Spring Has Sprung! Easy Art Spring Edition AND Organization Station!

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz - I wonder where the flowers is?  Actually, they are right here in another easy art blog post!!  As you can see we have been learning about flowers and seeds.  Out popped this super easy, yet aesthetically pleasing project!

You will need:

faux flower petals from the Dollar Store

yellow construction paper

various types of seeds

white glue

oil pastels

Love the creativity here!!

First, have students put a circle of glue (great time to review this 2D shape) for the flower head.  Have students glue petals all around the circle.  If needed they can add a second layer.

Next, students can glue seeds to make the centre of their flower.  I encouraged them to make a pattern.

Finally, I showed them a shading technique with the oil pastel to make the leaves and stem.  I had the students draw the leaves and stem, then shade one side darker.  After, I had them smudge the pastel with their finger towards the other side to create a cool 3D effect!

I was super impressed with how they turned out!!

The reminds me of something a little Hawaiian princess would wear!

My muffins are so creative!

Voila!  Easy Spring ART!  Huzzah!

Now onto the Language Arts part of the post.  We have been learning about the writing trait of organization.  It is kind of a hard trait to teach!!!  What is organization in writing really?  Sometimes it comes easily but other times it does not!!  I thought we should study some examples more carefully so I came up with - dun, duduh!!  Organization Station!  

In the following activity students must read the story, cut it apart and organize it from title and author to end.  Students will then glue it on the provided sheet below.  

My kiddos had fun reading, cutting and glueing.  They had to read the stories carefully to ensure they did not mix up the order.  Yes - close reading!!!

It was so cute - today I ran into a teacher friend in Zumba class.  She came up to me and asked if I had a teacher blog.  When I replied that I did she said that she had seen my blog and was so excited that she knew me!!!  Eeeek!!  It was so cool!!  She is teaching Grade 1 this year for the first time and is loving TpT!  Anyhow, hope all is well in your little classroom!  Happy Spring!!

3D Shapes Showdown Addition! AND Dual Language Book Review

Happy Spring all!! - and happy Spring BREAK to those who are still in that happy time of the year;)

So I had a customer request to add the vocabulary term apex and base to my 3D Shape Showdown.  I finally got around to fixing it up.  Now it is added to the package.  To all you who have bought it, printed, cut and laminated it already I have added an additional page at the back for you to print and laminate without having to reprint everything all over.  I am SO grateful to all of my previous customers!!!  Click on the picture to go to my TpT store for redownload!

As some of you may know, I am a bit of a language buff - I LOVE teaching my little muffins French!  I was thrilled when I was approached by Tim Johnson A.K.A. The Language Bear to review one of his Dual Language books.  I chose French and English being that I am in Canada, but there are many options including Spanish, Italian, etc.  A digital teacher's guide is included.  

Each page has the words in English and French.  Tim sent me the PDF version so I popped it up on the SmartBoard and read it to the class.  The pictures were amazing (the kids commented on these specifically) and the story was so cute and fun.  My class had a great time connecting the French words with the English words.  Certain vocabulary is highlighted so it was easy to make the connections!

This product is of high quality!  The kids loved it and I found that it was wonderful way of introducing French literature into the classroom!!  Be sure to check it out!!!  Happy last few days of Spring Break!!  I will be going out tonight for a little salsa masquerade party!  Super excited!!

9 Sentence Story Writing {Writing Fiction}, Bricks4Kidz, and Just Be Respectful

First of all - thanks to all who made purchases in the TpT 3 Million Strong sale!!  I am super excited about the two packets I bought!

Captain's Log, stardate 9522.6: We were very busy writing our stories this week.  My students were a little hesitant at first but as time passed and they developed their stories - masterpieces were born from tiny, sparkly ideas!!  Since I am teaching Grade 2 this year and they were already familiar with 3 Sentence Story Writing from last year,  I decided to take their experience and make Level 2: 9 Sentence Story Writing!  Click on it to check it out!

Here is just one of the activities I created to go along with the packet.  

Here are some of the super, awesome stories my students produced.  I am so proud of them.  The are literally amazing in their creativity!  The sentences and flow are pretty darn great if I do say so myself!!

Story #1

Story #2

Story #3

Happy story writing!

On top of all that, oh me oh my - so glad I made it through report cards, Career Day, Choose Respect Day, Grade 2 Community Worker interviews with iPads - thanks Mrs. O for all of your hard work :)

Here is one of our hardworking Educational Assistants being interviewed by some budding reporters!

Also, Bricks4Kidz came for our in school field trip (one of my students won it by guessing the correct amount of legos in a jar - Hurrah!).  Here is a pict of the Bricks4Kidz field trip.  We made windmills that attached to little battery packs - so cool!

At this point we connected them altogether and created some serious wind power! Yeah Bricks4Kidz!

I received my iPad Minis this week too thanks to Just Be Friends and the friendship video some of our students made - it ended up being the Grand Prize Winner.  Check it out!!!!  

Here are two of my kiddos with our iPad minis - I'm not sure who is more excited - me or them!!

Finally, here is my class working on their Just Be Respectful Badge - we made a banner and talked about how good manners are respectful.  I displayed it in the hallway.  We also made up friendship handshakes!  The Just Be Friends program has excellent ideas with ties to curriculum - super easy to use for teachers and excellent for friendship building within school communities!

Have a great weekend - we deserve it!!

Easy Plasticine Olympic Sport Sculpture Art and 3 Million Strong TpT Sale

Have you heard about the news?  Three million teachers are part of Teachers pay Teachers! - helping each other provide quality education resources all over the world.  Check out the sale this Thursday and Friday!

Here is my own St. Patrick's Day activity pack you can pick up for a steal!  What luck!!

