St. Patrick's Day Activities

Yes, it has been nearly a year since I have posted. I'm sorry about that. Life has been incredibly busy. At the end of last year, I was one of the many teachers laid off from my county. I spent a good part of my summer looking for a job and my husband and I were praying about if/where we should locate. We ended up selling our house and relocating near my hometown so that we could be closer to my parents. Now I'm teaching full-time again and I'm also taking some college courses so that I can add on to my teaching certificate. I'm desperately longing for some lazy summer days!

I hope you enjoy these St. Patrick's Day crafts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Green Collage



These green collages are a simple activity to do and each one is unique. I simply looked through our craft supply cabinets and pulled out a bunch of different green items. We used green pom poms, foam stickers, sticks, sequins, tissue paper, feathers, etc and glued them onto a green shamrock.

2. Gadget painting

I have mentioned these gadget/cookie cutter paintings before. They are cute, easy, and each one looks different. The kids enjoy the gadget painting. In January we made one with snowmen, in February we made one with hearts, and as you see here we did shamrocks in March. In April we will probably paint with baby chicks, eggs, and bunnies.

3. Shamrock necklace

Source: busybeekidscrafts.com via Karen on Pinterest

We were going to make these shamrock necklaces, but somehow time got away from us. I'll save this idea for next year.

4. Tissue Paper Shamrocks

We made the tissue paper shamrocks last year. It is similar to the green collage.

What kinds of St. Patrick's Day activities have you tried?

Read More...

Summary only...

Wordless Wednesday: Our Classroom Butterflies

My computer is being repaired so these pictures are from my phone. I hope to post more pictures soon.

Read More...

Summary only...

Simple Spring Flowers

I was looking for something easy and springy to put on our classroom bulletin board. These flowers were easy and each one is unique.

To make the flowers I had each child paint a piece of white construction paper. They were able to choose which color they wanted. After the paint was dry I took a light colored marker and drew a flower design on the back of the paper to use as my template and then I cut out the flower. We put glue in the center of the flowers and the children were able to choose what they wanted for the inside. You can see the choices which included various colors of glitter, colored sand, sequins, and pom poms.

Cute, simple, and easy. Enjoy!

Read More...

Summary only...

Organizing Manipulative Bins

Every now and then there are projects that you want to get done in your classroom but you know how time consuming they will be. What a great feeling it is do get those projects off your list and see some of your work being used.

Last week I decided to conquer another project - labeling all of our manipulative bins. It wasn't too difficult and I'm pleased with the results.



Each day as I would pick up bits and pieces of toys I would get irritated searching for the correct bin. If this irritated me, I can only imagine how the kids felt.

For this organization project I simply took each bin one at a time and took a picture of the content inside the bin. For most of them I was able to put a few pieces on the table and take a picture. For smaller items (such as the bears) I left them inside the container when taking the picture. I printed the pictures on the color printer at work, cut them out, laminated them, and taped the pictures onto the bins. Like I said, it wasn't anything difficult, it was just time consuming.

I'm sooooo glad it's done. :D



What kind of classroom organization projects have you conquered?

Read More...

Summary only...

Lion Paper Craft

My son brought home this lion from school and so I thought I'd share it with you. Everything is made from paper. The mane of the lion is made from paper chains.

You might also like this Lion and Lamb Handprint Craft.

Read More...

Summary only...

Tissue Paper Shamrocks

Since I teach special needs preschool I am always on the look out for easy craft ideas that all of the children can do and that will help them improve their motor skills. Since St. Patrick's Day is this week we made these tissue paper shamrocks. They were so simple to do and the kids seemed to enjoy it. These shamrocks were still a little wet when I took the picture, but you can imagine how the finished product looks.

To make the shamrocks: I did a google search for a shamrock template and used it to cut out shamrocks from green paper. Then I let the kids paint the glue onto the paper. Painting the glue works much better than squeezing it on. It allows for better control and avoids a big glob on the paper. Then the children put little green squares of tissue paper onto the paper.

Simple and easy. :)

Read More...

Summary only...

Tie Dye Butterflies

I was wanting some spring decorations that we could make for our classroom. I don't remember where I saw this idea (it must have been 10 years ago) but these are really cute and simple to make.

