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Art

Simple Mother’s Day Craft

I love doing DIY presents for different holidays with my students. Parents always cherish something that is made by their child and they always turn out so cute! This Mother’s Day craft is super simple and won’t take much time out of your class day, plus it’s pretty cheap!

Mother’s Day Craft

My favorite Mother’s Day craft that my students made for their moms is a fingerprint heart on a canvas, complete with fingerprint poem.

What You Need

Mini Canvases

I found these mini canvases at the dollar store (not sure if they have them this year but see below for similar canvases).

Paint

Contact Paper

How to Prep the Mother’s Day Craft

To prep, cut contact paper to fit on your canvases. These need to be a little smaller than the canvas to get that border around the heart. I left about an inch around the outside.
Then, cut hearts out of the middle.
Pull off the contact paper backing and stick the heart frame in the middle of the canvas.
Optional step: Stack canvases and put something heavy on top to get the contact paper really stuck.

Students Create the Mother’s Day Craft

I gave my students a choice of 3 different paint colors. (Obviously you can decide how many your students will use.) Students then take their finger print and put dots all over the canvas. Once it dries COMPLETELY (very important) remove the contact paper.

Your students will have a wonderful gift for their moms for Mother’s Day!

Mother’s Day Craft Poem

I also attached this poem about fingerprints as an added sentimental touch!

If you have your students make these for their moms share it on Instagram and tag me @one_kreative_kindergarten or comment below!

Celebrate Halloween with a Halloween Book Companion

I love celebrating holidays in my classroom but sometimes it can get to be a little overwhelming with all the excitement and usually many sweet treats. That’s why I like to incorporate Halloween activities that are educational! Whether it be a center or a special project, I just love seeing what students can do when they’re excited about something. For Halloween, I’ll be celebrating with a book companion or a couple of book companions!

What’s a book companion?

Book companions are activities that go along with a particular book! They include multiple language arts activities that students can complete, reviewing a language arts skill or even learning a new skill! Some of the skills included are sequencing, problem and solution, and conventions. I always love to end with a craftivity as well. These make amazing bulletin boards to look at for the entire holiday season! See below for what’s included in my Halloween Book Companions.

Included in the Halloween Book Companions

I’ve created 3 Halloween Book Companions for you to celebrate Halloween in your classroom! In each, students practice a variety of language arts skills. I’ve also included at least one craftivity in each book companion set.

Little Boo – Book Companion

Here’s a list of all that’s included in this book companion resource:

Sequencing the story
Problem and solution
My Favorite Part Writing
Additional Writing Prompt
Describing the Seed Graphic Organizer
Describing the Jack-O-Lantern Graphic Organizer
Little Boo’s Verbs
Craftivity

Skeleton for Dinner – Book Companion

Here’s a list of all that’s included in this book companion resource:

Sequencing the story
Problem and solution
My Favorite Part Writing
Additional Writing Prompt
Describing the Skeleton Graphic Organizer
Describing the Witches Graphic Organizer
Skeleton’s Verbs
Witches Verbs
Two Craftivity Options

Ms. Broomstick’s School for Witches – Book Companion

Here’s a list of all that’s included in this book companion resource:

Sequencing the story
Problem and solution
My Favorite Part Writing
Additional Writing Prompt
Describing the Pandora Graphic Organizer
Describing the Ms. Broomstick Graphic Organizer
School of Witches Verbs
Craftivity

These book companions can be purchased in a bundle or individually depending on which story you’d like to incorporate or if you’d like to incorporate all! Using a book companion is a great way to sneak in some Halloween fun while still learning or reviewing critical language arts skills.

What type of teacher are you? Do you enjoy celebrating the holidays throughout the holiday season or do you stick to celebrating the holiday strictly on the day of the holiday only?

Create an Unforgettable Memory Book that your Students will Cherish Forever

As the end of the year charges full steam ahead, teachers are scrambling to find an end of the year gift for their students. Although, I love seeing all the super cute gifts and clever puns that teachers come up with for end of the year gifts, I’ve found that a memory book is the most meaningful gift that a student can take home at the end of the year. It is also extremely easy to create!

Memory books are such an amazing way for students to look back on their year, no matter what grade they’re in. This project is very low stress and super easy because I’ve been creating my students’ memory books from the beginning of the year. Each month, I keep special art projects, important writing or pictures that will eventually be bound into a book.

Memory Books

Organization

To stay organized throughout the year, I have a special drawer with files for each of my students. These files hold each student’s work that will eventually turn into their memory book. I start the files off with their first day of school writing and their drawing of themselves on their first day in kindergarten. Every piece of work I add goes behind the next. That way, when I go to make the memory book, I just pull the work from inside the file and all I have to do is bind it!

What’s Inside?

I try to keep at least one art project from each month. Mainly, these art pieces go along with whatever holiday or season we’re celebrating that month. I also include my students’ Star of the Week letter from their parents and any important writing or drawings. The front cover of their memory book is two pictures of the student: one picture on the first day of kindergarten and one on the (semi) last day of kindergarten. Of course I can actually do the last day or else the books wouldn’t be ready. I love using this as the front cover because you get to see how much they’ve truly grown.

