Teacher, Why Do You Always Paint Our Hands?

It was *the* question of the week!

"Mrs. Sommerville, you're weird.  You painted our hands for autumn trees.  Then you painted our feet for Halloween ghosts.  Now you're painting our hands again for Thanksgiving turkeys.  What color are we going to have to paint our hands (insert eye roll from five-year-old here) for the next holiday?"

Well... uh...

Hmm.

I assure you, I don't *always* paint my students' hands.  Sometimes I let them get sticky in other ways:

Okay, okay, so they painted first, but then they got all goopy painting white glue onto pumpkin templates cut out of old manilla folders.  I added the pipecleaner "vine" onto the pumpkins with a hot glue gun after school.

November means it's time for patchy pumpkins, terrific turkeys, and venerated veterans, so I'll post photos of the finished bulletin board later this week!

To answer my student's question:  brown.  I'll be painting hands (and possibly feet) brown next month.  

For Chris-moose.

So there.

Happy Halloween!

I'm Not Endorsing...

... ANY political candidate on this blog.

**Many** thanks to the reader who let me know that Internet-Land (Google?  Blogger?) was posting political ads here at Kindergarten's 3 R's, ads or links taking readers who clicked on them to outside sites where bashing/thrashing/gnashing was going on over candidates and their support of various issues.

While I don't believe that child advocates and supporters of public education need to claim a party affiliation, I also don't mind those who do.

Until they start preaching/dictating to me and my readers.

Should ads for candidates or election issue pop up again on this site, please know that they are NOT there at my request.

M.

Ordinal Numbers

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,
the first one said "Oh my it's getting late!"
The second one said "There are witches in the air..."
The third one said "...but we don't care."
The fourth one said "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said "I'm ready for some fun!"
Hoo-hooo went the wind and *out* went the light
and the five little pumpkins...
rolled out of sight!

*****
For fine motor practice, students can draw and cut out their own five little pumpkins (they'll certainly want to add faces to turn them into jack-o-lanterns), glue them to a headband, and add a copy of the song/poem:





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Is your favorite color yellow?  If not, is it a close second?  Visit Catching Fireflies and enter their "I Love Yellow" Giveaway!

(The Bananagrams are my favorite!!!)

Time for a New Hobby...

... since lifelong learning shouldn't just be a goal for my students!

I've admitted to having a more-than-mild paper addiction, and regular readers know it takes a lot for me to step away from my hot glue gun.  With a sheepish smile on my face however, I have to share the following:

Soldering intimidates me.  Amazes me.  Scares me even.  Makes me fear for my fingertips and any other exposed skin I might be sporting in my crafty nook.

Odd, considering I wield a curling or straightening iron each morning (taming my mane into something presentable for work), and ~those~ things can leave the *worst* burns ever!

Deep breath in, cleansing breath out, deep breath in, and relax, Sheila is here to help:

First, I chose a domino with two 6's on the back for my birth month, December:

... and after trimming the edges with adhesive backed copper strips (I didn't forget to burnish the strips against the domino), Sheila instructed me to paint on some flux, and pick up some lead with the soldering wand:

It wasn't quite like applying nail polish.  Nor was it anything like curling one's hair.  But it was fun, and awkward, and intriguing.

I think I'm going to ask Santa Claus for soldering goodies this Christmas.  Oh yes.

(Sheila provided domino-sized images that could be cut out and Mod Podged onto the face of the domino- I chose a vintage-y little girl with a jack-o-lantern.)

W-A-Y  fun!

Thank you Sheila!

***** 

Would YOU like to take a class from Sheila?  

She'll be at Farmstead on November 20th:

 ~ 10 a.m.-12 p.m.  Found Treasures Charm Bracelet (wire wrapping techniques) $45

 ~ 1 p.m.- 3 p.m.  A Crown Fit for a Queen (paper/fabric/millinery/bling)$45

 ~ 2:30 p.m.- 5 p.m.  Let it Snow Banner (sewing on paper and using embellishments)$40

Call 816-858-0120 to register by November 17, 2010

Teacher Tip: Check Those Take-Home Pages

With Veterans Day right around the corner, Scholastic did a fabulous feature in their "Let's Find Out" weekly take home pages about a war veteran who is helped by a support animal, Benjamin:


Unfortunately, it's one take-home flier that I won't be able to use with my students.

