Teaching Tip Tuesday- Artist of the Month

I love kindergarten art and I love doing it in the classroom.

Art is an important in the classroom. It involves listening skills, following directions, organization,dimension and spacial relationship.

At the beginning of the school year I encouraged the kids to use 5 colors and 5 details in their art masterpiece. 

Regan did a great job early in the year drawing her bedroom.

So often I would not even have all the paper passed out and I'd have a kiddo telling me they were done!

I wanted the kids to work hard and do the best they can so I tried a couple of things that really worked.

1. I played songs on my I-pod and no one could be done until the music was done playing.

2. I started Artist  of the Month.  The kiddos would get a special "seal" on their masterpiece and it would be taped below the monthly award.  The award had the kiddo's picture and name on it.  I hung them in the hall for everyone to see it.
I do keep track of the kids getting awards.(Everyone gets awards in the classroom throughout the year.) 

If you like this idea download Artist of the Month free from 

my store 

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Teacher-Bin

The Alphabet

 When I first taught I did a letter of the week, but everything is just moving so fast  with kindergarten curriculum in reading I had to change direction in teaching letters.  I still concentrate on letters and sounds, but I really teach the whole alphabet, uppercase and lowercase. 

This project is a free time activity in my classroom, but it can be a center activity.  There is a little bit of prep, but it turns out so cute!  I fold a large sheet of
 white construction paper in 
4x8 squares.  In each square
 I use a pencil and
 write the letters of the alphabet.
The kids trace with a Cray-pas 
over the letters I have written.
They also outline the grid with a color.  I like to use cray-pas because it's a soft color and you don't have to press as hard  and very bold.






After the letters are all traced, the kiddos use water  colors to paint each block.  It is a crayon resist.  Before I do this project we have some water color lessons.
*Changing Water
*Painting dark and lighter,by using more and less water.  
*cleaning brushes!      

The Masterpiece looks like this.  When it dries, the kids trace the grid lines once more.  The final results are great and they all look different.  The kids like the project and it's a cute bulletin board.

            We do the lowercase letters the same way.                        

Teaching Tip Tuesday- Guess Who!

In late October/ November we start playing one of my favorite games in Kindergarten, Guess Who!
I play it as a class game, it's me against the kids.  I have six games for six tables. I try to buy most of games at Good Will or  second hand stores. One year, parents' bought a set of Guess Who games as a classroom Christmas gift.  

I love the game because the kiddos have to look at detail, form a sentence to ask a question.  They must also use good listening skills to hear what others are asking.

Here's how to play it as a class game..

1. All Guess Who games must be the same.

2.The kids take out the 24 mystery face cards and lay them face up on the 6 tables. (One time I used the gameboard trays and small pictures, that drove me CRAZY. They kept falling out.  I even hot glued them and then the little tray frames broke!) 

3. Teacher chooses one of the small cards as the mystery person and hides it from the kids. Now let's see how many tables can solve the mystery person.

4. One at a time a  kiddo at each table can ask a question.

Example: Does your person have yellow hair?  I answer,  no my person does not have yellow hair.    The kiddos now turn all yellow haired people upside down.

4. So there is no fighting, I mark a kiddo's finger nail red or  blue at a table.  Now I  say, red kids turn over the yellow haired cards and I keep alternating finger nail colors to turn over cards.

5. The game continues like this, until  most tables have only one card up.

I give the tables a point for winning the game.  We play several rounds throughout a period of time.  The kids really like it.   I have many versions of the game which adds fun.

Throw Back Thursday-Lunch!

Throw Back Thursday-Lunch!
The picture is my husband, Bob's Disneyland lunch box.  I think it is so cute.  The thermos is the old glass lined thermos, don't ask me how a little boy wouldn't drop and crack it!  It's in perfect condition.  He took lunch every day to school and had soup in his thermos.
There is  safety rules on the inside lid of the lunch box, they are so funny to read. the last line says "When lunch is over, clear the trash away, and go on to have fun in the Safety Way!"  

