Five for Friday 2-28-14

Shadows have been the big talk in my classroom for the past two months. We started a unit in Open Court with the same title and have been fascinated with them ever since. Do you know what it takes to make a shadow? My peaches sure do! They cannot get enough of playing with flashlights. Discovering their shadow is like seeing someone win the lotto and sadness crosses their faces when it's a rainy day and we're covered by the clouds shadow are all priceless!

One

Yesterday we brought up some of the questions they had and I wrote them at the top of this paper:

 Then each student drew a picture to answer their question. I loved their pictures because they show that they are understanding the concept and even my ELL student did a great job (her is the one with the sun):

So what are the three things you need to make a shadow, take a look at the fun anchor chart I made for them:

Two

After five years of just shoving things onto my shelf I took time on Tuesday to clean up and throw out many unwanted items. I forgot to take an after shot but it looks great!

 

 Three

Every Monday we have a fun and creative mom who volunteers with a food project for the peaches. Each year we enter a contest for Marin Farm Day. This year we decided to enter the photography contest. Yes the barn and animals, everything was made with food! She and the peaches did a great job! We're hoping to win some money for our school, wish us luck! 

Four

My peaches are in LOVE with this book by David LaRochelle. It's about a cow that takes a joy ride in the farmers car but the only word he uses is moo. This gives me the chance to show them how to read with expression plus hear lots of giggles from my peaches. This is one book I need to purchase because my peaches have been reading it on their own repeatedly. Check it out: 

  Five

Rainy day/art day. Below are my three kinders being silly in the rain that we need here in California.We also finished a Peter Max  inspired Statue of Liberty. I was inspired by we heart art and we started with a 12x18 piece of paper. I showed them examples of Peter Max work and how he uses vibrant colors and bold black colors to showcase the Statue of Liberty. After studying his techniques I passed out pallets of bright colors. Each peach had their own technique some used lines and others used swirls. We did our background last Friday and then today we used pictures of the Statue of Liberty to draw her. Many put her holding a torch and some were very detailed. One even reminded me of a dias de la muerte skeleton. I think they all turned out fabulously.

Lastly just a peek at what I have planned for next week, yes I want to read all these Dr. Seuss books and have my pinterest board to lead the way with fun crafts, worksheets and food ideas. I cannot wait! We've already read Horton Hears a Who, The Cat in the Hat, and The Foot Book.

Just a reminder from Dr. Seuss

 "Teeth are always in style"

-Ms. Perry's Peaches

 

Five for Friday 2/21/14

My First Linky Party

One

Michael Jackson!

On my way home yesterday I was reminicing about the Captain EO show at Disneyland! So I had to listen to my favorite song “Another Part of Me” Any day is a MJ music day!

Two

Since presidents day was this week we celebrated two of the most famous presidents Washington and Lincoln. They had fun comparing their height to Lincoln’s height and this craftivity by Simply Kinder. My peaches also LOVE write the room. I have them do it atleast twice a week (even though they could do it everyday!).

 

Three

My husband made me a super sweet booklet for Valentine’s day that listed fourteen reasons why he loves me. It’s crazy because I made him a flipagram that had many of the same pictures. He brought me to tears with this one.

Four

This past Wednesday I saw THE most beautiful sunset and had to capture it, I love our California weather!

Five

Last Friday was our Valentine’s day party and I set up two stations one was pin the lips on Mrs. Valentine and the other was a make shift photobooth. Everyone had a great time, including me!

 

Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching

Five for Friday!

Pop Hearts and Gold!

Can't believe how fast February is moving.Yesterday we celebrated Valentine's day and I wanted to share a link to great games as a resource for next year, it organizes the games by grade and has a part 1 and part 2! We played Pin the Lips on Mrs. Valentine and all the little peaches had fun! The week prior to Valentine's day I taught an art lesson on pop art using Burton Morris as our artist study. After watching a video about how he got his idea for the Coca-Cola company and exploring his website's art gallery we got to work on our own pop art. The results were fun to see because they got the concept of using neon colors (the pop), solid backgrounds and the movement by using little strips of white paper. This was inspired by We Heart Art:

For Valentine's day I took the non candy route for their valentines. Thanks to What the Teacher Wants! awesome free printable and ideas my peaches enjoyed their little toys!

Gave this to my two first grade boys

Gave this to all the girls

Gave this to the older boys (lots of giggles with this gift)

The excitement of the winter Olympic games has made its way into the classroom and I was inspired by a pin that depicted the summer Olypics for our art lesson this week. I prepped the project by having silhouettes of each sport printed and ready to go. Then I wrote down eight winter Olympic sports and folded them up so the peaches could each pick one. After picking their sport, they worked on their background with drawing chalk. Then they cut out the silhouette of their sport on black card stock. The end results were amazing:

Freestyle Skiing

Ice Hockey

Snowboarding

Speed Skating

Figure Skating

Freestyle Skiing

Alpine Skiing

I love teaching the peaches art and they always go above and beyond my expectations. My littlest peaches,kinders and firstites, are working on a dental and presidential units that I'll share with you next week!