100th Day

I really LOVE the 100th Day of school- it is always so much fun.  Here are some of the fun things we did to celebrate being 100 days smarter.

We made a huge gumball machine with 100 puffballs on it.  My students also filled out a gumball sheet with 10 machine hold 10 gumballs each found here.

My FAVORITE activity was making our 100 year old people.  While we were brainstorming what 100 year olds would look like, one of my students said "they have cracks in their face that might make their lips fall off!!  We made those "cracks" using torn paper.  They turned out so cute.

All of the kindergarten students worked together to make a 100th Day quilt.  Each student decorated at least one number however they wanted.

Winter

We have really done a lot of cute winter crafts that I just have to share.  Pintrest has changed my kindergarten crafting.

 We read The Jacket I Wear in the Snow and labeled people dressed for winter weather.  Pictures to come...

 After reading Snowmen at Night, we made this cute torn paper craft  with a writing extension asking students what they would do if they were a snowman at night.

I really ran with the "snowman theme" this year.  We did a writing activity saying what we would do if we lived in a snow globe.  We also made snowmen with their names on them.



Diversity

The cultural diversity in my school system is somewhat limited to religion and special needs.  Therefore, teaching diversity is always interesting and enlightening for my students. 

Our first lesson centered around David McPhail's book Elmer.  I love this lesson because it helps students celebrate differences.



For our next lesson, read This is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore & Jessica Alexander.  Next, we  examined the similarities and difference in white eggs and brown eggs.  We discovered that the only difference was the color.  One of my sweet students said "Hey, it is just like people.  It doesn't matter what is on the outside, it is what is on the inside that counts.

My favorite lesson comes from Martin's Big Words and teaches about the Civil Rights Movement.  I always love to see my students reactions- they just cannot seem to understand why people were treated differently based solely on the color of their skin.  After reading the book, the students picked 3 of Martin's big words to illustrate.



Happy New Year

We are welcoming in 2012 with New Years Goals and Resolutions.  We all decided on at least one thing that we could work on in the new year.  (So far my goal of going to bed before midnight each night is NOT going so well.)

We made these cute little guys for our bulletin board to show our New Years Resolutions and they turned out really cute.





We also made a book with a personal goal for the year so that we could really start 2012 off on the "right foot."