This post is probably going to sound HORRIBLE to nonteachers, but I'm hoping other primary teachers will understand. I am drowning in drawings, cards, homemade jewelry, etc., from my first graders. Please don't get me wrong. I love, love, love all of it. I wear the paper necklaces. I pin up the pictures. But the accepting of these sweet gifts is truly cutting into learning time, and I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm being given at least 10 items a day and they all want me to show the class what they've made (which I sometimes do and sometimes don't). FYI: I don't have a regular show and tell time. We have other opportunities to share, like reading a book aloud to the class or special times when we bring a "sharing box" of personal items (start of the year activity). I'm also running out of places to put everything. Help! What do you do?
I saw a wonderful teacher idea...she had a small bulletin board that artwork and items were hung from each day. On Friday, she "took them home" to put on her icebox. Kids were happy and she was happy. Also the bigger deal you make about it, the more you will get. I tape mine to a metal cabinet by my desk. About once a month things are removed from it to take "home" for me to enjoy. My favorite is the little girl (age 6) that wrote me a whole page of word problems. That was a first.
I have a bulletin board behind my desk where I put all the pictures kids draw for me, that way it's posted in a fairly prominent place so I don't need to take the time to show the class. And once something has been up for a few weeks, I'll take it down to make room for something else. I keep a binder where I keep all of the pictures that I take down. It can get a little full by the end of the year, at which time I empty it.
I don't let the kids give me anything unless it's during recess or at PAT Time. Then I say, "Thank you! Please put it in my basket so I can look at it and share it with my family tonight!"
I started something new this year the kids (preschoolers) love. I put page protectors in a 3 ring binder with a cute cover and every time a get a note or card from a child I put it in that. The kids love leafing through it and feel special their stuff is in a book.
They put all "gifts" for me in a mailbox that I purchased from a hardware store. I go through it every few days, and recycle anything that isn't really heartfelt/quality work or is missing a name. I put all of the keep stuff in a drawer. I go through it all at the end of the year, and keep 1 or 2 things from each child. I put all of the items in my file cabinet in a hanging folder. I would like to put them in a binder eventually.
I'm upper elementary so I don't get nearly as much but I certainly still get plenty.. probably 2 things a week. I try to take a picture of it with my iPhone and include it in the slideshow at the end of the year (kids love seeing it and it reminds them you appreciate it) and then I say "Thank you, I can't wait to "bring them home" and put it on my fridge!". Sometimes I get something that is a contribution from the whole class... they secretly pass around a drawing and they all sign their name. If it's something like that I hang it up. Word of warning... one of my students gave me this painting of a duck from her art class, it was actually quite good. Normally I don't keep things but for some strange reason I actually kept this. Well, in the summer I bumped into her and she started telling me about this program she was trying to join in the fall and she was hoping I could send her a picture of this painting for her application. OH MY GOD. Thank GOD I saved it!!
My cards accidentally fall into the recycling bin after a few weeks have passed...I just don´t have the space for all of it...
I have a rule that anything they make at school has to go home so mom and dad can see it. I still get a lot of stuff, but not as much and it all comes first thing in the morning.
