First Day of Art

I tried out this suggestion for the first day of art, as did many of the art teachers at CCSD this year. Sally Moss, an elementary art teacher in the district, posted this in our forum. She says she got it from a book called Color Code. This is her email post:

I like to figure out who's who.........like who are my "leaders", who are my "reliables" , who are my "helpers" and who are my "entertainers". I tell a story about a little girl who has a mouse for show and tell.........the mouse gets loose in the classroom. Kids do different things. If you would try to help her out........color your mouse blue. If you would laugh yourself silly, color your mouse yellow, if you would try to organize everyone into detective teams, color your mouse red, and if you wish everyone would just be quiet, sit down, and let her find her own mouse, leave your mouse white.OK.................now I know who's who. I seat them accordingly.Blue (helpers) next to White ( serious workers) Next to Red (Bossy)........only 1 Yellow per table...........spread out...............They have no clue what I am doing. I did this last year and when I showed the teachers their own class's color choice, they said they were RIGHT ON! The year went much better after that.The second week I have them work on pictures for my fund raiser.This lasts about 2 weeks and then I start my regular lessons......lots of multi-culture art in my room.