Map Art

We made these land and water maps back in February...or March...the weeks and months are all starting to blend together. This is one of my favorite ways to explore the concept of representing and recognizing land and water features on a map. It is fun for the kids, and pretty easy to prepare. All you need is salt dough, small pieces of cardboard, and paint. You want the salt dough to be a pretty sticky texture, so it sticks to the cardboard. Although, once it dries, Elmer's Glue seems to do the trick if there are breaking problems.

The project takes at least two days, because the salt dough needs to dry out on the first day and the paint needs to dry on the second day. I love the creativity of the results, and ask the kids to give me a title for their map...I'm pretty sure the titles are my favorite part. Here are a few examples:

Titles (Left) A Pretty Waterfall and Volcano (Right) A Tree and a Volcano Squirting Water

Titles: (Top Left) Water and Curves (Top Right) King of the Earth (Bottom Left) So Many Lands (Bottom Right) A Flat Surface

When I Grow Up...

When I was a kid and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up,  I would usually say one of three things:

1. A Veterinarian

2. An Author

3. A Teacher

Now I am considered to be "grown up,"

and I no longer have any desire to work closely with animals.

But I do still have dreams of becoming a children's book author someday,
and I feel lucky to be working as a teacher.
 Sometimes you never know where life is going to take you,
but I'm glad that I ended up in a place where I wanted to be. :) 

When I asked my Kindergarten kids what kinds of jobs they would want to do when they grew up, I got a lot of different responses. Many kids would change their minds from day to day...or even minute to minute. One girl said "Mrs. Carruth, I want to be so many things when I grow up...a teacher, an artist, a ballerina, a mom...I can't even decide!"  It's so fun to be a part of that dream-making process with kids so young. They are so imaginative, and at this point in their life, truly anything seems possible. In fact, several boys in my class decided they definitely wanted to be ninjas, and several girls wanted to be princesses. I love it. And who am I to dash their dreams, and tell them that jobs like that might be a little hard to come by...?

I hope you enjoy this collage artwork from our jobs unit as much as I did! 

(Left) "regular person..I want to be like my Mom." So cute. 

(Left) "Police Man...I help people." (Right) "Mail Carrier...I can go travel the world."

  

I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag

I'm getting ready to take down this bulletin board, and thought I would share it.

We made it after we learned about the words to the Pledge of Allegiance and American Symbols. 

And we may or may not have spilled red paint all over the carpet in the process...

P.S. I love this story about teaching the Pledge of Allegiance to Kindergartners. It really inspired me!