Monday Made It--Classroom Signs

Skipping out on Made 4 Math Monday since these aren't necessarily "math" related and instead joining 4th Grade Frolics for my first

I wanted to do these all last year, but never got around to it with all of the other craziness of switching jobs mid-year. Without further adeiu....

SWAG signs. I got SWAG from Pinterest, but I cannot for the life of me find the post. I used it all last year. It stands for Sit up straight Watch the speaker Ask questions and Give snaps. All are self explanatory except G. We give snaps whenever someone makes a positive contribution to class--not just for right answers! It helps keep us participating and motivated. I painted some canvas, printed out the bubble letters then traced and cut out of sparkly chevron scrap book paper that I found at Hobby Lobby and just could not say no to.

These will hang on my wall in my classroom. The W was still wet, so it isn't finished here. I wanted to get this posted.

My school uses the acronym "LEAD" as well. Each morning on the announcements the principal says "Remember each day we want you to LEAD. You never know you can LEAD until you try!" Lead stands for Listen to others, Engage yourself, Accept responsibility, and Do your best.

I ran out of space on the A and the L is all crooked, so it's not as pretty as I would have liked, but not much I can do sadly. They were out of E's but will get a truck tomorrow, so I will hopefully be able to finish then. These will also go on the wall in my classroom. I covered the canvases with scrap book paper then hot glued a painted wooden letter on.

In my absence, I have gained some hippy-type qualities. I've gone vegan, I oil pull, I try to use natural EVERYTHING in my home, I'm going to do oil diffusing in my classroom...it's gone a little far. It all kind of started last summer when I took Hot Yoga on Long Island, and when I got hit with a few rough patches between August and the present, I've looked at what I learned there to get me through it. Mainly, I've used mantras. 

Around testing time last year, I had the idea of getting my kids to write mantras to keep them calm and motivated during the test. Unfortunately, the schedule was too crazy to get this done as I hardly saw my kids for the last two week prior to testing. About a month ago I was at a 7 Habits committee meeting at school and suggested we have the kids write mantras for that. I knew I wanted one in my classroom as a generality as well, but hadn't really started trying to write one or looking. Wouldn't you know it, while I was browsing through my Blogger subscriptions I saw A Sea of Math posted one. It's perfect. So I painted another canvas and wrote it on there. Naturally, I didn't give myself enough space to fit it. It wouldn't be me if I planned ahead. Sigh.

I started out by drawing 1x1 grids then diagonals through each to create a chevron pattern. I then used painters tape to block them off. In retrospect, I should have painted the whole thing white THEN done the grid, but hind sight is 20/20.

I then painted over the entire thing white so the colors would have a good base. Again, next time I will paint white THEN grid and tape.

I peeled back the paint and had pretty zig-zagged chevron :) I could still see the lines, and there were a few spots where the tape wasn't quite even so I painted over it with white in those spots.

(Terrible picture quality) I used a sharpie paint pen to write the words from the Mantra. The light is bad, so it's hard to see in the picture, but it's not bad in real life. 

I will be working in my classroom tomorrow and Thursday, so I will post pictures of these hanging beautifully in my room :)

Completely unrelated--I want to do a data wall. I tried the poster board thing last year and it was ok, but not what I want. How do you do data walls in your classroom? It's so hard to find good examples for middle school math!