Alphabet Visual Aid...

I have finally managed to put my alphabet visual aid (from Walmart) on display in my classroom.  I especially like my paper holder / organizer, which I have now hung on hooks over my bathroom door. When I bought it two years ago, I initially hung it on the wall.

 

  I think I prefer it on the door! The paper organizer can be purchased from S&S Worldwide   www.ssww.com  (item #RS289)

Skeleton Foam Puzzles...

These puzzles were purchased from a "dollar" store.  Very inexpensive.  There is a front side and a back side.  Cool!

Butterfly Craft Teaches / Reinforces Letter, Colors, and Shapes Recognition...

"R r" is for Rabbit (mask craft project)...

My granddaughter, age 3, modeling her rabbit mask. 

The mask is made from card stock paper.

"Days of Creation" poster...

My Grandchildren - ages (soon-to-be) 5 and 3

images obtained from Shining Star Publications

 

"M m" is for "Mittens"...

 

 

We have been learning the letter "M m".  "M m" is for "Mittens".  Today we learned the poem / story about the "Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens" (literature / reading).  My two young students and I made a large poster depicting these kittens wearing their mittens (art).  The kittens represented each of them, as well as their baby brother.  This poster makes a great visual aid for learning the story, learning rhyming words, recognizing the letter "M m" and the sound it makes (phonics), learning the opposite words "lost" and "found", learning colors (brown, black, tan, etc.),  and learning to recognize the numbers 1-2-3 (math). I suppose the story of the three little kittens could also be counted as a social studies lesson as it shows how irresponsible behavior will result in a negative consequence. 

 

"M m" is also for "Mammal".  We discussed the characteristics of mammals (science).  They are warm-blooded, have hair / fur, give birth to live young, and they produce milk to feed their babies.

Our poster is almost as large as the children's school table, which will comfortably seat 4 small students.

Handprint / "Fan Bird" Craft Project - Elijah Fed by Ravens...

We did this project in Primary Sunday School Class as part of our study about Elijah who was fed by ravens during a time of drought. 

This project could also be used to make a white dove  during Christmas or Easter, or in the Spring to make various colors of birds

 Fold a piece of black construction paper in half.  Place hand on top and trace around your hand.  Cut out and glue the palms (bird body) and thumbs (bird head) together.  Fold down the other fingers to make wings.  Add yellow beak and yellow feet.  Cut a 8 to 12 inch  X  4 to 6 inch piece of black paper and fold it accordion style and glue one end into the top part of the body, at an angle, for the bird tail.  White crayon was used to make the eye.  Wiggle eyes would be great!

 

My grandson's version:

This craft would be good to make and use as a visual aid when learning the letters  "B" is for Bird, "C" is for Crow, "R" is for Raven; the colors; and animal (life) science.

This idea was taken from the book Christian Crafts from Construction Paper, written by: Lori Miescke, published by: Shining Star Publications.
 

Multicultural / Biblical / Science Art Project

 

 

 

Assorted Tagstock Kids (item # CO78) from www.ssww.com/arts-and-crafts-supplies/paper/shapes/?fp=PE1460 .  My grandson drew all of the faces except for the black person.  I figured he might have trouble pressing hard enough with his pencil to get any marks to show up on the black paper.  He colored the clothes on the red person.  My grandson is not yet 5, so I think he did pretty good at

drawing faces. 

 

 

We learned how that our skin, eye, and hair color is greatly determined by the amount of melanin within them.  The more melanin you have, the darker the eyes, hair, and/or skin.  For more info about melanin, go to Answers in Genesis website.

 

My granddaughter's version:

 

 



Inexpensive Visual Aids from Walmart...

 

 

 

 

2013 Spring Bulletin Board Idea...

 

This bulletin board idea for Spring can be used as a visual aid in Preschool and Kindergarten for:

Social Studies - The Family Unit / My Family / Farm Life

(My new grandbaby's name will be added next week, after his birth.)

Science - Birds/Chickens

(Info about birds/chickens maybe found on the internet.)

Arts / Crafts 

(Similar images of chickens, eggs, and flowers may be copied from the internet. The grass is made from green construction paper.  The nest is made from brown and tan construction paper, cut into thin strips and "fan" folded to make crinkled paper strips. The strips are then glued together into a nest shape.)

Math - Introduction to Addition

Health & Nutrition - Chicken & Eggs as Food - Protein

Home Economics - Cooking

(Your child can help gather and measure ingredients for your favorite chicken recipe.)

Cooking is also a great way for teaching your child about fractions.

2013 Valentine's Day Bulletin Board & Craft Ideas...

This project teaches and/or reinforces number, color, and shape recognition; teaches the concept of an emotion: love; and enables the child to practice his small motor coordination as he/she helps to cut out the heart shapes.  You can fold each piece of colored paper in half and draw half of a heart shape on the fold.  When the child opens the folded shape that he has just cut away from the larger piece of paper, he/she sees both sides of the heart together making the complete heart.  This project also teaches symmetry (things that are the same on both sides, mirror images, similarity, matching) 

Below is a little book that we made teaching the concept of  sin and salvation through Jesus Christ.  We are now studying the letter "S".  

A great lesson/story for teaching love and compassion for people is the Biblical story of the Good Samaritan.   Below is something we did last year.  You can find free pictures to color on the internet.

"R r" is for Rocket ( lift-up book ) craft project...

Fold a piece of cardstock in half to make a tall, slim book approx. 11 and a half inches tall and 4 and half inches wide.  Copy a free coloring picture of a rocket from the internet, color, and glue to the front of the book.  Give your book a title.