You see, my Stars' parents are United States soldiers, several of them either deployed or soon-to-be to places such as Afghanistan and Iraq.  Seeing photographs of a man injured in war hits too close to home, and my young students (and possibly their at-home parents) will not interpret the wonderful images or informative text the same way "civilian" children and families might.

Seeing Benjamin's photo on the front of the flier, I was tempted to put it in my students' mailboxes without worry, but something told me to look inside.  I'm glad I did, because the emotional sensitivity of the students I teach must be taken into serious consideration because of the lifestyle they live:  their parents leave them for months or a year at a time to travel and work in very dangerous parts of the world.  Daddy or Mommy getting shot or blown up by an IED is a very real possibility for these five and six year olds.  As their teacher, it's my job to be protectively selective.

Teacher tip:  Know your students and their families, and know what you're sending home to them.  Even the most responsible and trusted of publishers might share features that are inappropriate for the students you teach.

We've Been Boo'd!

This cute little candle and figurine were left with a bag of sweet snacks for my Super Stars last week, along with an anonymous note letting us know we'd been BOO'D:

After the treats were devoured, the Stars decided they wanted to keep the Halloween fun going by boo'ing two more classrooms!  We assembled bags of candy and crafty materials (spiderweb, banners, foamy pumpkins and stickers) and reprinted the Boo note:

With only a few hours left in the school day, my Super Stars had to become S-n-e-a-k-y Stars, tip-toeing down the hallway, searching for two classrooms yet to be boo'd:

We found a second grade class' and our Sixth Grade Buddies' rooms empty, so the bags were quickly deposited and we made our escape!  

To quote a student, "Mrs. Sommerville, we **so** boo'd those kids!"

*****

Want to join in on the fun?  Visit beenbooed.com or print out this poem:

The air is cool, the season fall,
soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...
Tricky witches at your door.

The spooks are after things to do,
in fact a spook brought this "Boo" to you!

The excitement comes when friends like you,
copy this note and make it two.

We'll all have smiles upon our faces,
no one will know who "BOO"ed whose places!

Just two short days to work your spell,
keep it secret, hide it well.

Please join the fun, the seasons here,
just spread these "BOO's" and Halloween cheer!

*****

Include a sheet of paper with a friendly ghost illustration that reads:

You have been BOO'D! Please keep it going by following these directions:

1)  Enjoy your treat
2)  Place the BOO sign on your front door or visible in a window
3)  Within 2 days, make 2 copies of this note, make 2 treats & 2 BOO signs
4)  Secretly deliver to 2 classrooms without a BOO.
5)  Keep an eye on nearby front doors to see how far and fast it spreads by Halloween.

Bulletin Boards as W'sIP... Works in Progress

Rarely does a teacher have *exactly* the bulletin board space of his/her dreams.

It's too small or non-existent.

It's far too large and overwhelming.

It's located in a less than ideal place.

You already know that my classroom is well equipped with staple boards.  You've also seen the hallway bulletin board ideas I've shared in my archives.  But I may have forgotten to tell you: even with boards that are the right size and in the right location, it can be difficult to to produce "finished" displays, especially if much of what your students produce needs to stay firmly in their grasps as learning tools.

Our scarecrows went home this afternoon, and my students' self portraits are stored in their portfolios, waiting to be displayed with portraits they'll complete at the end of the year.  Bare hallway boards needed to be prepped with new trimmers and a holiday-ish display that will eventually include several different types of Halloween art and math projects.  The solution?

Trimmers that can pass in both October and November, and a catchy little phrase die cut out of black construction paper:

The first phase of the seasonal display?  White footprint "ghosts," with patterned streamers:



The footprint ghosts are a nice start to our display, which will eventually include deckle cut jack-o-lanterns and Halloween cats.  A little bare, but still engaging and enjoyable.  Keep it clean, keep it simple, and you can add to it as the month or unit goes along.

A work in progress!

*****
The footprint ghosts, while cute, don't offer much space for patterned streamers... try some pattern jacks instead!

Going Batty

... but can you blame me?

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I'm not the only one!
~ Teaching Heart Mom created a downloadable pretzel bat and pumpkin sorting activity...
~ Handprint bats can be done by painting students' hands or by tracing them...
~ Colored paper bags (or let your students paint or color white or tan paper sacks) make bat puppetry simple and fun...