Today I am linking up with Mrs. Carroll from The First Grade Parade for Throwback Thursday! I am sharing a post that I did last July about one of the activities I do the first day of school!
I took a couple pictures of the name posters from this year to share as well!
Enjoy!
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Originally posted July 26, 2012
So I had been planning to share with you all what I do with my students’ names as one of the activities on the first day of school, however when I was looking through my pictures I found that I really didn’t take any good pictures of them! They were above the windows in my classroom (which I LOVE because they let in tons of light), however I usually don’t take pictures in that direction because bright light from the windows makes everything inside the room look really dark, which = not a great picture.
So, the best picture have from last year is one that I took one day with the windows closed!
I also have this picture of some of the ones done by my students two years ago.
So now hopefully you have a picture in your head of what I’m talking about!
This is an idea I got from Katie, one of my wonderful cooperating teachers back when I was doing my student teaching!
To make their name posters, I start off with white and black sheets of 12×18 construction paper.
The black papers I cut in half lengthwise (I use these pieces to back the white pieces before I put them up on the wall).
Since the white pieces need to be smaller than the black ones, I cut the white pieces so that they are 11in x 17.5 in.
Then I just hand-draw my students’ names with a Sharpie and they are ready to go!
When I have my students color these on the first day of school, we talk about power coloring (which I also got from Katie)! Sometimes students have the tendency to draw really lightly with colored pencils, which looks nice up close, but from far away it can be hard to see! I show them how to “power color” by pressing down hard with their color pencils and the difference that it makes. I refer to power coloring many times throughout the year when we are using colored pencils, so this is great practice!
Here is my sample:
My kiddos color these on the first day of school, and then I keep them up all year long!
I tell them that it is not just my classroom, but all of ours, and they love having all their names proudly displayed in the room!
I stole this idea from you after reading this post last year and LOVED having the same signs hung in my classroom this year- it was a great first day of school activity and will definitely be doing it again next year- thanks so much for the great idea!~
I love this Molly, thank you for sharing! I love the idea of power coloring, it looks great 馃檪 馃檪
This is so cute! Question about using colored pencils. I find that they break a lot and maybe because I buy cheap ones they are a pain to sharpen. Do you have that problem?
Stacey
http://teachingeverafter.blogspot.com
Molly, I do this with my students as well! I love to see all the different ways the decorate their names. I tape them in a list down my wall and add their student numbers so I have a pretty visual of the whole class list of names and numbers!
Courtney
I'm not the best at free drawing. Is there something your recommend or a font to copy to accomplish this? I love it!
I do something similar to this in second, but when they color, I guess I tell them to power color for the designs (stripes, dots, etc.) and color lightly over the rest. I put these up in the hallway above our classroom bulletin board all year so that it shows who is a part of our class.
Getting second graders to color their names is like pulling teeth the first day for some, but after I cut them out and laminate them, they love them!
Bobbi
Bitty Bilinguals
This is such a great first day of school activity! Thanks so much for sharing, because I need some new ideas for the upcoming school year!
MrsMc from Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
I love this idea! I think I will try it this year!!
Apparently I haven't been to your blog lately (I haven't been to any lately with trying to get my room set up!) Your new blog design is gorgeous!!! I love it! It looks a lot like Elizabeth's and Kristen's!! Very classy!! :O)
Thanks for the great idea!
Amanda
Collaboration Cuties