It Isn't About the Bunny - Easter 2013

I'm going to start by making most teachers extremely jealous . . . . we are on a TWO WEEK spring break!!!  The two main school systems in our area decided to do their spring breaks at different times so our school made the decision to be out for both!  (HAPPY DANCE!)  But since Easter is coming up Sunday, I wanted to show you what we have been up to.  Remember, I teach at a large Baptist church, so we celebrate the true meaning of Easter - God's love to us.

 

One of our art projects this week is very special.  We started with making a cross with the children's hands.  Next the children cut strips of paper for the grass.  They glue on the grass and little flowers (the flowers are punched from scrap paper) and the end result is amazing!  Look closely at them.

We have been working on patterns.  Can you see the patterns on the grass???

 

 

 

 

Here is an example of our pattern work.  We used colorful linking chains to make our patterns.  

 

 
 
 

Our letter of the week was "E" and there is nothing more fun than a good 'ole egg science experiment (or two!).  Of course we HAD to do the raw egg in vinegar experiment.  Everyone enjoyed watching the bubbles form and seeing the egg float up and down.  

 

 

I don't like to have glass containers in my classroom but, I kept the egg in my classroom all week so we could see it.   While we were talking about our experiment one of my students asked what would happen if we put an egg in orange juice?  To be honest, I had no idea!  So Tuesday . . . . we put another egg in a jar of orange juice and waited.  By Friday not much had changed so I sent the experiment home with him.  We will have to wait until after spring break to find out!

 

 

We really gave our fine motor skills a workout this week!  Our stain glass egg is always a big hit. 

We worked on our fine motor skills a little more as we made a beautiful Easter basket. Each child cut their own grass,  This student really enjoyed making patterns.  She even made a pattern with her grass!

Our beautiful "squishy" egg got an updated looks this year.  If you have never done a "squishy" art project, I highly recommend you try it.  First, I cut out an egg from poster board (the poster board we have is not very thick, but it works wonderfully for this project).  Next, I used a hot glue gun to draw a cross in the center of the egg.  Each child gets to pick their three favorite colors and we squeeze them onto the egg.  (We also added some white to make the colors more pastel.)

 

I cover the egg with plastic wrap and the children "squish" the paint all together.  This is a great sensory activity and the children love squishing the paint without getting their hands dirty.  After the egg dried, I added a bronze paint to highlight the cross.  I love the end results!







On Thursday, we worked on a project that was not only beautiful but very meaningful.  I cut some old scrapbooking paper into 1" strips and the children glued them onto a cross.

Friday was finally here!  Everyone knew that our spring break was right around the corner but no one was talking about that.  We wanted to see what happened to our egg! 

Yes, that is me!

 

It was fun to watch the children's faces as we looked at the egg and some of the bravest ones actually touched it!  The most fun came when we bounced the egg.  AND of course, everyone squealed when we bounced it a little too high and it burst!!!  WE LOVE MESSY FUN!

We also did a quick art project on Friday.  We call it the "Colors of the Cross".  We read and talked about each of the colors as we glued them on.

It was a great week!  I hope everyone enjoys their spring break (no matter when it is or how long it is).  I'll be back after Easter to share some more of our classroom fun.  I hope you will join us!

Our Happy Easter!

I'm sorry to be so far behind in my posting but my husband and I decided to do a "little" remodeling during spring  break and well . . . things have gotten out of hand.  hahahaha!  I am skipping ahead to Easter so I can share our WONDERFUL week with you.  We started on Monday by making simple handprint craft.

I saw this on Pinterest a few weeks ago and knew we had to make it.  Here is the original post Prayer Glow. I wanted to let my class do most of the work so I made a few changes.  While our handprints were drying, we cut paper for the grass.  We added some colorful punched flowers and WOW!  GORGEOUS!  (Note:  I added the draping to cross with purple glitter glue.)  This was truly a hit with our parents.

Since I knew we would not be in school on Friday, we did our science experiment on Monday.  We dropped a raw egg in vinegar and left it overnight.

If you have never done this experiment I beg you to try it.  I won't ruin it by telling you the results, but it is AMAZING!

On Tuesday we decided to have a little fun with tissue paper and Easter eggs!  I gave each child an outline of an Easter egg and a cross laid out on a piece of contact paper.  We carefully picked out our favorite colors of tissue paper and put them in the center of the Easter egg.

Then we covered it with another piece of contact paper and squished it down!

The results were stunning!  Everyone could hardly wait to take them home and put them in their window.

