My Classroom Setup and Flow

 

This is my classroom, where all the art and magic happens. Since my classroom is small, I have established traffic routes and routines to shorten transition time and give students the chance to familiarize themselves with materials and gather them by themselves. In this post, 

I will explain what I have on my walls and why I have put them up. I will also show the marks I have put on the floor to guide students as they move around the classroom. 

 

This is my art wall. This is where I put the art of student's who did a great job following instructions or trying something new that was challenging at first. Sometimes the art on the wall is not perfect but I chose it because I noticed that the student working on it was showing exemplary work.  Next to the work, I put the student's name so they can easily find their work. Students love looking for their art and congratulate their classmates if they find it on the wall. I have had students tell me they felt proud when they saw their art on the wall and it is a positive reinforcement of the work and attitude I expect to see from my students. 

This is next to my white board. In this information section I have many guidelines I noticed my young learners needed. I redirect my student's attention to this section every time we work to remind them of the standards and procedures they need to follow as they work. 

I  noticed many of my students do not cut on the line, usually it is because they want to finish fast. My pizza cutting images serve as a reminder to my students of the proper way to cut and follow the lines that either I or them have drawn as they cut. If I see a student that is not following the lines, I redirect their attention to the pizzas on my wall and remind them of what is the way I expect them to cut in my class. 

The pictures of the palettes with watercolor and acrylic are procedures I have applied in my class to help students control their bodies as they get paint. Many times, they get too much paint in their paintbrush when they want to paint a small area and the excess paint covers other areas of their art. "Touch 1 Time" and "Do Not Scoop the Paint" are the ways I help students gauge how much paint they should get to minimize paint overflow in their art. I also use these as ways to remind them that a way we can take care of the materials in our class is by only using what we need. Only using the amount of paint that we need will help our paint last longer. 

When we start working on a new piece of paper, I tell my students if the paper should be portrait or landscape. Just in case students forget, I have visual guides they can glance at quickly to remind them. 

Since many of my students are ESL students we are always working on using proper terms when we are working. They are always confusing drawing, painting and coloring. I have these visual guides with the materials we use and the proper terms we should use for those materials. 

The shapes and patterns are mainly there to help students get ideas when I ask them to draw different shapes or patterns. 

Just as my students need reminders about how to cut, they also need reminders of the proper way to paint with a paintbrush. I am very adamant about taking care of the materials that we have in class to avoid excessive buying and to teach students to take care of what they have. Especially with my younger students, I have to remind them that one of the best ways we can take care of our paintbrushes is by moving it back and forth properly as we paint. Before we always start painting I remind my students that I don't want to see any sad paintbrushes, only happy paintbrushes. These visual images are a great resource to quickly remind a student that the way they are holding their paintbrush is making it sad and they need to have a happy paintbrush instead. 

This is the visual guide I use the most, I probably use it every day and it is the most helpful one I have. If given the choice, many of my students would color with only 2 different colors and end up with a black hole sort of image, however, that is not what I want them to create. Before we start a project, I ask them what makes a picture good (many colors, coloring inside the lines, coloring everything) and bad (only a few colors, not following lines, there is still a lot of white space left in the paper). This guide has really helped students visualize and understand what I expect of them when they color or paint in my class. I usually have to ask the students that rush through their work if their work looks like a happy flower or a sad flower. This has been so effective that other teachers at my school have started asking students who turn in a messy coloring if Ms. Raquel (me) would say their picture is a happy flower or  sad flower. 

I have lines on the floor to guide students as they move through the class to decrease transition time. One of the markers is my yellow line. This is the line students go to at the end of the day, when I tell them to line up at the yellow line, they know that before they all get on that line everything needs to be cleaned up and the class should look exactly how it looked it when they first came in. 

Another line I have on the floor is pencil and eraser line (materials). Before students come in to my class, I tell them what materials they will need to pick up before they go sit down. The pencil line is the line they all walk to and wait for their turn as they grab either colors, pencil, eraser, scissors, glue or a ruler. Once they have the materials they need, they walk in a straight line to their chair. Giving instructions before students come in to my class helps to remind them they are coming to my class to make art. It also helps me to get their attention and spark their interest as they try to figure out why they need the materials I asked them to gather. 

The next line I have in my class is the apron line. Sometimes I tell them to put on an apron when they first come in, other times I tell them to put on an apron after a lecture. The 3rd year students can line up and put on the apron all by themselves since they have been doing it for a year. The 2nd year students take a little bit longer since this is the year I start giving them the responsibility to do this for themselves. The first 6 months it takes them about 10 minutes to put on the apron and there is a lot of struggle as they fix it and ask their friends to button it on the back. However, I allot  a lot of time for this learning curve since I want them to be independent and practice this fine motor skill. The  1st year students are still too young so they line up and I instruct them to hold their hands up like Superman does when he flies. Towards the end of the year I start showing them how to put on the apron by themselves so it won't be too much of a hassle when I teach them how to put it on by themselves next year. 

Finally, I have the sink line. As you can probably guess, student's hands will get messy and dirty and they hate the feeling of paint on their hands. However, they have learned that they will wash their hands at the end of the class once everything has been cleaned up and once they take off their apron. They stand in a line next to the cabinets by the sink and wait behind the line for their turn. 

These are some of the procedures and transitions I have taught my students to make the flow of the class more seamless. Having visual guides helps students remember what are my expectations in class and it keeps them accountable on the quality of their work. 

Having guides on the floor gives a structure students, and I, can rely on for a smooth transition between lecture time, gathering materials and getting ready to make art.