Kindergarten in December

Friday was our last day of kindergarten until 2017, and like many of you, December was such a busy month for me and my Super Stars that I'm only now able to share some photos.  I spent Saturday vegging out (my brain was able to do little else, really), and yesterday *finally* putting up our Christmas decor at home.

Needing to clean up my laptop, I came across photos of some of the December fun we enjoyed in kindergarten- take a peek!



End of the quarter assessments were completed little by little each day, but we very much wanted to decorate for Christmas!  Tearing red, white, and green paper to create candy canes was a fun fine motor activity during center time.



We reviewed plane shapes while creating classroom decor...



... and AB patterns with paper chains as we counted down the days to Christmas.



What would December be without one of our favorite story characters, or frankly, MANY Grinches, arranged into a Grinchmas tree?



Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?  These crafts helped us to attend to, remember, and create as we followed directions in sequence.  We also strengthened our finger muscles by ripping paper for Santa's beard.





Graham cracker "gingerbread" house construction was a tasty STEM activity...



... and we made some snowy friends that will greet us when we return to school in January!



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Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Best Wishes for a Joyous New Year!

~Michaele~

Colors All Around

My Stars loved the purple crayon craft I shared in my last post, so much so in fact, that they thought our Pete the Cat plushie would like to be surrounded by crayons, as we continue to learn our color words.

Pete was a bonus point gift from Scholastic a few years ago, and the sweet wreath was made and given by a former Super Star student and her family.  My kindergartners love to greet Pete each morning!

Our second literacy theme is "Colors All Around:"

I've added the Trace and Cut Color Labels (red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, black, pink, gray, and brown) to my TPT store.  Go check them out!

What I Did Over Spring Break: 1, 2, 3

Spring Break in Oz:

One:

Two:

Three:

Which is how I was able to:

One:

Two:

Three:

No beaches, very little warmth, but a whole lot of comfy, cozy time making a baby blanket for a special soon-to-be-a-grandmother colleague.

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Making my bi-annual check, I cleared out any old/dead links in my blogroll and happily added a new author/illustrator category (check it out on the right).  I've also widened the margins of the blog so hopefully you'll enjoy the larger photos I'm now able to post. 

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Have you liked Kindergarten's 3 R's on Facebook?  It's where you'll find most of my quick posts, links, teacher truths, and classroom humor.  

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What are your plans for spring break?

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!

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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

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...

A Charming Fortune-Telling Fish

I took a break from banners and bunting to play with some scraps, odds and ends:




I'd never seen the fortune telling fish before, but it came in a package of ephemera I got during my trip to Farmstead last year.  After playing with some more scraps and trying out a new adhesive, I couldn't bring myself to make "inchies," so I settled for 1 3/4 X 1 3/4 bases... I'd love to see how these would look as charms, but, alas, I don't solder:

Gift Tag Sunday

I was *supposed* to work on bunting/banners this weekend.

I glued the paper.

I cut the paper.

And then I got distracted by a hole punch.

That's always how it goes, isn't it?




See the pennants in the upper corner? PROOF that I was going to make bunting...

I've been wondering what to do with the pretty scraps my crafting generates...

MAKE GIFT TAGS!

Oh... the matchy-matchy girl in me is happy, as is the woman who hates things going to waste.

Win-win.

... and Right When You Think the "Auto-Post" Function Works...

... it apparently doesn't.

Apologies, I blogged the following and *thought* it posted it a week or so ago! Being the last month of school (three weeks left for me), I'm not manning Kindergarten's 3 R's morning, noon, and night, and assumed our Mother's Day preparation had been sent out to you.

It hadn't.

Obviously.

Perhaps I'll try this again for NEXT Mother's Day. Better late than never:



Always plant extra nasturtiums just in case some seeds don't sprout- every student wants to take a pretty plant home for Mom!

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Don't forget the ever-popular handprint gift:



Handprints

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my handprints
On furniture and walls

But everyday I'm growing
(I'll be all grown someday)
And all those tiny hand prints
Will surely fade away.

So here's a final handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When they were very small.

© T. Lambert, Jr. May 1978

This Teacher *Loves* Chalkboard Paint...

...who'da thunk it?

Teacher tip:  visit thrift stores from time to time- you never know what you might find!

