That's a WRAP!

Now that our school year is half way over, I wanted to take a minute to catch up on some things we have done. I have had a lot of things going on personally this year, so I've had to put blogging on the back burner.

I have been trying to take pictures throughout the year of some of the projects we have done.

In August, we did some really fun apple paintings. I wanted something that would match my room and something I could leave up all year.

I let the kids free-hand their apples. I mounted them on polka dot wrapping paper. I am not sure why I have never thought of mounting things on wrapping paper! It makes such a cute festive border!

One of my favorite things I have made this year is this organization system on my door.

I bought the cork squares from Walmart. I think they were around $6.00 for a set of 4. I painted them black and added vinyl letters and dots. I hot glued a magnetic clip on them. It has worked great! The lunch menu changes every month and I use the others so much! I always have things I need to take to the office. If they land on my work table first- they usually get misplaced!!!

My other favorite thing is my afterschool transportation frames.

We have a color coded bus system. I always cut out buses out of construction paper and they barely last the whole year! I thought this would be super cute and durable! I used Photoshop to create a photo file of a bus with a polka dot background. I printed them in 5x7 at Walmart. I bought the black frames at Dollar Tree. I wrote the kids' names on their correct color bus. Since the glass makes them dry erase, I can use them year after year!

I think my other favorite artwork was the gumballs we made for the letter G. I drew this gumball machine and copied it. The students used the paint dappers to make the gumballs. I just took them down at Christmas. They were so cute and colorful!!!

Around Thanksgiving, we made turkeys and were going to write what we were thankful for. As a class, we talked about different things they might want to write- family, friends, etc...

One of my students handed me this....

I thought it was TOO funny! He is part of a large family and they are all HUGE Alabama fans. I love Kindergarten minds! :) The last pieces of artwork I wanted to share are Christmas items. I needed something cute for the hallway and one of my students had on a monogrammed elf feet shirt. I decided that would be SUPER cute for our decor and I LOVED the way they turned out!!! We got so many compliments!!! I used Christmas wrapping paper for the frame on these as well.

I did these cute "pinterest inspired" thumbprint Christmas lights last year, but this year I bought Dollar Tree frames to put them in. They were so festive!

You know that polka dot wrapping paper I used for the apples? Well... I needed a winter door idea and I still had part of a roll left. I came up with this...

I guess I need to come up with more ways to use wrapping paper! It has definitely made my life easier this year! Well, I guess that "wraps" things up!!! Hopefully I will be back soon!!!!

Farming Fun!!!

Almost the last post of the Make-up Series! :) This year, our school won an award for being a healthy school. We had USDA representatives that came to our school to present the award and they also were going to tour our school. We all made a huge deal out of it and as a school organized their visit into the "Tasty Travel Tour". It was really something! My pod (the group of 4 classrooms that face each other) did "Harvesting Healthy Habits". It happened to be the week after our farm petting zoo field trip- so it made a great mini-unit!!!! We talked about different types of produce, what part of the plant they were, and different uses for them.

I saw a similiar idea on another blog, but I have searched again and again trying to figure out where it came from!!!! I think some of the ideas are originally from Kinders by Kim, but I just cannot find the same blog that had done this in their room. I want to give them credit for the inspiration for it, so I am going to continue to look for it so I can come back and add their name. I loved the end result!

We were out of brown paper in our workroom and I don't live in a large town. So paper grocery sacks were the best I could do for the soil. The kids used paint dabbers for the corn....

They did these cute handprint carrots (and they painted the rest)...

My neighbor and I decided to make our doors into barn doors- but then it needed a barn. I never took a picture of the finished project. I added cow heads on our doors (looking out of the stable) and I added a polka dot chicken to the coop.

You wannna know what the BEST part is???? I SAVED the barn and we are doing a "MOOving into Kindergarten" theme next year!!! So I am half way done with my back to school decor! Woo hoo!!!!! At the other end of my wall, we did these cute pizza glyphs from Shari Sloane

I also let the kids write about their favorite food. We made these chef heads and attached them to their stories. I think it would have been really cute to do recipes instead... maybe next time!!! :) ...

