Homemade Wall-E robot

My husband made this Wall-E robot for my classroom this year. His front control board lights up. His eyes also light up and are made from working cameras. He has plugs in the back that hook to the TV to allow the children to see themselves through Wall-E's eyes. His tracks are made from mini blinds that have been spray painted. His hands are just made from cardboard. My husband is too talented! The only thing I contributed to this project was making the hands and making the oval pieces around his eyes.

I use him in the classroom for interactive writing time. If he is lit up when the children come into the room then he has a letter inside of him. We read the letter and then the children help write a letter back to Wall-E.

Out of This World Good Work!

I just used cardstock and clothespins to create these cute good work dsplays. I placed the pictures of the children on the colored index cards.

Planets Everywhere

This is another idea I saw online for my space themed classroom. I bought these outdoor lanterns and hung them throughout the room to represent the planets. Then I found these infjatable space shuttles in the Oriental Trading magazine. The kids love it!!

Flag Display

I had this huge flag for my classroom and nowhere to put it. I decided to just put it on the back wall and then put the astronaut beside as if he is putting it on the moon.

Shoot for the Moon!

I found this idea online. This year my classroom is outer space themed and so this went perfect with my theme. I made it my own, by making the rocket 3-D. I stuffed it with paper and used styrofoam cups cut in half for the boosters.

Magnetic Teacher Notes

I found this idea on pinterest.com. I took my old cookie sheets and painted them with plastic coat spray paint. I used mounting tape to put them on the wall in the classroom. I am going to use it to clip any important notes or memos throughout the year. I am going to add some ribbon to make it cute as well.

Classroom Photo Display

We made these cute photo displays for our classrooms today during our staff development. We used cardboard, felt, cloth, and ribbon. Staple everything together and you have a cute way to display photos in the classroom or at home.

Airplane Shelf

I love going to thrift stores to find cheap materials and games for my classroom. I went to one a couple of weeks ago and found this cute airplane shelf for only 6 dollars. I am going to hang it in my classroom to display books on. The propellar actually moves too!

New Desk with old materials

Sometimes it is really nice to have a husband that is so handy. I asked for a desk that would fit both the computers in my classroom. The very next day he had built one using scrap lumber and old table legs. Then I found some blue paint on the clearance shelf at Wal-mart for 50% off because it was a mis tint. Now I have a beautiful desk for my classroom.

Healthy Spider Snack

For our unit on Spiders we decided to make a spider snack. We usually use oreos to make the spiders but some of the children in my class could not have sweets, so instead we made spiders out of crackers. We used cheese spread for the center, raisins for the eyes, and potato sticks for the legs. Fun to make and good to eat!!

Our Little Community Craft

We were learning about community helpers and what better way to end the unit then by making our own little community. The houses are made out of milk cartons that the children colored with markers or you could cover them with paper. I also printed the name of each building on sticky paper and stuck it to the milk carton as well. The grass and roads are made out of construction paper. My husband made the sign post and I just printed pictures of the signs on sticky paper to stick to the sign post. Everything is just hot glued to a big piece of cardboard. The kids loved it and we even got to display it in the library!

Fun Aquarium Craft

This idea came from another kindergarten teacher at my school but it is very cute and fun. We were learning about animals that live in the ocean so each child chose an ocean animal. Then you cut out the shape of a fish bowl from blue paper for the back and cut another one out of yellow for the front. For the one on the front you have to cut out the center of the fish bowl shape. Have the child color and cut out their ocean animal picture, which I printed from google images. Have the child glue their animal picture in the center of the blue fish bowl paper and then draw seaweed, sand, and maybe other fish. Then you will need to fill a ziploc bag with blue hair gel. Then just staple it all together. :-)

Story Reader

I realize this box is in Spanish but this is a Story Reader, which is similar to a Leap Pad but without the pen. You just put a book in the system and when you turn the pages it reads the book to the child just like books on CD. I found this at Ollie's Outlet store for only 10 dollars and the books that go with it are only 99 cents. For some reason all they had was the Spanish one but it reads the English books as well. They even have a storage case for the system and books for only 4 dollars. I could not pass up a good deal!! I thought it would be great for a listening center.

Easy Magnetic Letter Storage

I am sure many others have thought of this idea as well but I thought I would share. I bought this container at Wal-Mart about 4 or 5 years ago but I am sure they still sell them. You can find them in the tool section. I simply labeled each section with a letter and then it is easy to put the letters back when you are done with them. It is also very easy for the kids to use and put the letters back.

Dr. Seuss Day

We had Dr. Seuss Day at our school. I dressed up as a Star Belly Sneetch. I found the shirt and pants at Walmart. The star is made out of felt. I bought feathers at Hobby Lobby, which my mom sewed on an elastic band for my hands and feet. I even found a feather hair clip at Hobby Lobby for my hat. The things I do to entertain children :-)

The Horse

As I said in an earlier post most of our animals we made for our farm unit were made out of pom poms but the horse was different. It was too hard to make him out of pom poms so I found another idea online. I printed a template of a horse that did not have legs that the child colored and then used yarn for his tail and mane. (I wish I could remember where I found the template of the horse) The legs are made out of clothes pins that the child colored. The horse will actually stand up on his own.

Cute Little Chick

Here is a picture of the chick one of the children made using the pom poms, googley eyes, and foam for the beak for our Farm Animal Unit.

Cute Farm Animals

I love doing crafts in kindergarten. The messier the better. We were studing farm animals and how they lived and I wanted them to do something hands on. So I decided to have the children make a farm animal. I have lots of pom poms in the classroom and I figured that would make cute little animals. Each child picked an animal that we had learned about. I went online and found pictures of the the animals made with the pom poms using google images. Then I pulled the children together in small groups and we put the animals together using different sized pom poms and googley eyes. Then each child had to write about their animal and I put them in the hallway. I taped the animals to little shelves I made using cardboard. They turned out so CUTE!!

Behavior Management

I think it is important that children learn to take responsibility for their own actions. This behavior system that another collegue of mine found online, really works!! I call it Clip Chart Behavior. The children start out on Green Each day, which means they are Ready to Learn. Depending on their behavior and if they are following our classroom beliefs they could move up on the chart or move down. The important part is if they have to move down they have the opportunity to move up again. It teaches them that it is okay to make mistakes but they can work on fixing those mistakes. If the end up on Pink at the end of the day, which is Outstanding, they get to put a special jewel on their clip. When they get five jewels they get to put their clip on the Wall of Fame and then get a brand new clip for the chart. The children also have to record their color at the end of each day which is sent home for their parents to see. The children love it and it is easy to implement!

Sorry So Blurry:-(

Pink: Outstanding

Purple: Great Day

Blue: Good Day

Green: Ready to Learn

Yellow: Slow Down

Orange: Think About It

Red: Parent Contact

Reading Rocket

I love getting ready for Open House night at the beginning of the year. My favorite part is coming up with a theme for the classroom. This past year my theme was "Soar into Kindergarten" and throughout the room was different items related to things that fly. I even convinced my husband to create a Reading Rocket for the classroom that the children could sit inside and read their books when in library center. We made it from a large cardboard box and lots of tape. I painted the box and my husband glued several little buttons and gadgets inside, which later the kids eventually pulled off. My husband taped carpet in the bottom and I threw some pillows inside to make it comfortable. This year I am doing the theme of "Outer Space"... "Learning is a BLAST!" This way I get to keep the rocket!!