Sticky No More

I think I'm done with glue for a while. I feel like my fingernails have been glued to my fingers for the last two weeks, so my next units will, I think, use a lot less of it.

Today I finished working on the KG1's handprint project. They printed their hands on paper to match their classroom color, cut an oval around the handprints, and today, glued it to a larger mounting paper, along with a poem: "This is to remind you/when I am big and tall/that not so long ago/I was very small ~RAKESS 2009-2010." Throughout the project I've been doubting myself, as to whether or not it's good enough. It's not exactly Art, more of a craft - but I wanted to gauge their skills in cutting and gluing and following directions, so I felt it was a good way to do so. They turned out really well, and I've gotten some nice feedback from the teachers, so I'm satisfied. And I've got to say, I like working with the small groups of children like I do in KG, it reminds me of our easy cheesy small classes in Korea. It takes longer to go through one project, but on this one, that actually worked to my advantage, anyways, because when they printed their hands that was it for the week. The hands had to dry before we could move on.

Yesterday I did another round of year one crabs, and it went MUCH more smoothly. The TA's were able to take each table to the bathroom and open the door for them, and I had them "stick 'em up" like a bank robber so they didn't get the paint on their clothes. Remarkably enough, one of the boys still managed to end up with paint in his ear, but kids are kids, eh?

The mosaics (with the exception of a few absentees) are finished, and I'm thinking about hanging them on the ceiling in the hall. We discussed where we could find mosaics (on the ceiling, wall, or floor) and looked at each group's mosaic and where they thought theirs', specifically, should go. Got pinched for red tesserae at the very end, though, and I think the absentees are going to have to pick another color when they come in to complete them.