3D Owl Craft for Kids





Hello Friends,

I love making 3D crafts with my students! Creating something that has another dimension makes the learning come alive and cements itself in the brains of my kiddos. In late October or early November, we discuss nocturnal animals. As with most kindergarten curricula, we emphasize owls and bats.

Creating this 3D owl does take a little time, but it is worth the effort. I definitely count this towards our STEM learning. STEM is hands-on learning that takes on a real world approach. Adding feathers shows that owls are birds. Adding wings shows that birds have wings.  Adding a beak shows that owls do not have teeth. We use natural colors to show that owls blend in with their surroundings. And the fun thing is that my students have a project that they can take home and share with their families what they learned.

(I order most of my supplies from Oriental Trading. This helps me keep the cost down because they sell in bulk at a reasonable price. The straight pins, glue, and craft sticks were purchased at our local craft store.)

Here are the supplies that you need:
9 ounce Brown paper cup for each child
3 inch white foam ball for each child
Natural colored feathers
Large sized eyes
Ball point straight pins
Orange, brown, and yellow construction paper or foam sheets
White glue
Mini craft sticks
Brown paint (We used chocolate brown acrylic paint, but plain Tempera paint works, too.) 
I was given materials from Oriental Trading Learn 365 as compensation for a fair review of their products.

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Insert a mini craft stick into the foam ball.




2.  Paint the foam ball with brown paint and let it dry.


3.  When dry, use a box cutter to slice a small cut into the bottom of the cup. Insert the craft stick with the painted ball into the cup. Add a small amount of glue to secure.





4.  Cut 2 circles from yellow foam. Attach to the foam ball with straight pins.



5.  Add white glue to the yellow foam. Attach the eyes.
Please note: Attaching the eyes to the yellow foam ensures that the eyes stay glued to the head. If you skip adding the foam (or paper) to the head, the eyes of your students may have difficulty staying glued.



6. Cut a beak from orange paper or foam. Attach to the head with straight pins.


7.  Trace a wing shape onto brown paper or foam. (Click HERE for a wing template.) Cut out. Fold the wing in half. Unfold. Add a stripe of white glue to the fold line.


8.  Attach to the back of the body.


9.  Using straight pins, attach feathers to the head.






10.  Add feathers to the body and wings using white glue.


11. Cut feet from orange paper or craft foam. (Click HERE for a foot template.) Add a puddle of white glue to a paper plate. Tell students to "dance" their owl in the glue.


Set the cup upon the orange feet.


12.  Let the owl dry........

Look at the personalities of these owls - all done the same way with the same materials, but each carries its own individual style. It's such a joy to see them become "real."






Until next time!

Blessings,




Halloween Witch Directed Drawing activity for kindergarten - FREE




Hello Friends,
We did a little directed drawing of a witch and I thought that I would share a few results with you. I actually do not "direct" their drawing. I display the step-by-step directions and they independently draw. I always tell them to SKETCH their drawing in pencil. More often than not, someone ends up unhappy because they used a crayon, made a mistake, and cannot erase it. I purposely make mistakes when I share my drawings to show them how easy it is to fix a mistake when you use pencil!

Here are a few examples of their beautiful drawings and their wonderful beginning sentence writing.







I have a free pack in my TPT store if you would like to try this activity with your students.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Witch-I-can-draw-I-can-write-Halloween-fun-pack-157819
Until next time!

Blessings,

Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate Math Craft for Kindergarten




Hello Friends!

Are you looking for a Halloween activity with little prep AND is educational? It is easy, colorful, and fun! They won't even know they are practicing CCSS K.OA.3; decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in more than one way! 

This activity is based on the poem "Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate." We have been using two sided counters to practice showing that five can be shown into different combinations. This is a perfect way to apply their knowledge into something concrete.

Here is how to make this simple activity:

1. First glue the words to the bottom of a 12 inch by 18 inch piece of black construction paper.


2.  Add a green strip of paper above the words. This is a great way to practice positional words.


3.  Add a brown strip of paper to the middle of the paper. Once again, another way to practice positional words.


4.  Add two smaller strips of brown construction paper vertically upon the horizontal piece of construction paper.


 5.  Use orange construction paper to make five pumpkins. I cut three inch square pieces of orange paper and ask my students to draw and cut a circles from the squares. They use small pieces of green paper to add stems.


6.  Students use crayons and paper to add details, then fill in the blanks to finish the math sentence.


If you would like a link with the words and directions for how we made this, click HERE.


Here are some older photos of this activity before I revised it. I plan to do this with my kiddos this week, so will revise these photos with the new words later! :)





Until next time!

Blessings,  


Six Pumpkin Math Games for Kindergarten





Hello Friends,
I love doing these six math games with my students during our Pumpkin week!

These six games do require some printing, but if you are limited on printing in color, they can be printed in grayscale and still work well for your kiddos. I like to add a board game format to my math tubs every few weeks. Kids have such busy lives these days with limited time to play board games. It's a wonderful educational experience for them to use their patience and sharing skills when playing a simple board game.



In this "Pumpkin Happy" board game, students toss dice to move along the game board. As they move, they are collecting pumpkins. The winner is the player who collects the most pumpkins; not necessarily the one that gets to the end first. There are pumpkins included in the resource that can be printed for kids to collect.

 
I found these cute mini pumpkins and pumpkin erasers. My kiddos use these instead of the pumpkin cutouts. Both work great!


 My kids love playing "Bump." I include this game in some style often. It's great for subitizing and learning to have patience when playing a game.


Recognizing numbers in a ten frame is an important component of kindergarten math. In this center, kids are asked to record the number, number word, and numbers in a ten frame.


 This game can be played as partners or individually.




 The last game is another subitizing one. Students toss a dice, find a space that shows that number, and colors it exactly the same as the card. This is also great for visual discrimination practice.


You can find these games in my TPT store by clicking the image below.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Six-Pumpkin-Happy-Math-Centers-2146478

Until next time!

Blessings,