Saturday, July 9, 2011

Be Kind to Your Erasers!

The poor, abused eraser. :(
There was a BIG problem with respecting supplies in my classroom this year, especially the erasers.  I have supply baskets at each table and started off with  or 4 brand new, big pink erasers at each.  Lots of erasers "disappeared" (I finally put out new ones but said I would not replace anymore if they were going to keep "disappearing") and the ones that stayed were not in good shape.  It drives me crazy when I see students drawing on, stabbing, and/or cutting the shared erasers.  If they want to destroy their own supplies, fine by me.  But when it's the supplies that are shared by all the students, we have a problem.  I finally remembered the Fugleflick, "Be Kind to Your Erasers" by Art teacher, Tricia Fuglestad and made a poster inspired by the video.  (I could not show it at the time but have since worked out my video issues at school.)


The students were intrigued by the poster and I think humanizing the erasers on the poster helped.  It seems like when the students can imagine the art supplies as people, they remember to take better care of them.  Example: I have students who talk about Mr.Brush every time we paint, even before I can point to the poster!

I used pencil, markers, watercolors, and magazine pages to make my poster.

4 comments:

  1. Oh, this is just great!

    We have the same problem at our school!

    Just a pity they don't understand English, otherwise I could show the video in class too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your poster! I also ask the students to treat their brushes like they are our friends! Brushes don't like to hit their heads on the side of the pool when they go for a swim and they like to have good hair days too!!! It makes the kids think differently about their supplies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Katie,
    I feel your pain!
    Hope erasers have a better life in your art room from now on.
    I still struggle, but it's nice to have a way to remind students to be kind to their erasers:)

    I have a bunch of similar videos here:
    http://fugleflicks.wikispaces.com/Fugleflick_Index

    Tricia Fuglestad

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love your poster! I, too, use the Mr. Brush poster and the kids love and remember it!

    ReplyDelete