Spring Patterns

We did spring patterns in ice cube trays with small Easter erasers from Target!  I used these as a center when the students finished their work.  The students could work in partners to copy each other's pattern or they could work individually.  They loved using these colorful erasers.  Once they got bored, I pulled out the dice for them to roll a number and pattern that many erasers.

I bought the ice cube trays at the 99 Cents store in September.  I bring them out monthly and use some sort of seasonal item that I can use as a math manipulative to pattern.  This is as fun way to practice patterning in kindergarten!

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Easter Cross

I work at a private school and we get to talk about Jesus during Easter time at school.  :)  I was inspired by a similar cross art project on Pinterest.  I placed painter's tape on construction paper and had the students water color over the paint.  We also wrote "Jesus is alive" in crayon before we painted.  Here is the finished Easter cross craft!

I first placed painter's tape on construction paper before we started the project.

We wrote in crayon "Jesus is alive."  I also do this similar type of project during our Ocean Unit and we make ocean animals with crayon and then water color over it...they turn out so pretty!

Then the students water colored all over their paper.  I encouraged them to make it look like a colorful rainbow.

Our last step was to remove the tape.  I did this when the paint was still wet.  Some of the papers did rip because they were too wet.  I don't know if it would have worked better if I would have waited for them to dry...

These look pretty hanging in the windows to celebrate Easter!  This was a great Bible craft for Kindergarten!

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"Egg" citing! We can recycle with art!

Our recycling bin was getting full, so I decided to use the scraps of construction paper to decorate an Easter egg.  I accidentally made too many copies of the Easter egg for a different project, so we used all of the paper to prep us for talking about Earth Day when we get back from Spring Break.

Maybe I dumped our our recycling trash can on the floor in a pile...After I did this, I thought to myself, "Why didn't I just nicely lay the paper in a pile on the back table?"  Once I started the mess, the kids picked out colors that they wanted to decorate their egg with.

They ripped little pieces of paper and glued them onto their Easter egg.

We did this project during "free time," in which the students can have free play in the room.  I called back about 5 kids at a time to work at their desks on the art.  It kept them busy and it also reinforced how we can re-use paper for different projects.  Normally during free time, I have a bin of paper that are extra copies or scraps, and that is the paper they can draw on.  So they were already familiar with recycling paper.

Our craft reinforced recycling in the classroom, and it was a great way to frontload them for Earth Day in a couple of weeks!

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What I Am Pinning Wednesday

Kinder Kraziness is having a "What I'm Pinning Wednesday" Linky Party!  Hop on over and link up!

I love this idea of using the shells of plastic Easter eggs to make patterns.  I have been trying to come up with multiple wasy of using plastic eggs, this holiday season, and I am going to do this with my class!

Time For Play

Mrs. Lee has the cutest bulletin board displaying different crops!  I am going to do a similar one with my class because we are doing a farm unit, and going on a farm field trip next week.  I know they will be asked questions about crops, so the kids will be prepared!

Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten

The other day, my co-worker was wanting to do a dinosaur unit.  I came across this creative unit from Doodle Bugs Teaching, and I showed my friend!  You should really see all of the creative dino ideas over there!

Doodle Bugs Teaching

I am so excited about Laura Numeroff's books, especially because I won a giveaway (a signed copy of one of her books!) over at Chalk Talk.  There is a really cute unit for all of Numberoff's different books at Kindergarten at Heart! 

Kindergarten at Heart

Mrs. Jump's Class the the cutest jungle unit.  She made this Venn Diagram comparing zebras and giraffes.  I loved how she decorated the Venn Diagram with their artwork!

Mrs. Jump's Class

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Telling Time in Kindergarten

I am so excited because my students really understand the concept of telling time (by the hour)!  I was able to make a fun center with some foam Easter pieces from the Dollar Store.  I used these manipulatives in two different ways, both for telling time!

I started by puffy painting the time on the foam shapes. (these are supposed to be carrots I think...)

I used a different color on each of them, so I could sort them easily when they eventually get mixed up. :)

The first way we used these manipulatives to tell time was I brought out the mini clocks (some I bought at the Dollar Store and some at Lakeshore).  The students picked a foam piece out of a cup and they showed that time on their clock.  They were able to work in partners to take turns telling each other what time to show on the clock.  This was great so they could help each other if they had the wrong time.  Once they showed the time on their clock they had to say the phrase: "It is ___ o'clock."  This was to reinforce their math vocabulary.

Once I knew they understood of showing the time on the clock with the manipulative, I had them do the same activity a couple of days later, but this time they had to write the time on the clock after they picked out a foam piece. (I will post the worksheet on my TPT store tomorrow...it is on my work computer...)

