Classroom Store

A classroom store can totally drain your school budget. You can shop at the Dollar Store or Oriental Trading, but it still adds up quickly. You also have to think about how often you need to have your class store. If you spread it out too much throughout the year the kids will forget about what they are working towards. At the end of the school year my administrator gave me a few ideas of how to keep to a budget in this area. I took those ideas and then looked up some more.

Here you have my 

List of Affordable Classroom Store Items

• Lunch with the teacher - my co-teacher and I did this last year. The kids loved it. Just have a group of 5 kids at a time have lunch in the classroom with you. Come up with some questions to ask each of them. They will love the fact that they are getting to tell you things about them and that they get to hear things about you! It is great to show your students that you are interested in their lives!
• Extra Computer Time - there are some kids who will love this. Plan a time during the day when they can use that computer time while other kids are working on something or reading quietly. The students who purchase this will feel so special that they get to do their own thing. 
• Special Seats - let the students who purchase this sit in either a special chair or even at the teacher's desk for part of the day. Better make sure your desk is cleaned off first. :)
• Work with a friend - this one might be a little trickier, but I bet you could figure something out to make it work. I would probably make two kids buy this one and they could choose a time to work together on something other than a test. I have a few students who would try to pull that one on me. :) 
• Read Aloud - Let the student read a story to the entire class. It may be one they've chosen or one you already planned on reading. But let them do the reading instead of you. It is also a good time for them to practice reading aloud (bonus!)
• Choosing their seat - let the students choose their seating arrangement. This could be short term or long term. It really depends on the class/kids. I remember being in 3rd grade and loving it when my teacher let us choose where we wanted to sit in the classroom. 
• No Homework Pass - this may not apply to all homework. 
• Planner not signed pass - at our school we start using planners in 3rd grade. Every night when they have homework they have to have their parent sign/initial their planner. They could save this for a time when they forgot to get it signed. 
• Design a bulletin board - I found this one on another site, and I'm not sure how I would use it. It would be hard for me to let the bulletin board go. But it is a cool idea. 
• Choose music to play in the classroom - I often play music while my students are working. Have a selection of cds and let a student choose what to listen to that day. 

Not a bad list, right? I'm looking forward to trying some of these out on my students this fall. I think we'll start with a group reward first and then move on to individual rewards. I'm so excited!

Starting Over

Well, I'm excited to say that this blog is changing!! 

This is no longer an art blog.
(Although, I will occasionally post art projects I use in my classroom) 

This blog is now dedicated to my 3rd grade class!! Yes, its true, I'm now a 3rd grade teacher. I've been waiting for this for a long time.

There is so much running through my head about what I want to do in my classroom. My goal this summer is to get organized. I want to start the school year with a bang. These kids have no idea what they are getting into. This is going to be one great school year! (Can you tell that I'm pumped?!) 

I'll be posting about different things I do in my classroom and share some good inexpensive, or even free, things to help make the classroom a better place. :)

{Looking forward to sharing some great ideas with you!}

Word Art

I loved doing this art project with my Jr. High Art students. We kinda cheated in that I had them use an overhead projector to trace the picture, but they turned out so nice. Each student chose an important person in our country's history and they came up with a list of words and phrases relating to that person. Then they used those words to make the picture of the person. This is a portrait of Ronald Reagan done by a 7th grade student. I think it looks great. I'm not teaching Jr. High Art next year and I'm trying to figure out how I can do this with my 3rd grade class next year. It might be a stretch.