It's hard to believe only 3 more weeks until school starts again. It's been a very busy and very hot summer here in Wisconsin. I have spent the past 3 months with a wonderful group of 26 four, five, and six year olds in our summer program.
It's been a blast! We spent the entire summer learning about art and artists. We began the journey with the bright colors and simple lines of pop artists. We learned about the color wheel and experimented with color theory. We took the fun outdoors and made a huge Jackson Pollock style mural. We played with shapes making our own version of Kandinsky's circles, and shape collages in the style of Matisse. We painted our own version of Mondrian squares using primary colors and black tape. We will wrap up an exciting summer adventure by focusing on flowers big a small.
It's been a joy for me to create with kids all summer long as well as watch them grow more and more each day. I have a large group of children from my 4K classroom and they are flourishing. Lately, we been reading a lot of Mo Willem's Elephant and Piggy books. I say we because we have a few new readers using their sight words and phonemic knowledge to read those books to our class. I'm beaming with pride each and every time I see one of them crack open those books. Wow! And our writing has shown growth as well. We are writing sentences with support and very little frustration.
We were lucky to be able to enjoy watching some Olympic events on my laptop over the past two weeks. We are amazed by the things our athletes can do. What an inspiring experience to share with my kiddos.
As we head into the home stretch there will be many tearful goodbyes to little ones that have been in my care for years. Still, I can't help but smile knowing they are set to be successful in their kindergarten year and beyond. I am looking to the future as well, planning for the new group of kiddos that walk into my room in three short weeks.
I am making it a personal goal to blog more often this school year and I look forward to sharing the journey with all of you.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Magic, Magic Everywhere!
We spent the week learning about rainbows and leprechauns. Unfortunately, due to the fact that a teacher from another classroom was home with a sick child I was on my own most of the week. I didn't capture as many moments as I would have liked but I still managed to get a few. I will post again with more about the weeks projects and some pictures of the final products.
Early in the week we used tweezers to separate the marshmallows from a tray of lucky charms. We left them in a bowl on our circle table hoping the leprechauns would come and maybe leave us a treat. We were so surprised to find the bowl empty the very next day and the table and windowsill dotted with tiny green footprints. How in the world did those leprechauns get in? I wish I'd had the camera out to capture the little faces with brows furrowed as they studied the green footprints. "They're still wet!" "The leprechauns must have walked in paint." "oh maybe they came in by the window." One child in particular spent around 5 minutes just studying the footprints. Wow! we were really using those inquiry skills.
After the leprechaun's visit we read many books to learn more about the creatures. Did you know if you catch a leprechaun he has to tell you where he hid his pot of gold? It's leprechaun law. We set about trying to catch a leprechaun. We decided to make a trap. But how would we know what to do? We made a chart of what we know about leprechauns. We found we actually knew quite a lot! We used this info to make a plan about what to include in our trap. We knew leprechauns liked the color green, loved gold, shamrocks and rainbows so we found way to include all these things.
The kids thought it was important to have something fall on the leprechaun so he couldn't escape. I found a laundry basket and we figured out how to prop it up with a small broom. We wanted the leprechaun to fall into something so we chose a small green garbage can. One of my girls thought we needed something sticky inside so we added tape to the bottom of the can. We scattered gold and shamrocks around to lead the leprechauns in and a few kiddos worked together to build a staircase out of legos. We used our shamrock sign from the lucky charms we left to invite the leprechaun back. One child let me use her collage rainbow to add a bit more color.
We waited all afternoon but no leprechaun came. Imagine our surprise when we came to school the next day to find our room looking like this!
What a mess! The leprechauns left us this note:
and a special treat we all enjoyed together at lunch. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Early in the week we used tweezers to separate the marshmallows from a tray of lucky charms. We left them in a bowl on our circle table hoping the leprechauns would come and maybe leave us a treat. We were so surprised to find the bowl empty the very next day and the table and windowsill dotted with tiny green footprints. How in the world did those leprechauns get in? I wish I'd had the camera out to capture the little faces with brows furrowed as they studied the green footprints. "They're still wet!" "The leprechauns must have walked in paint." "oh maybe they came in by the window." One child in particular spent around 5 minutes just studying the footprints. Wow! we were really using those inquiry skills.
After the leprechaun's visit we read many books to learn more about the creatures. Did you know if you catch a leprechaun he has to tell you where he hid his pot of gold? It's leprechaun law. We set about trying to catch a leprechaun. We decided to make a trap. But how would we know what to do? We made a chart of what we know about leprechauns. We found we actually knew quite a lot! We used this info to make a plan about what to include in our trap. We knew leprechauns liked the color green, loved gold, shamrocks and rainbows so we found way to include all these things.
The kids thought it was important to have something fall on the leprechaun so he couldn't escape. I found a laundry basket and we figured out how to prop it up with a small broom. We wanted the leprechaun to fall into something so we chose a small green garbage can. One of my girls thought we needed something sticky inside so we added tape to the bottom of the can. We scattered gold and shamrocks around to lead the leprechauns in and a few kiddos worked together to build a staircase out of legos. We used our shamrock sign from the lucky charms we left to invite the leprechaun back. One child let me use her collage rainbow to add a bit more color.