I introduced a new game to my classroom this week too.  Part of the reason for our big remodeling project came about because my sweet husband bought a new toy.

He loves and I loved the fact that he is very happy AND this big TV came in a BIG box!  You know what that means . . . free entertainment for my classroom!  Check out our newest game.

This literally cost NOTHING!  I used hot glue and some various shaped lids to make a maze.  We have different shaped objects (golf balls, Styrofoam balls, Easter eggs, etc)  to try and get through the maze.  It was amazing to watch the different styles of each student as they worked the objects around each lid.

We were out of school for Good Friday and our BIG spring concert was held on Thursday so that meant Wednesday was our SUPER FUN DAY!  I used the rest of the TV box to do a LARGE class project.  I quickly drew a simple sketch of the three crosses on a mountain and let my class have fun!

We divided up into two groups.  One group started out cutting/tearing all different types and color of paper.  (We used tissue paper, construction paper, and scrapbook paper.)   Once they got a good pile, the second group got it and started gluing!   I kept reminding them that we were working as a "team" and since I have several new t-ball players in my class, they loved it!  The final results were, hmmmm . . . well you decide -

And if you start to wonder how much of it I DID . . . I'll go ahead and tell you . . . I just drew it, they did the rest themselves!  This is being saved for our Art Show.  

Again, I'm sorry to be so late with my post.  The "real world" has gotten in the way.  Hopefully, I will be caught up soon!  Thanks for visiting.

"W" Week and Easter

I'm late once again! Since we were out of school for the Good Friday, Bill and I headed to the lake for a little R&R (not really, we worked the entire time). We had a wonderful visit from our son, his girlfriend and their dogs, so the weekend was perfect.

School was great all week. It seems everyone was busy talking about our big Easter party so it was a little difficult to keep our focus, but I tried. We started Monday by making the most amazing "Stained Glass Easter Egg". It turned out so nice. It is one of those projects that the children (and I) get instant gratification. Something we all need from time to time. We started with a piece of contact paper. We laid our hollowed out egg on top. Next we added our cross and little pieces of left over tissue paper.

We finished by carefully laying another piece of contact paper on the top.

Then we rubbed. We probably over did the rubbing process, but it was FUN! I carefully cut away the extra contact paper. The final results . . . . .

WONDERFUL!
Everyone couldn't wait to hold them up to the light.

Tuesday is always a fun day. We are busy, busy, busy! Today was no exception. I try very hard to emphasize to the children the true meaning of the holidays. I don't want them to think that Easter is all about candy and eggs. So on Tuesday we worked very hard on a beautiful and very meaningful Easter Cross.

Each of the colored squares has the meaning of the color written on it. The Easter lily is made from our handprint. The parents loved it.

I guess most people can tell by what I write that I AM NOT A FAN OF WORKSHEETS! They bore me, so I am guessing they will bore most children. Besides, anyone can color at home, school should be a place where you do "other" things, right???? Well, that is what I think anyway. So instead of copying all those coloring sheets (yawn), I laminate one or two of them a week and we use some donate "white board" markers to practice our writing skills. This week I made us a wonderful Easter egg to change things up a bit. EVERYONE loved it.

When we get finished we just erase it!

Here are our name sheets. Everyone loves practicing writing their names! Yes, this child is only FOUR!

A little side note: These will eventually get nasty looking. When they do, just wipe them off with a Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes or something similar and let them dry. They will look like new.

Wednesday is often referred to as "Wild Wednesday" or "Wacky Wednesday" and this week was NO exception. We had fun. I changed things around in our room and waited to see if the children noticed them. It tooks a while, but finally I heard, "LOOK Mrs. Karen, the pictures on the cabinet are turned upside down!" After that everyone started looking for things that were "wacky". We also made the cutest little wagon with Easter eggs in it of course!Thursday came too quickly this week. It was our big party day and I knew things were going to get crazy. I decided that we needed something very meaning and calming to work on today. We made an Easter bracelet. We used pipe cleaners and colored beads. Each bead represented the colors that were used in cross. They were beautiful, but not calming. It was party day, I tried! ;) We also worked quickly on our letter "W". We hung out the wash! Super cute, super fun!

Our Easter party was a huge success. Instead of "hunting" for Easter eggs we do an Easter Egg Swap. It is just like our Valentine Swap and everyone goes home happy!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Our next week will be all about the great outdoors and the wonderful letter "X". I hope you will come back and visit us!