1. First and foremost, I color code everything. Everything. From tables, to table bins, to supply buckets to the place where the supply buckets are put away. It helps students understand where to place supplies when they are finished using them as well as take ownership for cleaning up the room at the end of the lesson.
2. I also color code in other ways as well. For instance when we are doing any project that involves fibers or yarn, I like to color code the bins in warm and cool categories. When you ask a student to place the red yarn back in the warm colored bin it helps reinforce art vocabulary.
3. One word for this trick: labels.
4. I also like to utilize clip boards for some projects. There is just some kind of magical thing that happens when students are given a clip board to do their work on. Maybe it makes them feel more official, more professional, I don't know. But whatever it is, student engagement is always on point when I have the students work on them.
5. Glue bottles are one of my biggest pet peeves in the art room. I hate how quickly they clog and get gross. So often the nozzles are victim to a child cramming a scissors into the tip because the glue won't come out anymore. Also, my youngest students looooove to pour copious amounts of glue (when the bottle isn't clogged, ha!) on their work, creating white pools of goop! So, my solution is to pour some white glue on a sponge, add a few drops of water, and place it in a reusable sandwich container. Keeps fingers clean, glue usage at a minimum, and eliminates glue bottles. Hooray!
Those are only some of the small things I do in my art classroom to make my life (and the students) a litter easier. Please share any other ideas that you might have!
