This activity is always so much fun and I love seeing the expressive, unique owls each student creates. We start with a mystery drawing...
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
If you have spent any time here you know how much I love songs from around the world. I have two clapping song books from around the world, available from www.singsmileplay.com and am working on another book of singing games from around the world. SO much wonderful material and so many pathways to take with each song. Will it be a focus on beat, a specific rhythm pattern, melodic direction, form, expressive elements.... the list goes on and on! Today I have a song to go with the book, "Around the World We Go" by Margaret Wise Brown, author of "Goodnight, Moon". Though I can't include the lyrics, here is the song with a very accessible arrangement for Orff instruments. Create a B Section with word chains using country names and you have a very playable piece to accompany the book! Enjoy!
These all about me activities for preschoolers are engaging, hands-on centers to work on essential literacy skills in the classroom!
Combine STEAM activities for preschoolers with your "All About Me" learning theme. Explore what makes you unique and develop creative and critical thinking.
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
This week we celebrated Choose Respect Day at our school to combat bullying. It was a very powerful day which included Choose Respect t-shirts for everyone, a wonderful play put on by the Grade 6 class (I definitely teared up it was so great!), and a few adorable, thoughtful crafts! Check out the picts below! Students had to brainstorm positive ways to be respectful and decorate their t-shirt with them. Also, we made handprints with a cross in the middle. Black tempura paint, white acrylic paint, flourescent pink paper and squares of black construction paper were all that was required. They turned out beautifully. Thankfully, I had a lot of help with the hand print portion! Black paint is hard to get off! Thanks to the amazing crew of teachers and staff at St. Joseph School! We are an amazing team! This coming Monday my little nutty crew:) is in charge of the assembly. Our virtue is perseverance! It's a BIG word for grade 1 but they pull it off! We created some I Can poetry and read with the proper tone it is really cute!! I CAN paint. I can't read hard books, YET!! I can dance, I can ride my bike. I can sing. I can't whistle, yet!! You can learn about perseverance in my new packet of printables and activities. It features the activity above, as well as a T-shirt inspired craftivity like we did for Choose Respect Day! This is just a little hint as to what we have been up to for Career Day! More pictures and ideas to come in the next post! Stay tuned!!!
20 Free Name Activities for the First Week of Kindergarten. Check out these amazing hands-on and fun name activities! Integrates multiple skills.
I have updated this link with a freebie! Click here to get there. "No, David" is one of our favorite books to begin the year or use anytime we need a little review of what our classroom expectations are. One corner of our classroom is devoted to David and our school rules. We read the book several times then the students chose one rule they thought was especially important to them and they typed their rule during Computer Lab time. Then each student created a picture of David and they turned out AMAZING! We had so much fun with David this year that we decided to use iMovie to create a short video of David following the rules and showed the video to the entire school. How FUN! If you would like to view the video you can see it on my classroom webpage. The poster shown above was printed at Staples. I used PhotoShop to edit the title to fit our lesson and class.
Help your students to learn about Tonga with our two-page activity sheet. It features activity sheets, a word find, and a colourful fact card, and is ready to PRINT and GO! This would be perfect to use during Tongan Language Week - Uike ‘o e Lea Tonga. Save 20% by getting this resource as part of our Tonga Literacy BUNDLE Reading Writing Thinking and Classroom Display Activities included are: 1. Fill in the gaps (cloze reading) 2. Wordfind 3. Writing Prompt 4. Write a story 5. Vocabulary 6. Fact or Fiction 7. Mix and Match Vocabulary 8. Snapshot 9. Colour the Tongan flag 10. Map Skills Plus a BONUS Tongan Word Find featuring Tongan greetings and numbers 1-10 (with answers). A bright and colourful fact card poster is also included. Answer Sheets are provided! ***The spelling in this resource is British English e.g. colour*** ✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫ Check out our other Pacific Island products here: Tonga Scavenger Hunt Puzzle Activity Tongan Greetings, Introductions, Farewells Classroom Display Posters Tonga Close Up Reading Comprehension Journal and Reader Activities (NZ) Myths of the Pacific - Seven Close Reading Texts with Higher Order Thinking ✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫ We really appreciate your feedback! Leaving feedback earns you TPT credits! If you're interested in upcoming Top Teaching Tasks resources, click here to FOLLOW US. ✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫✫ Stay in touch: Follow us on Facebook Take a peek behind the scenes with our Instagram Pin with us on Pinterest! Follow us on Twitter! Subscribe to our Youtube channel!
