My Sculpey Kids Tryazon Party (DURING A PANDEMIC) How to safely host a kids party during COVID Times

 

I was so excited about getting to host my first Tryazon kids party!  I won the Kids Sculpey Bake Shop Party.  The first thing I did when I got the box of goodies from Sculpey was try out making some the adorable sculptures that the kids would be making.  I think as an art teacher, creating my own example is always an important step in the planning process because then I can try to anticipate what the kids will need to know and do in order to be successful.  I made one of the glow in the dark monsters and a panda bracelet.  They were so easy and fun !  The directions made it simple and I could tell that the kids (who were my son's age; 9) would have no trouble with it.

I created an invitation using PicsArt and then I created a Facebook event so I could send the invitations electronically.

I invited about 10 kids (4 parents).  

But as the event grew closer, I realized that Trying to host a party in the year 2020 is VERY difficult ! I had a few parents mention that they were hesitant to come because of the COVID-19 virus.  It is July,  as  I am writing this and there has been A LOT of tension focused on what schools are going to do in August.  Being a teacher, I see both sides of it.  I think a lot of teachers are terrified and upset about being forced to return to school for in person learning.  Each state has the authority to decide what type of school setting will be enforced so there is a lot of variance throughout the country.  I get the feeling that a lot of (but not all ) parents want their childrent to return to traditional school.

  I think in our county, parents are being given the option of traditional in face school or virtual school.  We are very fortunate here that there have not been as many confirmed cases and deaths because we are a relatively small county.  With that said, we will be sending our 9 year old son back to school in the traditional face to face setting.  Am I scared about him or my youngest daughter catching the virus?  Yes- of course I am.  But I honestly, I think we all had it back in February.  We all got sick, had the symptoms, tested negative for strep and flu but because testing was not as available back then, we were not sure.  I have an appointment to get tested AND get the antibody testing in August.  We also do not have any pre-existing conditions or immunity issues. Parents of children with these issues (or even spouses/ family members) may feel differently - and understandably so.

With all that being said, I decided that if I was going to host a party- it was going to be the safest party possible, to hopefully quell any fears that parents might have.  I started by reading the CDC guidelines for schools and gatherings.  The first thing I wanted to ensure is that the kids would have 6 feet of work space to comply with social distancing.  So I held our party in the clubhouse of our condo neighborhood.  It is a large area with several long tables and chairs, bathrooms, and a kitchen area right next to our community pool.

  It is also recommended that kids do not share supplies - so I opened the sculpey packages and cut them into the correct sizes for the project directions (after washing and sanitizing my hands ).  Then I placed the clay, toothpicks, the coupon card and a plastic knife into each ziploc bag.  I also covered the tables with brown paper and got a container of baby wipes for each child.   The baby wipes alone won't kill the virus /germs but i made sure each table had a bottle of hand sanitizer.  I laminated the directions in case they got wet/ clay on them. 

I got water bottles, individual bags of chips and fruit by the foot for snacks.  We also had popsicles .

  

I sent a message ensuring that all the CDC safety measures would be put in place but unfortunately, we still only had four kiddos show up! So with my two kids that meant that we only had a total of 4 kids.  Our clubhouse is bigger than the typical classroom and even with only 4 kids and 5 adults, it was still hard to ensure 6 feet of distance and spacing.  I can see why teachers are so stressed out about trying to logistically start school while ensuring they are complying with safety measures.  As I was setting everything up, I thought about how hard it would be to prepare all this for 18- 25 kids.  The time it took is just not time that teachers have.  It is going to be difficult and I can understand why they are very anxious about the upcoming school year. 

Our party started at 3:00pm and ended at 5 pm.  The kids had a blast making their creations and got to make at least two items each.  We play4ed music and were going to swim but they were so focused on their sculptures that they ran out of time for swimming!  That's always a great sign!  

While I wish more of my son's friends could have come, I understand parent's hesistation.  I hope that this virus goes away soon so we can socialize and enjoy the company of our friends and family like we used to without fear for our health and safety. 

