Spring Is Here!

I LOVE crafts and I would do them all day long if I could! So of course, being a kindergarten teacher, I have all the excuses in the world to get creative with the kiddos and help them explore their artistic side. On Fridays (or at least once a month), I try to plan an extra activity and craft. I usually do this during our afternoon free choice, but the students never mind giving it up once they see what's in store for them!

On the first day of spring, I read a book to the students about the season and the changes that take place. The students shared all the exciting activities they do during this time and all the yummy fruits that they start to eat again-pineapple, cantaloupe, kiwi, berries-yum! We discuss the colors of the season and what nature starts to look like as the snow melts away and the ground thaws. Finally, the students were given the opportunity to paint their own spring picture! I gave them the liberty to paint anything they wanted, but it had to depict the season of spring. 

*I had to enforce this because most of my boys have become infatuated with sharks and it's all they draw, write about, talk about, and imagine! It's so fun to see them so excited about an animal, but I knew that a shark would make an appearance in one (if not more) of the spring paintings. Sure enough, a little boy was going to paint a shark, but someone squealed before he could start his master piece! Ha!

Here are some of the finished paintings on my bulletin board.

More spring paintings.

They are SO colorful! I absolutely LOVE them and I received so many compliments from the kindergarten families at the portfolio conferences. They really brighten up the room and I love how the students designed their picture just the way they wanted it!

We're BUGGY About Learning!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our insect unit! This is one of my favorite units to teach (I know I say this a lot) because the students are so excited to share their background knowledge about insects and all the creepy, crawly bugs! Here is a sneak peak into our unit....there will be a lot more to post once we kick of the unit after spring break! Happy spring and 80 degree weather to my fellow Chicagoans!

Instead of making a typical web of facts or concept map after reading nonfiction texts, I created a butterfly on poster board. I will write the facts inside the wings of the cute butterfly!

This will be the web that I will use to record the students' facts about ants after reading a nonfiction text. Notice the compound eyes! They always laugh so hard when they see all the eyes glued on in one blob--but they never forget what compound eyes are....that's for sure!

After learning about bees, I will record the students' facts in the body of the bee. Again, I have our compound eyes!

I hung the insects on the clothesline that runs across my classroom to display for our portfolio conferences.  I didn't want my room to look bare after taking down all of my St. Patrick's Day decorations! :)

Star of the Week

During the second half of the year, all of my students have had the opportunity to be the "Star of the Week." When a student is "Star of the Week," he/she gets to decorate an "All About Me" poster that I purchased from Scholastic and the student shares the poster with his/her classmates. I display the poster on the classroom door for a week, and the student gets to be the line leader all week long (of course...this is what the students are most excited about!). After all the students had the chance to be the "Star of the Week," I decided to start round 2! Instead of purchasing something for the students to work on, I decided to create my own and it turned out so cute! During Daily 5 or free choice time, I pull a student to work on writing his/her favorite things. I encourage the students to use the words around our classroom to help with spelling. Then, I take a picture of the student from the legs down and another picture from the shoulders and up. I cut it out, mount it on construction paper, and attach all the pieces and TA-DA! It's adorable and the students LOVE IT! Plus, everyone who walks by our classroom gets to learn about one of my little friends! 

Here is a picture showing one of the finished posters.