I'm Back!

Now that our wonderful summer is over and we're back into the swing of school again, I will be back posting new activities and projects! 

Recently my class celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday with glyphs. 

The students had a body, overalls, and a pot to glue onto their glyphs. The overalls were the student's favorite color. 

Then they glued on baskets and apples. The number of apples is how old they are. They also drew on their own faces. The eyes had to be the color of their eyes. 

The final products were really cute. My favorites were the ones with pig noses. I have a few students this year who like to draw noses like that. :) 

Fairy Tales

Catching up on posts!
This one was about our unit on fairy tales. This project came out great and the kids loved it.

Each student started out with a large black piece of construction paper with a simple castle shape drawn on it. We gave them small rectangles cut out of sponges and gold paint. They were instructed to stagger the blocks to look like bricks. 

After they were done, we let the paint dry and then had the kids cut out the castle. With the more basic shapes on the top the kids were able to do most of the cutting. They added a door and were done! The kids had a lot of fun with the project and actually did a great job with the staggering of the blocks. 

Teeth

We did a unit on teeth and healthy habits and this activity came out great. Each student was given a white tooth and a yellow tooth.

There was a bin put out of magazine photos of different items and foods. The students were instructed to go through the photos and pick out items that were GOOD and BAD for their teeth. We asked them to glue the bad things to the yellow tooth and good things to the white tooth. 

The best part was the kids needed guided and help finding the right items and putting them on the right tooth. This was great because it brought forth a lot of conversation about good and bad things for your teeth, things you should use to keep them clean, and so on. 

Rain Rain Go Away

For our weather unit we made 'Weather Books.' These were a lot of fun but took some time to put together. In the end it was well worth it!

Each student colored a Sun, Cloud, Rain Drops, Lighting, Snowflakes, and Windy Cloud. They were cut out and pasted each on their own page.

I glued a pocket made from heavy construction paper onto the front of the book. Each student colored their own little weather man. He/She was attached to the book with a long piece of yarn. 

The child was directed to find the weather of the day and put their weather person on that page as a place marker. It allows the students to be aware of the weather and also keep track of it! 

Pluto .... the planet!

As I mentioned before, we just finished a unit on space. One of the things we talked about was of course planets! We talked about the order of the planets from the sun, how they are different, and the moons that they have. One thing that kept being brought up was how Pluto is no longer a planet. Although the kids in my class were babies when Pluto was demoted, they knew that it was once a planet and has since been removed as such. It was actually quite funny to hear them talk about it.

One of the projects we did was create our own planet. The first thing we did was cut large circles from white card stock. Each student was able to choose 2 colors and they would squeeze a small blob of each color on their circle.

You place the circle into a 1 gallon ziplock bag and press the air out. The next thing to do is let them squish! 

As they squish the paint around, it marbleizes and makes a swirled look. It was fun to see how it swirled together and what designs would come from it. The more they squished, the more character it formed. 

After they have squished as much as they wanted, we cut down the side seams and peeled the plastic off. After drying we hung them up on our space bulletin board. A lot of the students wanted to name their planets Pluto so that he didn't feel left out. 

5...4...3...2...1... BLAST OFF!!

We just finished a unit on outer space and boy was it fun! Every teacher in my school all commented how their students were more interested in what we did during this unit than they had been during any other. We learned about stars, comets, planets, and of course rockets!

I am lucky to have a spouse who works for the military and he is currently working with a group who puts satellites into space. So of course we took advantage of this and had him come speak to the school about rockets, what they do and how they work. The kids LOVED it and to top it off, we went out into the parking lot and shot off water rockets and a vinegar and baking soda rocket.

To reinforce things that we learned during this unit, the class made space books.

Each day we covered a different aspect of space. After our lesson we would sit down and add that aspect into our space book. The students would glue the item into the book and then write the name by themselves on the bottom. This not only reinforced what we had talked about but it also provided writing practice and word recognition. 

I used oil pastels because they showed up so much brighter on the black paper and were easy to work with. The kids loved this project and would ask every day if they could bring it home, make one for their siblings, or even make more than one. I wish we had more time and could go over even more aspects of space.

Come Sail Away

This past week we talked about transportation. We did a few fun activities to talk about what moves, force, what force is, and what do these things that move do for us and our community. We talked about wind and sailboats and how the sails use the force of wind to move. After playing with a ball and learning about pushing and pulling, we moved to making our sailboats.