For example, this sturdy tabletop-sized puppet theater (for which I paid $7 whopping dollars, that's right, *SEVEN* dollars):



I purchased paint from Joann's making good use of a 40% off coupon (the paint usually costs about $6):




Two coats later, here's how it looked:

As most of my students come from active-duty military families, I thought some speciality trim would be a nice touch (who knew my hot glue gun would choose *this* project to express itself?):

Hiding the seams with buttons was the next step:

New denim curtains with camouflage ribbon tiebacks finish it off (though the denim was a poor choice- I'll be making new curtains out of thinner material this weekend):

You can often find old easels, platters, cookie sheets, trays, etc. that can be easily transformed and repurposed for home or classroom use at yard sales or thrift stores- keep your eyes peeled, and don't be afraid to get your craft on as you create your students' learning environment affordably.

Who Has a Wreath Design Idea?

I found several of these spice tins on a wandering-aimlessly-through-antique-malls jaunt a few years ago, and followed up with some purposeful hunting on eBay in order to find some more. I love the patterns, the typography, the size of the shakers themselves, but don't care for the typical spice rack display option. These little charmers have been sitting tucked away, on top of a high cabinet for a year now, and it was during some summer cleaning that I took another close look at them.

Wouldn't you know it, now I'm trying to figure out a wreath design that incorporates them so I can see them every time I cook in the kitchen...any ideas?

Don't Mind Me...

Don't mind me, I'm just playing with paper today...



Such springy colors!

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~ AllSorts shares a "bounding bunnypin" pattern that may lure me away from the paper for some other Easter crafting...

~ A Little Loveliness is tempting the snacker in me with a recipe for spinach and artichoke dip...

~ Little Birdie Secrets shares dress up patterns for young wanna-be wild wild west cowboys (check out the mustache- I'm thinking Shauna needs to make these for her boys!)...

~...and ShabbyFufu has me looking forward to what the Easter Bunny will bring next month- how could he resist "Blissful Bird Baskets?"

Saturday Fun

I was thrilled to wake up to this:



...especially after having worn flip flops one afternoon earlier this week! The colder weather helped inspire me to bring eggs and butter up to room temperature:



...because I have lounge duty at work this week. Apologies in advance to anyone who gave up homemade cookies for Lent, you *might* want to avoid the lounge on Monday and Friday!

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After selling the last of my St. Patrick's Day banners, I'm in the mood to make a few more (I'll post photos of them tomorrow~ you can let me know if you'd like to make a purchase), but not before I show you how well my re-purposed card catalog has worked out for my ribbon stash:





Heaven, I'm in Heaven...



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One casualty (actually, six): my Martha Stewart Ribbon boxes. I have three walnut and three seafoam green.



Let me know if you're interested in any or all of them~ I'm selling them for $6 each (though you might want to check with me about shipping cost first, just let me know your zip code) to happy crafters or teachers who might want to give them a good home! You can email me at: michaelek1(at)yahoo(dot)com. Once contacted, I'll send you my PayPal info for a quick transaction. I should be able to get the boxes in the mail to you on Monday or Tuesday.

*****

I forgot to show you the silly lion/lamb display the Stars and I made for our art area (many thanks to former-colleague Jessica for the lamb pattern):



(The sentence strip reads "March comes in like a lion and goes out like...")

The wide eyed lambs make me smile!

Making Valentines...Listening to Music...

It's a good combination~ patterned paper, white postcards, red envelopes, heart shaped and stamp shaped punch-outs... and Lisa Hannigan:





I suppose it's an odd song to listen to as I make my Stars' valentine cards...

...but it works!

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~ The Long Thread offers printable valentines (I love the "tweet tweet" cards!)...

~ Hostess With the Mostess shares what must be Cupcake Heaven...

Pastel...

Getting into a pastel mood is something I tend to do every year after Christmas. Though my favorite color is red, the softer pinks, pale blues and purples just appeal to me after the deep jeweled reds, greens, golds and silvers...even the stark whites...of the holidays.

Two bitty banners span the width of my upstairs fireplace:



I re-created this centerpiece (and this is last year's photo!) for the dining room:



...and even my students have started to make some pastel chains to enjoy next month (week!):



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~ Little Birdie Secrets links to sites for Easy and Cheap Valentines...

~ Goody Blog found the perfect cake for my beginning-of-the-year Colors unit!