Bird Nest Project

Some days I wonder why I have a blog. I am pretty sure few people read it. This may be because I do not broadcast it often. After all, I don't have cute kids and stories to share, well with permission anyway. I do not believe it my place to tell all about my students. However, I recently thought how thankful I am for the resources the internet supplies in my lesson planning. With this in mind my goal is to share some of my projects I do in my classroom.

First up in my bird nest project. The inspiration for this project came from Dr. Seuss Read Across America week. My mom let me borrow her Seuss book from her kindergarten classroom, and I chose to read "My Nest is Best" to my 2 day class. The book goes over how birds collect various objects when building their nest. This made me think how fun it would be for the kids to make nests of their own. This project allows for creativity, but I will go over what we did and what I would change in the future.

First of all I will say that I love small groups. I do have an assistant, so this makes this possible for me. I don't always have the time for group work, but I love it when I do. Though I only had the one craft planned for this day, I did make it into 2 parts.

My assistant led the bird group. For this part I had stencils of birds for the kids to trace. We are trying to focus on pre-writing skills, so  I am hoping to do a lot of tracing activities in the weeks to come. I had a bird cut-out that I believe originally came from Microsoft Word clip art. You can find whatever shape would work best for you. I wish I would have picked a cut out a little more defined. Many of the children thought they were cutting out a fish. I also meant to have them glue feathers onto their cut out, but I forgot to get them out. If you have the time, I think it would be fun to decorate the birds with feather, googly eyes, markers, etc. This may be more appropriate for longer sessions, older children or a deeper study on birds. We gave the children the choice of blue, brown or red for their bird, but the possibilities are endless. The kids finished this part by gluing their bird to a background paper. We used gray, but again, you could change it as needed.

Now that we had the fine motor skills working with the birds, we needed the nest. I gave each child a half of a paper plate. I had them assemble their nest on the part that scoops in so it would be easier to glue the nest to the background page. I made a mud mixture by blending food coloring together until it looked brownish. All I can say for that is experiment! They really seemed to get into the fact that their glue looked like mud. Just be sure they realize it is glue for their objects and not just paint. Some were getting so into painting it, that they were letting the glue dry before they put anything "nesty" on it. I have them q-tips to spread the glue, but I think paint brushes would work better with glue. Normally we find that the little fingers handle the q-tips better, but the fuzzy and glue don't work together well.

I placed the muddy glue around the objects. They could choose cut up paper, ribbon, yarn, straws, felt, pipe cleaners and tissue paper for their nest. I had some left over supplies from previous crafts, so many things were already cut. However, anything new I left for them to cut to get in that fine motor skill practice. They all seemed to gravitate toward the same type of material, but it was a joy to see their creativity  I think I have them too many color options because the supplies looked like a nest, but the colors detracted from the project at hand. It's pk since they did get to express creativity, and sometimes it is good to just recycle and use what you have.

In the end they really turned out cute, and I believe the children had fun putting them together. I enjoyed hanging the final products up for a new spring bulletin board. I am ready to put winter behind us, and what better way than nest building! I glued their nests on after they left for the day. They did glue their birds, but I wanted to test out the durability of their nests. I encouraged them to drag yarn, pipe cleaners and anything like that right through the glue so it would stay. Over all they held together well. Most things that fell off I was able to replace right where the child had originally placed it.

Hopefully I can be more faithful about sharing my teaching ideas. With my 3 day class we did the paper plate "Cat in the Hat" craft you can find here. They turned out adorable, and I was able to split the groups into 2 as well. One group painted while the other assembled the hat and face. My first Dr. Seuss week as a teacher seemed to go well overall. With that being said,  Happy Crafting and Happy Springtime! 

Many Oneths

       I guess I could start out by saying the most recent "oneth" of life is hearing one of my pre-kers substitute the term first for oneth. Never a dull moment with those kiddos. Honestly, this year has been full of may firsts. Obviously I have experienced the joys of my first teaching positions. The Lord also blessed me with various ministry opportunities in my home church. A few road trips and various family outings also bring new experiences to add to that list of oneths. Overall, life has been good, but I've also been learning a lot through first time experience.

      It would be great to say that all these firsts in life have been terrific. From previous blog posts it may seem like my life is near perfect and I'm enjoying every single moment. This could not be far from the truth. I have felt the frustrations that come with teaching such as the feeling of lost classroom control. I also have experienced a couple negative driving experiences, and as always - there are my everyday human failures that affect family and friend relationships. I don't want it to seem as if life is all bleak and I'm miserable, but it would be unrealistic to paint a perfect picture of my life.

       Through all my short comings God is still God, and just as any good Father would, He always seems to have a loving lesson to teach me. It may not be an easy lesson to learn, and I may not get it right away. I would say the greatest lesson I have learned recently is patience. I can be one of those people that needs to go-go-go all day. This causes rushing and impatience on my part. Through these recent failures of mine, I've been learning to breathe a little more. I find that when I act as if I have all the time in the world, things get done timely AND in order. I still find myself rushing through life at times, but it truly is getting better. I know they say you shouldn't pray for patience, but I feel like this is one of the most beneficial lessons of my life so far. Taking time and enjoying these life moments give me the chance to love more deeply and live more purely. I still have many many short comings, and so much in my life needs changing. After all no one ever stops learning or growing in life. My heart is truly thankful for this lesson in patience the Lord has seen fit to teach me. My prayer would be it shapes me into a better teacher, daughter, sister, friend and most importantly a woman after God's own heart.