I WON A TRYAZON SCULPEY PARTY

Do you ever feel like at times the universe just aligns in your favor the right things start happening for you!? Well that was me- when I got the email that I had WON A KIDS SCULPEY TRYAZON PARTY! I never win ANYTHING! On top of that I have trying to practice getting better and better at using Sculpey clay. I have watched tons of tutorials, joined a sculpey facebook group, ordered some special sculpting tools and I still feel like I have more to learn. I also get pretty frustrated when my pieces do not turn out AT ALL like I was hoping. It can be so frustrating learning something new and not being any good at it but I think it is a helpful feeling and experience especially as art teachers because it helps us sympathize with our students when they are trying something new in the art room and taking a risk. I had heard about Tryazon a few months ago and I have been applying for every possible party I could- and the sculpey party was the best I could have imagined. When the box arrived, I couldn't wait to open it up and see what was inside. I set up a Facebook event for the party and planned on inviting some of my 9 year old son's friends. The party is scheduled to happen on Friday, July 17th. So this video shows you the UNBOXING of my sculpey Bake Shop kits and we get to make AN ADORABLE easy panda bracelet together!

Bored in the house- ART BOARD GAME! ARTOPOLY

As an art teacher, I was always looking for fun art games for kids to play if they finished their art work early or on shorter days before holidays or the end of the school year. Now that we are under quarantine and still have to find ways to keep busy and have fun at home - this project was more needed than EVER! I couldn't find any 'Artopoly' games that I could buy so like any good artist- I MADE MY OWN! and it was SO MUCH FUN!

I started by taking an old board game that we didn't play anymore (Chutes and Ladders) and I primed it by painting over it with flat white acrylic paint. Once it was dry I sketched and measured the spaces on the board (they are about 3 inches in height and 2 inches in width but some spaces vary) . Then I sketched the artist palette desgin in the center and the Artopoly letters. Once I finished that , I mixed the signature monopoly mint green color (using white and green ) and painted the background and spaces. Then I looked up and sketched the drawings for each of the pieces of artwork using an art history timeline. I started with cave paintings after the 'go' space and ended with Op art in the modern art section. I couldn't fit ALL the artwork I wanted (I didn't get to add the Scream !! :( ) but I tried to make sure that I had at least one space for each major art movement in the art history timeline. I added the dates for the artwork and the artist's names as well. I painted the artwork using acrylic paints and a VERY small paintbrush. I am not used to painting on such a small scale so that was pretty time consuming. You could definitely save time by saving and printing thumbnails of the artwork you want and then gluing it to the spaces on the board. I sealed the board with modge podge. For the playing pieces, I used sculpey clay to make 4 pieces of famous art work. I made Van Gogh's ear, a Warhol Soup Can, a Dali melting clock and an ancient Greek amphora. 

I really LOVE how it turned out and can't wait to play it!

Jasper Johns Alphabet art lesson for k-1?

Is it just me, or do all art teachers struggle with finding successful kindergarten /first grade art projects !?  I love being able to find lessons that are not only developmentally appropriate but also are engaging and related to literacy.  I went on a search to find some art lessons that incorporate letters and found some really great ones that go along with books like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and also related to the contemporary artist Jasper Johns. 

So I threw together a google slide show with some facts about Jasper Johns.  Here 

  Then I found an example that I like the most to try for my own demo. I found a really great lesson from a blog that used only one letter. I still want to try that one but I wanted students to be able to practice the whole alphabet.  So I made a video of my attempt and it turned out great! 



I used oil pastels and acylic paint (because thats all i had on hand) but I would use tempera with  k-1 kiddos in the classroom.  I definitely think this would work great with tempera cake paints as it involves learning some techniques like dry brushing (which is pretty advanced for kindergarten!)

I made an art alphabet poem to go with it- so I could read it as we drew each letter together!

A is for ART the best class of the day

B is for black the color that will stay!

C is for Create – we’re creating all the time

D is draw- we draw every line!

E is for exciting- art always is

F is for FUN we never want to miss

G is for GREAT- our masterpiece will be

H is happy your work is always making me

I is for imagine- all the things we can make

J is for JOY from rules that we will break

K is for kind- we will treat ourselves and others

L is for love we have for our sisters and our brothers

M is for masterpiece- that’s what we make each day

N is for No- something we promise to never say

O is for outside- we can color outside the lines

P is for paint- we can do it all the time

Q is for QUESTION- why do we love to make our  art

R is for red- a primary color we’ll use to start

S is for second- the next color that we’ll use

T is for the tons- of colors we will fuse

U is for understand – understand how to mix

V is for violet that red and blue will fix

W is for which- what will we add now

X is for excitement- and we know how

Y is for yet- we haven’t finished yet

Z is for zero- we don’t worry what we get!

