Reading

"Shopping for books is akin to shopping for clothes -- if we don't take the time to try them on to see how they fit, they are destined to remain in our closets and on our shelves."
(Debbie Miller Reading with Meaning)

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. 

Ideas from the art festival

I'm pretty sure a kindergarten student made this. There is wire under aluminum foil and then colored with sharpies. It is quite stunning!

This project probably should have gotten a blue ribbon. I helped judge it and I feel guilty for not giving it a better rating. Not much I can do now though. The leaves are made out of paper towels and then I think they used water colors to add color. This one should be framed in someone's house! It was done by a 2nd grade student I think. 

I love this style of drawing! It is sideways, but you get the idea. :o) I love random drawings in black pen. They remind me of one of my very good friends from college. (Miss you Emily!)

I think I might try this one in my jr. high class next year. 

I'll post more from the festival another time. Have a great weekend!

Kites!

I don't have any pictures for this, but everyone should do this in their classroom. I did this last year too. 
Kites in the Classroom has awesome kites to purchase that you color or paint and then put together. The kids love this! Each student in my 1st-3rd grade classes received their own kite and colored it with crayons.  When we were all finished coloring we attached the poles and string. Then we looked at each person's kite and told them how they did a good job on their kite. It was great to hear the kids encourage each other. The  kids loved having others comment on their kids. All of the feedback was positive. 
A few days later we had a day when we flew the kites out on the playground. Those kites fly very well, as long as they don't get tangled up. :o) Thankfully that only happened with two of the kites. 
Check out their website and order some for next year! It is a great project! 
www.kitesintheclassroom.com/ 

Feeling a little sad

I'm feeling extremely torn. On one hand I'm excited and on the other hand I'm a little sad.
For the past two years I've been teaching elementary art at a Christian school here in Nor Cal. I've loved teaching art. Never thought I would be able to do it, but the Lord has helped me so much. This last year Jr. High Art was added to my schedule. That has been a huge stretch for me. I still don't feel very qualified to do it, but I'm doing my best. A few things came up at the school where I am working and Praise the Lord I have a job for this next year. My job is changing so much though! Next year I will continue teaching Jr. High Art. Along with that I will be adding a jr. high elective. That means I will be sitting in the computer lab while the students work independently with the computer program. Not too hard for me. :o) Then I will be the assistant teacher in a 2nd and 3rd grade combo class. Woah! That is new! The classes are so small for this next year that they decided to combine the classes. So I will be teaching more, but not be completely in charge of the class. I'm really excited about that. I went to school to teach elementary school, so I feel like I'll be using my education more. I'm totally happy about that! The thing I'm sad about is that I won't be teaching elementary art anymore. I've loved teaching elementary art. If I can get my act together I'll have some projects ready for the teachers at the beginning of the year. I have so many great ideas! I don't want them to go wasted.

So that's my story.


Now for some art projects!
I did this with my 2nd grade class before school got out. We spent one class time painting paper and using those wooden spoons from ice cream to make texture in the paper. The next class time we cut out the paper to make sea creatures. They loved this! Even the students who don't usually like the projects liked this one. :o) We talked about how Eric Carle does this kind of thing to make his illustrations for his books. It was very fun.