Sunday 29 July 2012

Brain Break Kit

Here is a kit that I composed based on little activities or brain breaks that I have experienced. I made them up into cards for convenience. The general principle is that students' attention span is a minute/year of age. If that seems like too short a time, definitely change activities every 15 minutes or provide a brain break.


For the activity cards, click here.

For ease of access, I colour matted my cards according to approximate time needed. A purple card in my deck would take about 5 minutes of class time, whereas a pink card might take 5 seconds.

Friday 27 July 2012

Exploding Art -- The Best Kind


As mentioned in an earlier post, my classroom’s reward system was called the “Caught Being Awesome” Jar. When I saw kids following the classroom rules, they would get a slip to add to the jar. Well, we filled that jar for the first time on July 10th! To celebrate, we did exploding balloon art!

Materials
  • PAINT SHIRTS and OLD bathing suits (Trust the bold words!)
  • Tempera paint in a variety of colours
  • Balloons
  • Funnel
  • Garbage Bags
  • Large Paper Roll
Steps
  1. Using a funnel, add some paint to a balloons
  2. Blow it up
  3. Add it to a jumbo garbage bag for easy transport and a contained mess in case of a POP
  4. Roll out some large paper outside and dump the un popped balloons
  5. Unleash the kids!

This activity was sooooo much fun and the kids loved it. To add to their artwork, some of the popped balloons even stuck to the paper which we used as a mural for the inside of our classroom








NOTE: Make sure you are ok with paint splatter. We decorated the shed and windows of our centre, however it washed off after a few good July storms!


Saturday 21 July 2012

Bubble Party!

Initially designed to be outside, we had to move our planned bubble party inside when the winds in Regina were gusting to about 80km/hour. Although it was messy (and took a bit of elbow grease), we had a blast!


Before our party, we had to make sure that we were wearing our professional bubble explorer outfits! The kids loved the goggles.


We filled a kiddie pool full of bubble solution in the middle of the room.


Bubble Art: Give each kid a cup filled with some watered down tempera paint and a few drops of dishsoap. Add a straw and let the bubbles overflow onto some paper.

In addition to these activities, we also had bubble wrap taped to the floor all over the room and a bubble machine! The kids were engaged for the whole afternoon.

Empty Counter Top?


Friday 20 July 2012

Window Art

“In order to act as an educator for the child, the environment has to be flexible; it must undergo frequent modification by the children and the teachers in order to remain up-to-date and responsive to their needs to be protagonists in constructing their knowledge." (Gandini, 1998)

When looking for ways to improve the classroom environment, I sought out an art project that would also provide an opportunity for learning. Taking advantage of an open window space, I found the idea of using recycled milk jugs to make art. Not only did it turn out beautifully, but it also sends the important message of environmental responsibility and sustainability to children. Instead of using brand new art supplies, we made use of what we already had.


Teacher Prep
1. Save milk jugs. At the centre we use 14/week so it did not take long. Educators may also ask parents to contribute.
2. Wash them out thoroughly. Unwashed plastic exposed to sunlight in the window will not produce a smell to enhance your classroom environment!
3. Depending on the age of the children, you might want to cut off the handle and the spout of the jug.
4. To make the "paint", mix together about 1 cup of glue, a few drops of dish soap, and as much food colouring/water colour to get your desired colour. NOTE: This amount of paint will go a long way! 

Process
1. Have children cut out any shape that they want.
2. Using paint brushes or glue spreaders, have them decorate their pieces. Some may choose to spread it out, or make a drizzle pattern.
3. Hole punch either end of the piece and string them together using fish line.
* We used a fallen tree branch to add an earthy component to our window art.

For more ideas on recycled art, check out the Recycled Arts and Craft Guide

Friday 13 July 2012

This is what tables are for, right?


Materials
  • Tempera Paint in a variety of colours
  • Masking Tape
  • PAINT SHIRTS
  • Drying Space (each of our kids made 5 or 6 pictures)
  • Prep Solution (Water and a few drops of dishsoap)
Steps
  1. Divide the table with masking tape into painting stations
  2. Create 4-5 palettes of paint to go in the middle of the table
  3. Before painting, spray down the table with a water and dish soap (just a drop) solution.
  4. Unleash the children! When they are done painting, imprint their design onto a piece of white paper.



Have fun! This is extremely messy, but the imprints that we pulled off of the table designs were              AMAZING! This is another great way to teach about colour mixing and imprinting techniques through inquiry and experimentation.







Tuesday 10 July 2012

Agriculture in the Classroom: Seed Kit

Living in a province with a large agricultural industry, it is important that Saskatchewan teachers accept the responsibility of educating our students in this area. By providing meaningful information and experiences, we can empower them to make informed choices when it comes to interacting in the world of farming.

One great way that I learned to involve students more in their Saskatchewan roots was through the organization Agriculture in the Classroom. Sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the agriculture industry, they have a multitude of amazing hands on resources for students. The best part ... these resources are free for educators!

One of my favourite picks would be the seed kit. This kit comes with 14 different seed samples, a few lesson plans and a sorting graphic. It is great to use for all ages, I have adapted the activity for students aged 4 to 10.

I have used the kit as both an inquiry centre (set up with all necessary tools and information cards) and a structured guessing game competition. The kids seem to be amazed at all of the consumer products that the grain industry supports! Here are some pictures of my kids interacting with the centre. I will attach the link to my information cards and the AITC website at the bottom. Enjoy!

A real canola plant!

These seem to look the same...



Materials for set up:

  • A tray for the students to dump the seed samples (trust the kids to do this! -- we had a few spills but they all accepted responsibility and cleaned up their mess)
  • A magnifying glass
  • I had a mirror to place all of the bottles on for a beautiful visual display
  • I also got some real wheat plants from the field for the kids to see the actual plant.
  • The information cards
Check out this great website for over 250 lesson plans, activities, teacher guides, etc!

1950's Office Centre

"A high quality early learning environment supports children's learning through play. Adults contribute to the play by ... providing props and resources to enrich the play" (Jones & Reynolds, 1992) 

I was searching through my parent's basement when I found an old typewriter and rotary phone that I thought my children would enjoy as many were asking about the lives of their parents and grandparents. I placed both models together somewhere around 1950. I simply set up the centre without explanation to the children, and watched as they began to explore. This centre generated many questions, especially about Elvis Presley and what they thought was a "projector" (typewriter)!


We had many office scenarios take place as well as conversations with Lucy. Many of the kids just loved the sound of the typewriter and spent hours clicking away. We also supplemented this centre with dress up clothes and music (including Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley) as interest grew. Through play and inquiry, the children had fun learning about history and the lifestyles of previous generations.

Click here for the background pictures.