Attribute Block Turkey Patterns

Every year my kindergartners work on patterning.  

Here is a fun way to showcase their knowledge of patterning!

I have my kiddos build different patterns on the rug, and then I have them move the pattern to form a circle.  This reinforces that the pattern must continue uninterrupted.  You would be surprised how many kid really don't get that concept.

After we build our patterns in a circle I then send them to their desks and they rebuild that same pattern using paper pattern block pieces.  Luckily my school has a die cut machine with these shapes so prepping them is very easy.  We glue these to construction paper and that becomes a turkey tail.

We finish the turkeys by gluing on a turkey body, legs, eyes and a beak.  They alway turn out so cute!

The last part of the project is to count the shapes that we used and add them up. 

I have this activity on my TpT store if you want to grab it.

Leave a Comment Bulletin Boards, Holidays, Math

Animal Habitats- Combining Art and Science

We've been learning about animals and their habitats these last few weeks.  

I've been incorporating a lot of art during our lessons and my kids have been loving it!

After learning about water habitats, I did a directed draw with my kids and then we painted with watercolors.  Here are a few of our fish paintings.  Aren't they cute?

The bubbles crack me up.  I didn't tell them to do that, one child added them and I commented about how cute it was and then, wouldn't you know it, all of the other kids started drawing bubbles too.

(That's the magic of kindergarten)

Here are animals in a different habitat- The Savannah

To make these we drew lions together with black crayons.  When the lion was done, I told the kids to use a brown crayon to color in the mane and tail.   I then mixed up a nice yellow/brown and the kids painted their lions.

Some did the lion and the background in the same brown color (for camouflage) and others used the green paint (because it was spring).  Love how these kids justify their color choices!

These are super fun and really easy. 

The combination of crayon and paint gives a nice mixed media effect.

It always amazes me how I can guide them through the drawing one step at a time and all of their pictures come out so dramatically different.   The personality of the artist really shines through.

I just had to share these because I think they are so cute.  They make me smile each time I look at them.

Leave a Comment Art, Bulletin Boards, Science

Mouse Paint Fun

My kids are wonderful artists!  I love it when they just let loose and let the art flow.  No preconceived notions of what art needs to look like.   (Kids are wonderful that way)

Here is a fun color mixing lesson that isn't anything new, but I wanted to share how I do it with my kiddos.

We read the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh and then we use cotton balls to represent the mice.  

I squirt red, blue and yellow paint onto a 12x12 sheet of white paper and let the kids use 3 cotton balls as the 3 mice in the story.  We spread the colors around and mix the edges together  making the colors or orange, purple, and green when they meet.  The kids have so much fun working on the big paper and the cotton balls make perfect mice (and they keep the kids relatively clean).

Here is what our finished paintings look like.  I drew 3 mice on white paper and the kids cut those out and put them onto their papers.  They used Sharpies to draw the tails and whiskers.  

Here is our classroom bulletin board. 

You can see how some kids loved to fill the paper with the paint and how some kids were more reserved.  I gave them a large canvas (12x12) to work with.   I think it's important to give the artist choice and to let them make their own interpretation of the assignment.

So, there you go.  Get out your paints and cotton balls and let your kids mix some colors.  It's fun and the results are so beautiful.  (I liked them even without the mice.)

Happy painting!

1 comment Art, Bulletin Boards, Fun Stuff

Celebrating Diversity in a Pre-K Classroom

It's the third week of school for me.  I have a brand new class of EAKers- that's Early Admission Kindergarten.  In my district we have a special program that is available for kiddos that aren't old enough to start regular kindergarten but that have birthdays after January- EAK.  I'm the EAK teacher this year and January 4th was our first day together.

I'm loving this group of sweet kids.  Most are 4 years old and are about to, or have just turned 5.  We are busy learning the letters and sounds and just getting to know each other.  With MLK as our first holiday, it's the perfect time to celebrate our individuality and to find our shared interests.

My little guys aren't writing yet (we are still practicing writing our names) so doing any kind of writing for MLK is out of the question.  But I wanted the kids to have some concrete way to represent diversity so I used the fabulous book The Crayon Box that Talked.  

