I Love a Great Theme!

Each year, for the last eleven years, we have had a different all-school theme. We coordinate hallway displays, bulletin board titles, art shows and music programs into the theme.

The beginning of the year is a favorite time for me because I love seeing how all the classroom teachers interpret the theme. This year, our theme is "The Sky's the Limit."  We've got astronauts, kites, airplanes, rockets, hot air balloons and superheros! Needless to say, we have a tremendously creative staff!

I have a few really large bulletin boards to tie into the theme each fall. Here's what I came up with this time around...

The Sky is the Limit

This black bulletin board is right outside the Art Room. I love using the black roll paper because no matter what I put on it, it really pops! The students in our Specially Designed Art class used shaving cream and paint to marbelize the papers we used for the stars. The theme is written in AlphaClouds font from dafont.com. And the image of Starry Night was enlarged and rasterized (an idea I totally stole from http://artfulartsyamy.blogspot.com/2011/08/rasterizing-images-to-make-giant-and.html)

Shine On

This next bulletin board is in the hallway as well. For this one, the title just uses nice big letters in a fun font with some cool effects. Again, our SDArt kiddos created the textured papers for the sun rays. We used tissue papers and water to create the softer textures and tempera paint and rulers for the brighter rays.

Art Is Out of This World

And this idea came straight from Pinterest! I saw a few versions of it and just had to make it for my Art Room! This is the board everyone sees from the hallway as they walk past my room.

I started with seamless background paper that had a starry night feel to it. I added paper lanterns for planets (which I think are my favorite part). My kiddos and I drew the rocket ship, added tissue paper for flames (and to hide the plug for the rope lights), and used another cute space-themed font for the headline.

And because I love to show off organizational systems that work for me, let me tell you about the red buckets! Under the bulletin board are two 6' folding tables, marked out with every grade level  in colored tape - RoyGBiv of course. In each red bucket, there are examples, supplies and handouts for each grade's current project. In front of each bucket, there is enough room to store extra papers, visuals, rubrics or other items. I am so lucky to have enough room to spread out all those supplies across twelve feet of space!

I can't wait to see how our school's theme will inspire our spring Art Show. I've got some really great ideas brewing around in my brain already!

Do you mix up your bulletin boards every year? 

What inspires a really great bulletin board?

My Art Room

Welcome to my colorful and organized space! When I started teaching a *few* years ago, I was a bit overwhelmed by the size of my Art Room and the amount of STUFF in it. In an attempt to corral some of the chaos, I started with what I’m good at – I started to organize. I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to organization. My mom would scoff at that simple statement and would be quick to point out that I’ve had my life organized in binders and to-do lists since I could write! While I make jokes about having a bit of OCD, I do believe my art room functions better when everyone knows where everything should go. And what began as a simple organizing strategy has become a sort of trademark! I organize everything in ROYGBIV order – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet! My students know it, my coworkers know it, my family knows it!   Some of my favorite organizational systems have been in place since I inherited my art room, others are brand new this year, and others have evolved as my needs or my students’ need have changed, but at the core is ROYGBIV. Here are some photos of some of my favorite spaces in my Art Room. Enjoy! The Paint Zone Decorations courtesy of too much time spent on Pinterest this summer and new scrap paper drawers My Desk Zone - complete with organization, caffeine and inspirational quotes Our Learning Targets for each grade level