This made me think of my lunch at school  When I went to school everybody had to eat hot lunch unless there was a specific reason .  (Believe me, I wanted to have a lunch box more than anything, but that was not going to happen.)  We would go down to our lunch room in the basement of the school and we would sit at one long table.  Our teacher ate with us, she sat at the head of our table.  We would have to sit there until everyone was finished eating. She then brought us back upstairs to get out jackets and she'd lead us out the door to play. All the kids in my school would be out on the playground by ourselves, there was not a para or teacher on the playground area.  We would play outside for an hour.  When our playtime was over one of the teachers would open the door and ring a big brass bell to call us inside.  My, times have changed!
It's fun to remember!

Zelda Zero-100 Days of School

An activity I loved in kindergarten was every 10th day of school. It was a great way to talk about numbers and gave the kiddos many math strategies.  In my classroom it started out with a Zero Hero character.  I would find a parent or a staff person to come in my classroom dressed up as the Zero Hero character. One year it was robe and a crown, and another year it was a superman like outfit.
This became a problem to find a person to be a Zero Hero.

I decided to switch the up some of the ideas for every 10th day of school.
First Zelda Zero could not be a person
It had to continue to be a high interest activity.
I wanted it to include both math, literacy and art.

My first plan was to find the zero character.  The Zero character is a doll.  I found her on clearance at a school store.  She is a Wimzie doll by Cinar Eden LLC and named her Zelda Zero to keep the zero in the name.  She also  had a house made from a box that she lived in between each 10th day of school.

My next plan is to come up with a theme for each month.  It is part of the high interest for the kiddos.  This will include the art project.  My theme did not have to be set in stone, if there was a school happenings for a particular month it would be  to be a part of Zelda Zero's plan. For instance, our school carnival has an auction basket.  Zelda was the spokesman for our class to encourage items.

 Everything was now in place and I was now able to plot it on the calendar for the year.  in fact the kiddos loved it so much we go to 170 days of school.  I save their projects and put all the pages in a student book.

If you want to know more about this fun activity and has the kiddos anticipating  every 10 days of school check out my Zelda Zero product in my store.

Currently!

I was going to write about Friday Favorites,but I'm linking up 

with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for September's Currently! 

September Currently 2014

Listening- My absolute favorite show is The Amazing Race.  The new season begins Friday,September 26.  I can hardly wait.  I like it so much I even watch the Amazing Race Australia and Canada on the computer.

Loving-My grand boys.  They are so much fun and their personalities are so cute. We had a wonderful trip to Mt. Rushmore and while we were there we took Old Fashion pictures.

Thinking- The part of cooking I want to improve is not just healthier, but always having food prepared and ready to serve.  My plan is to have a menu planned for the week!

Wanting- I'm on a learning curve when it comes to computer knowledge.  I keep a  3 ring binder to help me!

Needing: No ifs or buts about it, Monday I'm at the Fitness Center and getting back on schedule! I paid for the summer and never got there, but that is NOT HAPPENING now.

Trips- My son in-law found a great deal on airline tickets so 

Disney World is already on our plan.  I went to NYC with my daughter her senior year in high school and I want to go back with my husband.  And last but not least we went to Ireland a year ago and I would go back in a heartbeat. It was so much fun.

That's my Friday Favorites and what I'm Currently up to, how about you?

Throw Back Thursday-My First Years of Teaching

My first week  of school, my first couple years of teaching, are vivid  in my mind and in my feet!
I remember wearing a dress, nylons and heels that first week of school. I can't even fathom that now.  I remember going on the gravel playground and pushing kids on the swings in my high heels.
By the end of the first week of school, I could hardly walk and my toes were numb.

My first two years I had 1/2 day kindergarten, a morning group, and a afternoon group. The morning group had 32 kiddos and the afternoon had 33 kids.  That's a total of 65 kindergartners each day! Yikes!  I did have a para for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon.  My choice of time to have them in the classroom was dismissal.  I wanted to make sure everyone got home each day.  The pictures are my first classroom.  Look at the extra chairs by each table.

My dear friend Faye saved my life that year. She was a kindergarten teacher across town. She and I worked together on curriculum, songs, units, everything.  I still remember learning songs by her singing them on the telephone.  My, how times have changed!
It's fun to remember.