The next day we moved to airplanes and how they use the force of pushing air to fly. These were a big hit because not only was it a plane that they could paint but it became a toy once it dried. 

To make these fun little guys you will need:

• Popsicle Sticks
• Hot Glue Gun
• Clothes Pins
• Paint 
• Scissors

The first thing you need to do is take popsicle sticks and cut them in half. This will be part of your tails. You will also need to cut the ends off of the sticks to make the rest of the tail. Each plane needs 2 regular popsicle sticks, 1 half stick, 1 clothes pin, and 1 end.

You will take the hot glue gun and glue a regular stick on the top and bottom of the clothes pin. Hot glue the half stick on the back of the clothes pin to make the tail. 

To finish the tail you will want to hot glue the end of the stick that you cut so that it is pointing up. 

Once the glue is cool, the planes are ready to be painted. 

I used acrylic paints on this project because they are thicker and dry more vibrant. We usually use Bio Paints but those needed more than one coat to really be seen. 

Once they are dry the kids can take them home! I suggested putting magnets on the bottoms and using it on the fridge or just have fun playing with them!

On Your Mark... Get Set.... GO!

This week we are talking about forms of transportation. I decided to have a little fun and make the class a race track. It was a BIG hit!

What you need:

• Pool Noodle
• Paper
• Toothpicks 
• Glue
• Duct Tape
• Cars!

I sliced the pool noodle in half and used toothpicks to attach the sides together. For stability and to make the track more smooth for racing, I sealed it with black duct tape. 

To make it look more like a track, I made little flags and a START and FINISH line. 

I made the flags from heavy paper and toothpicks. I simply cut out triangles and glued them onto the toothpicks. Then just insert! 

I put them in an order like a stop light. They start as green, turn to blue and yellow, and end in red. 

The kids LOVED it and ask every morning for us to take it out again. The duct tape really helped make the cars go faster and smoother down the track! 

HAPPY RACING

Olympic Gold!

So this past week we talked about the 2014 Winter Olympics. The kids in my class this year are very competitive. This can be a good thing and a bad thing! For one of the lessons we made little skiers. They came out super cute and the kids loved them. We punched out little people and clothing from our Sizzix stash and hot glued colored Popsicle sticks to their feet and tooth picks on the hands. 

The next day was race day! I took 2 large white pieces of cardboard and taped them together. I had to use duct tape so it wouldn't come apart. I taped it to the table and to the floor, making a nice slope. We added blue painter's tape to the bottom of the skis so that they would go down smoother. And away we went!

We started to get a little fancy with sending them down backwards, doing spins, and even a few took flying leaps off the side! 

The kids had a blast and kept asking to do more. We finally did a big race where they each raced my aid and her skier. We will be trying something like this again! It was very successful. 

Well this past week was quite a week. We finally managed to have a full week of school after so many interruptions thanks to the winter weather. I wanted to let the kids have some creative fun, so I tried out two unique ways of doing art.

The first was Salt Art.

Salt Art

This was a lot of fun. You only need 4 items.

• Paper
• Elmers Glue
• Table salt
• Liquid Water Colors (You can use the packed kind if you don't have liquid.)

The first thing you do is give the child a piece of paper and the glue. Here is the best part, just let the kids squeeze the glue in any design they want to! You can even have them practice writing their names with it.

After they have finished putting on the glue, cover it with salt and shake off the extra. Just like you would glitter. After you shake off the extra the kids can start adding color. This is the best part!!

The key is to not drag your paint brush on the salt. Instead you need to just lightly touch the salt. The paint will literally run through the salt! You could even use eye droppers for this project.

The best part of this project was how intrigued the kids were! I have a lot of boys in my class and most of them are not the type to sit and take their time on projects. This was the first time when EVERY student sat there and took their time! In the end, the project ended up taking over an hour but that was fine since we couldn't go outside anyways! :) I'm still amazed at how into this project the kids were!

Frozen Paintsicles 

The second project we did this past week was playing with frozen paint. I can't tell you enough about how wonderful this was! I took small dixie cups and filled them about half full of Bio Paint. I then put a craft stick in the center and set them in the freezer. They need to freeze over night at the least. 

When you pull them out, peel off the cup and let the kids go to town! I gave each kid a white piece of paper and told them make a picture. The paints don't melt fast so they are not very messy. It was great. 

The kids loved it so much that they kept asking to make more pictures. It actually felt like crayon once it was on the paper. We will defiantly be doing this again!