Insect Art

Here are a few of our projects we did in our room to let the insect theme come alive!

Our lovely ladybug windsocks

Our life cycle wheel illustrating the life cycle of a butterfly.

Our beautiful butterflies made from tissue paper squares

We painted white sacks stuffed with newspaper to make our buzzing bees



Work Buddies

Other teachers may call it Center Time but we call it - Work Buddies - it is the time of day my kiddos look forward to the most each day. For 30 minutes each day each child is paired up with a buddy to work at a station set up in our classroom while I conduct small reading groups at my reading table.  The buddies spend 15 minutes at each station.  Each station has a specific objective or skill for the students to work on.  These skills coincide with what we are working on in the classroom.  The objectives at some stations may be developing social skills, being creative, rhyming, practicing sight words, listening to literature, writing lists, creating sentences, retelling stories, sequencing information, matching capital and lowercase letters .......

The number of stations set up in the classroom depends upon how many students I have.  There are 6 stations set up at this time.  After 15 minutes, I ring our chimes and the boys and girls know that is the signal to clean up "neatly and completely".  When they have cleaned up their station, they check our work buddies chart to see which station they rotate to next.  Each day I change the cards in our charts so they can enjoy 2 new stations the next day.  At the end of the month I change the contents of the station or add a new station.

 The boys and girls have quickly picked up on the routine and next week I can begin running our reading groups as they self monitor themselves.  I am so very proud of my Work Buddies!

Boys and girls use magnetic letters and white boards to practice their popcorn words at the ABC/Word Work Station .

Boys and girls match capital and lower case letters at the Pocket Chart Station.

These two buddies listen to a story using our wireless headphones.  Next quarter we will add a response sheet to the Listening Station.

Students get to be creative at the Art Station.  Boys and girls can use stencils, glue, fancy cutting scissors, markers, crayons, pencils colors and gel pens.  I will add other art mediums as our year progresses.

At our Writing Station, students use word lists, picture dictionaries, and picture cards to create lists.  Later in the year the  boys and girls will write sentences and stories.

These two buddies need to work together to complete this floor puzzle.  The boys and girls have a variety of puzzles to choose from at our Puzzle Station.

Things Are Getting A Little Buggy Around Here

I hope everyone had a relaxing and very enjoyable Labor Day weekend - the official end of summer and the beginning of nice cool autumn weather - I hope.

My boys and girls greeted me this morning with bright eyes and big smiles ready to get back into the swing of things.  I welcomed each little toothy grin with a hearty "Good morning!" and came eye to jar with grasshoppers, tomato bugs and promises of butterflies, lady bugs, dragon flies and ants to follow - and -  I was thrilled!!!!!!!  The boys and girls are just beginning a unit on insects for this month and there is nothing more exciting than the real thing - live and up close.

During our afternoons, we get out our magnifying glasses and try to locate the insect's three body parts: head, thorax and abdomen (yes, the kiddos are learning the names of each).  They have even learned a little song to help them remember the characteristics of an insect.  Check out the tab under "Songs" and you can learn the song too!  The boys and girls also look for and count the six legs and locate the antennae.  They are always so amazed when they can see the eyes and other features.  It has been so much fun watching my kiddos chase grasshoppers at recess and exclaim with pride, "Look Mrs. Straight!  I found an insect!" 

Not only are we learning the characteristics of an insect but we are discovering what they eat, how they protect themselves from enemies, how they move, and  their life cycles.  We have started a big classroom chart to record what we are learning about the different insects.  We will also incorporate a few art projects along the way.

It will be a great learning experience for the Kindergarten class as we all go just a little buggy this month!