On the inside of the book / card stock sheet, color the right half black (outer space).  Add star stickers or dabs of glitter glue, and a partial picture of the moon (to the top of the page). My moon picture was cut from a magazine.  If you prefer, you could copy a picture of the moon (to color) from the internet.  

Next, color half of another piece of cardstock black.  Cut the black section away from the whole page. Cut about 1/5 of the length off of the top of the black section.  Put glue on the back of the lower 1/4 of this piece and attach it to the bottom of the black, colored side of your book.  Add a partial picture of the earth to the bottom.  My earth picture was cut from a magazine.  If you prefer, you could copy a picture of the earth (to color) from the internet.  

Fold this black section in half toward you.  Then fold the upper half (also in half) away from you.  Attach a small picture of a rocket to the top fold with the tip of the rocket and the exhaust from the rocket extending slightly past the upper and lower edges.  

Unfold the loose, black section and color in some exhaust fumes ascending upwards from the earth to the rocket.  Add more star stickers or dabs of glitter glue.  On the left-hand side of the page/book, add some facts about rockets, the moon, the first man to walk on the moon, etc.  Add a "countdown to blast-off" if you'd like.  This would be a good way to bring numbers/math/counting backwards into your lesson.  After everything has dried well, fold down the rocket section, then unfold it back up to demonstrate how it travels to the moon.

Curriculum covered by this project:  Science,  Math,  Art,  History / Social Studies.  You could even add a Geography lesson by finding on a map and/or globe the location of the blast-off.

A fun way to do school!

I got this idea from the Teacher Resource Book entitled How to Make Books with Children, Volume 2  by: Joy Evans & Jo Ellen Moore.

Cotton Swab Snowflake (shows symmetry)

Cotton Swab parts used:

4 with the tips of one end cut off / save tips

2 cut into halves / use all 4 halves

16 tips / you already have 4 tips saved - cut the tips from 6 more swabs

A total of 12 swabs will be used.

Glue pieces onto construction paper or colored card stock

"O" is for Octopus (craft project)...

Theme of the Day's Lessons:  Letter O, Number 8

Phonics:  Short O sound

Color:  Octopus can change color.  Choose a particular color that you want to focus on.  

Science:  All about the Octopus - live in salt water/ocean - watch a video on the internet about octopus,  read books or find info about them on the internet.

Numbers:  An octopus has 8 arms.  Count them.  Practice writing number 8

Geography:  On a world map or globe, find and name all of the oceans.

Arts/Crafts:  Make an ocean scene like the one pictured above which incorporates the letter O for the head of the octopus, and making the 8 arms by tracing around the child's hand and fingers, excluding the thumbs.  Add wiggle eyes if you want.  Green strips of construction paper for the seaweed.

Benjamin Franklin craft project (birthday Jan. 17)...

It is interesting to note that Ben Franklin had only one year of formal education.  His father could not afford to send him to school any more than that.  Ben was mostly self-taught (a type of homeschooling). He like to read, and read whatever he could get his hands on.  He has many accomplishments.  A web search will reveal much about his life.

Inexpensive Fall Decorations from your local retailer...

I found these Pilgrim figurines at my local Dollar General Store.  Not only do they make great Fall decorations, but they will become useful visual aids in our study of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving celebration in America.  The faux pumpkin and faux autumn leaves and berries/acorns were purchased from Walmart. 

Life Cycle of a Butterfly (a two or three day craft project)

Cut the lid off of a cardboard egg carton.  Cut lengthwise.  Trim around the edges to cut off the flat rims.

Paint with acrylic paints (and allow to dry) or color with washable magic markers.  Don't worry if your child doesn't paint or decorate the complete body.  My grandson chose to paint only on top of each hump.  The paint then spilled over and streaked down the sides.  Poke two holes in top of "head" end with a sharp pencil. Draw a face.  Glue on wiggle eyes.   Cut a chenille stem in half for the antennas.

Roll one end of each antenna to form a "ball" anchor.  Poke the straight end up through the bottom the caterpillar's head.  Squirt a generous amount of glue (tacky glue is best) to the "ball" anchors of the antennas. Allow to dry. This could take several hours.  This will prevent the antennas from slipping out of the holes.

Color a pair of wings.  Each wing should be slightly smaller than a regular sheet of copy paper.   This pattern came from Answers in Genesis Preschool Curriculum.  I copied the pattern onto card stock paper so they will be stiff.  Color with magic markers and cut out.  You could make your own pattern or obtain a free copy from an internet source.  (Enter an internet search for "Butterfly Wing Pattern).  These wings were a joint effort between myself and my grandson.  He also colored on the back of his wings.  Perfectly acceptable...

Glue a wing on each side of  a caterpillar.  Anchor with paper clips until the glue is dry. (Leave one caterpillar as is.)

Fold each wing down.

A caterpillar will change into a butterfly!  

ENJOY !!! 

The Number "4" and Shapes...

This week week we are learning the number 4 - how to recognize it, write it, and count objects to 4.  We are also learning to recognize the shapes that have 4 sides and 4 corners / angles, as well as learning to draw them.  

The visual aids are hand-made from construction paper and laminated.  Self-stick magnets were attached to the back for display on my magnetic wipe-off white board.  The number 4 is a painted wooden magnet that I purchased.

Christopher Columbus (craft project)...

This "Christopher Columbus Character"  (with moveable arms and legs)  pattern can be obtained free from  www.superteacherworksheets.com .  I added the "Cc" for Christopher Columbus 1492.  I will be using this as a visual aid for our phonics lesson on Monday, Oct. 08, 2012, as well as for our history lesson.  My grandson will make one of his own as a craft project to reinforce the lessons.

Numbers / File Folder Book

We use stickers (placed in the box) to show "how many" the number indicates.