Chalk Mural

I was approached by the KAY sponsor at the HS about doing a sidewalk chalk mural to welcome those attending the regional conference we were hosting.  I was all over it.  With more thinking, we decided to do a mural on the brick wall of the building where the attendees would be entering.  The theme was "There's no place like Kansas."  I found a great picture and was totally on board to have my 3 HS classes crank out this 12X8 foot mural in 3 to 4 days.  Little did I realize what I was getting myself into...
I had my 5th and 6th hours help me sketch out and grid the picture on bulletin board paper.  Doing a grid was a new experience for my students, so it was a good teaching moment.  After explaining how the grid works I got many "ah's" so I knew they got it.  That was the easy part.
Once we headed outside, the craziness began.  The first day was too hot, the second too windy, the third too cold.  I also had troubles getting all of my students to connect with this project, therefore many students did nothing.  That was the hard part...managing those who were working making sure it was being done right, and keeping track of those who weren't working so they wouldn't wander away.  Yes, I was working with high school students but it seemed like I was working with my 2nd graders.  In the end the result pleased the students and the sponsor of KAY, although I could have done a lot more work on it.  But at that point, I was over it.
We were looking hard for BOLD colors of chalk. and even though they looked bold they were definitely pastel.  We made it work with what we had and I was glad for it to be done with.  

Here are a few pictures of our progress.