Traffic Light and Artopoly

Time for another classroom management post. Now that you know about "show me the Mona Lisa" I'd like to introduce you to my traffic light!

The traffic light works not only as a visual reminder, but as way to play Artopoly! Here are the rules:

1. The traffic light determines their behavior/sound level.
• Green Light: You can talk in a normal inside voice
• Yellow light: You are being warned for being too loud or unruly! Whisper until you have earned green light again!
• Red light: Stop! You are too loud! Silent art for 1 minute, or longer if the class can't follow the traffic light. Sometimes I even have the class put their head down until they can be quiet and under control.  They can move back to yellow if they work silently!
2. AFTER cleanup (this is key! Sometimes its the only way I can get the kids to clean up) and everyone's head is down, I will roll a giant dice.
3. Whatever number I roll, their pin moves on the board. Each pin is labeled with their grade, and teacher...for instance 2M.
4. Sometimes they land on prizes such as radio day, switch seats day, etc. If they make it the whole way, EACH student who didn't get their name written on the board gets to pick a prize out of my treasure box.
5. **I only roll the dice if they are on green light! If they end they day on  yellow light "they have to go slow" and only move 1 spot. If they are on red light, they don't move at all**

This game was a BIG hit with all grade levels. Even my "too cool for traffic light games" six graders would whisper if they went to yellow light. My best classes even made it to the treasure box twice. Between "show me the mona lisa", the traffic light, and the artopoly game, I was able to somehow control my classes! The kids love this game!

My artopoly game was inspired by this pintrest post. However, I am not a huge fan of Monoply and I wanted a more whimsical "candy land" like feel!

Views of my Classroom: Making it my own

Here are various images of my classroom while I was setting it up.

 I stapled fabric on my bulletin boards. The fabric doesn't fade or show holes!

 Do you see the sign I made on the wall by the clock?

 Van Gogh on the walls! Thank you Michaels for the cheap prints!

 I say this or a version of this 100 times a day! Also notice I moved the shelves that were in the front of the room, to the back.

 Setting on my desk. (It as never this clean again)

 Fabric on the bulletin boards by my desk. One board has famous art and quotes, the other has my own art I made in high school.

Art room rules, color wheel, Mona Lisa, traffic light. (These will be in a later post)

 On the shelving in the back of the room I have a colored caddy for each table. My tables have a colored tape on the edge of them. Wow where did all those nice sharp colored pencils go??

 By the door: Bathroom passes, and a Who's Out? Sign out

 The completed fabric by the doors. This is where I ended up putting all my "art love notes" from students.

 By the smart board...artopoly! I will talk about this in a later post.

 This was a major change I made to the room. I turned what used to be book cases sideways, and cleared them out. Now I have 4 shelves with 6 spaces for art folders. You can see the piles of folders ready to go on the shelves. I made the folders using recycled poster signs from my local clothing store!

 Art room jobs. Let's reflect on this later, shall we?

Thanks for taking the tour!

Views of My Classroom: Before I settled in

Here are some images of my classroom before I settled in. There was a unique circumstance where the previous art teacher didn't get the chance to pack up her classroom. Here is what it looked like when I first walked in the door last August.

In the last couple of pics you can see where I started taking everything out of the boxes and seeing what I had to work with. When you are walking into a new classroom, make sure you go through every cupboard, every drawer. You need to get all the brushes in once place, and discover that you have 2000 rulers. I found things that looked like it hadn't been touched since the 70's. As an art teacher you want to hold on to everything in case you need it...but you really don't need everything. I threw away old file folder stencils shaped liked snowflakes. I threw away other crafty things that I just couldn't see myself using. I donated a few nicer things a well. Tip #1 to first year teachers. PURGE!