Leaves and the letter Ll

Last week was all about the letter Ll and leaves!  Some of our activities included decorating the letter Ll with leaf stickers, a leaf counting activity, and watercolor leaf paintings.  We have also introduced color sight words and a morning message (which the students help read) to our morning routine! 

Letter Ll leaf decorating

Leaf tree math:

The students placed leaves on trees that corresponded with the number on the top of the card.

Watercolor leaf painting:

This was a fun activity that consisted of several steps.  First the students traced leaf patters onto their paper (not an easy feat, but they did fabulous!).  

Next, they traced their pencil lines with a mixture of black paint and glue, which achieved a cool raised, glossy effect once dry.

Finally, it was time to paint!  First, the students painted the leaves using fall colors such as red, yellow, and orange.  Then they painted the background blue.  They were very careful to stay within the boundaries of the leaves and the background when painting!  

The result: beautifully painted fall leaves!

Last week we also started taking the 'share bags' home.  Two friends each day take the share bag home and bring back the next day with a special item from home to share with the class.  We have really enjoyed seeing all of the special items the students bring in.  Stay tuned for this week's round of 'share bag' friends.

Our fabulous list of Ll words the students came up with.

Other fun activities:

 Fruit sorting

nocturnal animal patterning

 November placemats

Building with Lego's!

Color by number leaves

Alphabet train puzzle

October Fun!

We had a lot of fun during the month of October!  We carved our class pumpkin, completed a pumpkin report, made our very own pumpkin masterpiece, and created monster masks.

The students enjoyed helping scoop out the pumpkin guts (pulp) out of the pumpkin.  We learned how pumpkins grow and learned the parts of the pumpkin (rind, stem, pulp, and seeds).  After we scooped the pulp out of the pumpkin, it was time for Ms. Hill to carve a jack o'lantern face.  The students helped decide what shape eyes and nose and the type of mouth the pumpkin would have.  They decided on triangle eyes, diamond nose, and a spooky, happy mouth. 

We also counted the number of seeds in our pumpkin.  The students placed a seed on our 100 counting chart one by one.  It took a few trips around the table, but finally we reached 100!  However, there were many more seeds so we started on our pumpkin report while Buttercup finished counting the seeds.  There were 400!

Another fun activity we engaged in was creating our own pumpkin artwork.  For our mini art lesson, the students had to follow directions and go step by step.  First we learned how to draw a pumpkin.  Draw a C and then a backwards C.  Next add a stem (square on top), then draw lines on the pumpkin (careful not to go outside of the pumpkin), and finally draw a horizon line.  After the students drew the pumpkin using a pencil, they went over their lines with a black crayon.   Everyone did a great job staying on the pencil lines.  Finally, it was time to paint!  We used orange for the pumpkin and a little yellow for shading.  We also used black for the night sky and green for the grass.  After we were done, we had beautiful pumpkin masterpieces!

Other fun activities:

Using fine motor skills to peel the backs off of Halloween stickers.

practicing drawing the number 8

Celebrating a birthday!

Picture of my family!

 Working on our nocturnal animal book

Making monster masks