Whew! It's been a hot minute but here we are!

Glove Gardens

This post is simply to share the success of our "glove gardens" from the "In a Garden" unit.

Preparation:

     Materials include one glove and 5 cotton balls per child. Also crucial parts of this long-term activity are the SEEDS! In our glove gardens are cosmos (1), hollyhock (2), green pea (3), sunflower (4), and carrot (5). I chose a combination of flowers and vegetable seeds in order to get a greater diversity of sprout time, sprout type, and examples of what people grow!

Process:

    Beforehand, label each glove with the child's name and label each finger with a number. As a whole group, we looked at the seed types that we had to plant in each finger. We made predictions ("best guesses") about how long it would take to see sprouts, where we should put the gardens, how often we should water them. Let them be a part of the decision-making process!

     Then, we sat at our tables and I gave out the gloves. They picked one cotton ball and stuffed one in each finger, which tests and works fine motor skills. Then they went into centers and I was able to work one-on-one to help them drop the seeds in the corresponding finger spots and apply the first water sprays (there's those fine motor skills again!). After all seeds have been placed and watered, I clothespinned the gloves to the blinds on our large classroom window for access to sunlight. After all glove gardens have been placed by the window, I watered them with 3-5 squirts from a mini water bottle sprayer each day and we watched them sprout and grow!

     *Be prepared for some anomalies! One green pea seed got moldy and actually turned red and one seed had a gnat trapped inside the finger spot with it that died there and so we saw it every time we checked that particular seed. However, just about all seeds ended up sprouting, so I was very pleased with them overall!

     *I also left the seed packets (with the number labels) displayed on our front whiteboard for reference. My kids asked me multiple times which seeds were in which spots, so this was a way for me to remember and for them to be able to find the answer by investigation!


P.S. I used these glove gardens as part of our Mother's Day cards/gifts as a twist on the always adorable potted plant! The seeds from the finger spots are easily transferable if anyone at home wanted to keep their garden growing in the ground! Just stapled and glued onto cardstock for stability :)

Happy growing!

Stay safe and sweet, y'all.

Winter Wonder-lessons!

January means penguins!

     We're buckling down to the heart of winter, and to relate our cold weather to the world around us, our class studied "polar animals" in January!

Notice the lack of the word, "Arctic"

     Now before I even started planning, I knew I had to make sure we (me, the kids, and the parents) all knew that our topic was the more general term of POLAR animals, as opposed to the more specific term "ARCTIC animals". Any time one searches or even thinks about animals that live in cold climates, penguins are going to be at or near the top of that list. However, what some might not realize is the fact that cold weather (i.e. Emperor) penguins only inhabit the SOUTH pole, or Antarctica. Therefore penguins cannot be classified as ARCTIC, or North Pole, animals.

Literally complete opposite sides of the Earth. 

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     With that technicality covered, I'd like to share some activities from our unit on Polar animals! We focused on polar bears, arctic hares and foxes, walruses, and penguins!

Handprint Polar Bears!

     These came out so adorable! We make white handprints on black construction paper (I drew the eyes, mouth, ears, and paws with a permanent marker after they were dry), then the kids cut the handprints out and glued them on gray paper. With the polar bears glued down, I used a big stamp to make the "p" and "b," then they wrote the letters to fill it in before they drew the snow around their polar bears.  I made this into a two day activity with day one being handprints and day two being cutting, gluing, and stamping/drawing.

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Arctic Hare and Fox Hop Game & Flip Sticks

     These went along with a game we played that is called "Arctic Fox & Hares Hop" which is just light "Red Light, Green Light". One person stands alone and is called the fox, and everyone else is a hare. The hares try to hop as far and quietly as they can  before the fox turns around!

     If the fox turns around and sees any hare still moving, then that hare must go back to the beginning and start over. The first hare to reach the fox and touch him/her becomes the fox and the game starts over with the new fox. We played the way where everyone gets at least one turn by saying if a hare reaches the fox and he/she has already had a turn being the fox, then the winning hare must choose a different hare (who hasn't had a turn being the fox) to be the new fox.

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     The flip sticks that we did illustrate a more academic aspect of these animals. Each side of the stick has the same picture, but one side is left white, while the other side is colored grey or brown or a mix. This shows how the animals have summer and winter coats that change color to help them blend in with the season.

Two different sticks to show the difference between each side.

     We colored one of each animal (and left the other white) and glued them onto popsicle sticks! That way students can quickly flip between the two different sides of each animal's stick.

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"P" Belly Penguins!

     

     I had so much fun with this activity! I love penguins and penguins things in the classroom so I saved the best for the last week! 

     We started with the belly. I simply drew the bubbles in the "P" design and wrote the word underneath. The students used q-tips and orange paint to dot each bubble and trace the letters to spell "penguin." When that dried, they cut out the belly, and glued it on the (already cut out) black penguin body. Then we attached the (already cut out) head, beak, eyes, feet and wings. The kids loved putting their wings in silly positions!

Our "colony"  :)

That's all for January!



Be safe & sweet, y'all!

Holiday DIYs!

Get ready for some serious crafting...

Here's what we got:

1. my December door decoration!
2. the parents' gifts (from the kiddos)
3. the kiddos' gifts (from me!)

