Thursday, January 17, 2013

Iciscles

It is winter here in lovely Michigan and it is COLD!! In my classroom we have been talking about winter items and we read The Mitten. One of my fellow teachers is also teaching winter and had this wonderful idea about teaching icicles. She allowed me to take pictures and post about here!

First, she had the kiddos cut large triangles from foil. Then she had the kiddos add glitter for the shine! I loved how the icicles turned out. She used the icicles to decorate her bulletin board. 



Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Making gingerbread houses

I know this post is a few weeks late, but I left for the holiday break and forgot to email myself the pictures! Well at least you will have it for next year. 

For the end of our gingerbread unit, we made gingerbread houses. I LOVE this activity! To make the house you will need:
* small milk carton for each kiddo
* graham crackers
* glue gun
* frosting
* candies
* knife for each kiddo

I assembled all of the houses before I started the lesson. I find this is easiest when working with little ones. To start wash out the milk carton and let it dry. Then I glue the top closed using the hot glue gun. I don't know about you, but I love using my hot glue gun! It can do so much!!

After that step is finished, you move on the messy step! Break the graham crackers in half, glue one cracker onto each side of the milk carton. This will take 2 crackers per milk carton.


Next, break the graham crackers in quarters (you will end up with rectangles). Glue the rectangles on the top of the milk carton to create the roof.  I like a small overhang on my roof. Line up one side with the edge of the milk carton, the other side will overhang a bit and that is OK. 





The last step is to break smaller pieces to fit on the ends. There will be some overhang and that is OK. After the glue dries, I crumble the corners down. It won't be perfect, but it will get covered with frosting and candies so no worries!!



Now, on to the fun part! Decorate the house with frosting and yummy candies!! 



To send the houses home, I hot glued the houses to the plate and wrapped in a plastic bag. I attached a note that the houses were not edible!