

art shows so it's a great system to keep

yourself

organized I don't just use the labels

for paintings and drawings but I use

them for anything that we need to label

in the classroom when we're doing clay

my fourth graders do a coil pot where

they build it within these bowls we of

course remove this before we fire it but

I will take a name tag label and have

this already prepped and on the bowls we

can just pass these out when we start to

do the clay project after the clay dries

then I peel off this paper bowl and I

can see the student name to etch it into

the clay my kindergarten is are

currently making clay houses and it's

easier for them to build on a little

tray especially for the glazing part

because I do glazing as centers students

move around the room and carrying it on

a tray means that their Clay is less

likely to break so I take name tag

labels again label those before the

students come in so those are super easy

to match up with their clay and to pass

out my first graders made animal mask I

have this lesson over and Teachers Pay

te where I taught them threedimensional

paper techniques and then they used them

on a simple mask form that I hot glued

to a piece of paper again take a name

tag I stick it right on the back there

and then everything is labeled when we

have pieces like for this mask we had

all these different little paper

techniques the first day of this lesson

was just an exploring centers day so

every single table had a different paper

technique at the table and they practice

making Fringe making a cone and they put

it inside of a bag before they started

on the project we labeled a little

Ziploc bag for everyone with their name

I do this for clay projects and anything

that can help me be more organized so

that I'm not losing student artwork and

I'm not using my time to find missing

things or figure out where someone's is

were they absent everything is clearly

marked and it just makes my job easier

to be a little bit extra on the

organization as art teachers a lot of

the prep that we do is with paper the

first of which is making copies now make

sure that you're setting aside enough

time in your schedule to make all your

copies so you're not running to the copy

machine on Monday to make 25 copies of

mouse paint and oh my goodness on

Wednesday I have first grade again I'm

making 25 more copies of mouse paint set

aside enough time you can copy for it

the entire grade level make some extras

because you never know and copy for one

extra class so I have four first grade

classes I would make enough copies for

five first grade classes that way I have

you know one class of extra that I can

file away in my filing cabinet so when I

come to this mouse paint lesson next

year if I'm caught off guard and I want

to start it one day and I don't have

time to make the copies I have enough

for one day to get me going so this is a

real time saer something that really

gives me a lot less stress just knowing

that that is filed away for me should I

decide on a whim I'm doing Mouse paint

today it is ready to roll now when I'm

making copies of things that resources

that I'm going to use over and over I

will laminate them and I like to use

my personal laminator it's one of my

favorite uh little teacher things that

I've bought for myself because it comes

with these little pouches they're

exactly the size of a sheet of paper

comes in smaller sizes or bigger sizes

for construction paper too but it's

great for handouts you just slide that

through your laminator it melts the

pouch and you don't have to do any

cutting and your handouts are ready to

go for your students of course now that

things are laminated it will literally

last you your entire career um my

favorite uh paper trick for prepping is

copying on construction paper for

construction paper my kindergarteners do

a texture painting with the story

corduroy and I copy this onto

construction paper yes 12 by8

construction paper fits in your copy

machine this is actually a freebie if

you want this little template over on my

Teachers Pay Teachers um I do a similar

project with the first graders they each

pick a different winter animal and we

paint a texture

so I take the animals and I copy

different animals that they can choose

from onto the construction paper when my

older students are painting we're

studying the different painting

techniques um this is something that I

sell on teachers p teachers I copy it on

to construction paper and then students

test out these painting techniques and

try them out and then when we jump into

a painting they use this as a menu which

of these techniques that they learn do

they want to use within the picture I

have them choose like five that they're

going to use in the real painting at the

end for a reflection and an exit ticket

they're identifying which techniques did

they use and where did they use them

within their painting so that's an

excellent way to use construction paper

one of my all-time favorites is having

um this for weaving looms so I've made a

little template on construction paper um

it's just construction paper folded in

half and you can see that I've only

Drawn Lines on half of it I've numbered

this so students can go under over under

over and look at those numbers and I've

created a stop line where the students

are to stop cutting to create their Loom

I will copy these on to different colors

of construction paper to make our looms

really fun and then what the students do

is they just cut cut cut stop cut cut

cut stop cut cut cut stop cut cut cut

Stop open this up and then they have a

paper weaving loom so the prep for me is

that I do have to copy these ahead aheed

time and I do need to fold them for my

students for them to be

successful when it comes to prepping

construction paper I have learned to

limit myself to certain sizes so I will

pre-cut these sizes and then just have

them ready to go at any time so for

squares I like to do 12 by 12 that's a

great background size I will have this

ready in all the colors so when I come

up with a project and I need that it is

ready to go another size that I prep is

3x3 this could be House's Windows it

could be origami works for both and it's

ready to roll for any scraps that I have

or I will prep this at like a 4X 6 in

size I will put them in these file

folding bins and there are folders in

here I laminated a little construction

paper piece on there so they can see

what color goes where but this would be

filled and ready to go at all times so

if I decided to do a collage project

tomorrow

it is ready to roll another size that I

will do is I will cut the paper in half

and then I will have this ready to go in

like these magazine holders I think this

is from Ikea and then it's simply just

in a paper copy box so that could be

used for my animal mask project or any

other projects where I need that same

size of paper another tip with this is

if you're going to be doing

self-portraits for collages which I

often do my students love pattern paper

so I go to Michaels definitely with a

coupon use your Tut your discount look

in the clearance section but I look for

patterned paper and then I cut it up

really small like 4x6 and I'll put it

all in a little bin already prepped and

ready so that if we're doing collages I

can just easily pull this out for my

students to use this school year I have

a lot of backto back classes and one of

the ways that I am surviving is I am

covering my tables and what I found is

is this takes a lot of time so I wipe

off my tables I let them dry and then I

put the paper on and what I've done is I

take a little bit of time and I prep the

paper ahead of time so I pre-cut it I

count out how many I need and then I put

a little bit of painters tape on it so I

have a bunch of packs like these sitting

in the corner of my room just ready to

go now because of the back to backto

back situation there are times when I

double cover the tables so I put this

paper underneath and I tape it down um

and I will then put this plastic

tablecloth it's like a cut to size

plastic tablecloth um that we found from

Amazon it works like Saran Wrap there's

a little cutter inside of there so you

just simply measure out how much you

need and this slices across and cuts the

size that you would need and then I

would tape this down on top of the paper

I've taught my students in all my upper

grades on how to gently remove the tape

and make a burrito keeping all the

toppings the paints and the scraps and

things like that inside and then

disposing of this in the trash so it's a

very fast way for us to clean up and

it's a good way for me to survive those

backtack classes if you enjoyed this

video seeing a little bit of behind the

scenes art teacher prep and you'd like

to see more make sure that you like this

video an area that I didn't cover that

I'd love to in future videos is doing

how do I prep the yarn and the weaving

and the sewing projects um so if you

like to see that make sure you hit that

like button I'll see you in my next

video