I loved doing the farm unit! I am excited about putting the barn back up in August too! :) This will be my last make-up post for the day. We got out of school last Friday and this week has been FANTASIC!!!! Because of new legislation, we will have a looong summer! Almost 3 full months. Sadly, we will have very very few holidays when we start back. I am trying to focus on the long summer right now though. We have already had some pool days and took a day trip to the beach yesterday! I have been able to run in the mornings instead of when it is 95 degrees in the afternoons. I LOVE watching the sun come up during a morning run. I have also been able to start a 5:30 a.m. cycling class at our local gym- which is currently kicking my butt, but it is still fun. Most importantly, I have been able to spend all day with my sweet little girl!!!! :)

When Spring Sprung...

Make-up post #2 :)

I know that doing free-handed art with 5-year-olds is a bit time-consuming, but I just love it! They do such a good job with it! When we do art (like painting), I always do a step-by-step example for the group first. I then call them in groups of no more than 2 and let them paint at my table. The other students are given a different activity to work on. This way I can make sure they understand the process and I can monitor the use of supplies. This spring we painted these cute birdies. The boys did the teal with pink and girls did pink with teal. Like always, I was impressed with how well they listened and the effort they put into them.

I failed to photograph any of our other spring-themed activities. :( I am hoping to do better next year!!!

Christmas... In May

This is my first make-up post. :) I love Christmas artwork! As a grade level, we try to do the same "parent gift" for each class. We usually do something different every year, but I really hope we repeat this one next year. We ordered small (4 x 6) flat canvas from here They were only $0.46 since we ordered more than 36! The kids just stamped their hands on them with regular acrylic and then I turned them into reindeer and hot glued ribbon on the back.

Aren't they adorable??? We wrapped them in little bags.

I cut cardstock and let the kids do this thumbprint design on the front of the card.

Two things I am obsessed with: Pinterest and hand/thumbprint art. :) The kids did this cute thumbprint Christmas tree design on mini paper plates....

I tied a ribbon so they could hang them. A few weeks later, I found ceramic ornaments at Michael's for about $0.25 each. I let my daughter do the tree on the ornaments for her grandparents. They were soooo cute! Next year I am going to try to find the ceramic ones before the holidays so I can let my class make them also. This next one was probably my FAVORITE! I saw this on Pinterest and the Christmas lights turned out soooo cute!!!!

Here's another handprint idea. (I told you I was obsessed!!!) I did this larger canvas with my daughter- she was 2 at Christmas. I let her do some type of artwork for her grandparents and great grandparents and then I always make one to keep. Last year we did reindeer heads (with her hands as the antlers) on plates. This past Christmas we did small canvas and ornaments. This one was mine to keep:

Something I struggle with every year is a gift for my students. With all the other holiday expenses and the endless amount of money I pile into my classroom already, I don't want to spend a fortune. In the past, I have gone to the Dollar Tree for a puzzle or colorbook or something. I like to give them something that they can use though. This year, I found these water bottles (at Dollar Tree). I used my Cricut to cut out their names in vinyl. I added pawprints for boys- our mascot is a bulldog- and I did polka dots for the girls.

I did this all in about 2 hours or less and they were sooo cute! A lot of the students used them the rest of the year for their lunch boxes or snack drinks. I think I will repeat that idea as well!!!! :) The next two projects were actually for winter, not Christmas, but I am going to add them here. They both came from Pinterest. This one was a fun art project. I love penguins and it makes a great mini-unit.

We did these fun snowman and hung them in a row, so it actually looked like a long graph in the hallway.

Well- that was just a few bits and pieces of our Christmas/winter activities. I'm sorry that I am posting them in May! Ha!

Dotty Data

Well I OFFICIALLY survived my first week back to school with the kids. We sent them home exhausted yesterday afternoon and I don't even remember getting in the bed last night I was so tired!!!

I have already shared my hallway decor, but since it was missing the letter "D" in the word "spotted" I took another picture to post..



