Pysanky Eggs

I decided to do something somewhat “eastery” for the Thursday before Good Friday. I decided to try Pysanky Eggs with Kindergarten. They did a great job!

We read the story “Rechenka’s Eggs”  by Patricia Polacco. There are a lot of fun Russian names in this story that the kids enjoyed hearing. I hope I was pronouncing them correctly.

The book was about an old Russian lady who makes amazing designs on eggs for the big festival and stumbles upon a wounded bird that she takes in when something magical happens.

To really make this fun, I let the kids decorate a plastic egg with their designs in sharpie. We rolled up a little piece of paper with information about Pysanky Eggs and stuffed them inside.

Seuss-like Fish with Kindergarten

 

This is a good “Read Me Week” project…we read “One Fish Two Fish….” by Dr.Seuss. There is a great BrainPopJR video on Seuss that I show the kids before we read the story and talk about the project. It’s a great intro.

http://www.brainpopjr.com/readingandwriting/authors/drseuss/preview.weml

This could easily be a one-day lesson…but I stretched it into two days. Next year, I will have them draw and paint on 9x12 paper instead of 12x18. I actually cut up an old stack of poster board that’s been sitting in the closet forever. I’m really trying to use what I have this year. My storage closet is overflowing!

We draw with oil pastels a Seuss-like fish…then paint with primary colors. They can mix the colors on their paper if they want to.

I finally found an awesome way to store paint! Big ziploc bags! Duh!

 

Here’s a day two option…I have them create a striped background with paper strips on black paper. Then we cut out the fish from last week and glue them to the background. Another option that I tried last year, was a huge Seuss fish underwater mural collage that we displayed in the hallway. Everybody cuts their fish out and glues it to the big mural.

I kinda like these with no fish on them.

Monograms with 4th Grade

Here’s a project we’ve been working on for the past few weeks. I try to do this project every year with my 4th graders. Most of them really enjoy it, even the boys!

We design our initials on a piece of paper, outline with sharpie and transfer to a piece of burlap by tracing our letters. They add more designs as they finishing stitching their initials. I use the phrase “don’t bite off more than you can chew” a lot with this project.

 

The weather was so nice when we were in the middle of the project, that I took one class outside to work on these. Let’s just say that only happened once.

I demonstrate how to straight stitch the letters, then I show them how to fill in their letters and designs with satin stitch. Finally, I show them how to cross stitch and tie french knots.

I see my 4th graders at the end of the day…which is not the best scenario for kids who don’t have recess anymore. So, let’s just say I’ve had to relax my teaching style for this grade level. I have to pick my battles. At the end of the day, if they’ve made something, I’m happy.