Pet Rocks

As we learned about rocks, each child was asked to bring a rock at least the size of their fist to class. 

We used them to make Pet Rocks.

We read the poem, "A Rock Makes an Excellent Puppy" and then the children were given lots of collage materials to use to create their rock.

We placed the materials on a separate table so they could go and get what they needed and then we used popsicle sticks and tacky glue for their pieces.  The tacky glue is a must.  Their materials stayed on so well.

When they were finished, we took a close up picture of each one of them and their pet rock.

House Factory

When we learn about community helpers we like to introduce the idea of factories and how each person has a different job to accomplish a task. 

Here we are as a house factory.  Each child has a specific job. 
The girl in the blue is the tracer and she traces all the house shapes.  Then the three children next to her are the cutters and they cut out the houses.  The boy in the blue jacket is the window and door installer.  He puts on two windows and one door.  The boy in the plaid shirt is the roofer and puts on two roof pieces.  The boy and the girl next to him are the landscapers and they add the beautiful grass.  Finally, the last children at the table are the painters and insure that all of the houses get a nice coat of paint.

When they are finished, their boss (the teacher) inspects their work.

They are quite excited to see that they made 12 great houses and even more excited to get paid a preschool dollar and buy something from our "recycled toy" store.

This is a project that takes a lot of careful explanation and some strategic teacher planning as to whichil child would like which job the best, but when it is going it is very successful.

Rocks

 Coming up with an art project for rocks was a little tricky for us.  Out of last minute desperation we came up with the following project that was a huge success.

We decided to make rock collections with the children.  Each child had three "rocks" glued on to a sheet of construction paper for their collection. 

We showed pictures of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and pointed out how sedimentary rocks were made of layers, which looked like stripes; and how metamorphic rocks were made out of fragments which look like dots.  Then we introduced the pastel chalks and told the class that chalk was even made from a rock.

The children were shown how to use the chalks and how they could make stripes and dots.  Then they were shown how they could rub the colors together to fill in their rock.

When they were finished, most children added the types of erosion we had talked about.  You can see water, wind and tree roots depicted in many of their projects.

We sprayed the pictures with hairspray to help set the chalk pastels.