December 18

Cardboard Gingerbread Creations!

Students have loved our December Gingerbread Unit! Ms. Downing and I collaborated on another project between our class and the STEAM class. This time, students created a cardboard gingerbread house.

First, I clipped the template to the cardboard.

Then, students “pokey pinned” the outline of two gingerbread houses using my favorite giant push pins. These push pins work great for strengthening finger muscles!

Then, students used the CHOMPSAW to cut out their design. (The Chompsaw is back in stock!! Hooray!) Here is how the two pieces looked after they were cut out.

We cut slits into the cardboard houses so that they could be inserted, creating 3D structures.

Finally, it was time to decorate!

Students used white acrylic paint markers to draw their windows, doors, and snow. They glued pompoms, glitter, and buttons onto their houses for decoration. We even had mini light strands that we added!

But the icing on the cake (or gingerbread houses!) was the adorable 3D printed gingerbread characters a student and his family made for everyone in the class to bring home! We took them out during Choice Time today, and the students had so much fun!

I love that they will bring their houses and characters home and be able to enjoy more imaginative play time!

Category: Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 17

50 Days of Learning and Laughing!

We recently celebrated the 50th day of kindergarten with a special 1950s-themed day. The students were encouraged to come to school wearing clothes in the 1950s theme.


 

The kindergarten class also performed the “Hand Jive” at our weekly school meeting!

After a bit of dancing, we headed inside for five activity centers!

Students came to the “Locker Room,” where they matched a picture to the corresponding beginning sound on one of the colored letterman sweaters.

 

At the “Shake Shop,” students scooped ice cream….each ice cream cup had a different number of scoops. Students used an ice cream scooper to place scoops in a tens frame and count the number of each color.

 

The third activity was “Write the Room: 50s words.”

Up next, at the Kindergarten Diner, students used 1950s cars to count syllables in words that were food items from a diner. For example, using the “hamburger” card, students would zoom the vehicle according to the number of syllables in ham-bur-ger!

The last center is the most fun and the most challenging… the Bubble Blowing Center! Students received a large piece of Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum and learned how to blow a bubble. This activity always provides us with lots of laughs, and the students always try SO hard to blow that bubble!

They talk about this activity all year long!

 

Our 50th day celebration would not be complete without some delicious root beer floats!

 

Here is a quick video that shows the activities and the classroom decor up close.

Category: Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 3

The Great Gingerbread Glow-Up!

It’s December, which means we have begun our Gingerbread Literacy Unit! A goal of mine is to always offer students a toy to play with during Choice Time that incorporates our current theme. For our Five Senses Unit, I introduced Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. For our unit on Trees, I provided a Tree House Engineering Set.

But what toy would encourage cooperative and imaginative play for the gingerbread theme? Would you believe that a homemade gingerbread craft just happened to pop up in my Instagram feed? All I needed was a pre-loved plastic house (like those from Fisher-Price, Bluey, or Dora), brown spray paint, white puffy paint, glue, and plastic candies. I sent an email to my class parents and asked if anyone had a house that their child was no longer using. Sure enough, one was sent in!

Here is the back side.

My first step was to wipe it down and then add blue tape to the parts of the house I wanted to keep the original color.

 

Then I spray-painted the house a nice, gingerbread brown color, made by Krylon.

Next, I added a bunch of plastic sugary treats, like these

gum drops,

peppermints

mini gingerbread cookies

I sprayed a clear coat over the gingerbread house to protect the paint from peeling. I then realized that the children needed accessories to encourage imaginative play. I found this reasonably priced wooden furniture set

But it wasn’t very “gingerbready.” So, I used the same brown spray paint to paint all the furniture pieces. Then, I took a white chalk marker and drew some accents. Once everything was dry, I varnished the pieces. I love how it all turned out!


The most amazing part of this project is that another family offered to 3D print gingerbread girls and boys for me, which the students could use to play in the house! They surprised me by creating gingerbread cats and dogs as well! Today was the first day the students were able to explore the gingerbread house, and their enthusiasm was catching!

I know there will be many fun Choice Times ahead with this special toy! Thank you to all who helped me create this unique toy for our classroom!

 

*If you are interested in purchasing these items, click on the underlined words, and you will be brought to the Amazon link.

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment on The Great Gingerbread Glow-Up!