Making due without supplies...

Art is a supply intensive course - no matter what grade level you are teaching.  You can get by with nothing more than a text book in some courses, but in art, you need a variety of materials to make the magic happen.  

I have not received my supplies for the school year yet.  This is a very unusual situation - one that is full of drama and scandal which I can not discuss.  If I could, this blog would be so much more interesting, but you would likely think I was making it all up because the scandal is that unfathomable...

So, no supplies in the art room.  Twice this week I printed out lesson materials and got ready to start the day with a lesson in mind only to stop myself abruptly and realize - I HAVE NO "X" - "X" being the integral part of the supply list for that project.  These realizations occurred about 10 minutes before the children arrived for class.  Fine timing!

Simple things like a lack of glue and colored pencils are causing me to restructure my entire year of lessons.  At first this really upset me - the order was good and made a ton of sense to me.  My lessons were designed to build from one to the next and to bring the students from a more structured series of activities to a more free set of activities and now the whole thing is flipped.  

As much as the change is messing with my head, I think the change may end up being beneficial.  We are doing some very free lessons at the moment in place of my usual start to the year that contains more tightly structured lessons.  The change is interesting because the students are being introduced to art in a very loose manner and their reaction is full of excitement and enthusiasm.  I even had one student respond in his artist's statement that he "used to hate art and think it was boring but now I think it can be fun".  I am hopeful that this hook of fun art will stick and I'll be able to reel them in to enjoying more structured projects as well.  I'll keep you posted as it is always an adventure!