Springtime!

I love spring, it is such a happy time!  My class came back from our Spring Break with lots of energy and I returned refreshed and ready to go!  We started our unit on Spring this past week and here are a few of the highlights.

I have very few regrets when it comes to things I did with my son as a child (not that I did everything right, it is just a don't believe in regrets).  But, one of the things I would have done differently is hand print art.  I just don't have enough!  I think that is why this first activity is one of my favorites.  We put the children's hand prints in a circle.  The children ALWAYS decide on what color they want to use.  I feel this is part of what makes this art work so special, no matter what color they choose.  Next, we have the children cut out the leaves and the stem.  As the children are cutting, we talk about the different parts of the flower and the importance of each one..

 

I back the stems and leaves with brown construction paper to make them POP OUT.  This is a very special piece of artwork because it highlights our cutting skills and we will be saving it for our upcoming art show in a few weeks. 

 

Here in Alabama, like in most of the country, we always have a lot of rain during the spring.  This past week was very rainy so we spent an entire day discussing RAIN.  Our art project for the day was really fun, we made it rain!  We started by mixing blue paint, a little glue and water in a large container.  Then we used some really fun droppers to put small and large drops of "rain" onto our papers. 

 

 

 

"This is fun Mrs. Karen, but when are we going to make it rain?", "T" said.  So he lifted up his paper and . . . . .

"It's raining Mrs. Karen, it is raining!"

SUCCESS!

 

After they dried, they still looked great!

 

 



I love Pinterest, and I'm sure if you "follow me" you know I am almost obsessed (hahaha).  I saw this the other day and knew my class would love it!  Of course, we changed things a little and made it our own.  We started by painting a large paper plate yellow.

 I love when little "S" said to me, "I know that we are doing more than this!".  I just giggled and assured her that we were.  Next we painted a stem and leaf. 

 

We all have our "special" ways to paint!

 

If you look closely, you may be able to see that I outline the leaf and stem with hot glue.

 

I'm not sure if this was really an important step, but the children seemed to like it.

 

We had to wait a whole day to let it dry. 

 

Next, comes the wow!  We cut slits all around our paper plates and added real sunflower seeds to the middles.  Everyone picked their favorite colors to finish off our masterpieces.

 

 

I love these so much!  Everyone could not wait to take them home!  We were so proud!

 

Our "Fabulous Fun Friday" had to extra special this week.  We had survived a fire drill on Wednesday and our water was cut off for a couple of hours on Thursday, all because of construction in a nearby building.  As always, my class was amazing so I wanted to do something special.  Our letter of the week was "K" so I brought in my keyboard and opened up my large jar of keys! 

 





 

Everyone loved counting the keys and making key rubbings.  We even tried to put them in order from smallest to the largest.  Of course all this was done while someone was playing "songs" on the keyboard. 

 

Our art project was very simple, but is started our conversation about "wind" and it was a great way for us to review our shapes.

 

 

Our discussion about "wind" was very lively and fun.  I brought a box fan from my house and we took turns seeing what items would "blow in the wind".

 

 

The shredded paper was the most fun (of course) but it was also the messiest! :) 

Everyone knows that on "Fabulous Fun Fridays" we HAVE to cook, and cook we did!  We made our very own "cookie flowers"!  Each child cot a cup of cookie dough and colored it their favorite color food coloring.  Next, we squished it out onto some aluminum foil so that they would look like a flower and added chocolate chips for the centers.  (NOTE:  Mrs. Christi and I wrote each child's name on their aluminum foil with a sharpie so everyone could eat their own cookies.)  Into the oven they went and YUM  . . . .

 

okay, maybe not "yum" but if you look closely, maybe you see a flower????  It didn't really matter because everyone loved eating their very own flower cookies.

It was a long and exhausting week but I can't wait to do it again!  I hope you will visit us again soon.  Our next unit will be all about birds!





Weather Week

This year we added "Weather Week" to our curriculum. We have always discussed the weather when we talked about summer, fall, winter and spring but it was really fun to have an entire week to talk about weather. Of course, during this week we had nothing but rain in the forecast, but we made do. but after being out of school on Monday for the Martin Luther King Holiday, we got busy Tuesday discussing RAIN! My husband had received a "sound machine" for Christmas (really, a sound machine when you live with ME!?!) but it did have the most wonderful rain sound programmed in it. So naturally, we had a background of "rain" all day on Tuesday. (There is also a wonderful "ocean" sound that we will use during our "Ocean and Water" week!) We also discussed rain and thunderstorms. I think there are a couple of students who aren't as afraid of thunder and lightening now. Our craft for Tuesday was simple, an umbrella with fingerprint rain drops.

Wednesday rolled around and we decided to heat up the classroom with our suns!

These actually turned out much nicer than I ever expected. The children loved talking about the sun and enjoyed hearing about the "giant ball of fire in the sky". Would you like to make a sun like ours? Start with a large round circle, we used thick poster board paper, and blob on some paint!

Cover with clear plastic wrap and SQUISH it!

We really like the feel of the paint under the clear plastic wrap!

Next we glued our sun to a piece of very large blue construction paper and added the sunrays!

Some children wanted BIG sunrays . . . . .

while others were happy with teeny, tiny rays.

either way, they were amazing!

By the time Friday rolled around we were ready for a fun weather snack! So, we decided to eat a rainbow! Yep, you heard me - we ate a rainbow! It was so fun and yummy. First we started with a rather funny looking template of a rainbow and started adding the color - with Fruit Loops of course!

It never ceases to amaze me how precise some children can be
while others are way to much LIKE ME! Either way, they were very, very yummy!

Our science experiment was all about the clouds! We started with a jumbo cotton ball (I had NO idea that cotton balls came in JUMBO) and a very small cup of water.

Next we put the cotton ball into the water, and squeezed it.




INSTANT RAIN! INSTANT FUN!


For our last science experiment we took a clear plastic cup and added plain water. We put a small amount of shaving creme on top. Then came the fun - a few drops of red and yellow food coloring. The food coloring slowly found it's way down into the water to make ORANGE rain! What fun! AND yes, we did it again with blue and yellow. And again, with red and blue! SUPER FUN!

Next week, my FAVORITE week - the SOLAR SYSTEM!!!! I hope you come back and as we rotate our way around the sun!