Playing Catch Up - Part II

Christmas time in Mrs. Karen's Class is always busy! This year was especially busy and fun because we joined together with Mrs. Christi's class on Mondays and Fridays. I like joining the classes because it gives us all a chance to meet and make new friends. Our Christmas tree was a perfect example of making something new out of something old. The old part came from the left-over scrapbooking supplies. I mixed up all the paper and the students tried to put the paper in decending order. They were all so good!

We also worked on our alphabet. The letter "J" was fun. We talked a lot about Christmas being a time when we celebrate Jesus' birthday. We even made a fun little jacket to go over our "J".

Of course no Pre-school Christmas would be complete without those wonderful gifts to our parents! As always we dressed up like little angels, no really, angels, see . . .

Then we made little manager picture frames out of craft sticks.

We made our own wrapping paper from butcher paper and stamps. This year we decided to make light bulb stamps. The children stamped and then after they dried I added the details!I thought they were so cute! Hmmmm . . . maybe next year I'll make some for my presents!

Of course we just had to make some Christmas cookies. This year we headed to kitchen and made "Christmas Ornament" cookies. Just a few 'Nilla Wafers, icing and sugar sprinkles make the most yummy cookies ever!

I can't wait to see what January and the year 2011 brings!!!

Dr Jean!

Right after Thanksgiving I was given an amazing opportunity to attend a Dr. Jean seminar. http://drjean.org/ If you've never been - TRY TO GO! I had no idea I would enjoy it so much.

That's me on the right and on the left is our amazing new director, Mrs. Cynthia Turner. I don't think she has ever seen me so quiet! I didn't want to take a breath or go to the bathroom in fear of missing something. I learned so much and now feel as though 2011 will be a more fun and educational year for my class.

Let's Catch Up - Part I

Sorry to do this to everyone but I'm going to try and post some of our wonderful Thanksgiving work. I know! It is almost January! But like I've said before, between school, my second job (which technically takes up more time than school), my son graduating from the police academy, a house FULL of people at Thanksgiving AND then Christmas, I've hardly had time to breath. So, like I said, "let's catch up". . . . .

Look at this adorable turkey. He is made with one toilet tissue roll and scrap paper. First, I cut the tissue roll and glue them together with some "Aileen's Tacky Glue". Then the children started painting him.

After he dried we added the wonderful details. His feet are two stars. His beak is a square, folded in half to make a triangle. His little eyes are circle punches. His feathers, which happen to be our favorite part, are fingers prints. We simply painted our fingers with the different colors and wiggled them onto some scrap paper - perfect feathers! Many of the parents said they would be using him (or her) for their Thanksgiving centerpiece.

Here is our "Square" turkey! As you can see some of the students liked a lot of squares, while 3 were just enough for others.

For our science experiment we decided to dye some noodles to use for our indian necklaces. We divided up into partners and started dying! Our recipe was quite simple, alchol and food coloring. No measuring just squirting! Even the ones that turned out different than we expected looked really good! These were suppose to be purple and blue, but we didn't mind! Good thing we did these on friday. They needed all weekend to dry. Friday kept us in the kitchen for a while because we whipped up some turkey cookies for snack. A 'Nilla Wafer and icing started our turkey off. Then we added some candy corn for his feathers. Next came the head, a malted milk ball of course. We talked about adding some eyes, but everyone decided to just go ahead and eat him. He was very good!

Color Box

I know that I should be doing some cleaning or something constructive here at home during my Christmas break but I just can't. Instead I am spending every waking second thinking of new things for school. To be honest though, there isn't much to do here at home since Bill and I are all alone. Well, not unless I want to start my much needed remodeling process, but that is another blog all together :).

Once again my poor brain went into overdrive when I saw this box.

The inside will make some wonderful snow (wait I'm getting a head of myself)!

Surely there was something that I could do with it! Then WHAM, I knew!!! My class and I play "the color game". That is when I say the first part of a silly rhyme, for example I say "Get out of bed and go find me something_____ " and they fill in the blank by screaming "RED". We have a great time with it but it never fails someone is in a grumpy mood and will say, "I don't want THAT color". Of course everyone else follows. NOT ANYMORE! We will now roll the color dice and you will decide your own fate. Here is our NEW color dice!

This was so simple and so cheap to make. I used left over pieces of old scrapbook paper and stickers. After I took all these pictures I wrapped it in wide packing tape for a little protection. It is now ready for it's debut in January 2011! Of course I am now on the lookout for more square boxes. I can see this same idea with other colors and one with our shapes too! For older classes you could write letters on the side and try to come up with words that begin with that sound! Oh, the possibilities!!!!!!!

New Game!

Oops I did it again! I have to apologize for not posting in TWO months! Oh my goodness I have been so busy! Between school, my second job, my son's graduation from the police academy, Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have neglected my class blog. PLEASE forgive me! :) I'll be playing catch-up from now until school starts but there is something I just have to share. Our new game! It is made from a cupcake holder, the kind you get your cupcakes in from a bakery.

This is what was left after a birthday party. I knew I NEEDED to keep it, but I wasn't sure why. Then inspiration hit me!!! First I lined the bottom with circles.

I'll tell you a secret, those scrapbook supplies came in real handy for this project! My circle cutter made this really fast and easy. Next I used some old stickers and put numbers on each circle.

I could have put the numbers in order but I wanted my class to have a challenge. We will now use all those little scraps of circles, squares, heart, etc. to add to the game. Simply but one circle in the 1 hole! I'm going to try and use items that coordinate with our theme or letter of the week. When school starts back we will be reviewing for a while so I'll just use some plastic snowflakes I found. Isn't this a great math and fine motor skills game. I think so!!! You could also simplify it by using colors or shapes. Of course you make it harder by using Roman numerals or words. I hope you try it!

Thanks for stopping by!