Scales and Hooves

Last year I did a large letter cut-out art project to go with each of our alphabet letters.  This year, instead, I'm being a little more flexible and doing various projects that focus on the letter or animal that we are learning about. 

"F" is for Felt Fish

This was a fun, colorful, project with a sensory aspect to it.  

Here's what you need:

*Printed fish pattern (Google "Fish Pattern" and you have all sorts of choices)

*Scissors

*Large sheets of construction paper

*Various colors of felt, cut into scale shapes

*White glue

*Googly eyes

*Markers

 

We cut out the fish pattern and the students were given the choice to glue it to a larger sheet of construction paper.  Then they added the felt fish scales and googly eye.  Some of the students who glued their fish to the paper used markers to draw other things that might be under the water with their fish.  

The felt was a different type of texture for us to work with on an art project.  The kiddos liked picking out what colors they wanted.  We also had good practice squeezing white glue out of the bottle to make dots.

Hoof Print/Foot Print

Our animal for letter "G" is a goat.  I was racking my brain and the internet for ideas with no luck, (there really aren't that many goat art project ideas out there) so I got creative with a science/art project.

I prompted my kiddos with the question: "Do goats have toes?"  Then we discussed how goat feet are different from our feet.  

To help visualize what a hoof print looks like I decided to make my own hoof print stamp.  

First, I printed out a pattern of a goat hoof print (gotta love Google images!).  I cut the pattern out and traced the shape onto craft foam.  (I had pretty thin foam, so I tripled the foam up so it was thicker.)  Next, I glued the foam onto a plastic lid to form my stamp (note: if I do this again I will make the stamp a little smaller so it will be more relative to the size of the kids feet - this print is from one giant goat!).

 

 

For the project I showed the kiddos a picture of goat hooves and what it looked like when the goat left a print.  Then I had them use the stamp and a large stamp pad to make their own prints on a piece of paper.  

My adventurous students went one "step" further (ha, ha I made a punny!) - they let me paint their foot so they could make their own foot print next to the goat hoof print.

When the project was done we could compare and contrast the differences!

 

goin' fishin'

There are so many things to do in the classroom at this time of the year.  I'm afraid  I try to do too much so the kiddos can experience it all - at least I keep them busy!

For letter "F" I pulled out our magnetic fishing set.  I used the toys for a group game as well as a center.  I purposefully use one fishing pole to encourage sharing and taking turns - the rule is catch 1, pass the pole to a friend.  (Multiple poles get tangled or turned into weapons anyway, so it solves that problem too : )

Love that this student sorted out all the pink fish : )

Our "F" project ended up taking a back seat because we had so many other things going on this week.  A few students were able to put one together though.  I went super simple, using left-overs from past projects.  We glued fish cut-outs on the large "F" and I had some "F Fish" words that we glued on also.

Other skills we are working on:

Associations (language skills): I put out a game that has pictures of objects that go together.  The pictures are puzzle cut so only the correct pictures fit together.

Block Stacking (number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, and fine motor skills):  We played it as a group game and I tried to use it as a center, but it wasn't very popular.

• Turkey number flash cards
• Alphabet blocks

To play: Turn the flash cards upside down, flip over to see how many blocks to stack

Opening and Closing Containers (fine-motor skills):

• Various containers, some with lids, some without (I even included lids that did not fit on containers)
• Small Animals

The most popular activity I witnessed was finding all the bugs and putting them into the screw-top containers.

Easel Painting (fine motor, color discrimination, art!):  I introduced easel painting to the kiddos.  Because it was the first time for many, I only used 2 colors (red & yellow) so they could get used to the process and so we would not have an overwhelming mess!  Most of the paintings were one orange blob, but a few of my students (especially the ones who had multiple turns) actually painted pictures.  My goal is to have the easels out more frequently so the kiddos can become more creative with their painting.