First Art Lesson

I loved all the ideas on Pinterest for doing a lesson after reading The Dot. I did it K-5 and let my 4th and 5th grade use watercolors. The other grades used markers. They turned out very nicely, don't you think?!

Each grade level had a different colored frame. I posted a key under the display.

What lesson do you like to do for the first week?

Computer Lab Makeover

Hello, again! As you recall, I have a new position which includes TWO classrooms this year! I spent most of my time on the art room, but here is my quick computer lab makeover!

The name of our lab is the Discovery Lab. In the past, little detectives with magnifying glasses have been used on passwords cards, etc. So...I KNEW I would go with a Spy/Agent theme!

Here is the outside door:

Very self-explanatory!  I used the yellow caution tape along with the black letter wall decals from Dollar Tree. I made the little "scan here" sign and the magnifying glass.

When you walk in, the "front" of the lab is actually the right-hand wall. (*see title pic above) I ordered the two large agent cutouts from Oriental Trading. My DH helped me hang them up. I made two badges for them to wear and gave them names (mainly for my OWN enjoyment, I'm just teaching K-5 for pity sake!) They are:

Special Agent Tera Byte and Special Agent Jay Peg.

(Get it????)

Ok, for the biggest project in the room...the window treatment. 

I used blue and black plastic tablecovers from Wal-Mart. I figured out how to efficiently make each panel. Hopefully you can follow along: Instead of folding and hole-punching each section, then stringing yarn or ribbon through to gather it, I put a piece of package tape between two of those blue chair backs, with sticky side up. (the length of the section needed). I quickly stuck the plastic tablecloth to the tape, overlapping a little each time to produce the ruffle effect. Then I simply took the taped ends off the chair backs and taped it to the wall. When I had all the sections up, I went back over the top edge with the CAUTION tape!

Under the window, you can see the Tech Word Wall. It has magnifying glasses for the letters. I will try to post a better pic of it!

This is the view of the left wall (*back of the room):

As well as the Discovery Lab, I call it the CIA. It stands for Computers In Action. To the right is our school mission statement. To the left of this picture is the teacher work area.

Bulletin Board close-up:

We have the school's color printer (for teachers) in the lab. LOTS of papers end up never being claimed. Here is the sign I made for them:

Inside door:

Lastly, the rules are posted on the cabinets above the entrance:

I dressed up as Special Agent Smith for the first week of classes!

There you go! Off to a great start in computer technology!

Setting Up My Art Room...Pt 2

Well, last time I told you about my amazing art room rug project!

Now for my art room reveal! Here goes...(*BTW, my room is shaped like a trapezoid!! No kidding!)

Welcome to the art room! 

I created the fun banner that hangs over the double doors. I also printed out different paint splats and cut them from construction paper, then laminated. I love how it turned out!

To the left of the entrance, in the hall:

When you open the doors, this is the front of the room:

The color words are displayed on mock "paint can lids"--tied up with coordinating ribbons. This was something I worried about all summer (getting enough paint lids to do this project). I finally compared my print out to a gallon paint can lid and discovered it was too small! Glad I didn't waste time gathering up the real lids! Ends up, Wilton's 12 inch Corrugated Cake Circles were a perfect fit. I glued my printouts to them, leaving a small (1/2 to 3/4 in) margin. Then, I wrapped tin foil around and rolled it in, forming the lip all around the "lid." :)

Display to the left of the Promethean ACTIVboard:

This idea came from Mrs. Picasso's idea! See the original pin here.

I made the giant 3-D paintbrush from the inner tube of my 5x7 rug. I wrapped bulletin board paper around it and padded the tip end with some paper towels. I shredded some black paper and glued in the end, then wrapped the end with foil. I hung it from command hooks with fishing line. I will be putting up the I Can statements under each grade level and a sample of their weekly projects.

This is to the right of the ACTIVboard:

I loved incorporating the rules with the word, artist. I also wanted them to reflect the WBT rules---and wallah...here they are:

To be an artist you must:

A-always follow directions quickly

R-raise your hand for permission to speak or leave your seat

T-tidy up (make a scrubbing motion)

I-imagine it (we do a two-handed example popper for this one--pulling TWO ideas out of our head)

S-smart choices

T-teacher kept happy

I also keep a scoreboard up for all classes. After the first class, I saw my MAJOR fail with my design! (*There are TWO classes of each grade!) I will post my updated version soon! Forgot to take a picture of it.

This is the wall to the right of entry.

