In yesterday’s post I mentioned that when we have painting projects in the classroom, I have my students put their desks together in long rows. Today, we did just that and I thought a visual might be helpful for any new cart teachers who read here.
Like I said before – you make the best of what you have. The kids enjoy the social setting and it makes for easier sharing and clean-up. The desks are not always the same height, so I position the water cup on the lowest ones to prevent spills. Four students share each water cup and palettes are shared by every two students.
At clean-up time I collect palettes and water cups into an empty bin that I carry on the cart. This photo looks neat only because I took it before adding all the water cups. I don’t worry about spilling them over since I take the bin to a sink and dump it all out. Sometimes I just pour the dirty water into the bin right on top of the paint palettes if I know I won’t get to them right away. The water then soaks the palettes prior to cleaning.
As for the wet art work – this year I have a mobile drying rack, but if it is full and I don’t want to move it then I stack my art trays as shown here. It’s a little tricky rolling the cart down the hallway, but I’ve learned to strategically stack them both on the lower bins and on the top tray. Sometimes I have multiple stacks on the cart and I haven’t lost a stack yet!
In my next post I’ll share a bit more about the organization aspect of teaching from the cart and what I’ve found to be helpful when managing supplies for 30 minute lessons.