The first week of school we generally do book units, introduction to cutting and glue sticks (no white glue), tracing, name writing, etc... I really really really like to start my alphabet curriculum on day 3, but the rest of Kindergarten was waiting until Monday. So to avoid being the only person that was 2 days ahead, I waited. I like an extremely structured routine and in Kindergarten, the quicker we can get into one- the better! Our P.E. time was changed this year too, which was hard for us. We only get 30 minutes. We normally have the 9:00 P.E. time and this year they changed everyone's P.E. times. Our's is now 12 noon. I will really like it when our reading program begins. I do not like it right now though. 7:45 until 12 with no break for 5-year-olds is a REALLY long time... for them AND for me!

I didn't take a lot of pictures this week. I was too frazzled. One activity that my children really seemed to like was "Miss Nelson is Missing." There really was not anything cute about it. I just read them the story (like I do every year!) The only thing I did different this year- we made a chart and students sorted characteristics between Miss Nelson and Viola Swamp. It was pretty much a group oral activity. I would have liked to have made a class book. Maybe- "What do you think happened to Miss Nelson?" (Most of them figured it out) We didn't have time for anything else though. They were really getting into the group activity.
Here is our board when we finished:




Some things were actual characteristics from the story and some were not from the story but were application questions. Such as, which teacher might bring cookies to school?

We also made Ladybug Glyphs this week. I love making glyphs. I had the pieces already cut, but the kids had to listen and use their glue sticks to make their lady bugs. We actually did these on the first day of school. That was pretty interesting!!! I thought they did a good job considering it was the first day of Kindergarten.




On Thursday, we did "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". We graphed the letters in our name during math- wish I had a picture. :(
We also made these cute trees to go in the hallway:




They are not the cutest trees as far as the shape of them, but they are really easy to make. I print and cut out the strips of white paper. Students wrote their name on the first line and counted the letters. They wrote that number on the 2nd line. I had already cut out the green and brown strips and had them ready the kids to glue on. This time of year I always give them pieces one at a time. I had cut the letters out at home the night before from vinyl. I wish I hadn't picked red. I wasn't really thinking about the colors!! I made the kids bring the tree to my table one-by-one, count the letters for me, and tell me each letter in their name as they put them on. So it was also a great little informal assessment as well.

Well... like I mentioned before... I'm the "lucky" one that is grade level chair this year. I have a reading curriculum calendar that I need to make today AND I need some festive activities for letters A through E. I don't know about y'all- but after 4 years of Alphatales, enough is enough. I need something else! Any ideas?

Kindergarteners Do Kandinsky

One of my FAVORITE things is teaching art. I know, I know- WHEN do I have time to teach art? I don't! But I MAKE time- because I feel like it is REALLY, REALLY important to my students. There are kids who may NEVER be the best at reading- but they may have something special when it comes to art. Even my worst behaved students follow the rules when it's art time! I know I don't make as much time for it as I need to, but I try to to at least squeeze in a few pieces each year. My favorite from last year was "Kindergarteners Do Kandinsky". I did this on the day that we did letter "K". I always tell them a little info about the artist. I showed them some artwork. We did not have LCD's last year, so I had to call everyone to my personal computer to show them. Thanks to a grant, I now have an LCD and a laptop. Donorschoose gave me a screen, but I haven't been able to get it yet because of the summer. Maybe I will have it soon!!!!

For this project, I decided to do the famous "circles". It was a great lesson to review shapes and colors as well as art history!

I picked a few primary colors and quickly sketched the circle outlines. I let the kids choose which colors to use and where to use the colors. After they dried, I laminated them, quickly arranged them according to color, and made them into one large piece. I thought the end result was fabulous!



I thought it was SO fabulous that I kept it in my classroom and I intend for it to stay there forever! :)

The year before I did "V is for Van Gogh". We did these Van Gogh paintings, which were a little more time consuming, but the end result was STUNNING! I can honestly say that I did help with the vases (they were cut out) but the flowers were different sponges that kids used by themselves. Every parent in the class had a fit over these!







Got any GREAT art lessons to share???