Tips

Start saving art or important work right away
Face all the work the same direction one after another so it’s in order
Glue a background paper to any small art to make binding easier
Laminate the front and back covers to make book sturdier

You may need…

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Do you create a memory book for your students to take home at the end of the year? I’d love to hear about your process! Leave a comment below.

Fall Themed Art: Whoooo’s ready for fall?

Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below, but I highly recommend these products. I won’t suggest anything on this page that I don’t support or haven’t personally used.

Who else loves teaching art? I don’t know what it is but kindergarten art is just so precious! They’re not worried about making things perfect, they’re just interested in getting it done and doing it their way. Even when I show them a model, they use their creativity to the max and I LOVE it!

Whoooo’s ready for fall?

I found this owl, fall themed art project on teacherspayteachers and I love how it turned out! This project is super easy to prep, has simple directions and the kids loved using feathers and googly eyes! If you’re in need of a fall themed art project, this one is for you!

Prep

Print out the master copies and pull the construction paper colors you need. I used brown, tan, yellow and orange.

Gather or purchase all materials. Here are some materials you may need.

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Directions

Students cut out owl outline, tummy, beak and feet. I gave every piece to my students at once and displayed my model so they could see what piece goes where.
Then, students glue their owl pieces together.
I had students come to my table when they were finished gluing and choose 5 feathers. They had the choice to use different colors or all the same color.
Students glue their feathers on and add googly eyes (use liquid glue).
The owls are complete!

Bulletin Board

When your students are all finished with the project put their cute owls up on your bulletin board. Here is some inspiration!

You might like to read about another art project I do in the beginning of the school year: tissue art.

Beginning of the year Tissue Art

This name tissue art project is hands down my absolute FAVORITE! It is a perfect beginning of the year art project and looks fantastic all year long. Each year, during our first art period, I show my students how to complete this tissue art and it hangs in my windows until the end of the year.

Materials

– 11 x 18 white or nude construction paper

– various colors of tissue paper

– glue

– dixie cups (or something to hold the glue) I like these because you can just throw them away when finished

– Q-tip

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Prep

This project is pretty low prep which is nice because sometimes art projects take longer to set up than for students to actually do. All you need to prep for this project is the papers with their names and tissue squares. I write the students’ names in sharpie but you could use anything because it gets covered up by the tissue in the end. You also need to cut squares of tissue about 1 inch by 1 inch. This prep could be done days before so you’re ready the day of. The day of, you’ll need to pour glue into dixie cups and put a Q-tip in each of the cups for students to use to spread the glue.

Directions

I write my own name on one of these papers so I can model the art to my students. I start by showing them how to spread a section of glue on one of the letters in their name. Since I teach kindergarten, I mention that if you put too much glue on, it might dry before you can stick the tissue paper on. I tell them that they should only glue a little section, not the whole letter. Then, I show students how to crumple the paper and stick it on the letter. I really emphasize that the smaller they squish the tissue paper, the better it will look. I also tell my kids that they need to use the same color on the whole letter. Then, they must use a different color on the next letter. In the past, I’ve let students do multi-colored letters but it ends up looking a little bit jumbled and less like a name.

After my students are finished, I trim the outside of the paper and glue a colored piece of construction paper as a background. I hang them in the window all year-long! Look at how beautiful this art is!

What is your favorite back to school art project?

Turkey Tuesday

One of the most exciting parts of teaching kindergarten is being able to use your creativity (especially during the holidays)! By the time October hits, it feels like we’re off and running with nonstop activities until Christmas break. I try to incorporate art once a week to go along with a monthly theme or a holiday that is coming up. The best thing about kinder art is that they all look SO different by the time these little creators are finished.

To celebrate Thanksgiving, we made turkeys out of paper plates (half a plate), tissue paper and construction paper. I used parts of the turkey template in Kelly Morgan’s Thanksgiving Everything Pack. I’ve had this resource of hers for a few years now and have used this template in various ways throughout the years. Not only does this pack have this craftivity (love that word!) but she has language arts, math, social studies and other resources all related to Thanksgiving. Total TpT jackpot!

We pasted the tissue paper squares to the paper plate by painting over them with liquid starch.
Not only does the starch make the papers stick, but it creates a shiny coat for the turkey’s feathers. Creating the turkey’s feathers was all that my kinders could handle for one day so we let the liquid starch dry and saved the turkey body and parts for the next day.

In my first year teaching, when I did craftivities like this, I would hand out each construction paper separately and it would be hard to manage since all students were cutting and gluing at different paces. I would be stressing out, running back and forth, handing different pieces to different students. Now, I’ve found that handing out all papers at once is less chaotic and actually more fun for the kids because they can be a little more creative. I put my sample on the board incase students want a reference of what the end goal is but I’ve found that some students don’t want to look at the model; they want to do their own thing! Teachers all have different ways of leading projects depending on their style and their students. What works in your classroom? How do you manage art projects?

I love that the same art project can produce such different results. What types of Thanksgiving projects do you do in your classrooms?