Handprint Turkeys

This isn't just a turkey
as you can plainly see.
I made it from my hands and feet,
which are a part of me.

It comes with lots of love,
especially to say,
I'm wishing you a very
Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Our turkeys turned out cute this year.  Notable ones shown here:) Heehee.


Hope you enjoy them!








     

The Quintessential Turkey

Perfectly Cute!

 




Up to no good Turkey

Look at those shifty eyes!







Surprised Turkey!



Molting Turkey.
Only 2 feather left, poor thing!






Quiet Turkey.
Has no mouth.







Happy Dancing Turkey
Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!



 

Too much holiday cheer, Turkey.



My word wall is driving me crazy

Ok.  I've had it with my word wall.  I loved it when I set it up almost 5 years ago but it has really taken a beating this year.



Look at the "V" and the word that has fallen on the floor!

 I really liked the black against the blue for bright clear contrast but it is getting a little raggedy.  The red carpet is where I have story time and since our county is making budget cuts and my class size almost doubled this year, we are squeezing in so many kids for story time that some kids are leaning against the word wall.


Here's a close up of my poor word wall.  Pathetic!

I got inspired over Christmas break and made a really cute set of labels for the word wall that was sort of "Elmer" inspired (love that book!)  and matches the fabic I have for curtains and rocking chair cushions. 

But when I printed a test page, they were way too small.  So I'm going to have to redo them before I can update this sorry mess.

Tune in next time for my new and improved word wall:)

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Santa came to visit at Liberty. (Pictured here in the pre-k room, where we went for our turn to see him)
I took a picture of each child on Santa's lap.

I printed the pictures 4X6 on the color printer at school.

I bought 6 sheets of sparkly gold foam at Wal-mart for 99cents each.
I cut the foam into quarters and then cut out an oval picture window in each section.
I crazyglued the picture to the back of the foam and then attached a magnet.

It cost me $9 for all the supplies since I was able to print the pictures at school and I already had some magnets left over from another project. I thought it was a supernice parent gift and it only took me a few hours to complete.

Gingerbread House Party

For our Christmas party we made Gingerbread houses out of milk cartons, graham crackers, frosting and candy, candy, candy.
I started doing this as my "party" about 15 years ago instead of the old paperplate full of chips, cookies and cupcakes and I have never looked back. The kids always say it is the "funnest party ever!" and I agree!
I prepare the cartons the day before by washing and drying them and then hotgluing them to a plate for stabilty.
Then at the party, every child gets a big blob of frosting with a popsicle stick for spreading, graham crackers, and a baggie full of candies for decorating.  Some kids just sit and eat the candies out of their bags (but if that's their idea of a fun party, what can I say?)

  

Most kids however, get really creative.
Here are some pictures of our houses.
Slide the house, plate and all, into a 2.5 gallon ziplock bag and send it home! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Ornaments

Our snowflake ornaments turned out so cute!  I hot glued wagonwheel pasta to popsicle sticks.  I used to let the kids do the gluing but they did not hold up well and they took forever........so now I hot glue them ahead of time and then let the kids paint them white and sprinkle them with sparkly white glitter.  The pictue doesn't do the glitteryness justice.  They are very sparkly!

Merry Christmas

Here's our classroom Christmas tree.  Aren't the ornaments cute?  My student teacher, Cletta, had the kids decorate the shiny side of a CD with glitter and Christmas sequins and then she stuck a picture in the middle.  They are super sparkly.


Classroom Tree Christmas 2012

Magnetic Classroom

Here are some pics from our recent unit on Magnets.  Shown is my student teacher demonstrating how magnets attract and repel before students broke off for their own exploration with magnets.  They were just a little eager to crowd around that table.

Exploration in groups.



C.M. with our eager little scientists.







After vocabulary development and exploration,
we wrote about magnets.



"Magnets are very cool because the south pole sticks together with the noth pole and they both stick together with each other and I know a bunch about magnets.  They are very! very! very! strong."



Ok, I flipped and saved this picture 3 times!  But, everytime I go to insert it; it's upside down!
It was too good to leave out though.  Here's what it says:
"Magnets are cool.  Magnets stick to metal.  Magnets don't stick to wood.  Magnets attract to a refrigerator. 
This is what I learned."
Complete sentences beginning with capitals and ending with (rather large) periods.  Ahhhh, they are listening:)

We used my magnets unit.  It's aligned to Georgia science standards for first grade and Common Core standards for informational text and writing.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Magnets-Attract-and-Repel-Unit