We waited all afternoon but no leprechaun came. Imagine our surprise when we came to school the next day to find our room looking like this!
What a mess! The leprechauns left us this note:
and a special treat we all enjoyed together at lunch. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Suess Celebration!
We spent the last two weeks celebrating the wacky wonderful world of Dr. Seuss in 4K. Wow! We all really love Dr. Suess books!
We began our two week celebration by reading The Cat in the Hat. We made our own hats from paper plates with the middle cut out and red construction paper with white sticky tape stripes.
As we were studying the pictures of Dr. Seuss we noticed that things were often balanced in silly ways. We tried out our own Cat in the Hat balancing acts. We balanced a cake, a rake, a book, a cup and a man. Some of us balanced the items on our hands and some of us took the challenge of balancing on our heads. It was so fun to watch them problem solve.
I found the idea for this count the stripes on the cat's hat math center from Mrs. Lee's Kinder Kids blog. Check out the original post here .
I wasn't sure about the writing component- we usually don't use that in our counting activities but it was a huge hit with my kiddos! They really enjoyed working in teams and taking turns counting stripes and writing the numbers.
We also used this printable from Obseussed to make a counting center with goldfish crackers. This one was a bit easier with only number 1-6.
We read 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. Wow! what a tongue twister. We sorted and graphed colored goldfish crackers. Some children are able to do this activity independently at this point in the year- it's so fun to watch them work independently with such confidence.
We read Green Eggs and Ham- always a favorite for students and teachers. We cooked and tasted our very own green eggs and ham for morning snack. Almost everyone was unsure about trying them at first but all but one student ended up liking green eggs and ham. I love how this lesson always supports the message of the book. We watched a video I found on Pinterest of the learning station's Green Eggs and Ham song. I was able to find the cd at our local library so this week we've been listening to the song a ton and even made up our own dance. It's great to give our minds a break and get our bodies up and moving.
February and March are our months for office art so we had to think of something big!
In February we simply hung our 100 collections that we created at home for the 100th day of school but when March came around we knew we had to do something Seuss. We read the book My Many Colored Days and really studied the paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. We charted what we noticed: simple shapes, outlines of people and animals, and one colored paintings. We talked about the different colors and how they made us feel. We journaled about how we felt on different colored days. I traced the kids bodies on white bulletin board paper and cut them out. We chose one color of tempera paint and painted our whole bodies. It was a time consuming project to prep and the completion of it stretched out over the week but it was well worth it. I was so impressed with the way my kiddos really got into it, they took their time and painted the whole shape. We are now so excited to see our many colored selves hanging in the preschool office each time we walk by.
There was so much more. I'm really working on capturing more of our learning in photographs and videos. I hope everyone else had a blast celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday too!
We began our two week celebration by reading The Cat in the Hat. We made our own hats from paper plates with the middle cut out and red construction paper with white sticky tape stripes.
One of our students made a cat in the hat mask to go along with her hat. Wow! her creativity blows me away!
As we were studying the pictures of Dr. Seuss we noticed that things were often balanced in silly ways. We tried out our own Cat in the Hat balancing acts. We balanced a cake, a rake, a book, a cup and a man. Some of us balanced the items on our hands and some of us took the challenge of balancing on our heads. It was so fun to watch them problem solve.
I found the idea for this count the stripes on the cat's hat math center from Mrs. Lee's Kinder Kids blog. Check out the original post here .
I wasn't sure about the writing component- we usually don't use that in our counting activities but it was a huge hit with my kiddos! They really enjoyed working in teams and taking turns counting stripes and writing the numbers.
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We also used this printable from Obseussed to make a counting center with goldfish crackers. This one was a bit easier with only number 1-6.
We read Green Eggs and Ham- always a favorite for students and teachers. We cooked and tasted our very own green eggs and ham for morning snack. Almost everyone was unsure about trying them at first but all but one student ended up liking green eggs and ham. I love how this lesson always supports the message of the book. We watched a video I found on Pinterest of the learning station's Green Eggs and Ham song. I was able to find the cd at our local library so this week we've been listening to the song a ton and even made up our own dance. It's great to give our minds a break and get our bodies up and moving.
We read Hop on Pop and literally hopped on pop. I was inspired by this post on Obseussed to create my own Hop on Pop activity. I originally planned on using the overheard to copy the pop picture but I ran out of prep time with everything we had going on. I opted instead to write pop in simple bubble letters. It was a great way to learn a sight word. Once the word was written we simply taped the paper to the floor, took off our shoes and socks, got our feet painted and hopped to our hearts delight. It was definitely more process than product and the kids loved it!
February and March are our months for office art so we had to think of something big!
