The Best Thing I Did to Start My School Year

Hi!  Welcome back to another artsy school year!

I had a brilliant breakthrough this summer while reading Facebook Art Teacher groups online.  Someone had created a video about their rules and procedures for their art room.  I saw that and I thought that I DEFINITELY needed to do that!

As a K-4/5 art teacher (I no longer teach the 5th/6th graders.. that grade level went to our new art teacher), I see a lot of classes.  But, I still probably do not see as many classes as a LOT of the other art teachers out there.  I have 12 different classes, which I see twice a week.  Last year, I had 14 classes.  After saying the same procedures and rules to 14 different classes, my brain was fuzzy, I was stumbling over my words, and I was exhausted!

I was intimidated to create a video, thinking that it would be SO MUCH WORK.  But, guess what?  It actually wasn’t that bad!  It took me maybe 2-3 hours total to make.  And I was having fun making it!  Part of the time was spent trying to figure out the program.

It is more of a quick moving slideshow with music, that you can add a voice-over to.  

Click HERE to see the video!

What I did was I took a bunch of photos of my classroom and then at home I laid on my bed, relaxed and put all the images together, chose some fun icons and picked the music.  Then I closed the door so my kids wouldn’t interrupt me and recorded each slide one by one.  After I finished, I “shared” the video to Adobe Spark so I could access it anywhere.  Here is my video.  I apologize if you think the video is a bit ridiculous or too many details, but I think it will help things go smoothly.

When it came time for the first day of art classes, I simply hooked up the projector to my laptop, attached speakers and pressed play.  The kids thought the video was funny at times, they liked the music and they actually LISTENED without their eyes glazing over.  And I was able to sit back and not become exhausted from repeating the same things about the drying rack, the art room rules and how to wash a messy table!  They were also impressed that I was able to figure out how to make a video on my own, ha ha!

This video idea turned out to be a real blessing, because before school started I got strep throat and I was still recovering when the first day started (I had my antibiotics, but was still feeling sore.)

After the students watched this video about the procedures of the art room, they started on short art activities.

A couple of the classes made About the Artist Sheets.

Some of my students drew about what they did over the summer on a Sunglasses Sheet.

One grade made Back to School Selfies.

A few of the classes worked on Collaborative Dots for Dot Day.  Thanks Nic Hahn for the templates and idea!

The Kindergartners drew on their “I Had Art Today” sheets.

What did your students do on the first day back?  Have you ever made a video for your students to explain procedures and rules?