name magic

I wanted a quick art project today.  Something that went along with our All About Me unit and was easy to prep.  Something that the children would enjoy.  After much thought – I had it!  Crayon resist painting!  But, I thought, how do we get it to go along with the theme?  I decided they could paint their name!  What’s better than celebrating each child’s name with an art project?  I knew they would love that (and they did)!  What I did was take a 12 inch by 3 inch piece of white construction paper and write the child’s name on it using a white crayon.  Then I invited each child over to paint their paper using liquid watercolors.  As they painted they watched their name emerge!

I thoroughly enjoyed watching each child complete this art project.  They would start painting and then suddenly their face would light up with surprise and I’d hear: “Look – a letter!”  I’d smile and ask them if they thought more letters would appear as they painted.  Usually they’d start painting faster – some naming the letters as they went.  I loved the way their faces would light up when they realized that it was their name they were uncovering!   It was magical for them – most had never done this kind of art project before – and I love when I can watch them experience something for the first time!  🙂

our hands

I’ve never done class books in my classroom before – but recently I’ve been finding ideas and reading about them on various teacher websites/blogs and so I’ve decided to give it a go!  Thus, today we started our first class book!  Our class book idea is taken directly from Mrs. Levin over at Pre-K Pages (her blog is in my blog list at the left of the page)!  Thanks a bunch for the Here Are Our Hands class book idea (go to link for pics) – she has lots of other ideas too!  It goes great with our All About Me unit – and I think the children will enjoy looking at it in our class library and comparing their hands with their friends hands!  We used multicultural skin tone paints to blend colors that matched each students skin tone and had each child (who was able to) write their name!  So far it’s turning out very nicely and I think the end product will be super cute!

I’m curious to know how many of you out there make class books?  And how do you use them once they are complete?  Any ideas would also be welcome!  I hope you are all enjoying your new school year!  🙂

yummy

Since we are in the midst of an All About Me theme I thought this would be a good time to learn about what each of us likes to eat!  On Tuesday I sent a note home asking for each child to bring a piece of their favorite fruit with them to school today.  I had decided we were going to make a “Favorite Fruit” Salad.  So this morning we assembled and ate our treat.  Each child (after thoroughly washing their hands) got to use a plastic knife to cut up the fruit they’d brought (after I’d prepped it – if needed) and put it in the bowl.  We had apples, peaches, kiwi, bananas, grapes, watermelon, blueberries and more!  I was very pleased with the variety of fruit everyone brought!  After we had all done our part we dished it up and everyone got to eat and enjoy!  We also talked about what each person had brought and how altogether it made enough for all of us to eat.  We also talked about how working together we made something we all  could enjoy.  We had so much left over we took the rest of the salad to the kitchen for the other teachers to enjoy!  A fun, tasty project – and a good way to end the week!

snip, snip…

Today we started “I Like…” collages.  Basically I give the children magazines, they cut out pictures of things they like, and then glue those pictures to a piece of paper.  Simple, easy, and the children really enjoy this activity!  I like it because it gives us a good excuse to practice our scissor skills.  We have scissors out with our playdough – one way we get informal practice – and we’ve snipped a couple things before – but this is new for them.  I sit at the table and show the children how we hold the scissors correctly – then I let them have at it!  It’s nice because they don’t have to worry about cutting on a line and they still get practice.  So far the collages are turning out nicely – and they help us learn more about each other.  A good project for an All About Me theme. 🙂

we are special

For the month of September I’ve decided to do an All About Me/5 Senses theme.  So far, so good.  We’ve been having fun finger painting, using shaving cream, listening to the sounds in and around our school, making height charts, graphing our eye colors, and more!

We had a class discussion about how everyone is special in their own way.  We went around and everyone told the class why they think they’re special.  I recorded their answer on a piece of poster board and taped it to our classroom door for everyone to read!  The kids really get a kick out of telling the people who came into our class to read their answer!

September also ushered in or first family project of the year!  I sent home a large house shape with each child (cut out of a file folder to make it less flimsy) with a note attached explaining that the family was to decorate the house shape together to create an All About Me collage .  The houses were due Friday (sadly not everyone returned theirs) and I can definitely see each child’s personality in their house!  Everyone had a chance to present their house to the class and on Monday I’m going to hang them on the wall so they will be the first thing one sees walking through the door!  We’re hoping the children who didn’t bring theirs in will return them sometime next week (fingers crossed).  🙂