How I Do Art Class "Prize Day"

 Hey guys, today I 'm going to share how my classroom prize system and what I call "Prize Day" works for elementary and/or middle school teachers looking for ideas. 

I tried a prize ticket system last year where students got a circle on their punch card colored in each time they answered a question correctly, were extra helpful/went the extra mile, tried to encourage classmates, worked extra diligently, did selfless acts of kindness and such. That system did not work at all, so I scrapped that this past semester and tried some new systems. For one thing, some students cheated or accused one another of cheating, and I could not monitor every punch card all day (which I'd also given the students responsibility for taking care of, anyhow). Sometimes they would go missing. They were an extra thing to clean up and do throughout class. They were just a pain and caused a lot of conflict. 

This year I used a different ticket system in upper school where I bought a hug roll of Dollar Tree tickets, and if someone earned one I handed them a ticket, they'd write their name, and every Friday we did a drawing. I would gather them up in a large Ziplock bag, and kept all of them except those that were drawn for the weekly prize. The rules were that the same person couldn't be drawn two weeks in a row, and the idea was that tickets would accumulate so if you were doing an extra awesome job, you had a better chance at having your name drawn. The downsides were that I had to guard the tickets and bag better because there were accusations in one class that they were being taken and some people were adding tickets they didn't earn to the bag and whatnot. Another downside was I consistently seemed to draw the same few names, so then I switched to giving everyone a turn per week based on the next name drawn until everybody had gone, then restarted the cycle. That in turn kind of ruined the point of harder work earning one more prizes, though. So all of that said, I probably will not use this system next fall, it needs a lot of improvement, but it was way better than the previous punch cards I'd used and the students loved the weekly drawings. This worked especially well for my 7th grade class. 

Then for lower school I did group prizes instead of individual prizes because I had a lot of students and really could not have kept up with individual ones although I hate doing whole group consequences/rewards that only some students deserve. I remember a mentor I had doing a paint palette system where each class the students as a whole did a great job, they got a paint spot added until the palette was full and they had a prize day. She was a brilliant art teacher, so I tried it and it worked great.

 These systems also meant I didn't need to do nearly so many prize days, and to be honest, they got overwhelming and costly my first year so this worked way better. I get some prizes at Dollar Tree but since their prices went up, I mostly try to buy them in bulk on Amazon. I find some good toys for really cheap at a local discount store too (Debb's Dollar Discount). I get Squishies in bulk at Walmart. On prize day, I have a sign that lets students know which toys count for a prize, and which prizes they can get more than one of. For example, the plastic animals are really cheap and I tend to have plenty of those, so those are two or four as one prize whereas they could only choose one Popit because Popits are worth more. I let my high school small groups pick out prizes for memorizing monthly Bible verses and all students get a prize of choice on their birthdays. 

Hopefully that made sense and this inspires some of the teachers out there looking to change up their prize systems or searching for prize ideas. I know some teachers are against doing prizes at all, and I completely understand and respect that, but I find them fun and one of my love languages is gift-giving, so they feel essential to me, personally. As far as what prizes I offer in my art class prize drawer, I have scented erasers, scented glue sticks, scented pens, gel pens, markers, scented markers, stickers, Popits, fidget toys of all sorts, Squishies, pretty paper clips, animals, play dough, silly banz, Popit pens and notebooks, bubbles, foam dice toys, pretty tape, keychains, bouncy balls, and basically just a lot of random stuff that are fun, practical, or both. Thanks for visiting! 

-Lauryn 

Fairytale/Book-Themed Art Classroom Tour

 Hey guys, today I have a few photos to share of my easy fairytale book-aesthetic art classroom with an overview of how I made some of the decorations in case you want to make some, too. 

In the bathroom I hung a moss mirror, which I made by simply pulling moss out of our yard and hot-gluing it on. Surprisingly, it stayed green all semester. I used brown Dollar Tree packaging paper to cut out some of the banner and quote shapes, then drew on them with brown markers. The banner was made from old books and fabric strips I cut and tied into tassels (I had the fabric on hand). 

