One of the most exciting parts of teaching kindergarten is being able to use your creativity (especially during the holidays)! By the time October hits, it feels like we’re off and running with nonstop activities until Christmas break. I try to incorporate art once a week to go along with a monthly theme or a holiday that is coming up. The best thing about kinder art is that they all look SO different by the time these little creators are finished.
To celebrate Thanksgiving, we made turkeys out of paper plates (half a plate), tissue paper and construction paper. I used parts of the turkey template in Kelly Morgan’s Thanksgiving Everything Pack. I’ve had this resource of hers for a few years now and have used this template in various ways throughout the years. Not only does this pack have this craftivity (love that word!) but she has language arts, math, social studies and other resources all related to Thanksgiving. Total TpT jackpot!
We pasted the tissue paper squares to the paper plate by painting over them with liquid starch.
Not only does the starch make the papers stick, but it creates a shiny coat for the turkey’s feathers. Creating the turkey’s feathers was all that my kinders could handle for one day so we let the liquid starch dry and saved the turkey body and parts for the next day.
In my first year teaching, when I did craftivities like this, I would hand out each construction paper separately and it would be hard to manage since all students were cutting and gluing at different paces. I would be stressing out, running back and forth, handing different pieces to different students. Now, I’ve found that handing out all papers at once is less chaotic and actually more fun for the kids because they can be a little more creative. I put my sample on the board incase students want a reference of what the end goal is but I’ve found that some students don’t want to look at the model; they want to do their own thing! Teachers all have different ways of leading projects depending on their style and their students. What works in your classroom? How do you manage art projects?
I love that the same art project can produce such different results. What types of Thanksgiving projects do you do in your classrooms?