So if you ask it what time it is, we can tell you....that is, if it's on the hour!  :)

This is a video from YouTube that I showed the kids...It is the best telling time video I could find! :)

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Animal Sorting with Easter Eggs

I have been excited to use Easter Eggs for something in my class, and I decided we would use them to sort animals that hatch from eggs.  We talked about the Life Cycle of a Chicken last week, and we also talked about how different animals come from eggs.

I started by stuffing Easter eggs with pictures of different animals.  Some of them hatch from eggs, and some do not.

My talented Aide, hand drew these cute animals!

Once the eggs were filled, I called on a student (by pulling sticks of course) to come up and open an egg.

They showed the picture to the class and we decided with "thumbs up and thumbs down" if the animal hatched from an egg.

We sorted the animals in the pocket chart.

( I sould have titled the chart as "Which animals hatch from an egg...")  The kids REALLY enjoyed this simple activity, I was suprised by how engaged they were!

If you are focusing on Life Cycles...you can check out my Simple Life Cycle of a Chicken Unit!  It reviews the 4 stages of the life cycle.  Click on the image to purchase at my TpT Store. :)

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A Very Lovely Award

Thank you so much, Sandi from Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes, for nominating me for the Lovely Blog Award!!!  Go and check out her adorable blog!!

Here are the rules to the award...when you get it:

1.  Link back to the person who gave it to you
2.  Follow the person who sent it to you
3.  Pass it along to 15 (ish) other lovely bloggers!

Here are some lovely blogs...

K Double Stuffed

Science Stuff

Pink and Green Mama

Science, Etc.

Runde's Room

Scrapbook of a School Counselor

Mrs. Freshwater's Class

Minds in Bloom

Smiling in Second Grade

Please go and visit them!!!

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Life Cycle of a Chicken

I love when spring is near and I get to start teaching about different life cycles.  We are going on a field trip to the farm next week, so we talked about the life cycle of a chicken to prepare us for our field trip.  We are also doing a three week farm unit in our language arts curriculum so it all ties together perfectly.  We did several "chicken" things this week to help us remember about the life cycle.

Here is my Simple Life Cycle of a Chicken Unit, available at my Tpt Store!  This teaches the simpler, 4 step life cycle...

I started by reading different books about eggs or chicken.  We made a list of animals that we thought came from an egg.  Here are a couple of the books that we read.

I used one of my Scholastic readers from last year that showed pictures of the life cycle of a chicken that is perfect for kindergarten.  I showed the reader on my projector so all of the students could see it.  It also came with a cut and paste sequencing worksheet that I had the students complete independently.

I bought this set of life cycles at Lakeshore, that I am obsessed with.  It came with the life cycle of a butterfly, frog, and chicken.  I finally got to use my chicken life cycle!

I showed a cute video clip of a chick hatching from an egg on youtube.  I can't find the video right now, but I am thinking if I use my work computer it might show up there.  I will post it here if I find it.  :)

After we learned about the life cycle, we made a art project inspired by I Heart Crafty Things.  The craft ideas on this blog are incredible, so be sure to check it out!  (I am sure you have seen this life cycle craft all over Pinterest)

Here is the finished product of the life cycle of a chicken that we made.

I started by copying the life cycle on a blue piece of construction paper with the arrows in place.  I wrote numbers 1-4 on the paper so they knew where to start and end.  I did this project as whole group instruction.  I first passed out the blue paper and ONLY the egg for the nest.  Once we all drew our nest and pasted our egg, then I gave them the next piece to make the chick hatching.  I knew if I gave them all the pieces at once, no one would stay with me, I would have 100 questions, and glue would be everywhere. This strategy actually worked well (for this project...)  :)

To make the hatching chick, we glued down the egg, then used black crayon to make a "firework" in the center of the egg and cracks coming down.  Then we colored the inside yellow and added details to make the little chick's face showing through.  We also added little cracks for the feet to be poking out.

Next we made our little chick by pasting the yellow oval and adding details to make the wings, face, and feet.

Last, we made our chicken.  We could have painted our hands and made it into a chicken, but I wasn't feeling up to that for this project.  I pre-made the chicken body for them to glue down, and then we made the details.  ( I took the picture before we added the wing detail.)

This concluded our life cycle project.  We did do one more chicken thing though.  We did a directed drawing of a chicken and chick.  I showed the students step by step how to draw a chicken and they followed my directions as they drew their own.  We are going to compile all of their farm animal drawings and sentences and make a book for them at the end of the unit.  I normally push them to draw with their own creativity, but just to practice listening skills and for some of the students that don't like drawing, I decided the farm animals would be done by teacher instructed drawing.

They were free to write whatever they wanted about chicks or a chicken!

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