Art planning books and resources are kept behind the rainbow curtains on the shelves. Art picture books for lessons and enjoyment are on the display shelves. You can see our meeting carpet (discussed in previous post). 

Here is a closer look at the shelves and display.

I used colored duct tape to spruce up these old shelves! The colored binders will be used for organizing lessons by grade level...as I develop them (*sigh). Atop the shelves are samples of art projects before my time...

This is another version of my WBT rules. Rule 1 is about being responsible: Follow directions quickly, do your best. Make smart choices for all the rest. Rule 2 is about being respectful: Raise your hand, wait your turn. Keep your Dear Teacher happy so we all can learn. Rule 3 is to keep us safe: Walk or sit, don't push or hit. 

Pierre the Art Room Puppet helps me review the rules with the children each class for K-2. I used my Scholastic Bonus Points to get him for FREE!!! Woot woot! He was a surgeon in his previous career! A good teacher friend gave me the sweater off her back teddy bear's back. I ordered the beret off Etsy, and made the art apron from white felt.

You can also see my little bucket of Art Smart rewards. I will be giving these out for on-task behavior, helpfulness, or improvements made in behavior or skills. The little papers sticking out are my Art Room reports. I can quickly let the homeroom teacher know how their class did in art, as well as a tear-off Art Smart "award."

This is what the form looks like:

Doors (inside view):

When the kids line up at the end of class, we discuss if they were "ARTIST"s again. If they were (and won the scoreboard game) they get to put up a paint cake into their class watercolor pad. When the watercolors are full, they get a "free art" day.

I also write who earned ART SMART for the day and tell why!

Here is my desk area and display above:

Back Wall -inside Right:

Closer up of the Word Wall:

Back Wall, Inside Left:

From this view, you can see the supply shelves along the wall edges. I have 8 tables with 3 chairs at each. I used colored duct tape around the tables edges and had to spray paint 4 of the group buckets with spray paint made for plastics to get all the colors I needed! I poked a hole in the small trash cans and hung them on the legs of the tables from a Command hook.

This is the Montessori art area. Our PreK is a Montessori school. They will be coming to art class next week...wish me luck!!! :)

Nothing really new here...this is the fire exit and exit to playground. It is the left corner of the front wall and left side wall.

View standing by fire exit corner:

For the first week, I dressed up as Madame Smith- Ze Art tea-Cher!

Hope you enjoyed my art room tour!
I spent a LOT of time on Pinterest finding ideas to incorporate into this fun and artsy space!

Click HERE to see my Elementary Art Pinterest board!

Table Organization

 

As many teachers begin to prepare for the upcoming school year, I thought I'd share some tips on organizing tables.

 

I absolutely *love* tables! When I switched classrooms, I had desks for one year and hated it. If you are a table person, here are some ideas for you!

 

 

I color code my table groups. Look carefully and you can see the colored TENT signs hanging above each "campsite," as we refer to our groups in our room.

 

The bins you see on the tables in the picture above (and the trays in the title picture) are from Oriental Trading. I also have a class set of scissors in the same colors. I found plastic cups in 4 of the colors (plus 2 clear) at WalMart. We keep pencils in the cup, glue sticks, scissors, erasers, name tags, etc. in the bin. I added the tray after the start of last year. It has worked wonders for keeping up with "work in progress!" Students put their work in the tray and can pull it out to finish when they have time, or when we work on it again.

 

I also can't imagine not having my chair bags! They are amazing and very reasonably priced. This will be my 6th year with them and they are holding up great. I think I had ONE that has gotten torn!

The kids keep their CAMP notebook, journal, and math book in the deep pocket, and their color crayons and markers in the little pockets.

Look them up at www.chairpads.com

 

To help keep clutter and mess to a minimum, every Friday for morning work the kids empty out and clean their chair bags and trays.



After 3 days with WBT

I have had an amazing first 3 days with my little campers. They are picking up on WBT so fast. I couldn't be more proud of them. 

Some of today's highlights:

-we learned our last rule set, then practiced with teack/ok AND switch! I even added the "because clapper" - and they took to it like moths to a flame! 

-we had a power pic lesson on sentences. I added a few gestures to the ones already on the card...When we say, "A sentence is a complete message that MUST begin with a capital letter and end with an end mark," we reach up to the ceiling when we say capital and hold both our hands out (like saying HALT) when we say end.

