Another End-of-Year Display

Oh, I have so many of these! This one is from several years ago. As I've mentioned before, I never thought I'd be sharing these pictures with anyone. I took them only so I'd remember what I've done. This was taken in my living room. I never took a picture of it once it was displayed at work, so this will have to do. But first I should give you a little background. We do a lot of dancing in my Pre-K. And I don't mean to Barney or The Wiggles. I'm talking 80's. Yes, 1980's. One of our favorites is "Footloose." So I used that for my goodbye display once:

I printed out letters from my computer and cut them out. It reads, "We gotta cut loose, Footloose, Kick off our <name of center> shoes!" It's like the kids are saying, "We're outta here! Time for kindergarten!" I also took pictures of the kids dancing, cut them out, and put them on scrapbook paper.

How cool is that? I love how they look like they're floating among the "bubbles." I also cut out some musical notes.

And then I printed out a little note from the teachers:

Back at school I had the kids each decorate a picture of a shoe. We had all kinds, from flip flops to cowboy boots. Then I hung those up with the Footloose display. It turned out really cute. I wish I had taken a picture of it. If only I had known I'd become a blogger one day...

Down By The Bay

To finish up our Five Senses theme, we discussed our sense of hearing. I decided to do a rhyming project, since the kids have to listen to the sounds of words to figure out if they rhyme. We listened to the song and read the book Down By The Bay. I made a little packet for each child. The cover was red paper with the chorus written on it.

They decorated the front with some watermelon seeds.

Then I had some animal cut-outs for them to glue on to the appropriate pages.

Each page had a different verse on it.

And then on the last page they had to make up their own rhyme. I wrote in what they said and they drew the picture.

It was a fun little booklet that they could read themselves. And we all had the song stuck in our heads for the rest of the day!

Textured Finger Painting

For our "sense of touch" art yesterday, we finger painted. But we didn't just use paint. We also added sand from our sensory table.

The kids sprinkled it on top of their paint with a spoon. Then the fun began:

All of the kids said it felt weird. Some said it was scratchy, some said it was bumpy. One girl said, "Ooh, this tickles!" And we got some beautiful art out of it.

I love all the finger lines!

Corn Syrup Paintings

We discussed our sense of taste today. And what do kids love to taste most? Sugary stuff! So for art we painted with corn syrup. I put a small amount of corn syrup in each bowl (you don't need much at all) and added a few drops of food coloring.

The kids drew with a black crayon first. Some made a picture and some made abstract art.

Then they filled it in with corn syrup. It was like a stained-glass window.

They will take several days to dry, but they sure are beautiful.

Shaving Cream Art

Today we talked about our sense of smell. We made beautiful art with shaving cream. It made our whole room smell fresh and clean! We started with a squirt of shaving cream on a plate.

Then we used a jumbo craft stick to spread the shaving cream on the plate, like we were frosting a cake.

Then we picked two colors of food coloring. I put a few drops of each color onto the shaving cream. I didn't want the kids doing this step because it stains and they would probably use way too much!

Then we used a regular craft stick to drag the colors around just a bit.

And a little bit more.

You don't want to mix too much. You want a nice design. Then we put our paper on top of the shaving cream and pressed down gently.

Then we peeled it up,

and scraped off the shaving cream with the jumbo craft stick.

What was left behind was a beautiful piece of art.

UPDATE: Check out how I made a frame for shaving cream art here.

Blindfolded Art

This week we are discussing the five senses. Yesterday was sight. I made blindfolds for the kids, using construction paper and elastic string.

Then the kids wrote their names and drew pictures while wearing the blindfold. I had them use crayons so they wouldn't have to worry about replacing marker caps.

They all had a lot of fun trying to draw pictures.

Once the blindfold came off, there was plenty of giggling! This was a very fun project that fit perfectly with our theme.

Watermelon Krispies

It's August! When I think of August, two things come to mind. Corn on the cob and watermelon! These rice krispie treats would be fun to make with kids. I was looking through all my cookie cutters trying to find something that would work for a watermelon slice. I noticed I had two egg-shaped cookie cutters. I don't need two, so I took one and squeezed the bottom up (it was plastic) until I got the shape I desired.

I made a normal batch of rice krispies, but added red food coloring to the melted marshmallow/butter mix. I let them sit for a bit in the pan so they wouldn't be too sticky. Then I pressed in the cookie cutter a bunch of times, peeled away the extra (and ate a bunch, of course!) and added some frosting. I used green for the rind and black for the seeds (using a small frosting tip).

They don't look that pink in the picture, but they really were. And they were delicious!

The kids loved them!