What's the worst thing about taking time off from school? Say it with me: SUB PLANS. Well, I thought I'd share a couple of sub plannin' tips with y'all today along with my most recent sub plan video! Let's kick it off with that, shall we? My super fabulous sub will be hanging out with my artists for a couple of days. Most of my classes are just 30 minutes long...so, for that reason, I've left my sub this video and some instructions: just have the kiddos create the houses and begin the coloring portion. I learned my lesson the hard way my very first year teaching: don't leave a sub anything complicated. Granted, my first year teaching, all I left out were markers (brand new ones, mind you) only to find them scattered about with their caps off when I returned. Needless to say, I'll be handling the painting side of this project when I return. Speaking of, here's why I like having ALL of my grade levels work on the same project AND have them continue to create when I return. It means that, come Monday, I'm not running around, scratching my head wondering what we are working on. Instead, I can take it easy, set out one supply: watercolor, and know that it will be a calm way to return. Not only that, but we'll have a beautiful masterpiece to show for our efforts even if the art teacher had the day off. Before we continue chatting about this project, I thought I'd share some of my other fave sub plans that resulted in beautiful creations. Feel free to use these sub plans in your art room! I have to say, whenever I can, I call upon the same subs. My subs LOVE these videos...at least that's what they tell me. It makes their life so much easier and the kids are actually creating! Not just watching a video (well, they ARE but you know what I mean) or doing busy work. The kids are engaged and that makes the subbie's job so much easier. Complete version of this sub plan can be found here. This sub plan was a fun one...I could tell the kids had a blast based on the monsters they created! Find the complete details of this sub plan right here. While prepping for the sub, I created an Art Teacherin' 101 all about planning for a sub. This is what I can accomplish in an ideal situation: when I know I'm going to be away and I have plenty of time to prepare. Not all of us have this luxury. But, when I do, this is what I do. Holy Moly, this has been one of THEE most popular lessons I've shared on my blog: The Wings Mural! I've seen so many versions of this lesson and I LOVE it! This all started out as a sub plan and grew much bigger than I ever imagined. I'm so thrilled so many of y'all have found it useful. Here's the link to the original blog post. My very first sub videos were created when I had to be gone for...jury duty. Boy, that was a good time. Let me tell you, nothing makes you happier for your chosen profession than...JURY.DUTY. Anyway! My sweet artists created these happy hearts while I was away jurying. Alrightie, now let's return to the sub lesson at hand, shall we? As I was sayin', with my sweet sub, my artists will be learning how to draw a 3-D house. I'm encouraging them, via video, to create a variety of houses embellished with patterns. As inspo, I'll be leaving my sub the book The Big Orange Splot to read to the kids if time allows. If this book is not in your library, it totally should be. AND, if it is, can we PLEASE talk about what Mr. Plumbean is serving over at his house during those late night talks with the neighbors? I'm thinkin' it's pretty good stuff to inspire those wild houses created! AND now let's talk oil pastels. THESE ARE MY FAVORITE ON THE PLANET! I keep referring to them as Galaxy in my IG feed because I'm completely ignorant. Sorry, my bad. They are GALLERY (I get points for staring with the same letter, don't I?!) and they are by Sargent. They are also sent from Art Teacherin' Heaven and I cannot recommend them enough. When I return, the kiddos will add a splash of liquid water color paints and return to their usually scheduled program. I'll be happy they continued to learn and create in my absence and they'll be thrilled not to have watched a mindless vid and drawn all over a worksheet. Winner-winner, Chicken Dinner! LOVE to hear your fave sub plans! AND, if you give this project a-go, I'd love to see the results. Be sure and tag me on Instagram, Facebook or where ever you get your social media on.
Last week was finally our first week of school. It was great!! I was thinking about posting some of the cool things we did and realize...
Medieval Chemistry and Homeschool History. Science wasn't really dead during the Middle Age, it's just people fanaticized about turning items to gold.
The first week of school sure is a busy one! I work hard to balance the mandatory paperwork with games, hands-on activities and team-building fun. Even with bigger kids, it's important to keep them moving throughout the day and providing a variety of activities. 1. Marshmallow Tower For this activity, you'll need the following materials
Day 7 of 31 Days of Kindergarten and today is all about 20 FREE Name Activities for the First Week of Kindergarten. News flash!! Most of my kindergartners come into my classroom on the first day of s
This is a great activity that teaches how to build classroom community and mindfulness in the classroom. It's perfect for a variety of ages.
Giving students an easy, independent activity to start as soon as they arrive on the first day of school is a great way to calm their nerves. It also allows you to focus on greeting new students and getting supplies organized and put away. Here is a great first day of school printable that students ... Read More about Read & Find – First Day of School Printable
We've begun writing in our third grade classroom and to my delight, my students are way into it! We have set up our writing notebooks and w...
