Cupcakes: Kindergarten

I was really struggling with how to teach Kindergarten about texture. This project just came out of nowhere and it is now one of my favorite projects!

I precut a LOT of cupcakes out of posterboard for my Kindergarten classes. Seriously, my hand hurt for hours after cutting all these out.

I gave each student a cupcake a paint pallet of four colors: red, blue, yellow, and white. I told students to start painting! I loved listening to them discover how colors create other colors all on their own! They even remembered it later when we talked about primary and secondary colors. Teacher win!

 

 

The next class, I gave students a paper to draw patterns on. We talked about how patterns can create texture. After the patterns were all drawn, I demonstrated (and helped a lot of students) how to fan fold! During my prep period, I stapled the paper to the cupcake bottom. I explained to the students how the folded paper also created texture!

Here is my example: 

The last step was to add sprinkles! I gave students a pile of foam stickers on their table. Some students used all of the stickers, some only used 10-15. ALL of the results were perfect!

Kandinsky Circles: 1st Grade

We spent a lot of time in first grade learning our color families! I used this project to drive it all home. We used oil pastels and/or crayons.

Color Families: Primary, Secondary, Neutral, Warm, Cool, Complementary Colors (Y&V, R&G, O&B).

I combined all of the pieces together for the display to achieve a really big wall of circles. The students loved the display!

1st grade - Knowing Our Colors & Creating Peacocks

While this may not be the best picture, I think you can get the idea. I used peacocks to teach colors to my 1st graders. We had just finished watching a video series on colors (complete with color worksheets!) and I need a project to apply some of these concepts.

Day 1 - After handing out their completed worksheets, I gave students a 12x18 sheet of paper. I had students fold their papers in half like a card. I instructed students to color primary colors on one half and secondary colors on the other - front and back. Some students, like the one pictured above, just colored in blocks. Others opted for more complicated designs and pictures.

Day 2 - I printed out a peacock template on card-stock paper. I told students to color in their peacock body using ONLY cool colors (we reviewed what these are). After coloring, students cut out the peacock and did the other side. When they finished, I had them bring the peacock to me. I cut a slot in the body of each peacock.

Day 3 - I taught my first graders to fan-fold! The 12x18 papers are folded so that they are TALL. At first, I told students to put it through the slot themselves, but many had issues doing that. So I had students bring their peacock and fan-fold paper up to me. I put the fan fold through the slot and stapled it once at the top. Ta-Da!!

They LOVED these peacocks!!