Tis the season of school supplies, new clothes, and the refreshing of curricula. This will be the second year we have started out the school year with our school behavior plan called PBIS. Students will hear about the 3 things that will make them STAR students : Be Responsible, Be Respectful, and Be Safe. I have these posted on bright posters in the front of my room and show a brief powerpoint of my interpretations of these 3 things when the students enter the classroom. It is not my ideal way to start the school year, rules, bleck! A necessary evil, especially for my students. The classroom teachers are invited to come in and listen for the first 8-10 minutes of this presentation, so that the kids can hopefully see a united front. Most of the time the kids do not think we talk to each other, more than half the time they're right- :(. I was excited to see a lot of familiar faces and see how much some of them grew over the summer. The classes are bigger this year and we have quite a few new teachers, I think this first week has been the most intense in the 6 years I've been at this school. I like to get started with art making the first week and I was very happy that we started school on a Monday and went the whole week- as hard as it was I think it was worth it.
This next week I will finally get to meet/have all the kindergarteners rather than the 4 kids I had all week due to the phase in, I have to say though, kindergarten is a real challenge- being bubbly is not my thing, but I pull it off and enjoy it. The picture above is a new game I found on Pinterest.com that is a drawing version of the telephone game. Most of the classes eventually did well with the concept and it will be a keeper, other classes could not grasp the concept, so I'll have to figure out something else to do with them. The students turn their backs to each other and the last person in line gets a drawing-lines or shapes, and then uses their finger to draw that image on to the back of the person in front of them. That image gets passed in line all the way to the front, where that student is waiting to draw what they felt on a dry erase board, only to hold it up and see if it matches the original drawing. It was supposed to be a great "quiet activity" or so the pinterest.com link said-not in this case. Nevertheless it was a great addition to the art room. I also started a website just for the Vena Stuart art room for parents and kids. Check out the link on My Classroom.