Getting Ready for Winter

We are working on independence with the students getting themselves dressed. Though my aid and myself are always there to help with a stuck book, zipper, or buckling snow pants, we encourage the students to dress themselves. This is a life skill as well as one of our standards we are to meet during the school year.  

We use a chart posted on the wall to help the students to navigate through getting dressed. 

1> shoes in your backpack 

2>snowpants on 

3> boots on 

4> coat on 

5> hats, mittens, and scarves.  

This chart helps greatly with getting students and if they ask we simply point.  Images were found on a google clip art search.

Seasonal Tree-3D Bulletin Board

 I change the tree seasonally.  I feel children should be able to know what is going on in their world during the seasons and what it means for us. The trunk is made of crumpled up brown paper.  It came in the large rolls.  The branches are held up on the ceiling with fishing line and the ceiling hooks you can buy at any school supply store.   The children do the decorating in multi-media techniques.



For the fall leaf, I cut out the leaves on the Cricut.  I then had the children sponge paint the fall colors on the leaves.

For the winter, the students will decorate snowflakes with glitter.

 
For the Spring, the students will decorate little flower blossoms with the pinched tissue paper dipped in glue technique.











For the Summer leaves, they will do some sort of printing on a green leaf, possibly printing with real leaves on the leaf for a textured, vein look.  I will post the other season pictures as the seasons come.

Birthday Train!

I created my birthday train from an idea I found on Bulletin Board Ideas.  It is adorable and I knew I just had to have it!

For the Train engine and train cars I used the Cricut (My Community) cartridge.  I bought animal print scrapbook paper and ran it through the Cruicut.  I cut the top of the cars off because otherwise it was to tall for my animals to peek out.  I colored the wheels black with a marker.

For the animals I purchased the same adorable clip art the website did.  I just printed them in color and carefully cut out.  The clip art is from: My Grafico.  It is called: Stockberry Studio.


I cut the circle "tags" out on the Cricut ()


I then laminated EVERYTHING to keep it all together and be reusable.  Also, you can erase permanent marker off of lamination with a regular eraser.  I laminated first, write names on after.  That way I can just erase each summer and re-write each fall.