Fruity Fun with Color Words

Click HERE to see this listing on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I was still feeling lots of love for color words and had some adorable art from Scrappin Doodles that went perfectly with a color word unit. I created a brand new "Fruity Colors" activity booklet and poster set for color words. This set has a healthy eating theme.


I really love the animal-themed book because it has a catchy song, but I think this one is also so much fun! Especially since it promotes healthy eating. Each page in the book has a predictable sentence "The (type of fruit) is (color).

Students Unscramble Words for Color Book

Students need to use crayons to appropriately color each word, then cut the letters apart, scramble, and glue in correct order on the corresponding booklet page. I also created a set of posters to display in the classroom. You will need to color the posters yourself, but it's a wonderful reference for students. This item is for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers - only $1.50!

I don't know about you, but I would greatly prefer to look over a few pictures than read a ton of text describing the process. This is for all you visual learners (like me)!

Students fill in each color word with matching crayon

I pre-assembled the books. This just shows how how pieces coordinate.

Students cut letters apart and mix them up

Glue each letter into the booklet in correct order.
Repeat the process for each of the 8 basic colors.

I just love tactile learning! 

The booklet is fabulous, but it only offers one chance to mix letters up and unscramble in the proper order. So, I use these during our color word study.

Punch out die-cut letters of color words and attach magnets to the back.

To create, laminate 8 sheets of colored construction paper (1 each of the 8 basic colors). Then use a die-cut machine to punch out the letters for spelling each word. Stick small magnets onto the back of each letter and you're good to go!

At the beginning of the study, these magnetic letters always start on my big teacher whiteboard for students to unscramble when they finish assignments in class. After a few days I typically transfer the letters onto smaller personal magnet boards so my students can take the board to their seats to spell!

I've used this set of letters for 3 years and they're still in excellent shape. Thank goodness for laminating machines!

Two weeks in the Blogosphere (and counting)!

My little baby is 2 weeks old today! And of course by "baby", I mean my blog! With 17 followers and 3,636 hits (at this moment), I am so ecstatic about the progress I have made in such a short amount of time. I am still so grateful to the fellow bloggers that have "stopped by" to check in and provide encouragement. And a HUGE thank you goes out to Marlana from Lil' Country Kindergarten.

In fact, I'm so excited, that I've decided to throw a sale at Teachers Pay Teachers. All of my items are on sale for 15% off, now until Thursday, March 29.

I've got my indie music fix...

"Penny on the Train Track"

"Penny on the Train Track" by Ben Kweller. Fast-paced, lively, and fun!
I can't stop, I don't know why. I think Ben must have written that line about blogging :)

Best. Shoes. Ever.

One of these days I really am going to wear a pedometer to work. I just KNOW that I must walk at least 3 miles a day while I'm at school. So I feel particularly happy at the end of the day when my feet don't hurt. Every teacher should own a cute pair of flats from Anne Klein Sport. I already own 3 (black, fun blue and purple print, and leopard print). They are THE most comfortable shoes I own. Right from day one, I could wear them all day with bare feet and still have happy feet at night when I finally kicked off my shoes for the day. No blisters. No tired feet. Nothing.

It's like a flower garden for your feet!

I was scouring the internet looking for cute shoes and I just found pair #4. Payday is only a few days away and I can't wait to slip my feet into these lovelies.

Update: Just found THESE on Amazon for $30.14. Such a great bargain and I am LOVING the patent leather look. I'm an affiliate of Amazon, so feel free to click the image and I will direct you to the straight to the site.

It's a Spring Thing Linky Party

Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives is hosting "It's a Spring Thing Linky Party." Lots of great ideas for Spring. Stop by and check it out!

Click HERE to join the party!

Farm Acitivity FREEBIE!

Hello again lovelies!
I was loving the farm clip art so much from kpmdoodles that I just HAD to make another activity for my kiddos! We're going to do a mini farm unit this week and I am encouraging them to stretch out words and record as many sounds as they can when they write. I created this animal labeling page as an opportunity for them to practice this skill.

Click to download and enjoy the FREEBIE!

Kinesthetic & Auditory Learning Fun With Color Words

Thank goodness for Dr. Jean! Her songs are so catchy, it's impossible for my kiddos NOT to learn something new. I particularly love the song "Color Farm" on Dr. Jean's Sing to Learn album. Well, personally I don't love it because I can never quite get the song out of my head, but my kids love it and they learn to read and spell their color words so FAST when I play this song for them.

