Cafe, Literacy Cafe & Hallway Makeovers

OK...instead of working in my art room to have it looking spectacular for Thursday nights open house...I have been working on many school improvement projects for our café and halls.

Our school needed some pizazz...so we have been working off and on this summer.  It's crunch time now...so it's a circus at school.  But wanted to share some progress!

First we are wanting to set up a "Literacy Café" outside our cafeteria for parents and students to eat lunch and read together.  We thought we were going to get to set it up in front of the huge windows and doors...but turns our it is a fire hazard so we moved to plan B.  I had an idea of what I wanted in my head...but my team needed an image.  So I used paint.net to throw this together for our starting point...

We have a red wall.  Our team leader stole the old shutters from her mothers house and spray painted them a similar blue...which looks so great when we hold it up in front of the red wall.  One of our parents had their mothers sew some cute café style curtains out of the big hit Chevron material.  One of our teachers made an awning out of PVC pipe and we are going to hang it all hopefully today.

Our academic coach has done a great job putting it all together and using her creative ideas to make it happen!  I can't wait to see her put it in motion!

And we have the best parent support ever that have volunteered much of their summer to help!

More photos to come when finished!

Another project was one of our blank walls.  Our academic coach found the "letter" on pinterest, so we began by painting a wall w/ chalkboard paint.  Instead of using chalk (we were afraid students would wipe it as they walked by) I used paint and tried to give it the "chalk" look.  We added the saying:

Third...we are working to make evidence walls for grade levels in the hall way.  So I made these grade level # signs to hang above black spray painted cork boards for us to display.

Next... the Cafeteria Makeover!  We have had a blah cafeteria and it needed some spice!  So here we go...
End of last year I had a healthy art contest...the winner had their art piece painted large on café wall.  Leah was one of our 2nd graders...and this was a BIG DEAL!  Here you see us recreating her art work...but before we could do it...the walls looked like blah..so we painted everything white.

 

Then we added some more touches...had a teacher make some awnings, Home Depot sent several of their employees over to VOLUNTEER to help us build counter tops and paint for students to sit on bar stools, and we are working on draping the ceiling this weekend.  Final pictures will come later:

This is the ONLY thing I have put together in my ART ROOM!  I made a color block with hot glue and paper on the back of my filing cabinet...ha!