First Day Back to School Get to Know You Activity and Art Silhouette

Do you  have a go-to back to school art activity that you love so much you do it year after year? Silhouettes is that activity for me! In fact, I actually start the silhouette on Step Up Day so that I already have work up on display in the hall on the first day of school!

**On the inside of our classroom, these same pieces of colored paper show each students WOW work! 

If you don't know what Step Up Day is, it's a day when you meet your next year's class. During the last week of the school year, we get to spend the day getting to know and having fun with our new class for the following year. It's a great time to break the ice, do some fun activities and set expectations and tone for the following year. Each year, one of the activities I love to do is the silhouette. 

We first play a game outside where I ask them true or false questions about me. They line up at a line on the handball court and I ask them questions about me. If they think the question is true, they take a step forward. If they think it's false, they stay where they are. If they were correct, they stay where they are and if they were wrong they have to go all the way back to the starting line! It's an easy, fun game to play for the kids to get to know me a little better! 

After this, I explain that I want to know more about them and introduce the silhouette. To make this much easier, I use a generic head silhouette I found on the internet instead of tracing around each child's head individually. This saves time as all kids can get started straight away. Here's how some have turned out! I model for them how to draw and label inside the shape that I love and care about. 

Check out how some of this year's turned out!

    

What is your go-to back to school activity? I'd love to hear and get some new ideas!

Pinterest Christmas Craft

Well I'm back from my week of camping! We had a GREAT time, but I can't help but feel like I've wasted a week of my holidays! I ALWAYS feel like that! We've only got a month before we start to go back in! EEKK! Then the new kids! I totally don't feel ready to tackle a new bunch of kids! 

Before the end of the school year, we had a 'step-up day' so the Grade 1's came up to Grade 2 for an hour in the afternoon. Now, my school was not that organised so I didn't even have MY kids for next year... 1A simply went up to 2A, 1B to 2B etc. (I know, why  have a day like this if the the kids don't even meet their new teacher, know what room they're in etc, for teachers to see their kids, perhaps get a writing sample, see how they follow instructions etc). OH. MY. LORD. Talk about not being able to sit still, follow simple instructions, stay focused for even 1 minute, calling out, the constant asking to go to the bathroom - they were only with me for 1 hour and boy was that enough!! They weren't THAT bad, though it might sound like it, but I forget how young they are at the start of the year, and how much time we spent on routines, procedures and behavioural expectations to get them to the way they are at the end of the year. It didn't just magically happen and they were this great bunch of kids who knew that we aren't allowed to HUM, TAP or WHISTLE! GGRRRR! I think teachers need the break before a new school year returns just to get the energy back to go through it ALL OVER AGAIN!!

Now, to my post heading.. during the last week we made these great reindeer Christmas decorations - EASY PEASY to  make! Because it was a HOT day, the paint took hardly any time to dry so it was a very quick activity. I know you've seen it - it's alllll over Pinterest!

Don't you LOVE the red and green eyes-  CRAZY RUDOLF!

Art Exhibition

Can I admit that I did absolutely NOTHING school related over the last week of my spring holidays?! Not even a blog post!! Usually I go to school, take down the old decorations and art, put up new themed stuff, do a big tidy up of my room, generally get organised etc. I make sure I file all the old unit stuff and do heaps of planning for the coming term. These holidays? Absolutely zip, nothing, nada!!

I was so relieved to see the end of Term 3, that I just could not face more work over my holidays! It does mean that I have some end of term assessments still to mark, and quite a  bit of planning to do, but hey, at least I had one really good week off!

At the end of last term we had an art exhibition showcasing some of the art we had completed over the term. This included included straight line cold colour paintings, wavy line warm colour paintings, pastel still-lifes of flower vases, sketch self-portraits, leaf printing, Aboriginal symbol paintings and other small pieces.

Also, a BIG thank you to Mrs S. at Stapler's Strategies.... for Sizzling Second Graders  and Keri at Teach Play Smile for also nominating me for the Versatile Blog Award. Be sure to check out their blogs if you haven't already! See my blog post for a list of blogs I've nominated to receive the award!