Father's Day - If You Give a Dad a Marshmallow

In honor of Father's Day, today I'm sharing the activity I did this week with my kindergarten classes.

Following the model of the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", this Father's Day activity involves students making their own books titled, "If You Give a Dad a Cookie".  The template can be found on TpT and has 2 versions, one which has the word 'dad' filled in on each page, and one that allows students to fill it in.  We wrote out the word 'dad' in our books so that students without a dad could write their book to another family member or friend.

The story goes if you give a dad a cookie he'll need a campfire, a stick, graham crackers, and chocolate to make s'mores.  So we also made bags with all the ingredients for students to make a s'more at home with their dads.  My EA even found this tag that she was able to customize for dads, grandpas, and uncles that tied everything together.

Here's a link to the TpT template: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fathers-Day-If-you-give-a-Dad-a-marshmallow-714213

What did your class do for Father's Day this year?

Ladybugs

After learning the butterfly life cycle we moved on to the ladybug life cycle.  We compared the two and found them to be quite similar.  Then we created this awesome ladybug life cycle craft.  It was messy, but oh so fun!

We started with 2 paper plates and painted one red and one black.  Then we used tracers and black construction paper to trace and then cut out the head and spots.  Once we were done that we used the life cycle from this bug science pack from TpT http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bugs-Science-Centers-643070 and coloured and cut the life cycle.

Once we had all the parts, we could assemble them.  The life cycle was glued to the black paper plate, the spots were glued to the red paper plate, then the red plate was cut in half, eyes were glued to the head, and it was all fastened together using a brass fastener.

Butterflies

For the past few weeks I have been teaching kindergarten.  I have just loved it.  The theme we were working on was bugs, specifically butterflies and ladybugs.

During the first week we learned the life cycle of the butterfly using Eric Carle's book The Hungry Caterpillar.  We cut and coloured our own life cycles and put them up for every one to see.  Then we made butterflies to decorate the classroom.

After searching pinterest for different ways of making butterflies I decided on this method.

 Using coffee filters we folded them into quarters.

 Then we dipped them into bowls of water with food colouring.

The rule was dip into the bowl for a count of 3 and then use your fingers

to pull and excess water out of the filter and back into the bowl.

Once the filter was completely wet, or as wet as the student wanted

we opened the filters up and let them dry.

Then we used a pipe cleaner to pinch the middle of the coffee filter

and curled or bent the ends to create the antennae.

The Power of Art

Ah the exploration of visual arts. I think it is important for students to explore and appreciate art.

Something that caught my eye this week while teaching was the use of a visual journal. Students each had their own journal where they could write their own reflections. These reflections could be based on anything. But this week, the students happened to be learning about Andy Warhol and his style of art. Looking at Warhol's work, you can see the techniques and thinking that went behind some of his paintings. The students then got a chance to colour their own portraits using Warhol's style. But what made this different was that students got to explore what colours to use and what medium to use. It was interesting to see the different decisions that came about. I think that learning about one artist every other week is a great way to incorporate visual art techniques into the curriculum.


Here are some of Warhol's more famous works.

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Of course Warhol is only one example and there are many different famous artists your class can cover.

If I Were In Charge of the World

I first found this activity in a teacher's sub binder.  It was one of her emergency activities.  When I first looked it over I thought it looked like a neat activity and I kept it tucked in the back of my mind to try some day.  That day arrived when one day music was cancelled so I was in need of an extra activity and I just happened to be in her class again.  I seized this opportunity to try it out that the students just loved it!

When I got home I knew I wanted to find the activity for myself, so I searched for it on pinterest and found a link to this blog. http://mandys-tips-4-teachers.blogspot.ca/2012/04/national-poetry-month-poetry-frame.html

Using the poem If I Were in Charge of the World as a template, students then create their own poems describing what life would be like if they were in charge of the world.  The blog I mentioned above has a great graphic organizer and template for students to create their own poems.

When I taught it, we used both the template and the graphic organizer.  While I think both are great, in the future I would probably just use the poem template and have more discussion with the students to really have them come up with some creative poems.

If I Were In Charge of the World

If I were in charge of the world
I'd cancel oatmeal,
Monday mornings,
Allergy shots, and also Sara Steinberg.

If I were in charge of the world
There'd be brighter nights lights,
Healthier hamsters, and
Basketball baskets forty eight inches lower.

If I were in charge of the world
You wouldn't have lonely.
You wouldn't have clean.
You wouldn't have bedtimes.
Or "Don't punch your sister."
You wouldn't even have sisters.

If I were in charge of the world
A chocolate sundae with whipped cream and nuts would be a vegetable
All 007 movies would be G,
And a person who sometimes forgot to brush,
And sometimes forgot to flush,
Would still be allowed to be
In charge of the world.

By Judith Viorst

What would the world be like if you were in charge?