Cool Ideas to Bring in the New Year

The New Year is upon us! I'm excited to start afresh in January and I bet you are too! School starts back up for us in about a week. As an FYI, I have some more project ideas that I will post over the next few days, but I wanted to share some cool ideas that have helped  me out quite a bit in the art room lately.....

I found that a cardboard box serves as a great place for markers that have dried out or lost their caps. I named it "Marker Heaven." I love to use these old markers to make my own cheap watercolors, and this is a great way to collect them. The kids also get a kick out putting the sad  markers to rest in this box. 

 Old colored pencils turned out to be a great way to add some excitement to my boring clock. For several years, I had old crayons attached to the edge, but they kept breaking off. It's really amazing what you can do with a hot glue gun! 

Why not treat your sub to a box of treats while he/she is working in your art room? At the bottom of my lesson plan, I leave a note saying to help yourself to some candy from the Thank You Box (which is kept on a shelf right behind my desk). 

*some days I treat myself to the Snickers bars in there too :) 

This may be the best trick I have ever discovered for the art room!  A fantastic and very seasoned art teacher friend of mine turned me onto this concept. This leather stamping alphabet set from Sax is the perfect tool for labeling CLAY pieces! I highly recommend this for any art teacher out there. No more struggling to fit names/class codes on the bottom or worrying you won't be able to read the letters when the pieces finally come out of the kiln. This job is for the teacher only and it's so easy and stress free! This is what I do: when they kids come into class, I have them make a name tag by writing their name on a small piece of scrap paper. At the end of the class, they put their name tag underneath their clay piece. I cover up the clay projects with a sheet of plastic until I can get back to it. Using my class roster, I press the initials of the child on the underside of his/her piece. This little trick has really saved my life and at 25 bucks, it's a great investment. 

And I absolutely cannot take any credit for this idea I found on Pinterest some time ago which I am now employing. Using my handy dandy new stamping tools, I made class ID stones for use in the kiln. I use the stones to help me stay organized. I just place the teacher's ID stone on the kiln shelf alongside his/her class of pottery. Great organizational tool!