I have a university education major doing her pre-session practicum in my classroom and she was so impressed with our WBT! She couldn't believe this was only their 3rd day with me. It looked more like the first quarter or even semester, she said! (Ahhhh....I'm loving it!)

Here is a picture of my whiteboard today--with my 3 rule posters and the other WBT posters we have learned. I didn't get as many tallies on the scoreboard due to having 10 pages of pre-assessments for our new math curriculum! That took up most of our day--YUCK.

We have even started keeping track of one activity on the board-putting supplies away. The 31 seconds was when one of my darlings had dumped ALL her markers out and couldn't get them back in the box in a timely manner. (We had a little mini-lesson on that afterwards!)

Here is my Power Pix Wall:

I followed the Power Pix lesson outline today-I downloaded them on my iPad so I could access them quickly when needed! We got down through the yes/no way part.

I am looking forward to my first WHOLE week with WBT! I am so grateful to have found such a life-changing movement dedicated to helping teachers bring learning fun into the classroom. I can't imagine teaching any other way now. I have been sharing it with other teachers this week and they said they want me to do an inservice day and teach them about my "whole brain stuff!" And--my practicum student wants to learn more about WBT! 

Can I hear an, "Oh, YEAH!"

First Day with WBT!

Oh My!

I absolutely LOVED how our first day went.

It was so amazing and I am in awe of how well my little campers picked up on WBT! Of course I had a great outline to go by.

First of all, after parents were finished dropping them off, taking pictures and unloading school supplies I called for the class's attention - alas, no class/yes ... YET! They were eager and ready to listen anyway. Back up for one second-on their morning work activity they had a place to write their teacher's name. I told them it was posted some place in the room--most of them found it pretty quickly. I gave those that couldn't pick it out a hint (it is RED). So, when I was ready to introduce myself, I counted to 3 and had them say my name out loud. Then I explained that when I was talking, I expected them to look at me and stop talking (using gestures as I explained, of course). They responded well, and we went straight into the class/yes lesson.

The first few times I did not have as many responses as I would have liked, but we kept on plugging away! They had a bit of a harder time with the "anyway I say class, you say yes" part, which surprised me. They finally got the hang of it and did a good job the rest of the day--with some reminders of how to fold their hands and LOOK at me! Overall, I was pleased. :)

Next, we practiced rule 1. Fun! Since my 3 rules are adaptations of the 5, I introduced the first part of my rule 1--"follow directions quickly". Success! We practiced all day long--with LOTS of fun bursts thrown in randomly. After several practice sessions, I added the rest of it--(...do your best...make smart choices for all the rest) but we concentrated on the directions part for today.

Next, the scoreboard game. I LOVE introducing it as a game. I did not do it that way last year. It was so energetic and motivating for the kids, especially when I would give a smiley for a great job, but follow it up with a frownie for the few that were not looking, quieting down, etc. It got a few more on board rather quickly. TEACHER HEAVEN!

Here is my scoreboard at the end of the day (along with my Happy Camper lanyard--it has a scoreboard on one side and class roster checklist on the other).

I am so excited about how today went...I can't think straight! I hope my rambling makes sense! (By the way, they each got a s'more hand stamp for beating me at the scoreboard game!)

I introduced mirrors, the 3peat, teach/ok (yes, in first!) and did a power pic lesson on letters and words.

My big ahah moment was when I decided to try the 3peat for lines. I had never attempted it last year. I did bodies and chairs and other simple commands, but not LINES--wouldn't everyone lining up at the same time be chaos? NO---not the WBT way!

I did lots of prep work before we tried it...explaining how those closest to the door would obviously be the first to line up, how we must walk and how it was not a race. I asked it the tables in the front of the room should be first in line...they said, "no!"

AND--we even did a because---in response to, does it matter who gets in line first? No, BECAUSE we are all going to the same place, was their reply. (They are so smart!)

So...I took the plunge. I said, "LINES." They did it! Oh, sweet mama, I could hardly believe it! The next time, I was actually able to walk to the front of the line and out the door to recess...they were so quiet and orderly. I'm a believer!

I can't think if I did anything else today, but I'm so excited to be starting my year off the WBT way. Thank you, Coach B. for a wonderful outline and all the support you give us that makes teaching so enjoyable!

Here are some pictures of my classroom. I've already posted my Super Improver's Wall and Power Pic wall--(oops, didn't get a pic today after I added my two pics!)

How about you? How was your first day with WBT?

(Remember, if you'd like to know more about this amazing movement, just go to www.wholebrainteaching.com!)