Happy Halloween... Quick Project!

**Ok- it's been a busy week.  I scheduled this for Wednesday (or so I thought!) but it never actually published... so keep in mind I wrote it on Wednesday!**

It's conference week, ya'll!  I'm at a lull between conferences and thought I should do a quick post since I won't be back tomorrow or Friday on the ol'blog!

Anywho... we've been taking the MEAP test this week and it's going well.  Yesterday the kiddos needed something fun after the test so we did my favorite favorite fall project.  I don't know why I love this so much, I just *really* do.  It's quick and fun and the kids love it!  And it looks super cool!

Each kid needs a piece of orange and a piece of black paper.  And a bit of yellow if you so desire.

On the orange, they should draw a pumpkin.

Then, cut it out and cut it into strips.  Remind them not to cut a billion strips... as they cut each strip, they glue the strips IN ORDER on the black piece of paper and leave just a *teeny* space between each strip so the black shows through.

Too many strips = too much work!

After the pumpkin is (sort of) re-assembled, they cut around it and leave a teeny bit of black around that too.

You can have them use yellow paper to add jack-o-lantern features and... there you have it!

I have no bulletin board outside of my room so these are taped up oustide of my door.  I LOVE IT!

Room 10's Lovely Friends!

Well, I had a crummy weekend.  Pretty much as bad as they come.  Yeah.  It was bad.  And I wasn't feeling too kind or nice this morning either.

So, I knew I had to get myself out of the gutter... so...

... we did a little bulletin board project that had all my kiddos smiling from ear-to-ear which just warmed my heart and really did help turn my day around!

A few weeks ago, I raided the Dollar Spot at Target and got all this great loot.  So, each kid got a large foam heart and a variety of the foam/felt heart stickers.

Then I passed out these copied on red and pink paper:

I had already written each kids' name at the top of one heart and it was random who got who in the classroom.  My kiddos had to think of a way their person had been a good friend and write it in the space.  Then sign their name and use the materials to decorate it.  We did brainstorm a list together of ways people had been good friends to us and I put it up on our LCD projector so they had some ideas.

When everyone was done, we sat in a circle and everyone went around and read their heart to their friend.  The smiles and blushing cheeks were SO nice to see and hearing the "thank yous" at the end was even better!

Then I hung them on a slightly un-balanced bulletin board in the hallway... I'm trying to get over the uneven distribution of the hearts... it's hard!  I love to make a sign for my bulletin boards that a student colors, so I usually do that instead of cutting out letters.  They enjoy having a hand in the bulletin board too!  So, a couple of my boys decorated the sign.
 

        
And how could my day not turn around when one of my sweeties shared the one she did for me:

So, if you're looking for a way to add some sunshine to your students' day... or even to your own... do it!  :)

Here's to hoping for a better week for myself! 

Happy Thanksgiving and a Holiday FREEBIE for You!

Happy Thanksgiving, bloggy friends!

After this weekend, we'll be getting into the holiday swing at school and one of my favorite feel-good things to do with my students is have them share how other students in the class have helped make our classroom a brighter place... hence... Thanks for LIGHTING Up Our Class!

I would like to share with you the banner you see above and a light pattern so your students can create a bulletin board so celebrate the ways their classmates make your room a happy place to be.

All you have to do is click the image above to download the banner and click the image below to download the light pattern.

So, what I do is copy the light pattern on several colors of paper and then write each students' name and my own at the top of the lights. Then each student (and me too!) gets a light with a classmate's name and they write and/or draw to complete the sentence saying one way their friend has LIT up our classroom! They cut them out and we share what we've written. Then I hang them in the hallway and use green yarn to make the string of lights to all of them.

We love brightening each others' day with the compliments and the kiddos love to hear what their friends say to each other too!

BUT... if you download the files, I would love for you to share the love by leaving a comment about how a bloggy teacher has helped LIGHT up your classroom and then leave that person a comment on their blog to let them know you gave them a shout out! I hope we can LIGHT up the comments of this post to celebrate all the talented, awesome, and generous teachers out there!

And I'll go first in the comments below...

I hope you'll join me in celebrating the kindness of our colleagues!

Whoooooo needs a quick fall project?

If you answered, "I do" to that question, then this post is for you!

I needed a quick project earlier this week as I pre-maturely took my previous bulletin board down without a real plan for what I was going to put up!

Here it is!

Each of your students will need a square piece of brown paper. I cut mine to 9in. x 9in. They'll also need a bit of yellow, black, and orange paper.

I don't quite know how to explain how to fold the paper... so I'll try to do it, but here's a picture too.

We folded our brown squares "taco" style just to get a nice diagonal crease going on. Then we laid our paper so it was more "diamond" oriented than square. We folded in THREE of the corners into the middle.



Then we glued down the three triangles- they are the left, right, and bottom of the picture. The triangle that is left (the one on top in this picture), is actually the bottom of the owl.

We added yellow eyes, beaks, and legs and cut the bottom part all fringe-y so it would be like the tail feathers.

We added a cute sign, which one of my kiddos colored and you can snag below, and... viola! Here's the finished pic!


Here's the sign- mine is in the top corner of the BB.