Classroom door decorations are commonly used in grade schools. It's usually the teacher who does this project, decorating the inside of the door with colored cardboard images suited to the season or photos on a particular topic the class is studying this month. Cardboard pumpkins, ghosts and witches for Halloween, snowflakes for winter or photos of endangered species for a special study topic. These classroom door decorations do brighten up the classroom and may be informative, as in the case of the photos. However, when the teacher does the decorating, there's not much student involvement or educational value. If you're a teacher, consider handing this project over to the kids. Your usual grade school class curriculum includes time spent on art projects.
When you make the classroom door decorations a class art project, you'll generate a lot of enthusiasm from the kids, while integrating lessons in brainstorming, teamwork and thinking outside the box. With you, the teacher, serving as moderator and note taker, the kids will have a hand in creating classroom door decorations they'll be proud to show to friends and parents.
Pull tables together so all the kids can sit together. Give them each a sheet of newsprint and distribute crayon boxes around the table. Encourage doodling during the discussion, which may help them come up with some good ideas. Introduce the idea of a theme and let them know that any and all ideas are welcome. Let's say it's October and Halloween is just around the corner. At the same time, you've been teaching the kids about the basics of nutrition, the food pyramid and what they should be eating.
Do the kids know what various foods are good for, in terms of health benefits? They may know fruit is a healthy dessert, but that is not very motivational. Kids need to answer the question, 'why' before they're likely to take action on their own. After you've explained what a theme is, you might toss out the idea of making a mural, divided into geometric shapes for each child to decorate with a picture of one fruit or veggie, followed by a short description of what that particular produce does to benefit their health. A third or fourth grader can easily research the benefits of any given food right on the net. Ask the kids for a show of hands as to how many are interested in this theme for their classroom door decorations. Write this theme down in your notebook, along with the number of interested kids.
Move on to the next idea. Does anyone else have a different theme for our classroom door decorations? You might get some fantastically imaginative ideas. By the end of your brainstorming session, you should have quite a list of ideas. Now you have a chance to teach a little of the democratic process. Go down your list, theme by theme and count hands to determine the most popular of your classroom door decorating ideas.
Establish a time frame of one to two weeks per project, ensuring that every child's pet project is completed within the school year. Every kid's idea has merit. For those which need some development, offer some one-on-one guidance, with suggestions on expanding that theme to fill it out. Add these ideas to your notebook. Next time the kids are to choose a new project, read the new, expanded description, which may now generate new enthusiasm for that particular classroom door decoration.
Before taking down the latest project, take a digital picture which can be reproduced and distributed to all the kids. At the end of the school year, these can be pasted into scrap books as mementos of their team creativity. They might also be displayed on your school's website or in the school library.
This is a fun way to spend the art period, building confidence, creative thinking and teamwork skills. You don't have to give up the usual seasonal decorations. Hang them in the classroom windows!
You have read the best review article categorized by free tips
and the title Put kids in charge of the classroom door decorations to. You can bookmark or spread this post by using this URL http://howto-howto8.blogspot.com/2012/09/put-kids-in-charge-of-classroom-door.html. Thank You!
Comments :
0 comments to “Put kids in charge of the classroom door decorations to”
Post a Comment