Learning a new song and singing along is great for my auditory learners, but my visual and kinesthetic kinders need a little bit more than just a catchy song for the new words to really click and leave an impression on them. Fortunately, kpmdoodles had some great farm-themed clip art. So, I created an activity booklet and poster set inspired by "Color Farm."

'Colors' Farm Booklet and Coordinating Posters

Teaching with the Booklet

Each page of the booklet features a predictable sentence that names a color and an farm animal referenced in the song (1 for each of the 8 color words). The color word for each animal is missing, this is where the meaningful task comes in to play. Each time a new color word is learned, distribute the new color word to students. Have students color with appropriate colored crayon, then cut letters apart on the dotted lines, mix the letters up, unscramble, and glue letters in correct order on corresponding page in booklet. The animal can also be colored to match the completed sentence.

have students color each color each word

students cut out the letters and mix them up

unscramble and glue in proper order on booklet paper

completed booklet pages

The Posters

As you know, students often need resources that they can reference for accuracy in writing and reading. I also created a set of 8 posters to be displayed in the classroom in conjunction with this activity. Each poster prominently displays a color word and a picture which is the same as the clip art used throughout the booklet. I colored each of my posters to match the featured word and mounted them on 9"x12" construction paper in the corresponding color.

This was a super-fun, interactive experience for my students. The best part was that all children had a new book that they can easily read when the project was finished. We stored the completed books in the students' book boxes. I often saw my kinders revisiting the booklets during our Daily 5 time.


 You can purchase the Color Word Interactive Farm Book & Poster Set at Teachers Pay Teachers  or Teachers Notebook for $4.00. Click a link to start shopping!

Getting Interactive with the Common Core: Decomposing Numbers

I am always looking for fun, simple, interactive ways to do math with my kinders. I especially like activities that they can become independent at, but produce something so parents can see what we've been working and I can evaluate student progress. And, like my students, I am very tired of pages that require them to show what they know by coloring. COLORING IS BORING! Five year olds like to DO things, and by golly I am going to give them what they want!

So my students learned how to decompose numbers in a hands-on experience with unifix cubes, and then continued to develop the concept using 1" squares of construction paper in a representation of the cubes. They glued the squares into decomposition patterns and recorded the corresponding addition sentences.

Four Different Sets of Decomposing Number activity pages are available for purchase in my stores Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook.

Shop Decomposing Numbers on Teachers Pay Teachers

Shop Decomposing Numbers on Teachers Notebook

(And just in case you're wondering - YES! I do use the word decompose when I tell my kiddos what we're doing. I like for them to hear the grown up word for what they're doing. So I sprinkle in the big vocabulary for the kids who love new words and also mix in some other expressions like, How else can you make 5? or What's another way to build the number 8?)

But I digress. Back to this week's math activities. I introduced the concept of breaking numbers into 2 parts using 2 colors (green and orange) of unifix cubes. I had cubes, and so did each students. Everyone also had a whiteboard and dry-erase marker. We started VERY simple.

Day 1: Introduce decomposition with Unifix cubes

Below is a summary of my dialogue with the students:

Ok everyone, I want you to hold up  5 green cubes that are all connected in a stick. Show me a stick of 5 green cubes.  

Great! Look at your cubes. How many green ones do you have? (5)  How many orange cubes are in your stick? (0) 

I could write an adding sentence about my cubes! What would the adding sentence be for the green and orange cubes in my stick? (The answer is 5+0=5, which I recorded on my whiteboard after a student provided the equation.)  

Super! Now let's trade one of our green cubes for an orange cube. Hold up a stick that still has 5 cubes, but now one of them is orange. Look at your cubes again. Now what would my adding sentence be? (4+1=0, which I also recorded)

List all the ways to Decompose 5

We went through this entire process, continuing to swap one cube at a time until we reached 0 greens plus 5 orange. At which point, I asked the class to look at all of the sentences they told me and look for patterns. (Some numbers go up, some numbers go down, and the sum stays the same). We took a few minutes to discuss WHY those patterns happened.

