Art Room Adventures The Crayola Wars

Remember the thrill of earning a gold star in elementary school? That rush of pride is what I strive to recreate in my art classroom with a twist, and I can't wait to share how my 'Crayola Wars' game has transformed the way my students engage with art and each other. Capturing their imagination, classes from kindergarten to fifth grade compete in a battle of behavior, earning crayons for their paper boxes with each act of kindness, focus, and respect for art supplies. The prize? A pizza party that has them buzzing with anticipation and teamwork. Listen to the tales of triumph and the incredible change in classroom dynamics that this colorful competition has brought about.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Good afternoon, ginger Adventurers. In this episode I'm going to be sharing with you some things that go on in my art room. This first thing I wanted to talk about was a behavior management tool that I use called Crayola Wars. It's actually something that I found from Pinterest. I don't know that you'd be able to find it if you typed in Crayola Wars, but when you type in art room behavior management, I do believe that this comes up. It's really super cute. So what I did was I took construction paper and I created paper crayon boxes and on each crayon box I listed the name of the teacher of each class. I have 21 classes. I listed the name of the teacher of each class I have 21 classes and then I also marked the grade of that class and I attached the paper crayon boxes to a white poster board. Then I looked online for images of cartoon like crayons and I printed off a bunch of copies of them, cut them out yes, that did take a while and then what I told the classes was that every time that they were in art class, they would have a chance to earn four paper crayons for their class's crayon box.

Speaker 1: 1:45

I have my kiddos come in and sit on the floor on colored circles when we start. That is a little bit different, I'm sure, than some art teacher's routines, but I find that it's very easy that way to take attendance. It's very easy to get the kids settled. Except for the fifth graders aren't real thrilled about sitting on the floor, but most of the other kids are very at home sitting on the floor and it also gives me a chance to go over with them what we're going to be doing for that day. So I call that floor time and they have a chance to earn a crayon for sitting quietly during floor time. Once they've been given instructions, I have them move to the tables and begin their work. They have a chance to earn crayons for that work time.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Then I was having a problem with a lot of my kids mistreating my supplies, and so I told them if you clean up really well and you treat the supplies properly, you'll get a crayon for cleanup. And then I'm sure every teacher is familiar with the battle of having kids line up quickly and quietly, without fighting or being very noisy or being just silly. So I was having this issue with a lot of my classes and I told them if you line up quickly, quietly. We have no issues. You'll get a crayon for lineup. So every day they have a chance to earn four crayons and it's a battle between all the classes from kindergarten through fifth grade who's going to get the most crayons. And then at the end of the month I usually run it for four weeks, sometimes a little bit longer, depending on, like, if Christmas break is coming up, spring break is coming up, depending on the school calendar. But I tell them at the end of that time, whichever class has the most crayons wins a pizza party. So then they'll have pizza during their next art class session.

Speaker 1: 3:40

It's been a huge hit this school year, I got to tell you. I've been a teacher for several years and behavior management has always been an issue at my school. There are a lot of struggling kiddos at my school. I mean, I'm sure every school has struggling kiddos, but I just have had so many unique experiences yeah, um, teaching art this year. I got to tell you. I have not had the behavior problems in my art class this year that I had in general ed when I taught third grade.

Speaker 1: 4:18

The Crayola Wars has been working fantastically. It is a huge motivator to the kids to be able to earn those crayons Today. I just had a pizza party with my kindergarten class because they were the most recent winner, and I'm telling you what these kids were so excited to come in and have a slice of cheese pizza, a cup of water and sit and watch dragon tails while they were eating their pizza. It was the best thing ever to them best thing for today, I'm sure, but I mean their little faces were so lit up and happy and they were very quiet and well behaved. I had zero issues with anybody during their pizza party and I've had a couple of my fifth grade classes have won it. I've had a fourth grade class win it and they're all just so tickled and delighted to have that chance to have pizza and, okay, for the older kids they got to have brownies as well. But yeah, it's worked so well. So if any teacher out there is looking for a behavior management motivator, the Crayola Wars works absolutely fantastically.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Now, obviously, if you're a general ed teacher, it would have to be like a cram box for each child and then they're battling against each other for whatever prize you would give them. But for specials area teachers, gym, music, art, library, computer technology, those classes where you have all the kids in the building having each class battle and then having that whole class get to win a prize. I'm telling you what it has been a game changer for me, and the really cool thing is the teachers are so supportive of it at least in my school, absolutely. The teachers are so supportive of it because when they bring their classes to my room they'll, you know, turn and face their class and be like okay, guys, we want to earn our crayons today. You know, like this one kindergarten teacher, she gets so excited when her kids earn the crayons, and they like seeing their teacher get excited. So then, of course, not only are they trying to earn their crayons, they're trying to earn their teacher's excitement.

Speaker 1: 6:43

A bonus for the kids here is that, because I'm the art teacher and I don't have a class when school first starts, my class, my first class doesn't come until later. I do the school announcements, and so when I do the school announcements, I announce every single morning the class that is in the lead, and even that is a huge motivator. Like the kids want to hear their class's name on the announcements, like the kids want to hear their class's name on the announcements. So, like this morning it was a different class that was in the lead than the class that just had the pizza party, and this class hadn't been in the lead pretty much all school year, so they were ecstatic that they were on the announcements.

Speaker 1: 7:27

Also and this is separate from the Crayola Wars but a huge motivator in my class is stickers, and it's not just the little ones that like stickers. The older kids adore stickers. Like everyone wants to earn a sticker. So when I'm having talking problems and I'm going to be honest, second grade, second grade this year the talking is unreal. It's an issue. The stickers really, really work to bring the noise level down from a level four, where outside on the playground, to like a level one. Those stickers absolutely make a huge difference. So, yeah, if you are a teacher and you have other behavior management ideas, I would love to hear your input. If you would like to comment on the idea that I've shared here, I would love to hear your comments, thoughts, if you have questions about different things going on inside your classroom. I won't have all the answers, but I will tell you. I have years and years of experience. I'm more than happy to talk with you and give you my ideas. That's all I have for now, folks, I'll see you on the wild side.