Pinkalicious

I was looking back through some pictures of last year and this post is another flashback from last school year. To kick off our school's book fair, each teacher selected a book. The teachers decorated their classroom door to represent their selected book. My class choose the book, Pinkalicious, by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann. Some parents asked my why I selected this book (I know they thought that the boys would have never liked this book). To tell the truth ALL of my students loved this book and there is a little brother in the book too. : ) 

In the book the little girl eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink. Then she must eat green vegetables to return back to normal. I also used this book to incorporate good eating and nutrition activities, which was perfect because it was the week of Halloween. 

For our craft my students made pink cupcakes. The paint was puffy paint I made from equal parts shaving cream and Elmer's glue. Then I added a touch of red paint. The students sprinkled on real sprinkles!! This craft was a hit!

If You Take A Mouse to the Movies

This post is of an activity from last year. At my last school, each month the whole school participated in a writing contest and the winner's writing piece was displayed in the hallway outside the office (needless to say, it was a BIG deal!). My class read Laura Numeroff's book, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. Then the students completed the writing prompt and added their mouse to hold their writing. 

September: Time for Apples!

It seems that I always have a theme to go along with each month's crafts and activities. For the month of September the theme is apples. My class studies the parts of the apple, sequencing the life cycle of an apple, seasons of the apple tree, Johnny Appleseed, apple tasting, and we even made applesauce. 

I love using my students' artwork as seasonal decorations in my classroom. Last year, I really enjoyed coming up with a new craft for my windows each season. For September we created sun catcher apples. I created a red apple frame and using contact paper, my students created these fabulous apples with tissue paper squares. 

After tasting three different kinds of apples, my students created an apple tasting graph, selecting their favorite apple.

I brought in my Crocpot and we created our very own applesauce. The students loved reading the recipe and measuring all of the ingredients. I must say it was delicious!!

No David- Classroom Rules

For the first week of school we went over our classroom rules. I read the No David book, which the students loved. After reading the books we described the traits of a good student. I got this idea from the Blog: Welcome to Room 36. Then the class made their own Davids to hang in the classroom with our Good Student Poster. I loved this activity so much, I left them up till October. 

Our February Bulletin Board

My classroom bulletin board for the month of February, titled We are blown away by love, was yet another Pinterest inspiration, found here and here. I liked both ideas and decided to incorporate both into my bulletin board putting my own spin things.

 I thought that the mailbox and wintery wind was such a cute idea. I also liked that I could leave up the background from my winter wonderland bulletin board (anything to make life easier when you are 9 months pregnant). To make the bulletin board, I just freehanded the mailbox, the woodgrain on the wooden post was the most fun because I just did scribbles with a brown marker. I felt that the more scribbles I added the better it looked. 

I think that the all bulletin boards should include student artwork. My students love to show off their creations to their loved ones when they visit our school. As for the student artwork on this board each student made a heart out of their handprints and completed 4 sentences with things that they loved. It was so funny to see what the students wrote on their letters. Most of the students wrote things like mom, dad, siblings, teacher, or pet, but one little boy loved his pet  snake and squirrel. : ) I thought that the hearts made of the student handprints was a cute addition to their love letters. 

My Kindergarten's Winter Wonderland Bulletin Board

This was my winter bulletin board, which if I do say so myself, is extremely creative and adorable. My bulletin board is the first thing that visitors l see when they come in the front door of our school. This just makes me feel like I have to make my bulletin boards extra creative and special.

I am especially proud of this board. I found inspiration from pinterest  (located here). My very generous and caring cooks saved and washed 16 milk cartons for our winter houses. Next, I cut out doors and windows into each carton, creating a house. Then my students were able to decorate their houses however they wanted, using construction paper, tissue, paper, pipe cleaners, and other scrap craft materials. The students really got into this activity. One student even made a satellite dish on top of their roof! : ) Once the students finished their houses I arranged the Christmas lights and each house was hung with a light inside. This had to be my favorite bulletin board yet!