If you haven't read this book before, it's an essential for your classroom library.  It's totally relatable for a young learner.  After reading this we had a great discussion on diversity.  Then I had my littles complete a very easy worksheet to put on our writing wall.  

They only had to write two words- their name being one and their favorite color the second.  I have the color words on display on the wall so we looked at those and I modeled writing my favorite one.  After that I talked about how I can like other colors as well and those I simply colored in using my box of crayons.  Easy peasy.

 FREEBIE!

Click on the picture below to grab the worksheet.

My kids were fine with copying their favorite color word from the wall.  They were thrilled that they actually wrote a word.  Then they were even more excited with they used the wall again to read each other's favorite crayon colors.  Seeing their little faces so excited as they discovered that they were readers and writers is really what my job is all about.  I always say that I have the best job in the whole world and I really mean it!

FREEBIE!

Click on the picture below to grab the poem.

To continue our discussion of diversity, I will read them another of my favorites.  It is called The Colors of Us and it celebrates all different skin tones.

My plan is for the kids to complete the sentence "My skin is the color of ____."  Then I will break out my skin colored crayons from Lakeshore and have them draw themselves using my Portrait Templates.  

Click on the picture below to get these.

So, that's how we are studying diversity in my class this year.  I would love to hear what you are doing in yours.  Thanks for stopping by!

Leave a Comment Bulletin Boards, Fun Stuff, Holidays, Literacy Actvities

Glyphs

Do you use glyphs in your classroom?  I love to use glyphs in my classroom.  Why?  Well, glyphs are a great way to collect data about my class.  I ask kids some questions, and based on their answers they build a cute art project.  You display this art in your math center and go back to the art to collect and analyze the data.  Here is my view of what a glyph is in a nutshell...

I make seasonal glyphs:

I connect glyphs to my units of study.

I also love to make glyphs just for the fun of it.

My kindergartners always need more cutting activities to strengthen their fine motor muscles and glyphs are a great (and fun) way to do that.

Here is my latest glyph... a Teddy Bear Glyph.

It comes with all this and will be available for only $1 for the next 3 days.  

If you have never made a glyph before, this is the perfect opportunity to give one a try.  Kids love them, they make an adorable bulletin board, and the bulletin board is not static; you will revisit it time and time again to collect and analyze the data displayed.  Administrators love it!

Leave a Comment Bulletin Boards, Common Core, Fun Stuff, Glyphs, Math

Oh Snap! It's Almost November!

Oh Snap! It's Almost November!

It feels like it October just started, but when you look at the calendar, November is right around the corner so it's time to start planning.

I'm linking up today with the bloggers over at Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals for their fabulous monthly linky party.  I don't know about you, but I absolutely LOVE that blog.  It's a great place to get deals on some wonderful products.

Thinking ahead to November, here is one of my favorite bulletin boards.  It's my TURKEY GLYPH.

If you don't know what a glyph is, it's a pictorial way to collect and organize data

Kids answer questions and based upon those answers they build a turkey. The turkeys come out really cute and they make a beautiful bulletin board.  We like to decorate the front office with ours.  All the parents who come into the office get a chuckle from the signs the turkeys are holding.

The Turkey Glyph contains:

 directions and black line masters for making the turkeys, a glyph key, a glyph book, a poem, a literacy center idea, a data collection sheet, and photos of completed turkeys.

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I also have a fun Turkey Tail Patterning activity.  

In this activity, kids use pattern blocks to make a circular pattern around the turkey tail.  Then they glue the turkey body on top and add the beak, eyes and legs.  This also looks great on the wall and covers so many skills.  Kids have a lot of practice making patterns in a straight line, but can they transfer that knowledge to a circular shape?  You will be surprised at how this simple activity really stretches their thinking.

Aren't these cute?

Grab them now and get ready for November.

Thanks for stopping by.  You can click here to head back over to the link up.

Leave a Comment Bulletin Boards, Glyphs, Holidays, Math, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

Oh Snap! It's Almost August!

Can you believe that it's almost August?  Where has the summer gone?

If you are like me, you are starting to plan for the upcoming school year.  Join this fun link up and find some great resources for the upcoming school year.

The wonderful bloggers at 

are starting a monthly link up where we can all share our favorite resource for the upcoming month.  Isn't that perfect?!  It's just what I need to stay ahead of the curve and on my game.  

