Classroom Incentive: Moo Cards!

For the past several years, we’ve had Mona Money in the art room.  For good behavior, participation, etc., students earned stamps (dollar signs) on green index cards that they kept in their table folders.  At the end of the semester, I’d take a fun trip to the dollar store and load up on TONS of goodies to sell at our art auction.  It worked out that almost every kid would end up with something.  this was definitely something the kids looked forward to.

So, this year, I was nervous to announce that room 33 would no longer be a world of Mona Money, but instead….Moo cards!

I wasn’t sure how this idea would go over with the students, but they love it!  I found a site, Moo.com, that made “mini moo cards.”  I started thinking of what I could design that would get my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders excited about earning them.  While checking out the site, I found that they already have tons of artwork available for use on your moo cards.  There were quirky, silly and interesting designs that I knew my students would love.  So, I picked out 100 designs, designed a back to the card, complete with words of affirmation and our classroom blog address, and placed my order! 

There are a lot of cool ways you could use these mini cards and Moo does a good job of marketing these ideas in their newsletters.

Art Center Mania!

One of the things I implemented in my classroom several years ago was center activities.  It is probably one of my favorite areas of the classroom, and has definitely become a kid favorite as well!  Centers are available for students to “visit” if they fnish work of art with class time remaining.  Sometimes, we are even lucky enough to have Center days!  There are probably about 50 activity choices in my centers area: drawing books, tangrams, art games, pattern blocks, stamps, modeling clay, architecture magnets, card games, and much, MUCH more! 

Thomas tries out animation using one of the art links on our Rosa Parks Symbaloo at http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/artlinksforkids!

 

Grace is working on a magnetic mosaic!  (This center always gets chosen, even though there is never enough time to finish a masterpiece!)

Kaitlyn and Jayde work on drawing realistically from a drawing book.

Teachers:  If you are interested in learning more about our centers, send a note my way! 

Parents: Don’t be alarmed if your child brings home a paper airplane, pipe cleaner creature or foam construction from art class, and be reassured that those items are not part of our curriculum, but rather exploration time for your child!  (I always remind the students, “Please make sure your parents know this was a free time choice center!”)

Whammie Woof is Sick… :(

In case you haven’t heard the news, room 33′s beloved class “pet,” Whammie Woof, is sick.  While he once sang with joy and flapped his ears when classrooms earned 10 points in class, now, he just sings.  His ears flap no more.  Perhaps this is a result of many a joyful song because the RPE students are so amazing, or maybe it was the result of an overly friendly friend playing with his ears as he waited quietly at the front of the room.  Whatever it was, he is just not the same.  Whammie will continue to live happily and sing a joyful song, but if you have a singing, animated pet that you’ve been looking to give up for adoption, Whammie could use a friend in these difficult times.