Then we repeated the process using another set of cubes (3 greens, 0 orange). This time we traded cubes together and all of the students recorded the addition sentences on their personal boards too.

Day 2: Review Decomposition and Introduce Paper Activity

The following day we began with a quick review using 2 colors of cubes (blue and red) and our dry-erase materials. This time we decomposed the number 4. After recording the addition sentences, we took a few minutes to discuss patterns we observed. Now they were ready. I introduced their first decomposing activity page. We did Four Ways to Decompose 3 because it was a short activity and VERY familiar from the day before. The kids LOVED it!

Day 3 and Beyond: Move Toward Independent Practice

We continued to discuss decomposition, but our discussion became quicker each day and the class was more eager to complete the activity with paper tiles. Next week I set the Decompose 2 worksheet in my lesson plans as a bellwork activity. I am completely confident in their ability to handle the activity independently.

Lenten Crosses for Kinders

Today my students made "stained glass" crosses to display in the windows. The crosses are perfect for Lent and the bright colors are perfect for SPRING! I have lots of bright colors in my classroom and these crosses were the perfect addition.

This past fall I was poking around on Pinterest and saw the most adorable apple-themed window decorations with a stained glass effect made from tissue paper and contact paper. I loved the idea so much, we have been making new ones every season. Hence, spring arrived and we just HAD to decorate our windows!


The best thing about this project is that it's a quickie to create in class and it's relatively mess free. No glue needed!

Want to make it in your own classroom? Here's what you need to do: 

Gather Supplies

Old file folder (to create a cross template)
1 sheet of 9"x12" construction paper in a BRIGHT color per student
2 sheets of contact paper per student (at least 9"x12" in size)
 lots of tissue paper squares in BRIGHT colors (1 to 2" in size)
Scissors
Permanent marker

Make a Template

I used a file folder to create a cross template. Easy to make: Fold the folder in half "hot dog" style, draw half of cross, cut out, and you're ready to go. My template has a border that is about 3/4" wide.

Trace

Folding the pieces of construction paper in half "hot dog" style. Trace 1/2 the cross onto the paper. Make sure you are tracing along the fold so the cross will stay connected when it is cut out. You will need to keep the paper folded in half to cut out the cross. If you teach kinders, DO THIS STEP FOR YOUR STUDENTS.

Cut

You can do this one yourself or leave this task to the students. After receiving very careful instructions, my kids did it in class and it was an experience! Great opportunity to teach the importance of following directions. Some children had an easy time. Others had lots of pieces when they were finished. We made it work. If your time is limited, you have a challenging class, or you just don't want a headache, let a volunteer cut out the crosses.

Frame

Peel the contact paper and place it sticky side up on the table. CENTER THE CROSS ON THE CONTACT PAPER FOR YOUR STUDENTS. If this kids attempt this one themselves, you will end up with  a lot of wrinkly, folded crosses stuck to a wad of contact paper. Kinders are great at turning a clean sheet of contact paper into a wad!

Decorate

Now the fun part. Let students fill in the cross with the tissue paper squares. Have them avoid touching the actual contact paper. Some will, but the fewer kids with contact paper stuck to their hands, the better off you will be!

Cover

Use the 2nd sheet of contact paper to "seal" the cross together. This step is optional, but I don't like to have loose pieces of tissue paper blown off by the wind. The simplest way to do this (and avoid wrinkles in the paper) is to place the new sheet of contact paper sticky side up, then flip the cross page onto it.

Label

Use a sharpie to label the "front" side of the cross with the student's name. (Note that the back side has tissue paper overlapping the frame)

Trim

Use scissors to cut excess contact paper from edges and crosses are ready to hang.



And just like that, the projects are finished and ready to display.

Matchstick Cross Project

As a Religion teacher I am always looking for high-quality projects that are a nice supplement to the  textbook (which, let's face it - can sometimes be a little dull and not exactly inspiring).

A perfect Lenten project is this beautiful cross made from pre-burned matchsticks. This is not a project I would take on in my Kindergarten classroom - the work is far too tedious for my little kinders.  My mom teaches 2nd Grade and she makes these crosses with her students each year during Lent. The burned matchsticks are a reference toward Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins.

