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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Under the Sea

Our "Under the Sea" week turned out to more fun than even I expected!  Usually by the time we get this deep into the school year, the students tend to get bored more easily.  NOT WITH THIS UNIT!  WOW, we had so much fun! 
This is my classroom!
I don't even remember where I got this large poster.
Someone threw it away and I retrieved it from the trash!

One of the most fun things we did this week was walk down our  hallways.  REALLY?!?!?!  Yes, we had so much fun swimming like a fish, crawling sideways like a crab and even floating like a jellyfish down the hall.  A real plus here is that fish are very quiet, so it was a wonderful way to keep us quiet as walked.  Okay, now let me show you some of the fun (and messy) things we did this week.

For the past couple of years, we have made a giant ocean scene.  It takes a couple of days but it is really fun.  First we have to paint the water.  Now that just didn't seem fun enough for us, SO we decided to do it the Mrs. Karen way!  First we squeezed on paint different colors of paint (green, blue, turquoise, and white).  Next, we used different types of rollers, brushes and scrappers to spread around the paint.
 
While that was drying (and it did take a full 24 hours to dry), we made different sea creatures out of our hand prints and cut out seaweed.  


Everyone was so very proud of their work!

One of our favorite books this week was Please Don't Eat the Teacher by Nick Ward.
 
This quickly became a class favorite and I was asked to read it everyday!  After reading it, there was no way my students were going to let me get through the week with a shark art project.  I think I nailed it!


 
Of course, there were those who wanted to make a hammerhead shark!



 
Here is a close-up of his/her mouth.  The children painted the inside of a small paper plate.  Then they cut (I drew the lines) little triangles all the way around the plate.  When you fold it in half it makes a perfect mouth!


 
I saw this amazing file folder game on PINTEREST but unfortunately the link did not work.
I loved the idea and I wanted everyone in my class to be able to do it.  Guess what?  We did!  Here is our Counting Octopus.

The octopus is a girl.  See her hair bow!

 

A close-up of our legs.
I will admit this activity is not for everyone.  There was a lot of circle punching involved in this, but I think it was worth it.  The children loved counting the circles and gluing them onto the legs.

Friday was our "Q" day.  We tried (really, we did) to be quiet, but as you can imagine it was more fun to be quick!  We also started working on our big Friendship Quilt.  This year we used real material.  Everyone picked out their favorite color construction paper and glued on different shaped pieces of material.

This is where I get to say "OPPS!"  I forgot to take pictures of the finished pieces, but I will and I will post them in a day or two.  We will join all the pieces together to form our giant "Friendship Quilt" and it will be on display for our end-of-the-year Art Show, which will be this Thursday.
 
Thanks for stopping by and visiting with us.  I hope you come back and visit with us soon.

9 comments:

  1. All these posts make me want to go back to school!

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  2. Fantastic ideas! I love ocean crafts!

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  3. Love the under the sea artwork! So very creative. We will have to try some your ideas!

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  4. Those are some really cute ideas. My sister-in-law teaches preschool in Naples FL. I shared your blog with her. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

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  5. Thanks this was a very informative post for me while i have been looking into a preschool in Tacoma WAfor my daughter, thanks again!

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  6. This is so adorable. It reminds me a lot of my days back in west roxbury preschool. If life were only so simple and fun again.

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  7. New to your blog...and i love it!!!! such cute idea! Thanks for sharing!

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  8. This looks like a fun unit! I am definitely going to try some of your ideas this year in my pre-k classroom!

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  9. Its very very useful Article. You are rightly guided us . Teaching Our Kid Is Nowadays are Very Challenging...So we have to teach them and keep them updated. Recently i searched for a new type of teaching like, teach our kids via app so i am collecting app... recently i got this app.This Learn Underwater application, will help the kids to distinguish between different aquatic species like sea horse, whale, angel fish and octopus.
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ajax.underwater

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