"V" Week and Spring

This week turned out to be Very interesting and Very fun! I knew it was going to be a short week for me since I had to be out on Friday to take my husband to for a medical "thingie", so I had to make the most out of my condensed week. We started on Monday talking about the letter "V" and we discovered it WAS a fun letter after all! We had the best time making letter vests. I got the idea from Dr. Jean http://www.drjean.org/html/monthly_act/act_2005/02_Feb/index.html and modified it for our needs. We used old paper bags, cut them, turned them inside out and decorated them. As you can see from the picture, the first letter of each child's name is on the back (we used a free sample roll of blue electrical tape) and the children decorated the front with old stickers and markers. I even found some old alphabet stickers and everyone had a fun time trying to find the letters of their names. Since I knew I was going to have to be out on Friday, we went ahead and did our weekly science experiment a little early. I am so glad we did! It was a big success! Of course since it was "V" week we HAD to do the "Vinegar and Baking Soda Volcano Experiment". I'm really fortunate that my Mom saves all different kinds of containers for me. Because I have SO many, everyone got to do their own experiment. First everyone got to color their vinegar any color they wanted. Next we gave everyone a small cup of baking soda. I wanted the children to understand that we were using everyday items and especially to know that these items are completely safe. Unfortunately, I decided to taste the baking soda to prove my point. NOT a very smart idea! But everyone did get a good laugh out of it! Next, I counted to three and everyone dumped their ingredients into a cup. FUN! The noise level was unbelievable! Then we realized that we had more vinegar and baking soda left over. Well, that simply will not do! So of course, we did one more BIG experiment and WOW it was BIG! We also added a little dishwashing detergent to give it a little more WOW factor. I think it worked!


Tuesday was spent talking about Spring and the our wonderful letter "V". I think we incorporated our letter and our theme very nicely.



Our flowers were made from tissue paper scraps that we wadded up and glued to stems made from scrap paper. I loved how the flowers turned out. Everyones was different, some wanted LOTS of flowers, others only a few.

For the past 15 years I have tried unsuccessfully to find a violin to use during "V" week. I have had NO luck, well, no luck until this year! Yep, that's right on Tuesday we were officially know as "the class making that funny noise". Now not only did we GET a violin, we got to PLAY the violin! We loved it!

We also discovered that it was a little bit harder to play then we thought!

Wednesday was a wild day! It didn't help that we made a vulture and talked about it ALL day! Everyone was fascinated about a bird that "eats dead stuff". Nothing gets a young child's attention like talking about very gross things. Our "Very Valuable Vulture" was a big hit with everyone! I'm not sure you can tell by the picture, but his neck is a piece of construction paper (about 2x5) that the children accordion folded. This way his head kind of bobs around.

Thursday was spent talking solely about Spring and the wonderful changes that are going on now. We all agreed baby birds were one of our favorite things so we made a little handprint baby bird nest. Here are the instructions - BIRDS IN A NEST Have your child paint their hand blue this time. Next, have them spread their fingers and make an impression in the middle of a piece of paper. When the print is dry, give them a nest shape (1/2 circle), cut from a tan piece of paper. Have them glue the nest across the bottom of the blue impression. Next, take shredded paper and glue it to the nest. You now should have a nest with 5 blue birds in it. Let your children add eyes and v beaks with a thin black marking pen. I hope this makes sense. Since my poor camera died I am relying on the kindness of others for pictures. Hopefully, one of my Moms will be e-mailing me a photo soon.
LOOKIE WHAT I FOUND! hehehehe! One of my students wasn't at school on friday either so I took a picture of her bird's nest.Well, like I said, this was a short week for me. Today was spent at the hospital with my husband but I did leave a fun scissor project. We made palm leaves in honor of Palm Sunday this weekend. I cut giant leaves out of green construction paper and the children made diagonal cuts to make the leaves. They were to glue on a stem made from cardboard. Now, they will be ready to tell their parents the wonderful story of Palm Sunday.


Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you will come back again next week and see the fun and hopefully exciting ways we will studying the letter "W" and Easter.

"U" Week and Spring

What an UnUsual week! No really, it was unusual and it was that way on purpose! Last Friday was by far one of our best days EVER in school, so I knew once again I had to find something great for this week. Unfortunately it was "U" week (insert a very confused face here!), and well, to be honest, the letter "U" isn't THAT exciting - or is it?????? It is now! Here we go, the letter "U" and Spring Week - Mrs. Karen style . . . . We started on Monday introducing the letter "U" just as we usually do. We made a very simple umbrella (yawn) BUT we added something unusual. We mixed glue and paint together and made "Mrs. Karen's Unusual Paint" - PERFECT! This ended up being the perfect craft since we had a severe thunderstorm later that day. On Tuesday we talked about spring and all the wonderful things we see during season. Of course everyone commented on how many bugs we are seeing now so we made a ladybug. Isn't she cute? Can you tell how we made the spots on her wings? I'll share our secret - we used little umbrellas!
I found these little umbrellas up in our supply closet and BAM we had instant fun! Everyone enjoyed dipping their little umbrellas into our "unusual paint" (paint and glue for a thick effect) and making spots!

Wednesday was a day for us to work on our letter of the week. All day long we made the "U" sound. My entire classroom sounded like they had the stomach ache! UH, UH, UH, UH, UH! Lots of fun but very noisy. We also painted a beautiful butterfly in a very unusual way. For this put big blobs of paint on 1/2 of the butterfly then folded it over and rubbed the two sections together. INSTANT beauty!

Everyone added a fun little body and just the perfect little faces! They were all so pretty that I backed them with black paper for an extra little pop. I love to see the children's faces when their projects are completed. There is such pride in their eyes!

Thursday is our busy day. We have Chapel and a Spanish class in the morning, so it makes for one hectic day. On Wednesday I had the children make their hand prints around a circle. I didn't tell them why so it made things really fun. On Thursday we added their fingerprints to the middle and I handed them some scissors. We have been working very hard on our cutting skills and it really shows. I drew a leaf and a stem on a large piece of green construction paper. The children took it from there. WOW! Their stems and leaves were amazing. Here are the end results



Aren't they amazing! Now, after they glued in their stems and leaves I mounted them on brown construction paper and cut them out. It seem to make their work stand out. I liked that!

Finally, it was Friday! Our Fabulous Fun Friday did not disappoint! This week I call it our "Unusual Fabulous Fun Friday" and unusual it was. We started off by NOT being in our classroom! That's right, we traded classrooms! OH FUN! I also took away all our springtime themed books and traded them in for . . . . CHRISTMAS books! Our blocks were replaced with all different sized bottle caps (I haven't thrown away a bottle cap in 2 years!). I also brought in a HUGE box of my son's old baseball uniforms for us to dress up in! OH THE FUN! But I wasn't quite finished . . . for our craft activity we drew Under the tables!I tapped large sheets of construction paper to the under side of the tables and the children had the best time! I do believe there were two little girls who would still be drawing if we had not run out of time. FUN, FUN, FUN! My favorite part of the day is listening to the children while they are getting into their cars. NO, not because they are leaving, but because they tell their parents about the fun they had at school.
Oh, I almost forgot to show you our wonderful springtime snack.
We had so much fun putting this together. I think you can probably tell that it is 2 pretzels joined in the middle by white Almond Bark.The little antennas are broken pretzels (with our budget we don't want to waste anything!) and of course we had to add 2 little M&M's because everyone loves M&M's!

Next week we will continue talking about "Spring" and the letter "V". I hope you will come back and visit us!

Spring Flowers

I just love springtime! My entire classroom is filled with even more happiness and activities. One of our favorite spring activities is making spring flowers.

I'm sure you can tell that we used our hand prints for the flower and our fingers for the seeds in the middle. But, can you tell that each student did their very own cutting?? All the stems were cut by the students themselves. Big accomplishment for newly-turned 4 year olds. This is a huge confidence builder!