What did cutesy art projects and worksheets ever do to you?

[Em_Catz]

So our P sent out a rather long, somewhat nasty e-mail yesterday in which she said she's tired of all the "cutesy" art projects (she didn't give a clear example, so I can only go by what's in our hall. it isn't stuff like the kids coloring in Santa Claus, but things like: "draw and write about how your family celebrates _______ holiday" or when we learned about frogs, we painted their life cycles onto plates and labelled them.) in the primary wing and that she would hate to ban crayons from the lower grades like she's done with the upper ones


She went on to say she doesn't want to see anymore worksheets up either. (You all, especially Sarge, may remember past posts I've written about her strange vendetta against worksheets). According to her, "worksheets are AWFUL, a waste of time. I wish I could burn every one of them.

*end rant*

So...I'm curious. What sorts of stuff do YOU put up on the walls of your school, especially those of you in the lower grades.

[czacza]

Truthfully I don't see worksheets on display in my building. I do see writing with illustrations. I see technology integrated projects. I see 'art' integrated into the curriculum (your paper plate life cycles would fit here). Math glyphs and graphing...

[Em_Catz]

Originally Posted by czacza

...I see technology integrated projects.

Can you give an example and around what grade level? Maybe I can do something similar with my kids.

Originally Posted by czacza

I see 'art' integrated into the curriculum (your paper plate life cycles would fit here)...

Yeah I thought so too...that's the fun of working with an irrational P...you never know exactly what she DOES want, just what she doesn't

[czacza]

Ok...technology...we have Kidspiration software...lots of graphic organizers for kids to demonstrate and illustrate understanding of curriculum. You could also use Kidpix or other 'paint' software to illustrate and add writing. We also se Printshop software. Try Wordle or Tagxedo (free online) for word cloud kinds of projects.

[pwhatley]

Paper plate life cycles - details please!

Back on topic:
Ummm, I have some worksheets posted, along with cut & pastes, tests with good grades, etc. My P made a statement about kids not coloring this year (because the 4th & 5th test scores last year were abysmal). Coloring is, in fact, part of the first grade curriculum (we obviously don't do coloring pages) - we incorporate it via color by sum/difference fact pages (um, I don't know how to have written proof of math fact knowledge without drill sheets, at least at this age), story illustrations, etc. The other day, I even found a "color by sight word" page for my lowest kiddos.

I dunno. I'm currently in the middle of reading Readicide, which basically tells how we're killing kids love of reading (and learning) by taking all the fun out of it and drilling them to death!

[KinderCowgirl]

I know how this will come off, but that's my pet peeve too. I do believe in authentic work from the kiddos-art can be a great tool to promote creativity, but that doesn't usually come from coloring worksheets. My hall bulletin board, the kids painted Christmas trees with forks and wrote from the perspective of an ornament.

[Loomistrout]

Originally Posted by Em_Catz

... According to her, "worksheets are AWFUL, a waste of time. I wish I could burn every one of them....

How does she feel about textbooks? They are filled with worksheets except with a binding. They would make a better fire.

If she wants staff to view her as a viable instructional leader she should demonstrate several lessons across grade levels in which whatever method she advocates far outweighs both in learning and workload the use of worksheets.

[MissScrimmage]

I wouldn't display a worksheet. My art is always process focused and related to curricular outcomes. Right now I have students' writing on one bulletin board, patterned ornaments on another one and painted snowmen on display in the hall.

[knitter63]

i'm in the upper elementary, but we still try to put out creative/art projects in the hallway. Right now we are all required to have our 1st grading period writing assignment out there.
I don't have a problem with worksheets. With all we have to do in a day, I just can't see whipping up art or technology projects (especially without computers in our rooms) every day to take the place of worksheets. Don't get me wrong, I don't over use worksheets, but I do use them.

[waterfall]

My P is anti both of those things as well. Teachers don't use worksheets because they are slammed on walkthroughs if they do. We use mini white boards for pretty much everything, or have students answer questions/do problems on notebook paper. We aren't allowed to do art because it "wastes instructional time" and "kids only 'like' it because it's easy/not real work" (in response to a teacher saying that integrating arts kept kids engaged). In my hallway I have an art project up that my kids did in art class. The art teacher gave them to me and asked if I wanted to display them...so I have artwork out there, but it was done in the "appropriate" class. On the wall right now the only student work I have up is some descriptive paragraphs about winter. The paper had a little snowman in the corner. I did let kids who finished early color it, but I could have lived without doing that and just put the writing up. Most of my wall space has anchor charts, vocab, center directions, pbis charts for each student, etc. Even if we did do worksheets, I wouldn't consider those worthy of hanging on the wall.