Saturday, March 17, 2012

Bird Theme


 Masks: Using masks encourages children to fantasize and pretend.  Mine are hand made.
 Math -Shapes: from the site www.childcareland.com
Decoration: any display that you can make for  the class creates a warm and stimulating learning environment. I found this at www.childcareland.com .

 
Cut out Stick puppets: I use them for introducing activities and engaging attention. These come with the book series, but with any clip art from the web you can make your own, by cutting out any animal and placing tape or hot glue on a craft stick  for a handle.

Patterns: Integrate  patterning activities into the theme that you are teaching,  it is fun for the children, and it  also helps them to be aware of patterns in their daily surroundings. Children can recognize and create patterns they begin to see in any other them that you are teaching . I used some cute pictures from the teacher magazine Maestra Jardinera.
 Bird paper bag puppet: I´m into making paper bag puppets. The bird can be done in any color such as black for crow or white for dove. I got the templates at www.dltk-kids.com, they have lot of animals. These  simple puppets are  made from small paper lunch bags. These puppets are a great way to stimulate a child's imagination. You can go over some of the bird´s  traits.  Remember to show the students how the puppets operate, and where the mouths are.  The advantage of paper bag puppets is that  the flap of the bags let the children have  more puppet manipulation.
Since we´re teaching a foreign language, focus conversations on asking and answering simple questions, such as name and favorite color,etc.  This is  a creative way to allow your students to retell stories.

 Bird crown: I don´t know where I got the template, but I thought it would be nice to use it as a crown  for  the bird of the week instead of the student of the week. I placed paper clips so it can be adapted for any child.

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All my materials are from Distribuidora OFIMAS, Caracas-Venezuela.