This week we celebrated Choose Respect Day at our school to combat bullying. It was a very powerful day which included Choose Respect t-shirts for everyone, a wonderful play put on by the Grade 6 class (I definitely teared up it was so great!), and a few adorable, thoughtful crafts! Check out the picts below! Students had to brainstorm positive ways to be respectful and decorate their t-shirt with them. Also, we made handprints with a cross in the middle. Black tempura paint, white acrylic paint, flourescent pink paper and squares of black construction paper were all that was required. They turned out beautifully. Thankfully, I had a lot of help with the hand print portion! Black paint is hard to get off! Thanks to the amazing crew of teachers and staff at St. Joseph School! We are an amazing team! This coming Monday my little nutty crew:) is in charge of the assembly. Our virtue is perseverance! It's a BIG word for grade 1 but they pull it off! We created some I Can poetry and read with the proper tone it is really cute!! I CAN paint. I can't read hard books, YET!! I can dance, I can ride my bike. I can sing. I can't whistle, yet!! You can learn about perseverance in my new packet of printables and activities. It features the activity above, as well as a T-shirt inspired craftivity like we did for Choose Respect Day! This is just a little hint as to what we have been up to for Career Day! More pictures and ideas to come in the next post! Stay tuned!!!
Basquiat street art mixed media free association self portraits for kids
We are heading to the beach later this week, so I thought it would be fun to do some movement activities that involved ocean animals. This was a big hit and I think we'll be
Learn about fingerprinting for kids & play detective! Fun ideas for a CSI or spy party or science activity for preschool & elementary ages!
The beginning of kindergarten is so busy! We pack in so much in 15-minute increments that I know it can be hard to make lesson planning easy. Here is my cheat sheet of 5 activities I’d totally make sure get into my first week of kindergarten lesson plans. Now, please don’t mistake this for the...
I'm always on the hunt for a first week activity that lets me know a little bit about my students without putting them on the spot. Because what's more intimidating than having to come up with something interesting about yourself on the spot in front of a whole class, right?!?! I gave each student a paper divided into eight sections with a circle in the middle. They were directed to put their name in the center circle and then through numbers tell me a little bit about themselves. Here's the example paper I made about myself... When explaining the assignment I showed them the blank page and then walked them through the one I made about myself... which not only made my expectations and the goals of the assignment clear, but also gave me an opportunity to introduce myself and kind of break the ice by talking a little bit about me. I assigned this assignment to my students last Tuesday (we spent Monday going over the syllabus, I laid out basic expectations, etc.) and it was due on Friday for a quiz grade. I wanted them to have plenty of time to work on it and put thought and effort into it. I went through their papers this weekend and had so much fun learning more about each of them. They shared much more than they would have in a typical "tell the class something about you" type of discussion and I learned some really neat things about the kids in my classes. NOTE: The candle lid in the pictures below is covering student names :) I learned about hobbies, pets, siblings, travel, sports, academic accomplishments and a lot of random info as well :) I had some super colorful papers, some with stickers, some with printed photos and one covered in glitter. I also got a little insight into their personalities... the jokesters, artists, introverts, etc. I wrote little notes on the backs of their papers referencing a couple of things that I found funny, interesting or things that I related to and telling them I was excited to have them in class this year. It was a labor of love but totally worth it. I picked a few to put up around my room and am hoping that a few kids who may not think they have much in common will realize that they do! I can't say enough great things about this little assignment - it could easily be altered to be "by the letters" instead of "by the numbers" or could be more open-ended. You could give a class period or a couple of designated times to work on it the first day(s) and could allow students an opportunity to share theirs if they wanted to. They could have to make it all about their summer, or you could have eight different questions they had to answer in pictures. The possibilities are really endless! You can find my blank page and brief little assignment description HERE. Next Tuesday is a Show and Tell week, but the Tuesday AFTER I'm going to host a linkup of classroom tours! Mark your calendars for Tuesday, September 5th and get ready to show us your rooms! Happy Tuesday, friends!!!
We had a lot of fun doing a height measurement chart with the kids today. The kids chose yarn and flower colors and we saw just how much they've sprouted! Inspiration for this chart came from Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers. They also link some other very interesting looking measurement activities! I was also inspired by their basket of measuring tapes, so I included the only one that I could find and added some strings, some taller and some shorter than their bodies. Let's just see what happens.
Do you and I run in the same circles? Doubt it. Although we do share at least one circle: teaching. Right? And if you and I ha...
Activity days is where girls and boys ages 8-11 work on things to strength their relationships with God, their family, their friends, and themselves. It's my calling in my church. I'm over the
This back to school "snowball" fight activity will have your students getting up and out of their seats moving around the room to get to know each other.
I had the best time making this product for back to school!To be honest, I was getting a little board with the "All About Me" Bag. I decided to jazz it up and make it All About SUPER Me!! Your SUPER kiddos will love choosing their hero to decorate and place on the bag. The cape is placed on the BACK of the bag but is visible from the front. You have an option to put the list of what is in the bag on the inside or outside of the cape, directions included! All About SUPER ME! Lunch Bag Back To School Craftivity Also included is a SUPER hero theme poem to send home to families explaining the project and telling the due date. To get you motivated and thinking about back to school I've included a FREEBIE All About SUPER Me poster! Please be SUPER and leave me some feedback on the freebie! Be sure to follow me for more to come!! All About SUPER ME ! Display Poster
Back to School is right around the corner for us and I am SUPER excited to kick of this school year with some fun, hands-on and engaging resources for The
