Back with some good news and kinder-friendly Eric Carle art

Holy Moly! I am getting bad about blogging.  Somehow a whole week has passed since my last post, but for good reason!  In the last week, I ran my first half marathon!!  I had it scheduled as a part of my marathon training.  The weather was downright miserable (43 degrees and raining) but I felt good during *most* of the race.  Miles 11 and 12 got very a little hard.  I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I'm not sure that I even qualify as a runner but more of a walk/jogger.  My official time was 2:33:37 which boils down to about 11 minutes, 40 seconds per mile.  Sooo, I have a long ways to go in regards to fitness, but I'm getting there slowwwwly.

Anyway, enough runner walk/jogger talk. After all, this is supposedly a teaching blog.

Last Thursday and Friday, we wrapped up our planting unit by reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and making some art inspired by the book's illustrations.

First, we watched a few slide shows from Carle's website showing how he makes his tissue papers and book illustrations.

Then, we painted our own papers.  Instead of tissue, we used construction paper because I thought it would be easier for kindergarten kids to free-hand cut and manipulate for the later parts of the project.  Plus, I just don't have easy access to higher quality tissue paper.

I think it's important to model painting a paper so kids don't make a picture/scene on theirs, but rather a pattern or design.  This is a foreign concept to some kindergarten friends.  It's also important to stress that everyone will share the papers to make their final project, and that no one will get their own papers back.

Making our papers!

The students made some really fun and creative designs!

We did the papers on Thursday and let them dry overnight.  On Friday, i modeled how to cut different papers into shapes to create a collage picture like Carle does.  Most students were quite successful with this, and they were very interested in becoming "real" illustrators.

Here are some of the finished products!

Oh...and now (if you're still reading at this point) for the GOOD news I mentioned in the title.  Back in March, I had mentioned how I am a probationary teacher (I don't have tenure) and because of some major budget cuts, there was a big chance that I would get pink-slipped. Thankfully, I have received word that I will almost positively be back as a first grade teacher next year!  I have to say almost because enrollment numbers could always go up and down but for now I'm saying Yippee!  I was really dreading the thought of job searching this summer and having nightmares that I would have to cancel my honeymoon to go on an interview.

Thanks for reading my super-long post!  Hope I have more time for blogging in the coming weeks...