ArtSmart Behavior Board

May I present to you my new and very much improved behavior board! Is it bad that I had a super fun time making it this morning? I stuck with the same seven behavior category goals as last year as I feel my kiddos and I had a pretty good groove happening by Spring! The guidelines are simple and as follows: Enter the room quietly, Raise your hand when you want to share with the class, Listen carefully to/follow project directions, Practicing kindness to classmates, Volume, Clean up, and Quiet/Straight line as we wait at the door. I developed these for some of my younger classes who struggled with behavior when they would visit the art room. The final thirty seconds of every single class I teach involves a group evaluation of how their class did that day. Each student gives me a thumbs up or a  thumbs down for each category and surprisingly, the kids are pretty keen judges of how things went.  I use the chart with grades K-4 (I'm proud to say that my 5th and 6th graders did such a good job in the art room last year I rarely needed to refer to the chart!) I find that the more my classroom teacher gets involved in checking out the chart when they pick up the group, the more the kids get invested in getting all green, or as a 3rd grade group of mine coined it, "A clean sweep!"

Last year's sign was embarrassingly unattractive. It was done in about five minutes by hand (between classes on a whim) and I used tape to hold up the red or green faces which often fell down. Ugh, what was I thinking? I predict magnets will work much better and the new lettering is much easier to read and more visually captivating!

I got this board for about $3.99 (after a coupon) from Michaels. I used permanent Sharpie markers to do the black writing and the fancy, colorful patterns!

For the faces, I used some cardboard box scraps and mixed up some colorful hues in acrylic. I added some magnets to the back and went over the faces with some clear gloss varnish so they'll last through the year.

Fellow bloggers: How do you manage the behavior in your art room? I am feeling nosey about how other teachers approach moderating a creative environment, please indulge me with your wisdom.