Name Art Crayon Resist

Perfect for Back to School name plates or Pre-K name recognition!

Materials Needed:

• printed name on white paper (card stock works well)
• white glue
• crayons
• water colour paints and brush

Start by typing up each child's name. I used Kimberly Geswein's font Second Chances Solid which is free for personal use. Then I changed the text fill to No Fill and added thicker black lines giving me the outlined text you see below. I fit two names per page, then cut each page in half.

Next, trace the letter lines with white glue. It's best if there are no bubbles in the line of glue so move steadily and avoid tipping the glue bottle up and down while writing. I kept a toothpick near by for popping bubbles at the end. Let it dry completely.

Now colour with crayons! My four year old did his very best to fill in all the white inside his letters. My one and a half year old thought the bumps on her page felt pretty neat to draw over that she managed to colour just where her name was on the page. Very creative of her ;) Any one to purchase this for way too much money?  The wax and glue will resist the watercolour paint allowing the black outlined text and colours to show through the paint.

Then it's time to paint and watch those beautiful crayon marks shine through!

I love how well this activity works with children over a broad age range. For the littlest one, this activity can help your toddler with name recognition. I traced my toddlers' names in glue about 20 minutes before we did the activity. The raised glue line makes tracing and colouring the letters a breeze for little hands just learning how to write.

Grade 2 students can do this same activity, but allow them to trace their own letters with glue. Children who struggle with fine motor skills may need your support as a steady hand is helpful. I found a Q-tip worked well for wiping away extra glue. Tell your students that this is great practice for making "bubble letters" as that seems to be a favourite request. According to my class each year, only the teacher and one or two special students are capable of making bubble letters. Now they can all do their own name!

Spotlight on...Back to School Books

The Night Before First Grade/Kindergarten by Natasha Wing are great books to kick off the school year and may calm any nerves your child has about starting school. These books introduce  some of the fun activities that can happen in the specific grade for your child. The first grade book demonstrates how to make new friends while keeping your old ones.

The kindergarten book covers the differences between daycare and school with emphasis on being big kids now. These books are based on the idea of Clement C. Moore's Christmas poem. Overall, Natasha Wing's poems help to replace the fear of the unknown new grade with eager anticipation for an exciting new school year. She writes with clever rhyme and humour. Check out these books HERE for a smooth transition into a new grade level!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump's class Book Talk. Have a look for more great books about the start of school! Happy reading!

You, Crafty Cookie!

It’s a lot of fun to see how excited kids get about decorating; and to be honest, it’s partly because I share in their excitement. One of the best parts, and often most daunting parts, about classroom decorating is the vast, blank canvas of bulletin boards. I could spend hours (and am slightly embarrassed to say that in the past I have spent hours) putting together a fun and educational bulletin board. But sometimes it’s just not possible to put in the time you would like. That’s when I like to call in my troops, because after all, it’s their classroom, too!

Students take ownership and pride in their work when they are given the chance to create a class bulletin board. Here’s a new one our class did at the beginning of the school year. The white poster on the right is a puzzle. Each student had a piece of the puzzle to fill with pictures. The pieces showed us a little bit about each classmate and illustrated that they make up one community.

On a later day, the students illustrated a flag banner based on a character skill we wanted to see in our class: patience, respect, generous, etc. The list of character words came from our reading of “Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and words the students brainstormed after our book study.

This activity established a sense of community while nurturing their hearts to be mindful and considerate of others. Afterwards, the students were on the lookout for these character skills among their classmates and school friends, sharing with me when someone demonstrated their word.

So, go grab yourself some cookies and come back to talk. What bulletin boards do you create at the beginning of the school year?

Getting to Know You

To begin the school year, I like to get to know the basics about my students from my students. I’ve seen many “All about Me” books over the years and decided one year to create my own based on the information I was looking for (how do you get to and from school, work preferences, and family info). If you teach a split grade your lower grade returns the following year. So it's great to have several themes to rotate through.

My favourite one to do is Strawberry Social! We have a back to school party and do many berry themed activities this week.

Whoo are You? – our owl theme. I found these cute owl nametags for desks at Michaels and had our classroom decorated with more owls. It tied in nicely with the Owl theme studies unit we did that fall. “Theme Studies” is our name for science and/or social studies teaching block.

Special Agents is a fun one, too, particularly for the older kiddos. At this age, they are right into the detective work we do to get to know their peers better.

These four theme “All About Me” books and the activities I do along with it are available at my TPT store. And just for reading, I’ve included the Special Agents theme sample for FREE! Click on the cover picture above or any of the Back to School themes to see the product.

What themes do you do in your classroom to start off the year? Do any of you carry your theme out for the entire school year?