A change

I am excited to share with everyone that I am moving classrooms in two weeks. I will no longer be teaching toddler. I will be tackling the wild preschool class. I am sad to be leaving the toddlers but some of them will follow me in a few months. The preschool class is in dire need of a teacher they will respond positively to and I know all of those kids personally so I know that I will succeed with them where two other teacher have struggled so much. I know it will have challenging moments but they will help me to grow into a better teacher. I am super excited to teach thing to kids who have a higher understand and bigger vocabulary. I am super duper excited. :)

Caterpillar to butterfly week

This week in toddler land we talked about caterpillars turning into butterflies.

Caterpillar art-I cut a circle (the size of a standard paper plate) out of white construction paper, for each toddler and let them color with markers and my dot markers. You could make these colorful in so many ways. Them I made a caterpillar head out of scrapbook paper (12x12 sized). After their circles were dry I hung up the head of the caterpillar and then used the circles for his body. The kids just love talking and pointing out the caterpillar to everyone.

Butterfly art-this was originally going to be a shape project but I ended up making it look more realistic. I cut out two wings out of red poster board and the head and body out of black poster board. Then I drew 5 (I have 10 students) shapes on one of the wings and when I was satisfied I had taken up enough room and made sure the shaped were all about the same size I cut them out and used them as templates to cut the same shape out twice with white card stock (for the kids to color on). **now when you go to let the kids color on these remember you need the shapes to correlate with each wing so I put X's on the backs so signify that the kids had to color on the fronts. Then you don't have to ask them to do it again because teacher made a mistake. Lol**
I let each kid color with markers and then glue different colored tissue paper pieces. They had a blast with it. When the prices were dry I taped them up on their spots. The kids love talking about the butterfly all day long. :)

Community worker-Mailman

This week we are talking about community workers. Today we talked about Maiman. I thought I would share an activity I did with my toddler class.

I made different colored "letters" to be delivered using colored index card from the dollar store. Then I made mail boxes to have the "letters" delivered too. Then attached a "letter" to each one so that they can deliver to the matching colors. The toddlers had a lot of fun delivering the "letters".

To make the mailboxes I took a paper plate and cut a half circle out of the middle, it looked kinda like a basket with a handle after. Them I glued the edges to card stock and let it dry. After it dried I cut the extra card stock off around the plate. Then I glues a "letter" on the front of each. I taped them to my felt board when we used them.

Community workers-doctor

This week we are talking about community worker in my toddler class. Wednesday we talked about Doctors. I thought I would share my circle time activity and color page.

Circle time activity (first pic): I found a line drawing of a boy and a girl on Google and colored them in. After covering each with clear contact paper, I put the soft side of sticky Velcro dots on different parts of their bodies. Then I colored the dots red. Now it looks like they have injuries. Then I printed off a page of line drawing band-aids on to a light orange paper. I cut them out and covered them in contact paper. Then I put the rough sticky velcro dots on them. I attached the boy and girl to my felt board and let each child come up and fix an injury with a band-aid like a doctor would. They played this game 2-3 times and loved doing it.

Color page is the same boy and girl from circle time. I let the kids pic which they wanted regardless of their gender. Then I let them color it how ever they wanted. After they sufficiently scribbled all over the page I let them glue the paper band-aids on where ever they wanted. It was fun for them to fix injuries. :)

Color poster

I wanted an original color poster in my toddler room. I free hand cut slouches out of construction paper. Then I searched through magazines for fun pictures to match the colors. After writing the colors name on each and doing some embellishing I glued the splotches on white poster board and covered the whole thing in clear contact paper.

Alphabet

I wanted an original poster of the alphabet for my toddler class. I used different scrapbook papers and a big letter stencil. I glued all the letter on two pieces if poster board to make the poster. Finally I covered the whole thing with clear contact paper. I could add small pictures if I wanted but I like the simple look. :)

**I am aware that my "Q" is backwards. But I did not realize that until I had covered the whole thing with contact paper. Lol**

Community workers-painter

This week we are talking about community workers.

Monday we talked about house painters. I cut out houses out of big white paper and let each child paint their own house. They got to pick two different colors. It was a lot of fun to watch.

For circle time I made a color match game using paint splotches and paint brushes. I free hand cut the splotches out of different colored construction paper. Then printed off a line drawing of a paint brush and colored the bristles the matching color. Then I covered both with contact paper and used velcro sticky dots to stick them together. The kids really enjoy matching the colors.

Weather crafts

This week we are talking about the weather. Today we talked about snow. I had the kids make snowflake art. Check it out. :)

I had a stamp of a snowflake so I let them stamp blue snowflakes on blue construction paper. Then Made snowflakes for them to glue on.

Here is a site that shows you how to fold paper to make a symmetrical snowflake:

http://highhopes.com/snowflakes.html

Spring arts

So this week we were talking about spring. I love the arts and crafts that I do with my kids this week.
1. I made flower shaped sponges and let the kids stamp flower shapes using paint. **pic to come**

2. Spring brings the ducks back so we used a kitchen spatula and paint to make duck prints. It looks like their little webbed feet. :)

3. I drew an umbrella on whit paper and let the kids color it. Then they glued rain drops on them. It's a spring shower. :)

4. I cut out a simple butterfly shape out of yellow paper. Then let the kids use my Do-a-dot markers to make spots on them. Then let them glue on different colored tissue paper squares and goggly eyes. When they are dry I will hang them from the ceiling. **pic to come**

Random craft projects

Below are some pics of random crafts I have done with my toddlers over the past 2 weeks.

The giraffe for Zoo Animal week. I drew the giraffe on big yellow paper and then let the kids use my brown dot-to-dot markers to make the spots.

The eggs in the grass for Easter. I cut up green streamers and tissue paper in to small strips and then different colored eggs. Then I let the kids glue it on to look like the eggs were in the grass (or floating above as in the pic lol)

The lion for Zoo Animal week. I took a paper plate and let the kids glue on yellow strips of tissue paper around the edges for the mane and then they glued on the orange face with hoodoos eyes. I drew the lion face on according to where the eyes were placed after I asked the child of the lion was happy or sad. Usually it's happy. :)