Since it is almost August, I'm thinking about the start of the new school year.  I contemplate what worked well last year and what things can be improved.  

Last year I really LOVED my calendar wall.  Why, you ask?  Well, I took my old standard calendar and updated it with more math stuff.  I began with the standard monthly calendar where we turn the cards over each day to reveal the number and the pattern.  We do Yesterday was ____, Today is ____, and Tomorrow will be ___, (those are the teddy bears).  I also have the daily add a straw count that groups ones, tens and hundreds.  I have the months of the year (train) and the days of the week.  The teddy bears in the trains are the kid's birthdays (they each decorated a die cut teddy bear and I put them in the train far for the month).  And of course we have the 100 chart and the weather.

Most of the items were purchased at teacher stores, but I got the weather from here and the day, month, year strips and the days in school from this website.

The number of the day and the shapes are part of my Calendar Companion.  I also have worksheets that my students use to learn about the different parts of the calendar.  

I also have a daily schedule cards that we review in the morning so the kids know what things we will be covering that day.  You can grab these for just $1 for the next 3 days!  I laminated these and put them on velcro.  I can rearrange them based on the day and the things that we will be doing. (The schedule cards are the pencil shaped cards that are hanging under the clock).

I encourage you to browse around the links to see what things you can add to your calendar wall.

Click here for a FREEBIE!  It's just one small part of my Calendar Companion.

Just slide it in a page protector and staple it to your calendar wall.  Use a dry erase marker to count the number of girls and boys at school each day.  I have my calendar helper do this each day.

Check my Freebies section for more fun FREE stuff.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!  Hop on over to the next great blog and get more great STEALS AND DEALS for August.  Link up your own great product/tip for August.  Enjoy the rest of your summer!

An InLinkz Link-up

Leave a Comment Back to School, Bulletin Boards, Classroom Set Up, Common Core, Math, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

Ocean Invertebrates Unit

I usually end the school year with an ocean unit.  We begin by learning that 70% of the earth is covered by water, so learning about the plants and animals that live in the ocean seems like a good idea.  I have the kids paint the ocean water first.  This is very messy and very fun.  I give them green, turquoise, blue and purple paints and sponge brushes.  The kids have to dab the paint onto the paper.  They race to fill in the empty spots.  I love that every year my ocean looks different (just like the kids who painted it).

After we get the water finished, I put it on a bulletin board.  I add some sand on the bottom (brown paper) and this year for the first time,  I added some blue sky above the water  (I like to mix things up every now and then to keep it interesting).  Then we talked about the food chain and we learned that their are plants at the bottom of every food chain, so the kids asked me to add plants to our ocean.

Now that our ecosystem is ready, we need to figure out what animals to add.

We watched a Magic School Bus movie about the coral reef.  The movie showed many different animals that lived around the reef.  So of course, we had to make coral to add to our ocean.  To do this, I let the kids choose red or orange construction paper.  I used 12x18inch sheets and the kids traced their hands and arms all the way from fingertips to elbow.  They could fit two hands on a sheet.  They cut them out and we began building our coral reef.

Isn't it pretty?  Now we are ready for some other animals.  Since we are studying animals that sting (like coral polyps) we made anemones and jellies.  The anemones have stingers that point upwards and the jellies stingers hang down.  Here are close up pictures of those animals added to the ocean.

We also made crabs, sea urchins and sea stars.  

Here is our finished ocean bulletin board.  Isn't it beautiful?

The kids loved learning about each ocean animal and the hands-on craft really helped them remember the important things about each animal.  Each day that we completed an animal, I would add them to the bulletin board the next morning before school.  It was so fun to watch the kids drag their parents over to the board first thing and look to see where their  animal might be.  They would tell their parents all about the animal.  

If you are interested in doing this in your classroom, you can purchase my unit on my TpT store.  It contains close reads about the animals as well as comprehension sheets.  The directions for making each component are also included.  You will be amazed at how much your kids learn about the ocean invertebrates.

We also study fish and marine mammals.   You can see the sea horses and Girabaldi swimming along with the invertebrates and plants.

Leave a Comment Bulletin Boards, Science