Here's the video:

Google Virtual Classrooms and the Artist of the Month Museum - A year full of art lessons and resources for Art teachers

I was so excited to see that teachers have gotten really creative using Google Slides and started making awesome 'virtual classrooms' as a result of the Covid related school closings and the transition to online learning platforms.  I LOVED the google slides so much I knew I would have to make my own and start playing with them.  It instantly became a HUGE project in my mind as I thought about creating a 'classroom' for each grade level for art and have pages and links to ALL the art lessons for the year!  HAH H  I have tried creating a year at a glance plans using microsoft programs and while they were great- I found that by December - my plans tapered off or started to diverge from the original framework.  While I am sure these grade level 'virtual classes' that I have begun making will kind of be the same- I have had a blast compiling art resources and think that they will making teaching any elementary art class a breeze!  

Unfortunately, with my crazy right brained ADHD brain, I just started hopping around and noticed that a lot of my lessons for each grade level revolved around a theme or artist for the month.  So I started making an Artist of the Month virtual art museum that would contain all the lessons and links for the artist studies for the month.  AND here it is:

Artist Museum!

I shared it to Facebook and can not take credit for coming up with the templates or the all the content.  It is merely a compilation of lessons, videos and resources that I have picked up along the way while teaching elementary art for over ten years.  One person on Facebook mentioned that I should wait to share it until it is finished but honestly- I don't think I could ever finish such a resource.  It is meant to be an ever growing and improving year long library that will be altered, edited and added to.  

How to Write and Publish your own Children's Book!

Were you able to accomplish some awesome things during this quarantine? If anything good came from this lockdown pandemic it was that I was finally able to finish my third book, Robot Goes to China ! You can find the ebook and paperback here on Amazon!

I even made a youtube video to share the process I used to write, illustrate and SELF publish this book using Amazon Direct Publishing https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/.

The whole process took me two years to complete ( because I am a procrastinator and have had many life events conflict with my ability to devote the time it needed! ) but you could easily simplify the process and save time.

With that said - it is a BIG undertaking but if I can do it- I know you can too!

This book is actually the third book in my Artrageous Adventure series which involves a dog, Robot, who goes on art history adventures with his owner and friends. I wrote the books to help me teach art history lessons in the elementary art room so there is an easy to follow art lesson at the end of each book ( a cave painting, Egyptian portrait, and a chinese brush painting of a dragon)

Step 1: I start the process with brainstorming and thinking about my audience

Step 2- Then I either story board or just start typing the manuscript using a microsoft word book manuscript template.

Step 3- Draw the cover !

Step 4- Draw the illustrations

Step 5- Digitize your illustrations

Step 6- Convert text and pictures into a powerpoint file to format each page

Step 7- PUBLISH- Create your amazon account and fill out your information, book details, cost and upload your file- ( export/print the powerpoint into PDF file) You can even create your own About the Author page on Author central on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B088HFTFBV

MINECRAFT CHORE CHART

This is more of a stay at home mom post than an art teacher post but I guess we are kind of ALL stay at home parents now thanks to the COVID-19 quarantine and stay at home order.  It is May 6th, as I am writing this and it seems like the closures may be coming to an end soon as some things are reopening (at least it seems that way in Florida)

So this post is about a chore chart that I just made and plan on implementing with my 9 year old son.  It is Minecraft themed because as an art teacher- I just can't use some plain old chore chart!  LOL I started looking up some on google - which led me to pinterest which then led me to Microsoft word and then finally POWERPOINT ! Is it just me or evertime you find a FREE PRINTABLE chore chart- it just isnt cutomizebable!?  I know every kid and parent have specific chores/tasks that they ask expect so it is just too broad of a range to have a one size fits all chore chart.  There were some good ones on microsoft word but the formatting is SO specific and rigid that I just couldn't fit in the things I needed or wanted.

So finally after finding a picture of a minecraft one I really liked (on this site http://cassiescreativecrafts.blogspot.com/2014/09/free-minecraft-chore-chart-award-system.html )  I set out to re create it on Powerpoint so I could customize it.  AND here is the result!  I am going to try to laminate it - (to save on printer ink)  but it is good to keep track of progress .  My son had a weekly behavior check list when he was in ABA therapy and it was good to have all the data tracked and recorded.  That is why I added the behavior element - it really should be recorded by the day/ time but honestly- I need this to be easy or I know I won't keep up with it.  And that is the real test- if its not easy or manageable , then most people will not be able to maintain conistency with its use.  So I am going to try this and see if it helps!! WISH ME LUCK ! LOL  This is the jpeg but I will try to put the actual powerpoint file on my weebly so you can save it and customize it yourself! (apparently you can't add powerpoint files  in blogger?) lol
My weebly- Artrageous Art works