Follow @thomas_elementary_art on Instagram!

I'm sitting at home today. I had to take a personal day to have some electrical work done on my 100 year old house. Consequently, I have some extra time on my hands. I've been working on some staff t-shirt designs and I also decided to start an Instagram account for my classroom. My intention is to use it for some quick daily posts of cool things that are happening in the art room. I was also inspired by Hope Hunter Knight's IG feed in which she's using her IG account as a tool for students to interact with. She posts challenges and students can upload their artistic responses using a particular hashtag. 

As of right now, I have a grand total of ZERO posts on the new account, but I expect that you'll see a pretty constant feed if you check back often. 

Pencil Sharpener Winner!

Congratulations to the winner of the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener, Misty K! Misty has been contacted and will be able to select her favorite color of pencil sharpener. Thanks to everyone who entered. It's great to find good supplies and also support a small American company run by a teacher! 

Last Call for Pencil Sharpener Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway for a Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener has brought in an astounding 531 entries so far. If you want one of these sweet sharpeners, get your name in before the end of the day tomorrow. I'll be announcing the winner on Monday or Tuesday!

5th Grade Flip Books

Flip book time! I usually like to use flip books as the last project of the year for my 4th grade students. It provides a good introduction for animation and is an ideal end of the year project. Somehow, we ran out of time last year. I'm not entirely sure what happened. You know how it goes. 

My 5th graders started out this school year with a three class flip book project. I require that the books be at least 20 pages. Less than that doesn't allow the animation to be flipped very easily. I just use copy paper that I cut into quarters. It is transparent enough to allow students to see through in order to create movement in their work. 

I usually don't post my teacher examples, but this one is just too much fun. What do you get when you cross a potato with a top hat, a banana peel, an ice cream cone, and 50 pages of flip book animation? This!

Free Pencil Sharpener!

Get your dancin' shoes on. It's giveaway time at Thomas Elementary Art! You guys may be familiar with my ongoing search for the perfect pencil sharpener. I posted about it originally here and got a bunch of good feedback. I was later given the opportunity to review the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener. Well, the fine folks over there were kind enough to allow me to host a giveaway for one of their fantastic sharpeners. You can check out all of the pencil sharpener options here!

I actually just ordered another sharpener to use in addition to the one I received to review. I really like the simplicity, ease of use, and quality of the sharpeners. I think it will be a long term solution for my 600+ students.

Enter the giveaway below. The only requirement is that you must like Classroom Friendly Supplies on Facebook. There are other options that you can also do to increase your chance of winning. Not too bad for a chance at a sweet $25 sharpener! US entries only, please. Classroom Friendly Supplies doesn't ship internationally.
Pencil Sharpener Giveaway on Rafflecopter