Art is My Jam

Painting Day Set-up

Most of the time painting days are when I'm having students create color wheels, etc... When it's time to paint, I try to make sure I'm using paint with all my grades. I know there will be times when that's not how it works out. When setting up for painting, it's important to be prepared and have all your ducks in a row or it can be chaos, lol! 

Here's an example of how I set-up my classroom tables. 

Painting tips:

1. Have something to cover tables. Weather it's roll paper, table clothes or large sheets of paper, etc.. I use large sheets of paper because it's easy to set-up and remove when finished. I have a place that they are placed and I reuse them over and over with anything messy.

Protecting your tables is so important:
- it cuts down on clean-up time
- helps with messes
- keeps art work from getting ruined

2. I use cloth towels in my classroom (not paper towels). The reason why is I like recycling, they absorb better, great for clean-up and they can be used over and over with ease. The only draw back is, you have to wash them. I just take mine home and bring them back the next day.

3. Try to have enough mixing trays for at least 2 classes. If you have time issues on getting them cleaned between classes, you have a back up. You can always use styrofoam paper plates, but I don't like them as well because kids tend to use too much space when mixing and it's wasteful.

4. I like having paint ready in small, reusable, lidded cups. I have students use popsicle sticks to scoop out the paint to eliminate mixing of paint in the cups making it usable. But, if that does happen, the small cups are nice because you can clean them out and it's less waste of paint because the containers are small. School Specialty/Dick Blick Art have these types of cups you can buy or find a medical place that has ones they are throwing out (unused of course).
- Note: I only give my students red, yellow and blue (primary colors) so they have to learn how to mix and make the other colors. Yes, Kindergarteners can do this...although I go slower and sometimes only do one secondary color at a time so they understand the correct way to use the tools at hand.

5. During class I have students stay seated once they start painting. I switch out water usually only once. I teach them how to use their towels to make sure their brushes are clean. I keep extra cups filled with water so I switch them and it doesn't interrupt their painting time. I found by doing this, it eliminates students from playing in the water, messes and potentially ruining art due to spills.

6. Clean-up: I have 3 sinks in my classroom so it's nice because I can have one sink for washing hands, one sink for cleaning paint brushes and water cups and one sink for cleaning mixing trays.