Bulletin Board Time!

It's back to school time, and I have been very busy in the art room. This year, I decided to change my class theme to a garden and bug theme, so the following two boards were born. The first board is my behavior board. Each pocket corresponds with a seat in my classroom. In the pockets are card that can be pulled based on the behavior or each individual student. It is located next to the door, so as each classroom teacher comes to pick up their class, they can easily see if any students have misbehaved.

The second board is located outside my classroom door. I decided to add quotes about art, in hopes that it would give classes something to discuss and think about while waiting in the hallway.

I am currently working on two more boards, one of which is a No-No board and the other is about the elements of art and principles of design. I will post pictures when finished.

Back to school!

Well, it's that time of year again, and school has started back up. I decided to keep the theme of jungle for my classroom, but I have included more lizards this year, as well as the monkeys from last year. Here are a few of my bulletin boards. The first one is my behavior board. I have assigned a number to each of the seats, and have a corresponding pocket on the board with four pieces of colored construction paper in the pockets. As a child chooses to misbehave, their "cards" are pulled, and there are consequences given. This board is right by the door, so as the classroom teachers arrive to pick up their students, they can easily see if a child misbehaved.

The next board is the one outside of my classroom. We have new teachers this year, and with two art teachers (one outside in a portable) I wanted to make sure that they could find my room.

I have quite a few bulletin boards in my classroom, but they are not in the most convenient areas of the room. One of the boards has to be covered up by the shelf that I use to hold the children's artwork, so I decided to "split" up the remaining board.

Now let's talk storage. I mentioned the shelf that I use for storing my students artwork. Storage is a huge issue for art teachers, and unless you are in a room designed for art, you need to get very creative. I was very lucky to have a kindergarten teacher who decided that she didn't need this piece of furniture anymore. I offered to give it a home. I have little labels with the teacher's names on them stapled to the sides of the shelves. The artwork can be stored flat (unless, as you can see, I let one of the little ones put the artwork in instead of me doing it)

I also have two little wooden shelves that hold plastic bins along one of my wall. I have not finished putting all of the art supplies out yet, but I like using these bins because then I can grab the whole bin to pass out supplies.

I also have a wooden shelf with the glue on it, and a set of drawers with things like brushes, beads, scissors, etc.The drawers are nice because they slide all the way out for distribution.

Art Room Bulletin Boards

Here are just a couple of my bulletin boards. The one that says "Watch Out..." is actually outside my classroom, while the others are inside. The leopard print letters are made out of felt, while the rest of the letters are made out of cardstock, and the border is made of construction paper. There are also a couple of scrapbooking stickers (the monkeys). I always use fabric to cover my boards. It lasts a lot longer than paper, and keeps it's color longer too.

This one is my behavior board. Each of the seats in my room are labeled with a number that corresponds with a numbered pocket on the board. Inside the pocket are colored pieces of paper- green, blue, yellow, and red. Every child starts out with their color in green, no matter what kind of day they have had in their classroom. After receiving a verbal warning for any infraction to a rule, I will change their color to blue. This a visual reminder that they have not had a perfect day in my room. If there is another incident during the same class time, their card will be changed to yellow. The classroom teachers at my school all have a similar system, so if the students get on yellow in my room, they know that they have to change a card in their classroom as well. If I have to change their card to red, they must go over to my phone and call their parents at work, and explain why they are in trouble (of course I make sure that they are really telling why they are in trouble, and talk to the parents as well). Anything that happens after this is an office visit.

This is my No-No Board. These are things that I do not want to see in my students artwork. These are things like no stick people, clouds are not blue, no floating people, the sun does not smile, the sky goes all the way to the ground, no scribbling, and their name does not go across the top of their paper, plus a few others. I find it helpful to have this posted so that the students are reminded, and can remind the other students at their table.