I teach 1st grade & I'm looking for cute crafts for the beginning of the year. Something the kids can make on the first/second day of school. My theme is 'racing' this year, so maybe even something to do with that. Thoughts? Maybe construction paper cars w/ their picture?? (I'm not creative though, so I wouldn't know how to do this). Ideas....?
My "theme" if you want to call it that... was ocean. I didn't go all overboard with it... just border around my whiteboard, bulletin board and door. Anyway, I made copies of a black & white fish (about 3 inches tall) clip art. On the first day of school, they each colored a fish. I glued them to blue paper and laminated them. I cut them into about 3 inch strips. So each kid had a 3-inch strip of blue paper with their colored fish. I taped clothespins to the back and connected them to a regular big piece of blue construction paper that was stapled to the wall. This is where I displayed their work. Each time I wanted to hang something up, I'd slide it under the clothespins. Nevermind... too hard to explain! I was thinking you could do the same with race cars. But I'm sure you can't get a visual.
I think I understand. Make a construction paper car, laminate, and put a clothespin on the back to hold up their work?? That actually sounds cute. Any other ideas?
How about a car cut-out or a tire shape that they can decorate with drawings/words of the things that are important about them? Kids can weave black and white paper to make 'racing flags'....
I like to do phonics people. I use the gingerbread die cut from our school and I made patterns for the clothes. Students used their first name and wrote a sentences about something they liked that began with the same letter as their first name. For example, Tara likes trampolines. Here's a pic:
I like all these ideas!! I might even be able to find 'car' cut-outs and have them write things about themselves.
What about using a race car with their birthday on it to make a birthday chart? Each month could have a race track (simple enough to make) and then all the Sept birthdays go (in order) on the Sept track, October on the Oct track, etc.
I like that idea. I'm thinking of doing a board outside the classroom that says "We're racing our way to a great year" and making a race track, then maybe having them all put their "car" on the track? I just have to think of a creative way to make the cars. I also think the idea of weaving checkered flags sounds cool, and I like the idea of them writing about themselves...so many choices, ahh...
How about "painting" with cars. You can buy packs of 6 at The Dollar Tree. Let them dip them in paint and drive them around the paper.
What will be your focus? Sharing? Working together? Word Study? I think that even if you do nothing that has any "learning value" you can still say "Today we are going to take a closer look at sharing. I have placed some supplies on every table. You will all need to share these supplies. You will be making _______. Watch as I do it, then you will go do the same thing while sharing the supplies."
And of course don't forget your beginning of the year portraits! Oh and we use paper plates, yarn, construction paper and markers/crayons to make our faces. We hang them around our class promise. I think I got it from Debbie Miller.
Yes, I definitly would like it to be educational. I'm thinking maybe "phonics" cars like someone suggested. They can write something like "Nathan likes nuts." on the car. I have to find out if we have car cut-outs on our ellison machine at school. If not, I'll have to make a pattern that they can trace. Oh yes, and sharing is always a good "first" for the first day of First grade!!
You could do this in a form of a pictograph to incorporate math and have it hanging up all year and then when you hit the graphs unit, tie it in.
I love the paper plate portraits! My kids have a ball doing them, too! Lynn - do you put "googly eyes" on them?
how do you have the students attach the hair? It took forever for the glue'd down yarn to dry last year - and glue sticks were a waste of time on things that heavy/3d
I actually didn't use yarn - even though I typed it earlier. i used those paper strips. They come in bags - I just saw some at Michael's today. It like shredded colored paper. We have a glue mini-lesson before hand... "a drop is a lot" and "the rule for glue is a little will do"... We talk about holding the paper down for a few seconds.
