Art Room Overhaul!

Ooh looky here...been busy in the high school art room this week! 

I can't wait for everyone to see all the great changes. There's been some major cleaning, organizing & decorating done, but there's a lot of work ahead of me in the short 3 weeks before school starts. 

It's not just my room getting some TLC; the whole northwest end of the H.S. has been getting a much needed overhaul. Mr. Roper has done an awesome job getting the Ag shop & old wood shop cleaned & straightened... he's going to be a really great asset to our Ag program.

So...as you can see from the pics, the Art Room got a fresh coat of paint this week. Nice bright white with these two blues... (I'm a Cyril Pirate at heart, everything is always some kind of blue!). We went and picked these two blues out at Ace Hardware and while they were mixing the colors I happened to notice the names of the two colors I picked out. The perfect choice for an art room, I'd say. 

This is my last week at USAO so next week I can start really dedicating some time to the Art rooms and getting my lesson plans ready. 

I'll be posting more pics as I go! 

- Mrs. Gray

Art Room Wish List

Want to help make our art room AMAZING?!

Here are a few things you can donate to help our art program in Cyril Schools! Whether you have $1 to spend or $1,000 for a tax-deductible donation, here is a list of some things we would like to have in our Art Room to make our art program amazing! Of course, any and all art/school supplies are welcome, but here are a few specific ideas. 

(I would prefer to have at least 10 of each....5 for our high school classroom & 5 for our grade school classroom, so that there's at least 1 set per table.)

Pacon Tru Ray Construction Paper
They sell in sets of 30 at Walmart for $1.47 in all sorts of colors. They are in the craft section (where the fabrics, paints, sewing supplies, scrapbook supplies are). I know that Chickasha Wal-Mart Has them. I will need LOTS of these... probably at least 10 pkgs of each color.

Tape, Tape Tape!
Masking tape of all colors, duct tape of all colors, clear heavy duty packing tape as well as scotch tape dispensers.

1 Gallon Elmer's Glue All 
$24.99 at Hobby Lobby, but you can use a 40% off coupon and get for $14.99. I only need 2 gallons...one for CHS & one for CES.

Mr. Sketch Scented Markers
I would prefer the 12 packs. Available at Walmart. 

Sharpie Markers
I will take as many of these as I can get, in any colors & any sizes. We will use them all! They come in fine point, ultra fine point, brush, metallics, from 2pks to 24 pcks! You can buy at Walmart, Dollar General or Hobby Lobby. 

The Fine Touch 12 pc or 24 pc Oil Paint Sets
Available at Hobby Lobby. The 12 pc set is $7.99, but with the 40% off coupon would be only $4.79. The 24 pc set is $13.99 but just 8.39 with the coupon!

Crayola Crayons
Any size boxes are appreciated! 

Styrofoam Plates
Would like 2 large sets - one for CES & one for CHS

Heavy Duty Posterboard
Need LOTS of white & black. Would prefer the heavier duty kind that is $1 at DG or the set of 5 that comes in a pkg from Walmart. Hobby Lobby also has the good quality posterboard. 

Pretty Material Scraps
Will be doing a weaving project and would appreciate any material scraps. We will be using like 2 inch-5 inch strips, at varying lengths (2 ft to 5 ft)

Paintbrush Sets
Walmart has pkgs of random brushes for like $4.99 or any brush sets would be helpful.'

Hi! I'm Mrs. Gray, your new art teacher :)

I've always been a little creative and artsy...I get it from my dad. 

Mom & dad encouraged us to try lots of new things and always made sure we were exposed to all kinds of different opportunities...we baked, gardened, farmed, raised animals, played sports, had musical instruments, did arts & crafts, went to camps, you name it.

I was encouraged to learn hard work and blue collar, hands-on skills but also expected to excel intellectually too, which I am really thankful for. I was a pretty lucky kid. All this said, I'm kind of a "Jack-of-All-Trades, but Master-of-None" type girl.

Somehow, I have stumbled upon this journey to teach art at Cyril Elementary & Cyril High School and am pretty excited about it! I've seen several art teachers come and go at Cyril and just decided that our students needed someone who really loved them and would put some effort into making art really fun for them. So a few months ago I started working on getting my teaching certificate and here I am. It all happened a little faster than I expected, but I'm ready! (or at least getting there)

My first "art class" was at the Vo-Tech in Fort Cobb and I was probably about 6 years old. My dad was a farmer and was taking a welding class in the evenings. I'm not sure how he pulled it off (I guess it was just the day & time where things were not so formal), but the art class was right next door to the welding class, so he would drop me off while he went to weld, and I had the wonderful experience of learning Oil Painting from the one and only Marjorie Wolf. I remember having so much fun in her class and she made me feel like I was a great artist.

Another great art experience of mine, was having Mrs. Bennett in 4th grade. (I was not so fond of her math classes because she was pretty strict, although having math races on the board was fun!) I must have enjoyed her art classes because I can remember just about every single project that we did that year. I did a watercolor painting of an old boathouse & a pencil drawing of my shoe. I happened to be wearing my Eastlands leather shoes that day in the late 80's when it was popular to do the twirly ties with your laces! We got to etch glass, emboss a picture on those thin sheets of metal, made some jewelry out of this strange powder that you dusted on metal shapes, then heated up and we learned how to weave a basket. Mom actually brought the basket that I weaved over to my house the other day!

The basket I weaved in Mrs. Bennett's 4th grade art class. On the back of the basket I wrote my name in pencil, along with the date: February 6, 1990.

My hopes for my art class this year, is that my students will start to appreciate art. I hope that every students finds something they enjoy...even those kids that aren't naturally inclined to draw or paint, will find some projects that they are great at...art comes in LOTS of different forms. And I hope that my kids have fun. So much fun with art, that they will look back in 30 years and remember all of the neat things that they did in Mrs. Gray's art room!