Have Parents Burn Matches at Home

Have Parents Pre-Burn Matches at Home

Before your students can create a cross, you need to get some pre-burnt matches. This is a homework assignment for the parents. To complete the cross, each child will need a box of 300 matches that have been pre-burnt at home. For safety purposes, I recommend that parents burn the matches outside and store them in a metal pan. (You can speed the process up by striking 2-3 matches at a time). When ashes have cooled, they can be returned to the box. The box can be labeled with the child's name and sent to school. 

Gather Supplies

This is a very simple project that only requires a few supplies. Each child will need:

a box of 300 matchsticks

a pre-cut cross template (copied onto cardstock)

  a pop can tab

glue 

The glue can get pretty messy, so I place all materials on a piece of wax paper labeled with the child's name. The wax paper helps the cross pop easily off after it is dry. Also be prepared to clean up lots of stray pieces of ash. Do this project on a surface that can easily be wiped clean.

Getting Started

The early steps are VERY important in determining how the finished product will turn out. The template has an "X" in the center of the cross. Begin by gluing 4 matchsticks onto the X (with the burnt part on the outside).

 


Then add a light layer of glue to 1 section of the cross. Begin at the X and work your way toward the outside of that section, using the center line as a guide.

 When your first section is finished, add glue to the empty space across from it, begin at the X, and glue matchsticks outward once again. 

Continue the process around the rest of the cross, always starting at the X when you begin a new section.

When the cross is complete, let it dry for a few hours. After the glue has set, gently remove it from the wax paper and glue the pop can tab to the top of the underside. This will allow your students to easily hang the cross at home.

Download a Cross Template

Click on the thumbnail to download a template of the cross. Make copies of it on card stock for your students to cut out and use. I used an ivory-colored card stock because it is s similar color to the matchsticks and won't draw attention to itself if students have some gaps between their matchsticks after gluing.

Linky-Party for K-2 Bloggers

Jeannie at Kindergarten Lifestyle is having a Linky Party to showcase great K-2 blogs. Click the image below to see who joined the party and check out some other fabulous blogs.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Door Decoration

A few years ago my school held a door decorating contest in celebration of reading month. I had to dive into my photo archives for this one, but since we are currently in the midst of reading month once again, it seemed like a perfect time to share.

I love the beauty in Eric Carle's collages and I find his personal story to be so fascinating. So after reading several books by Carle to the class, we set about to creating a large-scale collage inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Unfortunately, this was a past project and I don't have photos of the process to share, but I do have step-by-step instructions for you!

Prepare

Each student painted an oval for the body of the caterpillar. I prepared these ahead of time by cutting large pieces of white bulletin board paper (approximately 2'x3'). On each piece of paper, I drew a large oval. The beauty of this was that Carle does not use perfectly round shapes so my large, quick freehand ovals worked great!

Paint

Next, I prepared paints for my students. I had 3 different shades of green. All were created with some combination of green, yellow, and white paint. I didn't mix any of the colors completely. Eric Carle often has paint streaks in his collages and I wanted to look as authentic as possible. One student painted 2 smaller ovals to serve as the eyes instead of a large body oval. I painted the pieces for the head, nose, antaenna, and yellow outer oval for the eyes myself.

Construct

After school, when the paintings had dried and the children were gone for the day, I cut out the ovals and assembled them onto another, very large rectangle sheet of white butcher paper. I staggered them in a way that was visually interesting (not uniform because again Eric Carle does not do uniform pieces of art!) Then I opened all the windows for ventilation and used adhesive spray to permanently attach all pieces to the butcher paper. A caption was added to the collage and the background paper was trimmed to fit attractively on the door. As a final touch before hanging, the students used crayons to help me add fuzzy stripes onto the caterpillar's back-just like the story artwork.

Now I know that you are desperately wondering
Did Her Class Win the Door Decorating Contest?!?!?!

The answer (of course) is YES!

A fabulous classroom resource is Eric Carle: Picture Writer . In the movie, Eric Carle brings viewers right into his studio and demonstrates his process of painting tissue papers, allowing them to dry, then delicately cutting pieces from his newly-created tissue paintings to form the collages of his book illustrations.

Kindergarten students are not the target audience of the film- much of Carle's vocabulary and descriptions would go right over their head. But everyone loves to see a famous illustrator at work. So when I use the film, I let my class listen to the intro, then mute the sound and provide my own narration to Eric Carle's technique in language the little ones can understand.

