X and Y!

So I think we're in the middle of the longest week E-V-E-R! I have been busy with professional development seminars that had me out of the classroom for most of Monday and Tuesday so I was glad to get back to my kidlets today and get stuck into our work!

Our phonics focus this week were the letters X and Y - in Letterland that's Yellow Yo-Yo Man and Fix It Max.  After we introduce each new sound and talk about some words where we can find them, we jump straight into a fun craft to match.  All well and good... until I came to X and Y. I was really struggling to find something fun and creative for the kidlets to make for these letters - is it just me or does everyone find them tricky?  I thought I might share what I eventually came up with just in case it might help others who were stuck like me! (These are just my spin on ideas that have been around for a while!)

X = X-Rays!

We traced around the kids' hands with white chalk on black paper.  They then used craft glue to stick cotton tips onto their hands as bones.

Y = Yaks!

I saw something similar to this after I googled, but I can't find my way back to that page!  The kids cut an uppercase Y out of brown card and glued on the horns, mouth and eyes.  I just drew a template for all the pieces, except the eyes that we punched using 2 different sized circles.  We drew nostrils and a mouth on with markers.  

Hopefully this post is inspiring for anyone who was stuck for ideas like I was!  If you have any other clever ideas leave me a comment with your suggestion for others to borrow. :)

Lauren

Little Monsters!

What a 'monstrous' week my Preppies have had!  One of our Letterland characters this week was Munching Mike (a purple monster), so we did a super cute directed drawing to make our own little monsters.  I grabbed the idea from Mrs. Jump.  We painted them with watercolours today and I'm so pleased with how they turned out.

This was my effort!

This is Mumford - drawn by one of my Jakes. (I have 3!)

We also worked through 'The Day a Monster Came to School' - a freebie unit written by Kathleen at Growing Kinders.  I'd mentioned in a previous post that I had planned this into my week - but I was over the moon with how the kids responded.  They loved it!  We organised the cards into above/below the line and bottom line behaviours to display on the wall.  I've been pleased to hear my Preppies referring to it this week and trying hard to stay 'above the line'!  

All of these monster activities together with our Dippy Duck Disco this afternoon left the kidlets and I completely exhausted.  I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend to get me ready for another week with my 'Little Monsters'. :)

Lauren