     First off, I feel like I should share my door decoration with everyone because it's one I am proud of! Cute and simple and full of Christmas cheer.

"Jolly Holiday Helpers"

     Secondly, it's the "gift-is" that we made the last full week before our Winter break! 

It's like Christmas exploded in there.

     Made with crayon shavings from a wide pencil sharpener, clear plastic ornaments, and a hair dryer. They picked from red/green/yellow/white/silver shavings and I put the shavings inside the ornament, and rotated/shook the ornament as it was heating up from the hair dryer (holding it by the silver top hook thing. When all the pieces were stuck to the plastic (but before they got too melty and swirly) I took the off the heat and put them aside to cool. When cool, I write their names and the year on the bottom and tied a small jingle bell on the top with a white ribbon (instead of a ugly metal hook).

     It was easy! The most time consuming part was definitely the crayon shavings, only because with 12 ornaments, the sheer quantity of shavings was more than I was expecting when I started. I'd say it probably took about 1-2 tablespoons of shavings to fully cover the inside of one ornament and make it look nice and speckled.

Lastly is the gift from me to my kids! 

     When I give gifts as a teacher, I try to stay functional. This time I went with the reindeer candy canes, but also added Holiday pencils behind! Made with candy canes, pencils, paper hole protectors, red buttons, brown pipe cleaners, and hot glue. I made sure each reindeer had a different combination of pencils and different buttons, just to make sure there weren't any issues of matching or being upset about not matching.  These were also fairly painless to assemble and pretty quick from start to finish.

So those were my main examples of craftiness for December, can't wait to see what's in store for 2015!!

Be safe and sweet, y'all! (And Merry Christmas!!)

Sequins Galore!

Winter and Christmas means it's time to sparkle!

     In any setting, glitter can be a trap. Meaning that once it gets released, you can never truly clean it all up. Any teacher, especially the crafty and art-inclined, would warn you to think twice before you go down that fabulous but often treacherous path. That's why I decided to go with an equally shiny art supply, the sequin!

So shiny!

     They're less hassle to clean, but still just as fancy and special! For an especially wintry activity, we used snowflake sequins to cover the letters in our names. I paired this activity with Millions of Snowflakes by Mary McKenna Siddal and we related the snowflakes landing on the book character's nose, chin, tongue, etc. to the sequin snowflakes landing on the letters of their name. I cut a piece of construction paper into thirds (hamburger style) and then just wrote their names with a sharpie.

Snowflake Cover-up!

     This activity is SO easily extended, also! You could do any of the following:

• place snow flakes on differently body parts that snowflakes could actually fall
• count how many snowflakes it took to cover all the letters and compare it to other names
• compare how many snowflakes it took to cover each letter 
• cover letters of winter/snow type words 
• let them pinch and drop snowflakes and see where they land, graph the results!
• write letters on snowflakes and match letters to names

     After my kids completed the initial activity, I let them choose to stay in the small group or go to a center. If they chose to stay, they could pick a different word to cover or use different sequins, such as red/green/yellow/silver circles, random Christmas patterns (Santas, stockings, trees, candles, etc).

Use those pinchers! 

     I loved incorporating fine motor skills with letter recognition and formation, with a wintry twist! The only thing I could improve for nest time would be to use sticky paper or possibly felt. I didn't want to glue the snowflakes because then they wouldn't be reusable for all students, but then whenever someone sneezed or accidentally moved their paper, all their sequins would fall off or get messed up and some would get extremely discouraged. Using sticky contact paper or felt would help keep the sequins on, but not permanently. 

Be safe and sweet, y'all! (and Merry Christmas!)

Get your a capella voice ready...

...and oh do I love Christmas music!!

     Now that it's socially acceptable to listen to holiday music, I have been playing it in our class! The kiddos love to hear songs that they know or at least "have heard in Daddy's car," and I love sharing my love for the holiday season with them! 

     As a teacher, your children look up to you every day. Whether you realize or like it or not, they are constantly looking to you for guidance in things outside of the academic realm. The most recent example that has been brought to my attention was how hesitant I was to sing in front of them. Each of the classes at our school is expected to perform a song at the Christmas program later this month and seeing as how I am a newly solo teacher, the responsibility of teaching a song to these bright-eyed and bushy-tailed kiddos fell solely upon my shoulders. 

     I believe that I have a fairly good singing voice (although I've never been one for karaoke nights or belting out a tune in a car full of people), but when I was sitting on the carpet with my precious kids looking to me for musical guidance, I had to buckle down and throw my self-consciousness out the tinsel-decorated window. 

     I recalled something that a professor in college once said: no matter how beautiful or awful your voice sounds, if you sing with confidence and joy then your kids basically think you are the greatest.  You are their teacher. Comparable to super heroes and even Mommy or Daddy. They will love you no less; actually they will probably love you even more, while you sing with them. That group of kids will probably be most acceptive audience any performer could ask for!

     Teachers (parents, even!): you don't have to be musically trained to make your kids happy. You just have to try. 

     That's what I did and it's worked for me! I catch my kids singing while they play and work in our class and it makes my heart happy. Also, it's just the darn cutest thing!

*(can you tell what my favorite Christmas movie is??)*

Be safe and sweet, y'all.