Feeling the Love this Morning!

I woke up this morning, grabbed my iPhone to turn off my alarm and check my email (I'll do anything to stay in bed a few extra minutes!) and was thrilled to see that in the past 12 hours I have gotten some love from Marlana at Lil' Country Kindergarten when she mentioned my lil' baby blog on her very fabulous site, received a comment from Ann at Mrs. Greene's Kindergarten Korner, and now have 2 followers!

A Screenshot of Kinder-Craze's mention on Lil' Country Kindergarten

Thank you ladies, you absolutely made my day! My poor students are going to wonder what the heck is going on with their teacher because I'm pretty sure I'll have a huge smile on my face all morning and may not be able to hold myself back from spontaneous dancing. This will have to be my mantra for the day:
I will not dance in the hallway. I will not dance in the hallway. I will not dance in the hallway. I will not dance in the hallway. I will not dance in the hallway. I will not dance in the hallway. I will not dance in the hallway. 

Spring has Arrived Just in Time for St. Patrick's Day!

I have been LOVING the beautiful weather that has finally come our way. Last week I finally removed the last of my classroom's snowflake decorations and was desperate for something bright and cheery I could use as a replacement. I poked around on Pinterest but discovered that there was a serious void of St. Patrick's day ideas. So, I got creative and a little bit crafty. Low and behold-an idea was born! My students made these beautiful rainbow windsocks. I'm so thrilled because they are brightly colored, make a nice strong statement hanging from our ceiling lights, and best of all, I CAN LEAVE THEM UP UNTIL JUNE! I always try to get the most life out of any project. Rainbows are perfect for St. Patrick's Day because they go so well with leprechauns and pots of gold. But when St. Patrick's day has past and everyone is so SICK of looking at green, the rainbows will remain bright, cheery, and springy. 

Update

Additional photos and information can be found on Rainbow Windsocks Revisited.

I created these windsocks using 12"x18" construction paper painted with a rainbow design. I stapled the construction paper into a cylinder, glued paper streamers to the bottom, and used fishing line to hang from the ceiling. 

Want to make these for your own classroom? Well, look no farther. Here are complete directions! I don't know about you, but I like everything to be "just so" in my classroom so here's what you need to get it just right!

Make a Template

I wanted my rainbows to be uniform with a nice arch for my students to paint. To acheive this, I used an old beat-up folder as my template (note the lovely fading down the seam). I cut the folder in 1/2, drew half of the rainbow-making 6 areas for painting -think ROYGBV- then cut along each line, starting at the seam, and NOT QUITE REACHING THE EDGES (this will help it all stay connected!) I wanted to have a good path for tracing so I cut a very thin sliver out of each line-this way there was room for my pencil to trace.

Prep for Students

You know as well as I do that young children need to have VERY clear instructions. So I opened the template and traced it onto each sheet of white construction paper. The final step after tracing was to label each piece of the rainbow with an initial (R for red, O for orange, etc). By now my students can read color words but I didn't want to do any more writing than I absolutely had to!

Paint!

My kids LOVE to paint and they can be very SLOW painters. We are always super-busy and I hate wasting too much valuable instruction time on projects, so instead of using my usual brushes, we used foam brushes. This was so much faster and the students didn't have to stop and "reload" their paintbrushes nearly as often. Highly recommend!

Assemble

After the rainbows dried, I turned each painting over and glued 6 streamers in "rainbow order" along the bottom of each painting. Then I rolled the painting into a cylinder and stapled them closed along the side.

Hang with Fishing Line

Remember how I said I like things "just so?" Well, I quickly noticed that when I prepared to hand my newly created student masterpieces, gravity was working against me and trying to squish the edges of the windsock together like this. I could tell that it wouldn't be long before these lost their nice round shape completely.

To solve the problem, I still made a big loop with the fishing line that went through 2 holes punched on either side, but I pulled up on the section that ran through the middle of they cylinder and let part of the fishing line wrap around then rest outside of the cylinder and  it helped dramatically. (There's no clear way to describe this process-hopefully the pictures help a bit!)

My students loved walking into our classroom and seeing their beautiful rainbows in the sky. Such a great way to build enthusiasm for springtime AND St. Patrick's Day. I hope you enjoy the project as much as we do!