Paper Dot Mural

I had a blank bulletin board in my classroom this year that had me stumped on what to do with it.  After doing some massive searching on bulletin board ideas, I stumbled across this Pinterest idea and thought it would be fun to try it for myself.

This is how we began our bulletin board.  For those of you on Pinterest you probably have come across this bulletin board idea.

After, I created the starting point for our mural, I then created 10 different circle designs for students to color.  Several of the designs were just plan circles that the students could design on their own.  I made many copies of these circle patterns and placed them in a basket in our free time center.

I quickly explained the process and plans to my K-4 students and they jumped right to it with excitement.

Color circles during free choice time.

Cutting out circles after coloring design.

 Before you knew it, our mural began to grow...

And grow.....

Our plan is to continue this throughout the school year.  If we make it to the art room door, we will continue to grow our mural into the school hallway.  Students are beyond excited to see how big this mural will get to be.  I must say, I am quite excited, too!

Keep your eyes posted for future updates as the dot takeover begins!

Marker Recycling

The Colorcycle program initiated by Crayola has been around for a few years (2013).  However, I did not really hear about this program until two years ago, and last year when a parent mentioned it to me, I thought to myself I better look into it.  After doing a little research on the Crayola

Colorcycle program I decided that it looked easy enough to do.

Here are the basic steps:

Step 1:  Register on the Crayola Colorcycle web page.

Step 2:  Inform students, teachers, parents and community members about the colorcycle program.

Step 3:  Start collecting dried up markers.

Step 4:  Box markers.

Step 5:  Print shipping label from Crayola Colorcycle website.

Step 6:  Drop off at post office.

I shared the following video with my students to help them understand what was going to happen to the dried up markers. What Happens to Our Markers When We Recycle Them?  Student became quite excited after we discussed the video.

I hope this blog entry inspires some of you to give marker recycling a try in your classroom.