It includes a little game that practices those wily # partners of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.  They have been giving my 2's the runaround lately.  I am bound and determined they will have them memorized!

Now for some easy art!!  Hurrah!!! We made plasticine sculptures of various winter sports - perfect for the Winter Olympics - it would be kind of cool to do this as part of a study based on the Paralympics that are beginning now!

This little figure skater is doing a nice deep lunge:)

What you will need:

small paper plates

different colours of plasticine

placemats for desks and easy clean up

glue sticks for rolling pins

toothpicks for reinforcements

First, have students put their names on the bottom of their plate.  Have them soften and roll their chosen colour of plasticine for the bottom or ground of their sculpture.  Explain that they must stretch it out over the entire plate bottom so that no plate is showing.  

Next students must build their sculpture with a sturdy enough body so that it does not fall over - demonstrate how to stick toothpicks in the middle of each body part - especially when connecting any limbs - to ensure sturdiness.

Encourage creativity.  Discuss adding small details to make the sculpture interesting - try to avoid big mounds of unrecognizable sporting mania:)  Show how adding eyes, and stripes on the pants, etc. will make the sculpture eye-catching and appealing!

Check out this gnarly snowboarder - I love the slopes she has got going on - definitely shreddin' some pow!

We usually have the parents and other grades by for a little museum - the kids write about their sport.  They love this but we will not be doing that this year - this week the Grade 1's are having their Career Day on Friday so that will be enough!!:)

Hope your Monday was super!

Easy Valentine's HeArt - Hee hee

Time for another installation of Easy ART!  This is starting to be my favourite blog inspiration.  Ok - so my student teacher found this idea on pinterest to use hearts to make different animals.  This might be the easiest, cutest, most enjoyed art ever!!  She decided to read the class Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister first.  Then she taught the class how to make the fish.  What I think is hilarious is how much the fish resemble each of the students that made them:)  Hee hee!!

So cheerful!!  

What you will need:

brightly coloured paper

heart tracers

felts

glue

googily eyes

Here we have a lovely angel fish!  Shimmer and float!!!

Directions: Have students make their big body heart first by folding their paper like a hot dog  Have them draw an ear shape (I always get them to feel the outside of their ear to get an idea of what half a heart is like.)  Next, have students used tracers to create other hearts for the tail, lips, and fins with different coloured paper.  Add details with felts for texture and Voilà!!  Magnifique!!!

Apparently this one is a fighting fish!!

I call this one the triangle head fish!

This can only be a puffer fish!  Watch out for this one!!

The best part is I heard one of my boys say, "What a cool idea!!"  I told him to tell my student teacher!

Also, I have just finished my newest set of plays/ Reader's Theater packet!!  I had so much fun writing them once again and the last set of Nativity plays were such a hit with my class I had to do more!!

Plus I found these cute, cute graphics from Teaching in the Tongass!  There is such talent in graphic design out there!!

Here are the colourful print out version to paste onto popsicle sticks!!  Insta-puppet!!

Happy Valentine's Day next week all!  Turns out it is also our 100th Day of school!  EEEEEeeek!!!  Minor panic attack....and I'm done:)

Be sure to check out last year's post for more good ideas!

Anyone for a Freggie Tale? (FREEBIE included!) AND Easy Marshmallow Print Snowman Art

Happy New Year bloggy world!!  This is my first post for 2014 and I am excited for all the things to come!!!

Before I explain how we made this cute little snowman art project how about a selfie!!!  I heard this was all the rage or maybe overused now?  Apparently selfie is the new # just like Snapchat and Instagram are the new Facebook!!

Here I am wearing my new necklace that I got for my birthday from my Aunt and Uncle - they are so sweet!!  My arm looks MASSSIVE!!  Not sure I am such of fan of the selfie - lol!!

Anywho - here is how we did our little art project this week:

You will need:

bright paper

large marshmallows

white paint in little containers

buttons for eyes

anything orange and papery for noses

jewels or baby pom poms for buttons

any kind of stretchy ribbon for a scarf - I unearthed some Easter coloured elastic - don't know where it came from but it worked

a black felt to draw on the arms

bright coloured paper for the hats

Students dipped the marshmallow in the paint and created the snow covered ground.  Then they used the marshmallow to make the body of the snowmen - making sure to lift straight up as they made each circle.

Students added details before the paint dried.  Don't you love how this one below turned out?  I love how you can see the purple paper through the white paint.  It kind of gives a nice texture and depth!

There is something so satisfying about that marshmallow squish onto the paper oooozzzzing white paint and creating a perfect round circle - sigh - I love art!

Now for a little Health snack!!  So I got this e-mail from my principal about this new health resource and I was pleasantly surprised when I checked it out!  Apparently it has really caught on in Ontario and it is FREEEEEEE!!!!  YES!   Click on the picture or HERE to get your copy now!!

 

I love how nicely it is laid out - the lessons fit on one or two pages and the activities are fun and meaningful!!  I started the first lesson for Grade 2 this week and we read one of my favourite stories called I Will Never NOT EVER Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child.

Then, I had prepared 4 envelopes with food picture cut outs from the 4 food groups - I snagged a stack of fliers from Choices - the cashier at the checkout was a doll and let me have a bunch when I told her I was a teacher!  Students had to guess which one of the pictures did not belong!!  Great introduction to the 4 groups. 

Then each kiddo got a flier and cut out fruits, veggies, meats, breads etc. to match the suggested servings according to the Canada Food Guide for a child their age.  They glued these onto a paper place - I find so many uses for these cheapo paper plates!! - they turned out totally cute!

Here is a little freebie I made up after the fact to go along with this activity!

Click HERE to download!

Happy January folks!!  Time to start eating healthy!!