Art is My Jam

The 2019/2020 School Year

is fast approaching and I'm excited to share some new tips. 

One thing I like to do is have supplies that we use a lot in a place that can be easily accessable to students. I'm not a big fan of having them on tables. I know that many art teachers use caddies on their tables and I'm sure it's great. I don't do it because it takes up too much room and kids often play with them when it's unnecessary even when they know the expectations (pick your battles, lol). I usually have a few places spread throughout the clasroom that house our basic supplies.
Here's how I organize some of them in buckets:
 - markers
 - crayons 
 - colored pencils
 - erasers
 - pencils
 - small sharpeners
 - scissors
 - sharpies, etc... 

Each table gets one bucket/pail that they share and this keeps things organized and much more manageable. I often feel if you have too many supplies out at once, it's easier for things to get wasted and harder to manage.

I've written about organization and set-up a few times because I'm a huge believer in being organized. 

This year I lined the wall under my white board with shelves and storage carts so I could have a variety of areas for students. I wanted to have a few center areas for students.  

Organizing Other Supplies: 

• Usually clear buckets are my preference when storing items on shelves and in cabinets. Makes it easier to see what's inside. I aso label them - I love these "chalkboard" peel and stick lables I got from Amazon Prime. They are not only cute but easy to whipe of and reuse if I switch things out. 
My favorite is to use fun colors and shaped buckets, storage containers, bins, etc... 

• Oil Pastels - 
I bought these cute square buckets at Hobby Lobby and they're perfect for flourescent oil pastels. I put a towel down and then students can dump the bucket so it's easier to see the colors and keep the tables cleaner. Then when done they put them back in the buckets. 


I bought these cute cups from the Dollar Tree and they're perfect for metallic oil pastels.

I do the same thing with regular oil pastels, but I keep the BLACK, PEACH and WHITE ones seperate from all other colors. I have them in their own container - like colors together. This has helped me avoid the horrible mess of oil pastels getting so disguisting you can't tell the colors a part. I also only put one set per cup and each student gets their own cup. If a color runs out I give them a new one to place in their cup - no sharing that way everyone has what they need.

I do the same thing with chalk pastels but the only difference is I keep the BLACK and WHITE ones seperate from all other colors. Since my saying is "BLACK LAST" (usually applies) it makes it easier for students to not grab and use the black before they are finished. It also keeps the whites from getting so gross you can't tell what color it really is, lol. Once again they dump all of them out on the towels so they can share and find colors easily. This keeps tabbles cleaner and they can whipe their hands on the towels if they get too dirty. Clean up after is a SNAP!