Kindergarten Rocks

Earlier this week, we learned about pomegranates in my class. I wrote to the parents and told them about the experience. I said, "Don't be surprised if your child asks if you can buy pomegranates next time you're at the store." Sure enough, several moms wrote back and said that is exactly what their son or daughter did! I have heard that pomegranates are the "Friendship Fruit." When you want to get to know someone you should share a pomegranate with them. Since they take so long to eat, by the time you are finished eating the pomegranate, you will have learned several new things about that person and you will have made a new friend.  My class was hesitant at first, not knowing quite what to expect from this strange looking fruit. We started by looking at photos of a pomegranate on the tree, and pictures of pomegranate blossoms. Next we looked at and felt a real pomegranate. The colour, the texture, and the place where the blossom died to make way ...

This is a little project that we did in the weather workshop I took at convention. The instructor said that her students find it easier to glue the rainbow garlands on from the back. So, following those instructions I turned my paper plate over and glued my colour strips on the back. It wasn't until I was painting that I realized what I had done! Can you spot the problem?! It is always good too do a trial run of projects. Now I know one more instruction to add when I do this with my own students! :)

Over the past two days I've been at our annual teachers/educators convention. It was wonderful to be with almost 1800 other educators - teachers, SEAs, support staff and admin from many schools throughout BC and Washington state.  I learned so much! I am still processing it and will continue to process over the next few weeks.  There was a weather workshop where we were taught some great hands-on activities to do in our weather units. I'm looking forward to trying those out this school year.  I attended a class on boundaries. That was interesting, and will be useful information for school, home and every part of life with other people! I felt a bit like I was attending a marriage conference without my husband, though, so it was a bit different than I was expecting.  The final workshop that I attended (besides the 3 that I led) was called Maker Space Ed. In my classroom this year I have set up a "Maker Space" and this is what I was anticipating the class to be...

Kindergarten Self-Portraits are always adorable! I love how 4 and 5 year olds see themselves. Some years I have the students draw in pencil and then I go over in black sharpie before they paint. This year, after seeing the beautiful artwork in another K class, I had my students paint over their pencil drawings and then I added black crayon over top. I like both methods, although it was hard to see some of the drawings after they had painted, so I may go back to doing the sharpie first. This also gives kids an easier time of seeing their drawing.  

I was scrolling through an old blog of mine from back when I was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and saw this post. This teacher, Ms C, is the reason I believed I could teach Kindergarten! I am in my 6th year of Kindergarten and my 19th year as a teacher. (that can't be right, can it?!). Ms C. was all three of my kids' Kindergarten teacher and she was (and still is!!) amazing! Here's the link:  Scott's K teacher

Here are some of the creative works of art the kids have been painting in my Art Kids! classes. These were still life studies and we used watercolour pencils and water brushes.  

This post is from my "Art Kids" teaching days, back in 2012 In last week's art lesson, we used acrylic paints. First, we masked off geometric shapes on canvas, using basic masking tape, then filled it in with acrylic paint that was colour-mixed to perfection! Here are a few of the results....