Behind my desk I hung up all of the papers and cards students gave me throughout the semester. On the opposite side by the white board, I created a "quote wall" where I hung up the wise words my students said. My students seemed to really enjoy contributing to the quote wall. I am definitely going to continue that next year. I was given vines for my birthday, so I pinned those around my whiteboard and stuck up golden cardboard stars I made for past events a long time. I have collected lots of fake plants over the years from gifts, sales, and such which I used in both the classroom and bathroom. The banner above my desk was made from thrift store yarn turned into tassels (you just wrap it around a book or something, tie the top and trim the bottom) and wooden Dollar Tree blocks I hot-glued between each tassel. I got pumpkins for later in the fall from a local store that sells new items for cheap, so they were like 10 cents each. I bought the string lights and lamp last year from Walmart and thrift stores. I originally decorated the window but ended up taking it all down. The sign on the door was a moss wreath from a thrift store I tied yellow fabric to. I cut out butterflies from an old book and hot glued them on, along with another brown paper banner. I did not make the bulletin board décor, a super creative and talented colleague designed and made that with a Cricut machine. 

I hope to share my Christmas décor soon (and yes, I already decorated on November 1st as is my routine). Thank you for stopping by! 

-Lauryn 

A Tour of My Art Classroom Throughout 2021

 Hello, today I'd like to share some photos of my art classroom (used for middle school). I may not have mentioned it on the blog, but last fall I was hired as an art and drama teacher for grades K-12. These photos are from three different periods my first semester: my original decorations at the beginning of the semester, fall decorations, and Christmas decorations (they may be slightly out of order). I hope you enjoy the tour! 

Thank you for visiting, I have more to share with you (hopefully soon)!

-Lauryn

Artistic Developmentally-Apropriate Valentines for Kids to Make (Tutorial)

Happy belated Valentine's Day! I am sorry this is late and not very useful for 2020. I nearly wrote this whole post yesterday, but I just couldn't upload the photos and finish it in time. I hope everyone had a great Valentine's. Here are some Valentine cards made by my friends that, according to my training thus far in art education, are appropriate for the preschool and kindergarten to early elementary school artistic stages of development.

I'll begin with preschool. My friend Morgan, who is three, loves trains, so that was his theme. If you want a young child (or anyone, actually) to  make valentines, they need intinsic motivation, so go with the theme the child chooses so long as it is appropriate. They may need some prompting. At the preschool ages, children need to experiment freely with a wide variety of media. They should not copy tutorials or simply color in coloring pictures (that is a whole discussion for another time), but should get a feel for various media and techniques while expressing themselves with as few limits as possible. For our valentines, Morgan cut out and tore paper, glued collages, used recycled cardboard (that was safe to use), colored and drew trains with pencils, painted trains with watercolor, and with supervision used perment marker on top of the recycled collages. We even tried to make cardboard hearts with string wrapped around it, but he got bored with that process quickly. In short, we used lots of media and made different kinds of valentines to not only hold his attention and make them fun, but also so he could continue using his imagination, fine motor skills, and grow more proficient at all different media (although he is advanced in artistic development and quite skilled at the media already). Just give your child lots of supplies, and supervise/prompt them as they create. I cut out the cardboard hearts to make the process more efficient (since their attention spans may not be very long at that age). After, write "Happy Valentine's Day", preferrably add a pun to go with the theme, and have the child sign in cursive, which is easier than regular writing. On our heart collages, I wrote "I love you from the bottom of my heart" with the "I love you" literally on the bottom part. I thought it was hilarious, but then again, I am easily amused by puns, especially when a fitting one just pops into mind like that one. I also added train whistles from Dollar Tree to go with them.

My friend Lillie made hers all on her own, but I thought they were great and wanted to share them. If you have a child at the elementary stage or at the point where they love to write, they could cut out hearts (she told me she used one of the cardboard hearts as a template to trace), write a message inside, and then add something such as pencils. If they don't like to write, then they could try one of the activities above or use a new medium. We washi-taped in glowsticks (which was her suggestion). Make sure that the child signs their name, preferrably in cursive since that is much easier to learn, more fun, and looks very pretty.

I hope these quick tips and ideas are helpful! I have some art history inspired valentines to share next! Thanks for visiting!

-Lauryn