Inauguration Fun

Hi all!

My class had lots of fun with the inauguration so I thought I would share some ideas for you.  Although there won't be another inauguration for 4 years, President's Day is only a few weeks away.

Since the inauguration was on a holiday, we celebrated on Tuesday.  I invited my students to wear red, white and blue that day.  (However, I had so many ideas that some of these ideas were used on Wednesday.)

Biography of President Obama

I began by reading a biography of Barack Obama.

Then we created pictures of President Obama.  This art project is from TLC.  It was a bit complex, but my kiddos did a great job!  If you haven't created TLC projects with your children, I highly recommend you check them out.  Kaye Espinosa is the brains behind TLC.  These lessons were created to teach children the kindergarten curriculum using art.  All of the TLC projects begin with rectangles.  Students then cut and paste to create amazing artwork and along the way, they learn a lot about math.  The Barack Obama lesson is in the America book, but it is currently available as a free download at the TLC website.

Then students had to pick which color in the American flag was their favorite.  We made a tally chart and then graphed our results on a simple worksheet I created.  Later, I kicked myself for not doing an art project about the flag.  Hmmm ... please remind me about that four years from now.  Pretty please!  

                                              Then it was time for another read aloud:

If I Were President

After reading this book, we brainstormed what we would do if we were president.  Then the children wrote about it.  I gave my kinders paper that already said, "If I were president".  My firsties used regular lined paper.  I LOVE what my kiddos wrote!!

Here is a kinder sample:

If I were president, I would take a nap and eat whatever I want.

This is a first grade sample:

I love this one because it is so balanced.  Maybe this is how I should lead my life: play with kids, work real hard, take care of the whole world, play with my DSI, and take care of the family.  Love, love, love!

Then we did another art project.  I created a guided drawing lesson about the White House.  My sample is first and then student samples follow.  I LOVE doing guided drawing with my students!  Each piece of art turns out unique and wonderful. I tell them step by step what to draw.  Example: "Draw a large rectangle in the middle of your paper."  (More math incorporated into art.  LOVE IT!)

Whew!  The children had so much fun and hopefully learned a lot!

Love to all,

Camille

Cute, Cute, Cute Leprechauns!

My class just made the most adorable leprechauns today.  These are from a unit by the wonderful Reagan called Looking for a Leprechaun.  Each day my class has to complete a page from Reagan's booklet before they can read the daily letter from Lucky, our class leprechaun.  Today we had extra time together as a class, so we made Reagan's leprechauns.  How cute are these guys?!?

...and here is a whole army of leprechauns!  There are even more ... I didn't have a bulletin board that could contain them so they are also around the windows smiling.  This is the good news about having larger class size ... you get LOTS of art to decorate the classroom.  My students LOVED making these; especially curling the paper for those amazing beards.  (Notice the handprints in the background ... We made those handprints in August and I usually find a way to work them into each display ... it just didn't work this time and I just didn't have the heart to take them down.  Oh well ...)

                      

Tomorrow's letter from Lucky mentions these leprechauns.  Lucky LOVES them!  (Yes, I peeked at his letter on my way out the door!  Hopefully, Lucky didn't see me peeking!)

Love to all,
Camille

Abe in Charcoal

Hi all!  Please don't hate me, but I have this entire week off.  But since my classroom is a mess and my house is a mess, I will be super busy doing boring cleaning while most of you are having fun with your students.  Really!  As I cleaned toilets today I thought about how I could be doing a read aloud.  Sad, but true!

Now onto something fun for me!  One of my favorite art projects involves Abraham Lincoln and charcoal.  I love using a variety of art mediums with my students so every year we do a directed drawing of Abraham Lincoln using art charcoal. I bought a box of 100 pieces of art charcoal years ago.  I think that box is going to last F.O.R.E.V.E.R!  But just because I did this in charcoal doesn't mean you have to.  Crayon or pencil would work just as well.  Here are two finished masterpieces from last week.  I am always stunned by how wonderful these portraits all turn out.

Lincoln drawn in charcoal by two firsties!

Step-by-step directions for directed drawings of Lincoln AND Washington can be found at KinderKorner.   Special thanks to Victoria Smith of KinderKorner for posting these directions years ago for all of us to use!

My laundry is calling me, so away I go.

Love to all,
Camille

Snow! Snow! Snow!

Okay, the truth is that I teach in a very sunny city in California.  Having grown up here, I know that it snows once every ten years.  Of course, if you blink, you miss the snow.  However, most teachers here have a deep, down fascination with snow.  So each winter, we take time to create lots of art focusing on ... snow.  One year a teacher from _________ (an unnamed COLD state) told me that it made no sense to have our students make snowmen since it doesn't snow here.  (She didn't fall for the "it snows here every ten years, but don't blink" speech.)  I tried to explain that that is EXACTLY why we make snowmen and snowflakes and whatever else we can think of that is snow related.  But she didn't get it!  Hopefully you will!

I am posting PRIOR to making these projects with my class because otherwise I won't get around to telling you until the spring.  (Seriously, I have drafts of blog pages with pumpkin ideas and gingerbread ideas that I never quite finished and I would be WAY too embarrassed to post now so those blog pages will have to wait until the next school year to be posted.  Maybe I will post them in the summer and you all will be soooooo impressed with how organized I am!  Hah hah!)

Back to snow ...

1) Pattern Block Snowflakes:

Every year we make pattern block snowflakes.  This idea came from my teaching partner Marlene.  (THANKS Marlene!!!) To prep,  I use a pattern block template and copy all of the different pattern blocks onto white paper.  Then I get a helper (usually a middle school or high school student) to cut out the various pattern blocks.  For each child,  I cut a blue (either dark or light) 12" X 12" square and glue a white hexagon in the middle. (Last year I cut the blue paper into circles ahead of time because I had kinders and wanted to make their project different than the first grade project.)  Each student is to create a symmetrical snowflake using the white pattern blocks.  The hexagon in the middle gives them a base to build from.  These snowflakes always turn out beautiful (although a few are always .. well, interesting) and they make a great bulletin board display.  Plus this is really a math project!  I expect students to use the correct names of the shapes as they work.   Here is a link to the templates for the pattern blocks.

