Homophone Pair of Pears

A fabulous way to review homophones wit h second graders was using Pair of Pears idea that I found on First Grader...at Last blog.  I modified her idea a little bit. I made the pair of pears myself with the words and we played a game. We call it, the game of the mailman. First, all students closed their eyes, put their heads down, and wait to see if they get some mail. Then, they walk around to look for their pair.Once they found it, the kids stand in front of the class. At the end, everybody present their pair to the rest of the class.

Bear Week

One of the special weeks  was the Bear Week. We read the story of Corduroy by Don Freeman, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We used the class bears for several language art activities such as sorting by color, size, graphing and beginning sound rhymes and songs. We invited  the kids' Teddy Bears  to school on Friday. All the students introduced their bears by telling their bear's name and something special about it.  

Our Bear Friends

Queen and Prince U Wedding

Another awesome idea that I found, was the Wedding of the Letter Q and the Letter U. Thanks a lot  to Mrs. Lasater's Kindergarten Blog  for sharing the idea. As soon as I found about this activity,  I went straight to talk to my principal to explain her about it.. It was so hilarious at first, because I said:  "I wanted to celebrate a wedding", and she suddenly interrupted me: A what! ...Let me explain"  I said.  At the end, she loved the idea. It was the first time in my school that there was a wedding celebration in kindergarten. They were used to see the wedding celebrations of the Parenting Class that is offered in high school.

The Flower Girl, the Bridesmaid, the Bride, the Groom, the Groomsmen
the Queen of the Alphabet

I kept reading other blogs for ideas, checked videos and started planning. Since I had two groups of kindergarten I decided that I needed a wedding coordinator ( a volunteer mom). OMG, this was the best idea! She took care of the decorations, the cake, the "champagne" (sparkling apple juice), the souvenirs (chocolate kisses), even the cleaning after the wedding. Thanks to the volunteer moms that helped her too.  

We had a beautiful "make believe cake" for the picture moment.  

Wedding Souvenirs were chocolate Kisses

I was the Queen of the Alphabet, I  used a traditional dress of the 19 century that I had and added a few ribbons with die cut foamy letters. I wore a crown, and used a scepter.

"As to all wedding ceremonies you must bring a gift to the newly weds", I explained to the kids. " I don't have any money", replied one. The gift consisted of a piece of quilt ( made out of poster board with a picture or drawing that represented either the letter Q or the letter U.


At the beginning of the ceremony all the students entered the room singing the ABC song because each one represented a letter of the alphabet ( I made them a letter headband for each one)  Then the Mendelssohn  Wedding March for the Wedding Processional. I began the ceremony, we made the toss with sparkling apple juice, took photos,  had cupcakes. We dance the Hokey Pokey and the chicken dance. We had a great time! 

I'm positive that my students and their parents will never forget  that when a word starts with the letter Q an U will always accompany her, but that  Q needs to understand that U can start a word because it wants to be with other letters too, not necessarily with Q.  

wedding invitation

A B C Letter Crafts

I love the Alpha friends of  Houghton Mifflin, their songs, pictures, etc. I have been using these in my classroom for several years now. During my "blogs reading expedition" I found the cutest letter crafts in No Time for Flash Cards   and these are some of the letters that we worked during the last semester. I also look for songs related to the craft we were doing among other activities that we did.  

This picture was taken before I put on the tittle.
That's why you see a blank section on top and I can't find the  final photo.
It had a verse of the alligator song.
A, A alligator ...

This is the alligator song that we learned.
Video from www.youtube.com

These cute bees were part of the hallway bulletin board  done during the Preschool Week.
The kids made the bees and I painted the background and made the flowers.

C is for Callie Cat
Big Cat drew and painted by me inspired on Rosina Wachtmeister ' s  cats. 

I love cats!  I drew and painted the cat inspired on  Laurel Burch  cats collection.

Mm is for Matisse

As we began our Letter of the Week, I wanted to integrate another famous artist.This time we met Henry Matisse, and his paper collages that I had seen first at A Mommy's Adventure.I chose The Snail for the students to work on.We used  construction paper to cut out and glue.They practice their cutting skills, review shapes and colors vocabulary. Even their parents learned about  Henri Matisse. It was a wonderful experience!

My First Abstract Painting

The first art project that I chose was to integrate the shapes and colors vocabulary with Wassily Kandinsky 's Study of Abstract Squares. He is very famous for his concentric circles painting. As Kathy Barbro from Art Projects for Kids  said this is a painting fun to imitate. There is no doubt about it. Since I didn't have watercolors, I decided that we could use crayons. Students folded the papers and drew concentric circles in each square with crayons, no pencils were used. They pressed really hard to make the colors look brighter. It took us two classes to finish the project. Everybody in the school was so excited that we were asked to prepare the hallway bulletin board. We had a great time as the same time we were reviewing the primary and secondary colors.

Kindergartners Abstract Paintings displayed at the school hallway bulletin board.

   

Pilot Art Integration Project

The main language in Puerto Rico is Spanish but all students learn English since the very early years. This past year my principal authorized that I began a pilot project with Kindergartners. It consisted of integrating visual arts to my class. The first step was to add ten minutes to the class ( 40 minutes in total) that way I could have enough time.There was an empty classroom in the preschool area, and I requested it, honestly I didn't think the administration will approve it; but Do you know what? They did!  I was so exited! I had  my very own classroom. The next step was planning accordingly.  My feelings were mixed, on one side I was very happy but in another hand I had to fulfill all the expectations. I love art, drawing, painting, dancing, and all that. I consider myself very creative but I had never teach art as part of my class. So I continue reading here and there, and found a few art teacher blogs that make my life so simple. I'll be mentioning them as I post and present my students work. I have to say that overall it was a great experience, the kids and their parents love it so much that the project will continue for the next school year! Yeah!!

The Very Beginning

During the past months I have read tons of teacher blogs, found lots of activities to do with my students, organizational tips and much more. It is the right moment for me now to start my own blog to share with all the wonderful teachers and parents out there, what we do in my ELL classes in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's summer  and I have the time to be familiar with this new blogging experience. I'll start by posting about the activities and special projects that I made with them during this past school year.