Art Room Refresh

Several years ago I made tissue paper pom-poms like these to hang over my tables so that I could color label each table.  Over one table I had pom-poms in different shades of green, then a second had different shades of purple, a third was orange, and so on.  The students loved them, and they really gave the room a nice pop of color.  It was also a great management tool.

However this year when I went to set up my classroom, I felt it was time for a change.  The darker purples, blues, and greens seemed a little faded and there was certain to be dust settled in the folds of the tissue paper.  Also, I had noticed that more and more classrooms in our building seemed to have versions of them hanging from their ceilings.  

So, what could I make to replace the pom-poms?  I knew I wanted to keep the concept of different color tables and decorative aspect of hanging something from the ceiling.  When I saw these mailing tubes and cardboard cones sitting in my storage closet, I instantly knew I was going to be making giant crayons!

Step one was to attach the cone to top each mailing tube and use plaster wrap to papier-mâché each crayon.

Here are the crayons while I am waiting for the papier-mâché to dry.

Step two was to gesso each crayon and then paint each one a different color.

Finally I drew and colored a crayon logo on posterboard, glued on the labels, and hung them in place.

  I am pretty excited to see how the students react to the classroom refresh.  Let me know what you think.