October 19, 2010

Tuesdays Tip: Drying Rack Drama

My drying rack creates a lot of drama in my life. It is always being filled and unfilled. No matter how careful I am, the occasional art piece gets stuck in the wrong folder. Here are some tips I've learned to cut down on time and drying rack drama.


Tip 1: When possible, have students in different classes use different colored paper. My Kindergarteners made collages. Each class had a different color background paper which made it a breeze to sort and put in their folder.
Tip 2: Use different paper sizes for each class. This isn't always possible, but sometimes it works perfectly. For example, in my large classes a smaller paper gives everyone more room at the table to work. A large paper works well for classes who seem to always finish early.
Tip 3: Always stand at the drying rack for the first few projects. Be a stickler for putting their work next to their friends. I tell them if they don't I may "lose their work" which is the truth! I never used to stand at the rack but believe me it has saved me loads of time and lots of headaches over "lost" art.
Tip 4: Keep your classroom folders (or however you store the art work) next to the drying rack. Save your steps!
Tip 5: Put away work as soon as possible. Preferably before it becomes an overwhelming pile the size of Mount Everest!

Got any ideas? PLEASE SHARE!

If you have any quick tips let me know!

6 comments:

kszwahl said...

A friend/art teacher and I both use color codes for our tables. So she said she painted a part of each shelf colors to match the tables. So the top 6 are red, the next six are blue, the next are yellow. . . .ect. Then the red table always put theirs in the red shelf, blue table- blue shelf etc. Then it is easier for a student to pull them out and stick them in the matching folders too. Sometimes I have a student stand and "help" by the rack instead of me. I am usually by the sink or somewhere else. :)
This really appealed to me because normally we fill the shelves from the bottom to the top, and some one always wants to skip a bunch of shelves so their paper will be "on top".
I use the different color paper for Kinder too. So much easier!

Phyl said...

I have the kids write their grade and teacher intitial (ex: 2-B, for grade 2, Mrs. Brown, and so on..) on the back of all art papers, along with their name. Then I have older kids pull the art from the drying rack and sort according to class. Unlabeled work goes into recycle box, and has to be retrieved from there. (I always check when they will be coming around to empty the recycle box, so nobody's work REALLY gets recycled.

When I fingerpaint with the K's (rarely) I use different color paint for each K class - red and blue for one, blue and yellow for another, yellow and red for the third.

Today we had so many large wet paintings, they were lining the floor in the hallway outside my room.

Mr. E said...

I have a double sided drying rack. That helps a ton! Plus, I see K-4 in a day..so I try not to plan more than two lessons that would require the drying rack in a given week. Each class had a different lesson, so there is no real risk of getting anything confused.

Brittney said...

I do the same thing as Phyl, grade number and teacher initial on the back of the art. It works really well. If there is no name then I might put the artwork in a unlabeled shelf to let students look through. Sometimes if I do not have a class for a while after the class that did something with paint, I will leave the art on the table and let them dry there. I pick them up and put them away right before my next class.

Cheryl Hancock said...

I like the recycle box idea. I also have 3 drying racks- which covers the first 3 classes and then as the day goes on I remove the first class to allow room for the last class. I am lucky only 4 classes per day. I also try to have them write their name and class room as well and 95 % do that so the recycle box is a great idea.

Unknown said...

I remember putting extra work in the hallway on the floor when I was student teaching. . . that was awesome but now I'm in the center of the school with all the noise and traffic! Good idea Mr. E cut back on the rack projects. I like the grade and letter idea too. I can start that with the older kids. Color coding I've considered a bunch of times but can't find a way to make it work for my situation some classes are 40 some are 25. . . I need all the space I can get. I can start to put a kid in charge though at the rack especially as my belly gets bigger and my kids start to take over all the procedures.