Painting our Names and Go AWAY Big Green Monster!

We have been so busy! Sorry it has taken me a while to post again! <and for some reason blogger wasn't working>...But in all of this craziness...we have had some fun!

On Monday's in my class, we have a minimum day. My kids leave at 1:00...AND half of my class mainstreams into PE on Monday! Which means...I only have a short period to spend with my students. On Monday, I try to make their day a little bit of fun! We try to do an art project! Last Monday, our art project was pretty cool...and the kiddos had a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of this project!













Here are some pictures that I took of the finished projects! We started by taping of the first letter of their name. I used masking tape, but you could try it with painters tape (it might come off easier in the end). Then the students were given the direction to paint! Most of my kiddos started out by painting just on the tape...and took a lot of convincing to paint the paper. Others painted just around the outside of their letter...

My N to the left, took the direction "Paint the entire paper" to a whole new meaning...and made sure she left NO paper showing! I also love how she did not let her colors mix together!

I only gave them red, blue and yellow, so that if they wanted to mix colors, they could!

When the we were done painting, we had to let them dry! Perfect thing for lunch! When we got back from lunch, it was time to peel off the tape! The kids were so excited to see their letter! I added their full name to a nameplate...and the students LOVED finding their name with their letter!

I get at least one comment every day about their names!

 Also last week...I introduced our first book from Donors Choose...Go Away, Big Green Monster! Each day  of the week, we read and re-tell the story! The students seemed to really enjoy putting the story together on the hand puppet...

 

We use our puppet to work on proper face placement...the eyes go next to each other, not one on top of the other!

 Every one got to take turns putting the pieces on the puppet, and telling the story! Sometimes it was done as a group, other times students would ask to look at the book and put the pieces together alone! They have done a great job using the book to tell the story!

This week, I will introduce the book and pieces to Elmer, the second book we got from Donors Choose. I am excited to see if the students are as excited about this book as they were about Go Away, Big Green Monster!

Our first week back...

Welcome back to school! Being on a C-track year around school has its benefits...one is that we just went back on track...kids started back to school on Tuesday. This week has been spent reviewing rules, procedures...and we even had time to get to work!

 But...no need to worry...just because we were off for a month, I still spent some time in my classroom! I spent a day making some sensory bottles...I made a wide variety of them that I am introducing to my students a few at a time. They currently live in the Stress Free Monster Basket!

                                

Here are my 7 bottles. Most of them had settled at this point...the first one is water, melted glue and glitter...I dyed the water purple...the second and third bottles are corn syrup and glitter. The corn syrup is thicker, which then settles and flows to the bottom! The light blue bottle is vegetable oil and glitter dyed blue. The two blueish bottles on the right side are made with water and glycerin. These give a very cool swirling effect. The green bottle in the middle are water beads. I had actually started by filling it with water, and realized that you couldn't see anything. So I strained out the water, added green food coloring, and some glitter. This one is interesting because it moves around more.

I have only introduced my students to the purple bottle and the light blue bottle with glycerin...so far...they love them! I am working on teaching my students to use them when they feel anxious or stressed out! So far, it seems to be working. One of my students really likes the purple glitter bottle. I have also donated the red corn syrup bottle to a student next door...he rolls it on his desk and is beginning to use it to calm down!

                                      

Here is a picture of my Stress Free Monster Basket! It is a blue plastic basket that I picked up from the Dollar Store! Inside, I put some things that I also picked up from the Dollar Store or the dollar spot at Target. Inside the basket are two teddy bears, some squishy balls, and two of the calming bottles! I will introduce this to my students more this week...I want to start introducing them to ways to self-calm, since many of my students do not have those skills yet!

Some other fun things that happened this week:

I got my DonorsChoose project funded and most of it was delivered! I will post about the fun things that we use them for soon! My project was titled "Read and Re-Tell" and included a bunch of felt board items to retell books. The books that I included in the project are: Go Away, Big Green Monster, Elmer, It Looked Like Spilt Milk, Mouse Paint, and the tree from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I also received a felt board story set that my students can create...and I am waiting for a Poem of the Week book! I am very excited to begin using all of these in my classroom!

With that, it is  late! Time to get ready for bed!