A Student-Driven Graffiti Wall - A Journey with Chalk (52)

An ever evolving Graffiti Wall. Some weeks it's curriculum based, other weeks mindfulness. Sometimes holiday themed, motivational. It's a very well-used chalkboard. Students always come in and take a look, at the beginning of each week to see how it's changed. It actually evolves throughout the day, most weeks, and they stop by after school to take a peek at the finished product.

It is kind of like a billboard for our classroom. I create some of the mosaics but mostly, its theirs to design and draw. It is a very cool space. This is one of the first one's we did a few years back.

It was a fun way to get some blue-prints drawn of cells, before they created the giant cells from play-doh and makerspace stuff. I added some photo's of those too. They are so cool every year.

A graffiti wall is a perfect spot for them to brain storm and even draw comics and

cartoons.

Even collect some hidden butterflies- we called this the omnivore dinner table.

There seems to always be someone drawing and adding to the theme.

It's where we graph class data- draw graphs and where students ask questions for other students to answer- we call it our Twitter Board Minus the Tweets.

We celebrate by creating culture holiday boards and fall weather boards.

In other words- we use it a lot. But I wanted to create one for the lead up to Spring Break- to be all about mindfulness, kindness and self-motivation. I asked students to find their favorite quote. Then they created the board using them. I chose the most appropriate ones- but man it was hard, cause they chose some really good ones. 

This is our current Graffiti Wall and our mindfulness check-in poster, which is beside it. Our Graffiti Wall focus, for the next two weeks is mindfulness, listening and being "kind to ourselves." I am so proud of this one. It's really, really a stunner.

If you are wondering how a graffiti wall might enhance your room- the possibilities are endless. Student's love drawing in chalk. They love designing the space. They love the collaboration. It is a great student-driven space and it has made my classroom an art filled, science based, museum- we have so much fun. you should try it. Whiteboards work well too- but for me, it is all about the dusty, powdery chalk. Makes it feel like childhood.