This Week in Room 6: Secondary Colour Monsters

My grade one students are completing their unit on creating colour! We did a cute Halloween themed project where we mixed our own paint colours and painted some silly monsters.

To prepare for this project, I drew two different monster shapes, traced them and cut them out for the students. I did an easy and basic shape for ease of cutting out AND also because I'm not great at drawing. I also had the decorations cut out in advance (a variety of different coloured pipe cleaners, colourful yarn for hair and a mix of different mouths they would later glue on).

When it came time to paint, students had to identify which colour monster they wanted to create as well as what colours they would need to mix together. If they were correctly able to tell me what they needed, I put a little check mark on the back of their monster next to their name (yay for super quick assessments). We then added white to the mixed colour to change the shade.

Once they had dried, the kids were able to decorate them (pipe cleaner arms, yarn hair, coloured paper mouths and their choice of 1, 2 or 3 googly eyes).

Here is the completed bulletin board! (Thanks to pinterest for the background ideas).

Here is the completed bulletin boar

I love how they all turned out and that no two are the same. CUUUUUUTE. Happy (early) Halloween :)

This Week in Room 6: Mixing Colours

This week, my grade one students have been learning about the primary and secondary colours. We completed this painting project today where they mixed the colours using their hands - messy, but fun!

I first had them tell me what colour they wanted to create and then tell me what two colours we would need to paint their hands in order to make that colour. Once they had both of their primary colour prints, they rubbed their hands together to create their secondary colour!

Because the idea of having 21 grade one kids painting their hands all at the same time terrified me, I had the kids working on other activities while I took small groups to do their pictures. I learned last year that when painting, small groups > large groups ha ha.

The kids absolutely loved the messiness and getting to see the colour change on their hands. A very HANDS ON approach to teaching this concept :)

This Week in Room 6: "Where's Waldo?" Inspired Bulletin Board

So, a fun little perk of teaching the whole school is having the opportunity to do fun back to school boards like this!

This week, my students have been working on creating a drawing of themselves to create our own version of "Where's Waldo?" on the bulletin board outside my classroom. I created one of myself and the students will then have to try to find me. I figured the kids would easily be able to pick me out of the crowd with my sparkly shoes (I like sparkly everything, really) and a Mickey pen (since the kids know I love Disney). Every day I will move my character around for the kids to find!

Can you see me?

I did consider giving the students a template but then decided I wanted to see their unique drawings and versions of themselves. I'm super happy with how it turned out!

Pinterest win!

In the Classroom: Organizing Student Materials

Keeping track of 15 different classes of students is no easy task - maybe impossible if you're not organized. This year, I've decided to use this amazing bin organizer from IKEA to organize all my students' notebooks and materials. I created these cute chevron labels, laminated them and placed them on each bin according to the grade and subject area. The kids know exactly where to find their work and where to place it at the end of class. I love these bins because they're so sturdy and can be easily slid out of the organizer to take home for marking if needed!

*Download these cute labels on my FREEBIES page!*

If something happens to get misplaced, it ends up here:

The students know that if they didn't receive their book or work back, they will likely find it in the "No Name Bin". This bin is usually empty (thankfully)! 

How do you keep your students' books organized?

These NAILS

This Disney teacher is ready for a new school year!

Thanks to Helen for these incredible HAND PAINTED Disney inspired designs. I love them and so do my students!

Post one

Yay, post number one! After nearly a year of debating whether starting a blog was something I wanted to do, I figured I needed to stop thinking about it and try it. So, here we are!

My posts will usually fall within one of the following topics:

{Tech Talk}

Technology is a large part of my classroom - here I'll share how I've implemented it and my favourite websites and apps for students (and some for you too)

{Book Chat}

Read about some of my favourite children's literature that I've shared with my students as well as some great resources for teachers

{In the Classroom}

These posts will include ideas, tips and tricks that I use in my classroom

{This Week in Room 6}

Here I'll share activities and lesson ideas that I've done over the week with my kiddos.

I will also share resources I have created  - these will be available to download through my FREEBIES page :)