Art Gallery

I recently came across this blog post over at Budget Wise Home on how to make an art gallery that can easily be changed on a regular basis without ruining your walls. As a teacher, I'm always on the lookout for new ideas to incorporate into my classroom, especially if those ideas make my job just that much easier.

One of the many bulletin boards in my class is dedicated as an Art Gallery to showcase the children's projects. Sadly, the bulletin boards in my class are as hard as stone (they really should be replaced - hint hint), so using pins is out of the question (I've lost count of how many push pins I've snapped and how many fingernails I've broken). So I've used blue tack instead, but that rips the backing paper or the children's work when it comes down.

Imagine my glee when I came across this idea to use painted baking sheets and magnets to mount artwork easily and painlessly! I like to be able to change up the gallery work on a regular basis to keep the children interested, plus they love seeing their work on the wall.

After a weekend of painting baking sheets, a little trial and error with the mounting process, voila! A brand new Art Gallery.





Tip: I mounted the baking sheets with sticky glue dots to begin with, but they fell down. I reinforced the baking sheets with sticky-backed velcro. Worked perfectly.

Taking Care of Books

I've recently introduced Library books to my class and wish I had this book from Kindergarten Kindergarten for the occasion! Basically, the book is "ruined" with pens, juice, mud, and chocolate in an effort to teach children what NOT to do with books. It's a great stimulus to generate discussion about how we treat books in the classroom and at home.



But it's still early in the year, and I don't think it's ever too late to teach kids the value of books and how we can take care of them (especially as my colleague had a child bring a library book back with the front cover cut clean off!).

I had so much fun scribbling and painting and spilling over the pages of this book. It's very cathartic. I was doing a circle time lesson today on feeling calm and ways we calm ourselves down; I think scribbling is my method of calmness! Head over to Kindergarten Kindergarten to download a free copy and wreak havoc to your heart's content.

Here's my handiwork of the day:


















Have Fun!

Colour Recognition

The other week, I came across a photo of this colour recognition/fine motor activity on Pinterest, so I decided to make a set for my classroom! I popped down to B&Q (just go to your local hardware store) to pick up some wooden clothespins and (free) paint chips to get started.



Make sure you pick up 2 of each colour paint chip because you're going to be cutting up one and keeping one intact.






You're also going to need scissors and glue. I started out by measuring the top of the clothespin and cutting out the pieces from one set of paint chips and gluing them on the clothespins. I realized that I wouldn't have enough clothespins for all the colours I chose, so I ended up cutting some shades off the "intact" paint chips.



I also realized that I could add a third learning opportunity to this activity! I only have 1 yellow, 2 red, 3 green, and so on. So not only will the children be practicing their colour recognition and fine motor skills, but they will also be developing their number skills!



When I got to school, I also laminated the paint chips so they last, and popped them in a basket with the clothespins. The kids had a blast matching them and they were really interested in discovering different shades of colours. One bright spark said as he pointed to the shades of green, "This one is dark, this one is lighter, and this one is lightest!" He was very pleased with his observation, and so was I!