September Art Projects and a Little Perspective

I really wanted to post on Friday and then I spent all morning yesterday trying to post a fun Five for Fraturday and for some reason, my blog was not cooperating. I'd try to upload and the bottom part of my post was just completely cut off.

I have no idea why! Grrrr! (deep breath, AND moving on now)

So let's just try this again.

Here we go, 5 fun things from this past week:

#1) Classroom Decor: Student Faces!

*The purple one in the middle is me :) I like to have an example for the kids to see first.

Every year I lead my students through a directed drawing activity where they create their own face, then we paint it and add hair and put it up on the wall in our classroom. 

I did not come up with this idea on my own, but saw it in the kindergarten where I student taught. It's one of those projects that I have always loved and it's always stuck with me.

Also, I don't know about you, but I have my kids line up in ABC order (by first name) and on days when I am feeling frazzled and can't remember the line order, all I have to do is look up at the wall and VIOLA- Name order right up there with a picture to go along with it!

It's worked out pretty well for us.

Oh and if I ever have a substitute, the kids can never trick them by pretending to have someone else's name. All the sub has to do is look up at the wall and see what each of the kiddos looks like.

 #2) A last Ode to Pete The Cat (this year anyway)

Okay seriously how cute are these cats???

If you would like to make them with your students, feel free to head on over to TPT and purchase a copy of the template created by Krazy About Kindergarten

Grab your template HERE

#3) Apple Scriptures Oh My!

Okay, so I know this is a horribly blurry, but I forgot to take a picture before I stapled these to the wall (go figure!) 

But in any case, how adorable are they??

Thanks to Abby Mullens from The Inspired Apple, I was inspired once again.

You can download this little art project for FREE right HERE

Here is what her apple looked like:

I fell in love with it and wanted to try it with my students.

I was really happy with the results, and now I have to confess a new obsession with washi tape (it can make anything adorable!)

#4) Permission To Post

I have been waiting until recently to post student work/photos, since I wanted to wait until I got signed permission slips from students parents. I was so touched and thankful almost every student brought back a slip with signed consent for me to show their work and photos! How cool is that?   

If you are wondering what my permission slip looked like, head over to The Teaching Twosome and download a FREE copy of a parent permission slip to post student work and photos on your blog.

I also have to add I think it is so cool that there is another teaching husband/wife duo (just like me and my hubby, and the husband's name is Brian, just like mine! Crazy I know) out there making the world a better place. To learn more about them, check them out 

Right Here

#5) Inspiration for the Weary

This week I stumbled upon a blog that I could NOT stop reading. My mom had preordered this book ----->                and totally forgot she had. Well it arrived on Wednesday and after she started reading it, she felt compelled to share it with me and my sisters.            The excerpts she read us were so moving, beautiful, grace filled and amazing, we decided to search for more information online and that's when I found the authors blog.

This woman truly amazes me! She is a mom of 4 little ones who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Her journey in writing her latest book The Hardest Peace and the brokeness she shares from is so beautiful. I was completely undone when I started reading (and listening to her videos).

If you need a little perspective, this would be an amazing book to read and blog to follow. 

mundanefaithfulness.com

I must also add this hits especially close to home for me and my family, because we have been fighting with my amazing aunt for the past 10 months in her fight against stage 4 breast cancer. She has 3 small kids and the same zest and passion for life.

Life is such a gift, and every day we are faced with the choice to be grateful for it or focus on things we want to complain about. 

It has been an incredibly difficult time, but in the midst of it, we have felt God's goodness and presence.

We aren't sure what the future holds, but I was so encouraged by Kara Tippets brave choice to accept each day as a gift. 

That's what I'm choosing to do, see everyday I'm alive as a GIFT and live it to the fullest.

This is my daily prayer and proclamation:

Have a restful Sunday!