Spring is Here!

The good news is that my husband and I actually survived Spring Break 2013.  The bad news is, it cost of a small fortune!  It all started with a freak wind storm that his our little area of town, ripping shingles off of our roof.  Then, my washer and dryer both decided to break down.  You are now reading an article written by one very unhappy preschool teacher.  But, we are getting a new roof and my classroom got a new reading room courtesy of my old washer and dryer boxes!  First they needed a little painting!

 

The final result was very colorful!



This amazingly colorful reading box sits in the corner of my classroom (not on a table, this picture was taken while it was drying!).  It is filled with pillows, blankets and a small flashlight.  The children are invited to take a book in our new reading room and spend some alone time reading.  It has quickly become a class favorite!

 

The washer and dryer also had some wonderful cardboard supports that I just could not throw away.  All we did was all a Styrofoam ball and . . . . .

 

 



instant balancing fun!  The best part is that it cost us $0.00 and when we get tired of them, another class can use it or we will just throw it away!

 

To be honest, I really don't like doing the same art projects year after year.  But our first art project is an exception.  I love our giant sunflowers!  They are very simple but a lot of fun!  We start out by painting a large paper plate yellow.  After it dries, we cut the petals.

 

Next, we add some real sunflower seeds!

While that dries for just a few minutes we paint our giant stems and leaves.

 

When everything is glued together we have a beautiful sunflower!

  

In Alabama, spring means rain (and an occasional tornado!).  So we made it rain on Tuesday!  We glued an umbrella shape onto a piece of light blue paper and the children followed the dots to draw a handle.  Next we added rain drops!  Well, they were really drops of blue paint!

Some drops were bigger than others! :)

 

Here comes the FUN part! 

 Now we have umbrellas with rain falling on them!

The trees in our area are just beautiful right now.  We spent an entire day talking about the trees and how they are "waking up".  Here is our beautiful spring tree project.  We started with a hand print (well, it really is a hand print AND arm print!).

 

 

Then we added the grass. 

We've been working on making patterns.

Look closely, can you see the pattern?

 

 

Finally, we added some little pieces of colorful tissue paper to represent the beautiful flowers on the trees. 

Please note that this one has the flowers falling off the tree

because the wind is blowing!

 



We were also talking about the letter "K" this week and since the wind is blowing so hard we made our very own shape kits.  Of course, we started off with a diamond shape and the children traced the lines to make our pretend kite "sticks".

 Our tails were long pieces of ribbon with different shapes attached.

I don't think they will fly but it is was a fun way to review our shapes!

We also made some yummy springtime cookies.  I made up some sugar cookie dough at home and each child got to cut out their own cookie.  We baked them and added some fun colored icing.  I wish I had some pictures to show you but  . . . . well, my hands were a little sticky! :)

Have a great week and I hope you stop back by soon!