In February we simply hung our 100 collections that we created at home for the 100th day of school but when March came around we knew we had to do something Seuss. We read the book My Many Colored Days and really studied the paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. We charted what we noticed: simple shapes, outlines of people and animals, and one colored paintings. We talked about the different colors and how they made us feel. We journaled about how we felt on different colored days. I traced the kids bodies on white bulletin board paper and cut them out. We chose one color of tempera paint and painted our whole bodies. It was a time consuming project to prep and the completion of it stretched out over the week but it was well worth it. I was so impressed with the way my kiddos really got into it, they took their time and painted the whole shape. We are now so excited to see our many colored selves hanging in the preschool office each time we walk by.
In read across America tradition we invited celebrity guest readers into our classroom during our Seuss celebration. We watched videos on my laptop of celebrities reading Dr. Seuss books. We currently have a group of girls OBSESSED with Justin Bieber. They talk about him often and his has become a household name in our classroom. I surprised them with a video of Justin Bieber reading Cat in the Hat. It was great fun to watch as they slowly figured out what was happening. One boy couldn't believe that "he was really actually alive."
We were also lucky enough to have a visit from a friend's grandma who brought along two books to read. One of which she wrote herself! We were so excited to talk to and learn from a real author. Thanks so much for your visit!
There was so much more. I'm really working on capturing more of our learning in photographs and videos. I hope everyone else had a blast celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday too!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
We painted self portraits on aluminum foil. I drew a circle thinking it would give the students a boundary to paint in but didn't pre-cut the circles. I thought I could cut them afterwards and attach them to a hand mirror shape cut from construction paper. Well, that turned out to be a mistake because the students took advantage of the extra space to add more details like ears and hair to their faces. I didn't want to cut off parts of their artwork so I improvised. I created a frame around the aluminum foil using extra pieces of bulletin board borders. They were still mirrors and all the hard work and creativity could be displayed in our classroom.
Our colorful mirror paintings on display in our 4K room:
A few closeups- I just love all the attention to detail and time spent on these portraits. They each have their own character.
Our colorful mirror paintings on display in our 4K room:
A few closeups- I just love all the attention to detail and time spent on these portraits. They each have their own character.
Who Lives in Your House?
As a part of our unit on families we made a glyph of the people in our family. I cut a simple house shape from black construction paper and squares of different colors to represent different family members. What a great beginning glyph activity! The students are beginning to learn that a glyph is a symbol that represents information about us. In this case out glyphs tell us who is in our family.
I love the way these glyphs look on our bulletin board. Such a fun color combination. This is the first year I’ve used fabric as a background. So far it’s been a hit!Our full bulletin board display:
This sign explains to parents what a glyph is and helps them find the math tie in instead of just an art project:
All of our families look different:
Our Family glyph key shows us what the symbols mean:
Monday, October 24, 2011
Apple Art
We had tons of fun using apples in different ways during our apple unit! Wee sliced apples two different ways and did apple printing. It was a fantastic process art activity for our students and they really enjoyed it. It's always so much fun to watch their creativity bloom. We mixed cinnamon in with our paint to add an extra sensory experience to the activity. Boy did our room smell yummy!
Here's how our finished apple prints turned out.
We experimented with gravity and the laws of physics with our apple roll painting. We borrowed a slide from the playroom to serve as a ramp for our apples. We painted the outside of the apples, red yellow and green. Then we took turns rolling the apples down the paper covered ramp. Wow! what a great time. It was a bit messy but well worth it.
Here's how our finished apple prints turned out.
We experimented with gravity and the laws of physics with our apple roll painting. We borrowed a slide from the playroom to serve as a ramp for our apples. We painted the outside of the apples, red yellow and green. Then we took turns rolling the apples down the paper covered ramp. Wow! what a great time. It was a bit messy but well worth it.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Yummy Apples!
We kicked off our celebration of Autumn with a unit on apples. What a delicious week it was!
Everyone brought in an apple from home and we made an apple color graph on the carpet in our classroom.
We used a blender to make apple pie smoothies and graphed whether or not we liked the taste. They were so yummy all but one of our friends said yes! Here's the recipe we used in case you want to try them at home. Apple Pie A La Mode Smoothies
We read many fantastic books about apples here were some of our favorites
We explored apples by cutting them apart in different ways. We used an apple slicer to cut red, green and yellow apples into small pieces for tasting. We picked a favorite and graphed the results before analyzing our data to see what kind of apple 4K liked best.
Everyone brought in an apple from home and we made an apple color graph on the carpet in our classroom.
We used a blender to make apple pie smoothies and graphed whether or not we liked the taste. They were so yummy all but one of our friends said yes! Here's the recipe we used in case you want to try them at home. Apple Pie A La Mode Smoothies
We read many fantastic books about apples here were some of our favorites
We explored apples by cutting them apart in different ways. We used an apple slicer to cut red, green and yellow apples into small pieces for tasting. We picked a favorite and graphed the results before analyzing our data to see what kind of apple 4K liked best.
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