They made their own crayons in the classroom! Shannon and the children mixed soap flakes, powdered paint, and water then poured the mixture into sections of an ice cube tray. Shannon says, "These worked great in the water table. We could draw on the bottom and our pictures didn't wash away!"
 
 

The 2nd annual Shamrock Sweepstacks was held on St. Patrick's Day. Shannon and the children matched shapes and colors on their shamrocks. There were 6 winners and a "pot of gold" candy for all to share.

In movement they have been "moving like dinosaurs and can't wait to learn The Dinosaur Stomp! They are growing a dinosaur in science. He's supposed to get 600% bigger. They named him "Little Foot" (He's a long neck). They've been eating like dinosaurs too! The sharp toothed ones like to eat meat and the flat toothed ones like plants and leaves. Shannon says, "We like our plants and leaves with Ranch Dressing!" In math they are going to count how many of their feet will fit inside a T-Rex foot print. (If anyone would like more details about some of the activities in this project, contact Shannon. I'm sure she would be happy to here from you.)

Materials:
 

• reproduction of Picasso's drawing called "Mother and Child"100
• chalks or craypas
• brown or multi-cultural markers
• 12x18 white paper

Procedure:

Display the reproduction of Picasso's drawing in the classroom. Talk about the drawing and the materials Picasso used. After passing out paper and materials, ask children to draw 2 ovals around their hands in the upper section of their paper. These will become the heads of their "Mother and Child" drawing. Talk about placement of factial features. Add necks and arms. The arms should appear to reach out to each other. Talk the children through it. Next rub pastel on to the areas, choosing flesh colors for the faces and arm. It really doesn't matter if the chalks or craypas escape the drawn shapes. Children can redraw the shapes with a brown marker. It is amazing how many of the drawings will resemble the child's family members! Mom's will love getting a beautiful original drawing from their child on Mother's Day.

Did You Know...

Albert Einstein could not talk until the age of four. He did not learn to read until he was nine. His teachers considered him to be mentally slow, unsociable and a dreamer. He failed the entrance examination for college. Ultimately, he developed the theory of relativity.

Walt Disney was slow in school work and did not have a successful school experience, but later became a well-known movie producer and cartoonist.

Tom Cruise is a famous movie star. He learns his lines by listening to a tape. He suffers from dyslexia.

When George Patton was 12 years old he could not read and remained deficient in reading all his life. However, he could memorize entire lectures which was how he got through school. He became a famous general during WW II. 

Nelson Rockefeller had much difficulty reading and throughout life was unable to read well. However, he was the governor of the state of New York for four terms and later won congressional approval to be appointed vice president of the United States. 

• Draw with non-toxic markers on coffee filters or white paper towels. Spray the design with water and watch the colors bleed together. Children could glue it to a piece of paper when they are done or each could be laminated and hung in a sunny window.
• Draw with sidewalk chalk outside
• Get out that old electric warming tray. (One might want to have supervision for this activity.) Plug it in, warm it up, and place a piece of paper on the tray. Help children put an oven mitt on the hand that holds the paper still and draw s-l-o-w-l-y with crayons.

• Use dot stickers all different colors. Children love sticking them on and off!
• Make texture collages with an assortment of fabrics and scraps. Ask parents to donate these ahead of time so that you can 'build' up a collection of collage materials, items such as different color tissue paper, different types of fabric pieces, cotton, sand paper, leaves, and grass.

• Children love glue! Let them put glue all over on a piece of black construction paper. When it dries, children can draw on the top of the dried glue with crayons, markers, craypas, or chalk. It is very pretty!
• Cut a bunch of styrofoam egg cartons apart and let children glue them onto construction paper. They looked like flowers..sorta!
• Nature collections! Go on nature hikes and find "treasures" to glue onto paper or cardboard.
• Add a little food coloring to white glue and invite children make colored glue pictures. Q-tips work well for getting colored glue to the paper. Add a little salt to it for an interesting texture.

• Invite children to paint with new tools like bingo dabbers, sponges, cotton balls, thread spools, sponge brushes, a "dish wand," curlers, Q-tips, string, feathers and a variety of other things.
• Use paints or stamp pads and invite children to dip their fingers in and then 'stamp' out a picture.
• Color and paint rocks. Sponge paint, paint with q-tips, use bingo markers for dot painting.
• Blow paint through a straw using primary colors. Do this with marbles and mini toy cars as well.
• Add flour or sand to the paint to give it a different consistency.
• Try a 'group' art activity. Gather several different balls with interesting textures. Place large butcher paper in the bottom of the water table (no water!) Children can stand at the side and one end of the table. The teacher is at the other end. The teacher dips the balls in a pan of paint and rolls them to a child. The children then roll the balls around to each other -- it doesn't seem to matter to whom they go. The teacher continues dipping the balls in paint as needed. A great, active, group painting experience! Yes, the hands do get a a bit of paint on them -- but it washes off. The resulting product is interesting, too.
• Paint with food coloring colored ice cubes with popsicle stick handles on white paper.