The Best Day!

I have a little girl in my class, quite a chatterbox really. Every time we do something new, it doesn't matter how trivial I think it is, she says "I love doing this! This is the best day!" I don't know about you, but I've been experiencing stress lately. We all have a myriad of stressors coming at us from all angles everyday. Can we still see all the little wonders and say "This is the best day! I love doing this!"?

Dr. Seuss, Things 1 and 2

My digital camera died, and so this picture is taken from my computer which takes mirror image pictures, that is why this project looks backwards. Anyway, I love Dr. Seuss and one of my favorite things about Kindergarten is that we make up holiday's to celebrate so I jump at the chance to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday. This project came to me on through pinterest and I don't know the origin but I love this one. The kids trace their shoes for the bodies and their hands for the hair and draw the rest. It is fun, cute and ties in several fine motor skills and direction following practice. Enjoy!

The Punky Pony

I was interviewing a student for his "star of the day" page and I asked him what his favorite song was. He said, "The Punky Pony!" I frantically searched my memory for any song we had sung about a pony, let alone a punky pony. Then, I got it! He meant The Hokey Pokey. The more I think about it, the more I realize that The Punky Pony makes much more sense as a title for that song. Think about it, you put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in and you shake it all about... Who moves like that? A punky pony! I realize that this young man was and English Learner and he made the title make sense to him. (After all, what is a hokey pokey?)
Enjoy the fun things your student's think today.

Number snowball fight

It was one of those days. The clock was ticking and we were not making any real head way with the lesson plans. Every time we gained any momentum something would happen... Like everyone would need to find their workbooks, or everyone needed their pencil sharpened. I was starting to get frustrated. But then, I remembered! Dr. Jean to the rescue. We could have a number snowball fight! Each student gets a small piece of paper and writes a number on it. I had my students make a circle and did a quick check to see that numbers were formed correctly. Then we crumpled our papers and had a snowball fight! After about 40 seconds I had each student pick up 1 snowball, uncrumple it and read the number. Then we did another round of throwing the balls. Repeat until all stress is relieved.

Stand up Snow pals

Here is a fun way to create a 3-D snow pal and reuse coffee, cocoa and oatmeal containers. (which I can never seem to bring myself to throw away.)
First students draw 3 horizontal lines across a piece of white paper. We made our line crooked so they look like snow.
Then students add faces and other embellishments.
I helped each student tape their paper around a cylinder shaped container.

This was particularly fun for my class because we have so little snow in Minnesota this year that these are the most realistic snow pals they may get to make!

In God's Hand

We created this bulletin board after reading the book Finding God's Love In Your Thumbprint by Mark Arens. The book is about how God made each person special and unique. After the story, each child received a large picture, photo copy of a hand. They decorated the hand and wrote their names in the middle. We talked about how God knows us so well that our names are written in God's hand. The hands became the boarder around out bible story chart. The chart is a T chart with pictures of old testament stories on one side and new testament stories on the other. I took the pictures from an old, falling apart, toddlers bible. It really helps children understand the 2 parts of the bible.

Valentine Roses

This rose is made from the end of a bunch of celery or bok choy. When stamped in paint the result is a cool textured rose. The leaves are sponge painted with a heart shape.
This is the end of the bok choy we used. This makes a nice Valentines or Mother's Day card.