Displaying Student Work
One of the challenges I knew I'd be facing with my classroom is the lack of wall/bulletin board space. One wall is taken up completely by windows, while this limits areas to hang things, I have to say I really do love the amount of sunlight it lets in. :) We have a beautiful oak growing outside our window and I find myself rarely turning the lights on and allowing my students to work from sunlight instead. :) Two walls are bulletin/white boards, and the last wall is cabinets and shelving. While I do like the storage capacity of this wall I felt like it would be impossible for me to display student work. I believe this is important as it improves my students' self-confidence and allows me to display work that meets or exceeds my expectations. In order to optimize this space I created these little ribbon strips that fit over the door...
The holder is a giant loop. The front part of the loop is made from ribbon and the back part is elastic. This allows the holder to fit snugly on the door without damaging the door with adhesives, nails, tacks, etc.
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| Back side (inside of door) |
The clothespins were hot glued on the front and each student is assigned a pin. For the most part I allow them to maintain their own clips, however I occasionally have them all post similar things. In this case each student had an ice cream cone hung. As the students learn their multiplication facts they get to color each of the related scoops. (There's a 'two's' scoop, 'five's' scoop, etc.)
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| The clothespins are spaced just far enough apart for 'computer -sized' paper. |
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Positive Behavior System
I firmly believe in the power of a Positive Behavior System. The school has a system already in place that consists of handing our tickets when we catch students being good. I wanted to add something within my own classroom though and my "Seeds of Success" were born...
The bucket in the middle is filled with seeds (colored cotton balls). If students are able to meet my expectations for a task (i.e. good behavior during lunch is worth 5 seeds, specials are worth 3, and each of my subject areas are worth 2. Perfect behavior during fire drills, tornado drills, lockdowns, etc. are worth 15 seeds.) they get to place the specified amount of seeds in their jar. (The decorated jar.) If they are unable to meet my expectations they gradually lose their seeds and have to give them up to me. (My jar is the undecorated one.) At the end of the week if they have more seeds than me we do a fun activity. (Ideas include no shoes day, choose your seat day, homework passes for everyone, eating lunch outside, cool science experiment activities, math games, SmartBoard games, etc.) If I have more they don't get their reward.
To build on the PBS ticket system used by my school. I also hand out gemstone rocks to the individual students. Once they earn five rocks they can trade them in for a ticket. These cute little buckets were purchased at Target. They have little chalkboard shapes on them where I write their names.
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| I know the lighting is bad. Sorry :( |
~Farm Girl Teacher
The buckets line the windowsill and students can keep their rocks, tickets, lunch tag, special pencils, etc. here.
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The students really love just having this little area just to themselves!
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