2) Quilt Square Snowflake:

I have a quilt square bulletin board in my classroom (see the picture above).  Each month, the children make a new quilt square. Last year we made snowflakes for January.   I get all of my quilt square ideas from TLC Art from The Quilt Book.  I gave my students the 8" X 8" dark blue square along with 3 light blue rectangles (about 7" X 1") and 5 white rectangles (about 1" X 2").  The children first glue on the light blue rectangles.  Then they cut all of the white rectangles in half and make squares.  Then they cut three of the squares in half to make triangles.  (Lots of geometry here!!!)  BUT you can have students create their own patterns for this also.

3)  Coffee Filter Snowflakes:

This is an idea from Pinterest.  Here is my sample.  To make this you fold a coffee filter into half, and then half again, and then half again.  If you have older students, you can fold even more.  Then the students cut triangles, half circles, etc on the folds.  I am going to tie math into this.  As we fold, we can talk about halves, fourths and eighths.  We can also talk about the shapes we are making .  "Hmmm ... I cut a triangle, but it turned into rhombus when I opened it, Why is that?"  (I heart math!!!!)

4)  Torn Paper Snowman: 

Years ago my sister gave me a card that had a flower made from torn paper.  It was so beautiful that I decided to have my students tear paper to create snowmen.  I love to do torn paper projects because it helps my perfectionists loosen up.  It is impossible for a torn paper project to be "perfect" so they learn to live with an imperfect project that is adorable.  I am a perfectionist with a capital P (What does that really mean?  "With a capital P"?  Well, it sounds impressive so I will use it.)  I sure wish I had teachers that nudged me to loosen up instead of asking for perfect pieces of art.  This is the only sample I could find - not a great sample, but you get the idea.  I have students begin by drawing three circles with a white crayon so they know where to glue their pieces.  (I think this child skipped that step!)

5)  Cutest Snowman EVER!!!!!

Here is my very favorite snowman ever - it is at the top left of my Pinterest board.  (With all of the controversy about clipart, I got nervous about posting anything that wasn't mine.)

Cute, cute, cute snowman

Okay, this is an idea I haven't used yet, but because I think it is the cutest snowman ever so I plan to have my students create these snowmen.  We will start with dark blue paper and then use crayons to create them.  (Note to self: Find white crayons for the students to use.  Why don't ALL crayon boxes come with white crayons????)  This snowman is from Kathy Barbro's art blog, which I LOVE!  

Love to all,

Camille

An Ocean in the Classroom!

In the spring my class was studying fish (as part of our WONDERFUL science program: FOSS - love, love, love it!).  So I had my kiddos help me turn our class into an ocean.  Great fun!  The sign was placed outside our door.  We are in room five so I refer to my class as Team Five.  Here are some of our ocean activities:

1)  Fish Quilt:  With inspiration from TLC's Quilt book, I created a fish quilt square.  (Note: This square is NOT from their book - I made it up.  But there are many great squares in the book!) The students started with a variety of squares and had to cut them, and layer them to create this fish.  There is a bookcase in the way so the angle of this photo isn't great., but here is our finished "quilt":

2) Directed Art Fish: Using the ideas from "Directed Drawing Volume 4: Sealife" from ABC Schoolhouse on TPT, the students created sealife for our ocean.  Each child got to pick any color of construction paper (the pieces were about 9" X 11"), and then followed my directed drawing directions using a black crayon to create several different fish.  We did just one a day.  The students cut each fish out and I taped them to our ocean.

Our fish!

Another view

3)  Individual Oceans:  After making the directed drawing fish, each child got to create their own smaller ocean animals.  They drew them in black crayon and then used watercolors to paint them.  Next they cut each animal out.  Using construction paper, they created their own background (ocean, seaweed, ...) and then glued on each animal.  Lots of steps (over several days), but they turned out adorable!  (Okay, in all honesty, I am not sure I would do this with a straight kinder class; but since I had only 10 kinders and 15 first graders, it went really well.  However, faced with 25, or possibly 30, kinders this project might be a bit much.)

4)  Writing Board:  Our displayed writing was about ... fish.  (You would think my class would be sick, sick, sick of fish, but of course they weren't!!)  Students did a directed drawing of a fish bowl.  (Can you tell that I just love doing directed drawings?!?  I do!!!)  Then I gave each student a fish sticker.  They placed it in their fishbowl and wrote about their "pet" fish.

5)  Door Display:  For Open House we decorated the door.  Most of this was done by me (usually I like to just have student work, but I was making this up as I went along, so I did it).  I took a photo of each child against a blue background (just a blue piece of butcher paper that I taped temporarily to a wall).  Then I cut fish bowl shapes out of folded paper (so that the fish bowls could open up).  Inside the fishbowl I taped student writing about kindergarten or first grade.  (Since it was Open House, I had the students sum up the year.)  Then on the outside I glued blue paper in the shape of waves and then glued their photos on top of that.  My district does not allow student photos to be displayed on the web so I chose a photo that is very unclear on purpose.  Sorry about that!

6)  Last, but definitely not, least:  Our Fish!  What would an ocean theme be without real fish?  Here are our poor babies that we studied during our FOSS module.  There are goldfish and minnows.  I am maybe the worst fish mommy in the world, but somehow they survived!  (.. and they continue to thrive!)

Whew!  That was my longest post yet!  Time for me to get some work done!