Go Away Big Green Monster

So, I borrowed the idea from this website  in order to make adorable Big Green Monster faces with the kids in my class.  They ended up being one of my favorite art projects of the year!

I decided to make masks for our library center, and I used the same concept with the painting and the pre-cut shapes from construction paper.  After they were done, I laminated and cut out the faces.

The next trick was reinforcing them.  I used a combination of hot glue, large popsicle sticks, and packing tape.

I cut out some masks to give the kids a place to peek through.  Honestly, they kind of remind me of Wilson from Castaway.  Oh, well.

I got a little more creative with my stick placement on these.

No, we can reenact our own stories as the Green Monster!  Enjoy!

Our classroom door

Here is our classroom door prior to all of the decorations from the kid's crafts.  We went simple.  

We would have to cover it with flame retardant treated fabric if we covered the door.  The Fire Marshall doesn't like butcher paper covering the entire door.  

We put PreK on the door in big letters so the parents/guardians would know where to come to drop off their children and sign in.

The border on the window was added for a pop of color and to tie it in to the inside bulletin boards.

The Welcome sign serves not only as a welcome, but also as a way to show the expectations of our classroom.  

Thank you to this blogger I found through Pinterest for the idea for the Welcome sign.  I used Microsoft Publisher to create it.

Looking Toward a Bright Future!

Here is a fun, simple fingerprint activity to do with young children.  I did this with one of my classes.  

Our school & grade was listed at the top of the paper.  I made that document on Microsoft Publisher.  

A parent volunteer cut out copies of the jar pattern for us.  The pattern came from the Mailbox.  I don't think the one I linked to is the exact same one, but it is close.  

We used a yellow washable ink pad for the fingerprints.  To minimize mess we had it available as a small group, and we made the rule that each child could only use his/her pointer finger.

After that we told the kids to make the fingerprints into lightning bugs/fireflies using colored pencils or crayons.

They turned out cuter than the sample I made for myself!