For our tie dye butterflies we used bingo daubers, markers, coffee filters, and pipe cleaners (chenille stems).


Before you begin, be sure to write the child's name on the coffee filter. I chose to write their name in very small print on the outer edge of the butterfly.

To make the butterflies you don't have to use bingo daubers but our kids really like them so we put the daubers to use. We used the markers and daubers to color the coffee filters. Next, we just sprayed about 3 squirts of water onto the coffee filter and moved the filter around a little so that the water would make the colors run. If a child didn't color their filter very much then I scrunched it up to help the color spread.


We laid the coffee filters out to dry. We used recycled copy paper and newspaper on the tables during the coloring and drying process and it was very helpful.

Next, I used a pipe cleaner to make a body for the butterfly. I gathered up the coffee filter and wrapped the pipe cleaner around the middle a few times and then twisted it to make a body and antennae. It took a little practice to figure out how I wanted to wrap it, but I think it turned out well.


These butterflies are a colorful addition to our classroom. :)

Read More...

Summary only...

How to Dye Pasta for Crafts

It is super double coupon week at Harris Teeter and I managed to snag some pasta for only 30 cents a box! Since we don't eat much pasta in our home I decided to purchase some for the classroom.


Dying pasta is super easy, economical, and has many uses in arts and crafts projects. In our classroom we plan to make necklaces, bracelets, and collages. Stringing the pasta will provide an opportunity to improve fine motor skills. In addition to these ideas we can also use it for counting and making patterns.

As you can see, the pasta turned out bright and colorful. The colors remind me of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Ingredients:

• pasta
• large ziploc bag (I used gallon size)
• food coloring
• vinegar or alcohol
• wax paper

Instructions:

1. Add a few cups of pasta to your ziploc bag.
2. Next, add about 10-12 drops of food coloring and about 1 tbsp of vinegar. (You can use alcohol but I prefer to use vinegar so that it's safe for the preschoolers that decide to put it in their mouth.)
3. Close the ziploc and stir up the pasta to mix around the food coloring. You can let the noodles sit in the food coloring for a little while if you'd like a deeper color. (I didn't let mine sit and I am pleased with the color.)
4. Dump out your noodles onto wax paper and allow to dry. You can let it dry on newspaper but I used wax paper so that I don't have to worry about the wet noodles drying to the paper.
5. Let the noodles dry overnight. I made our pasta on Friday so that it would have plenty of time to dry over the weekend.

Money saving idea: To cut down on the number of baggies I used, I planned an order for dying my pasta so that I could reuse the bags. For example, I dyed yellow pasta and then used the bag to dye orange pasta. I knew that the orange would involve using the yellow and another color.

Read More...

Summary only...

Construction Theme: The Three Little Pigs

One of our recent themes was construction. We used The Three Little Pigs as our main book for the week. Here are a few activities to go with the theme.

There are so many different versions of this story that I actually had a difficult time finding the original story. You could share the different versions with your class. Depending on their age and abilities, you could compare the differences.




We also read Our Tree House. This book talks about building a tree house and it shows the people working and building so we were able to point out the different tools and the purpose of the tools.

For our craft we made pigs. We used three circles for the body, head, and snout.

We have a blocks center in our classroom. We recently added some of the sturdy cardboard brick blocks to our collection.

My son had some toy tools at home so I borrowed them to take to school. They were a hit and they preschoolers have really enjoyed playing with the tools.


We are fortunate to have a nice manipulative center in our classroom which has many wooden puzzles.


I added some of these pig coloring pages in our art center that week as an optional activity. The kids could color and trace the word "pig". Other sources for printables: First School, Coloring.ws, Coloring Pages for Kids.

Other things we did during the week:
Read Humpty Dumpty
Sang the Humpty Dumpty song
Watched The Three Little Pigs from the Discovery Education website
We made The Three Little Pigs stick puppets. We used our puppets to retell the story.

Other activities to try:
Blow paint with a straw.
Pig craft (from paper towel roll)

Read More...

Summary only...

Snowman Photo Keepsake

This snowman doesn't need much explanation. It is simply a snowman that kids can help cut and assemble. Then the teacher can add a photo of the child for the snowman's face.

Be sure to check out the other snowman ideas.

Read More...

Summary only...