Winter Shapes and Fun

It's not too late to have some fun with winter shapes and weather.

Attribute die cuts, a hexagon in the middle and 6 symmetry.

Kids used shapes to design snow people. 

Catching Snowflakes!

Holiday Shop

Each week we have an Imagination Station for one of our 9 stations. Students might be veterinarians, postal workers, construction workers, restaurant workers, etc. This month I leave the same station up for 3 weeks. I occasionally add items or encourage different aspects. Students must play together and a "plan" is suggested.

We added a large slotted box for mail delivery. Kids use sticky notes to label the slots. They write cards and letters. So much writing and creativity and FUN!!

First Day of School with Todd Parr

Dog House for Student Papers

Ever notice how your husband students only listen to the first part of what you say? So if I say to students "Put it in your cubbie." It means the same as "Put it in my basket." OR "Put it in your folder." Well, I tried something to curb that tendency. I got a "dog house" and named the dog in the house FRED. So if I want the kids to turn in a paper I say "Feed Fred." Here is the new and improved Fred. He still needs his name tag.

My husband and I made him out of wood. It was quite an undertaking. Ethan Allen himself could not have crafted a finer dog house / paper holder. Because he's dead. We are pathetic woodworkers. We had a pneumatic nailer which was fun. The top of the house is hinged and barely attached (we're working on a solution). Fred is 12 x 12 so papers will slide in his mouth easily. I'm okay with how the painting turned out but I got too tired to add a tail in the back.

Here's another angle so you can truly admire Fred.

We had extra wood and TONS of nails so we made a dog house for Tricky the Sight Word dog. He hides the new sight words in a small dog house. No more cardboard for FDK. Solid Wood.

This house is sized for our flash cards. The kids will remove "Tricky" from the door (he's a beany) and then reach in for the cards. Some teachers will do anything NOT to clean up the disorganized mess they left in their classroom last school year.

Voice Level Chart

My Voice Level chart gets tons of pins on Pinterest - but I don't sell very many. Hey, it's only $3. Print it, paste it on construction paper, laminate and you are all set.  I use my chart all year long all day long!

I love when they read together!

Better than Expected

 Sometimes things just turn out better than expected. Surprisingly nice. Cute.
Almost every month FDKers make or get a new locker tag. Last year in April we made nice 3-D umbrellas. But I seem to remember it took the kids seconds to paint and teachers a long time to hang on the lockers. This year I wanted to have a little shape review. I came up with a plan that included tracing around shapes to make a pleasing design. I made a sample at home.  When I got to school I found a bag of foam shapes that I got from a parent or a garage sale. Score!vThe shapes were mostly the right size and well ALREADY CUT OUT. The foam shapes ended up looking super cute and we are so happy with the new locker tags. They look even better en masse.

 The black background is card stock but construction paper would be okay. The squares are colored copy paper. The card stock and printer paper tend to have deeper colors than our construction paper. First ta student chose a different shape for each letter of his/her name. Then he chose different colored squares for each letter. Next she wrote letter from her name on each shape with a black sharpie. Then he glued the shape to all different colored squares. We used glue sticks. Then using permanent markers each student traced around each shape - repeatedly with different colors. Some students liked adding dots to the paper and/or foam. We were trying to use the names of the shapes as students drew. We added a strip magnet on the back. They really look fantastic as we approach our classroom.