Bienvenidos

FIESTA CAMP was a lot of fun.

My favorite project was the Silly Chili / Hot Stuff painted foot.  Even on the first day of camp the kids got right into having their foot painted and no one refused.  That's a big deal with 3-year-olds, some of whom  you've never met before.

More Fiesta Camp projects coming in the near future!

Adios

Amazing Classroom in Action Again

It's been a long time since I last posted. I liked the idea of documenting what we do in class but then life just got out of hand. This summer as I've done a lot of school stuff I've been thinking I need to make a conscious effort to try again. 

So here it goes....

Tomorrow is the last day of Fiesta Camp. This camp turned out amazing in ways we never imagined and it is my last responsibility before the regular school year starts so I think it is a good "re-starting" point.  

Check back in a few days and I'll have a recap of the week and some detailed projects ready to share.  

Hasta luego! 

Salt & Food Color Letters

It is Fire Safety week so we talked a lot about 911 and made these neat salt & food color 911 signs.

Very easy. First write your letters/numbers in white glue. Our background was cereal box cardboard.  That makes is stiff enough to hold up to rough treatment!

Then sprinkle salt all over the glue and shake off the excess but not too much.  The more salt the better later. 

Let dry overnight. 

This next step is tricky for little fingers.  One drop at a time add liquid food color to the salt.

The color will "run" all by itself down the salt path.

Add extra drops as needed. 

We added a pipe cleaner handle with beads in order to hang it from a door handle or somewhere visible just in case of an emergency.  

SKILLS INVOLVED: tracing with glue, sprinkling salt, deciding the glue was covered, following instructions, fine motor beading and squeezing

WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN: Definitely.  We did this last year writing the kids' names.  Lots of fun.

RECYCLE FACTOR:We used cereal boxes for the cardboard background, glue, salt, pipe cleaners, beads were on hand.  We did use up all the liquid food color that we had and had to get more.  The kids have a really hard time not just squeezing it all over the place.

Fire Truck Bowling

We turned empty water bottles into "flames" with a little bit of red, yellow and orange tissue paper. 

Each team got three flames and one fire truck.  The goal was to put out the fire.

Then we yelled "9-1-1 GO!"  and they pushed the trucks towards the flames.  Sometimes they got it and sometimes they didn't.  But it was a lot of fun trying.

Sick days

Pretty sick. Will catch up when I feel human again.  

Thankful Thursday

We have a really fun teacher for our resource time at school. She teaches Music and Gym (fondly referred to as "Movin' and Groovin'") twice a week each for all classes. That's 80 some kids to learn their names and personalities and keep them on task.  She always comes up with fun activities for the kids.

Today's class was lots of fun. Throw spiders at the web and see how they stick....

throw bean bags into the pumpkin's mouth and other fun stuff!!

So today's Thankful Thursday" is for Miss Lori.
Don't know what we'd do without you.

THANK YOU!!!!

3D Apples

We used the paper from the  rolled apple painting  to make these neat 3D apples.

Cut out 2 symmetrical apples. 

Fold in half with the color on the inside. 

Cover one half of one apple with white glue

Stick a leaf and a stem in the glue so that most of the leaf and stem is off the edge of the apple. Add more glue where the leaf and stem are still on the apple. 

Match up the glued apple with the other apple  and stick together.

Now add the core/center of the apple. We put it on the right side so it was like reading left to right, but it doesn't really matter. 

Add seeds. Last year the school provided snacks and we saved up apple seeds to be able to use real seeds.  This year we used cut out seeds. The kids decided how many 

Ta Daaa. A super cool apple that you read like a book. 

Outside...           Inside...    Outside...           Inside...    Outside...           Inside...

Of course they went on the door 

SKILLS INVOLVED: choosing 2 apples, gluing, deciding how many seeds, counting seeds, following instructions, fine motor

WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN: Definitely.  We did this last year and repeated it this year. It is better with real seeds though.

RECYCLE FACTOR:We used the paper from the rolled apple painting which made it more interesting than using plain construction paper or just sending home the rolled painting as is.   The vines on the door were left from the monkeys and the caterpillars.