Pinners and Paints: Teacher Edition

You'd think with summer here, I'd be getting more crafting and blogging done.  Ah, the life of a teacher.  I'm getting a lot of pinning done.  And sleeping.  But now I'm starting to get back in the swing of things, getting set to go back in and start a new year.  I'll be posting several projects that I'm working on for the new year.


First up: Quiet Critters! 


My inspiration comes from a fellow teacher and was found on Pinterest.

Visit Teaching Chick for this and more great ideas!

You can find Teaching Chick's blog here.


We all have those times when we just need the kids to work QUIETLY! Quiet Critters are a little tool to help us achieve those moments of quiet work time.  When it's time to put away their voices, you pass out a Quiet Critter.  If you notice someone talking, you move the Quiet Critter to the edge of their desk. Gotta give them a warning.  If they continue to talk, then you take the Quiet Critter.  When the quiet time is over, anyone who still has a Quiet Critter on their desk gets a prize, an extra sticker on their chart, a hole punch on their behavior card, or whatever you use as a behavior management system.  You're rewarding those who worked quietly, not just always punishing the disrupters.  I love it!  So of course, I had to make some of my own.


Materials:

• pom poms 
• wiggly eyes
• felt or foam feet
• glue gun

Easy, peasy, fresh and squeezy, that's all you need.  And the best part?  I found the eyes and pom poms in the dollar section of Target (along with some other organizational finds that you'll be seeing soon ;) and the foam was just a few bucks for 16 sheets.  

First thing I did was make the feet.  I found a size and shape that I liked and then traced them on the sheets of foam.  

Then, I hot glued the pom poms on the feet.  I tried a different glue at first, but it didn't hold well at all.  So when in doubt, get the glue gun out!

I really wanted to talk about my glue gun
just so I could post my new hot glue gun stand!

The eyes were self-adhesive so we'll see how well the sticky holds up.  There were two different sizes, so I mixed it up and put both sizes on the Critters. And now, I have a whole family of Quiet Critters just waiting for a whole class full of kids.  

How will you reward the "quiet critters" in your class?http://teachingchick.blogspot.com/2012/07/monday-made-it-3.html