Bulletin Board Ideas

Here are a couple of the bulletin boards we have up outside the classroom. The first one focuses on our transportation unit. There is some of the children's work posted. It was a project where they had to tell how they come to school, by bus, car, truck, etc. and then cut out that vehicle and glue it on the paper. I also added some strips of paper that have objectives listed that relate to what the children learned and on the outside, I posted some photos from our wrap-up celebration of our study when parents were invited to come and race remote control vehicles with their children. 

These are our patterns we made using different color light bulb cutouts for our "Investigating Light" study. As you can see at the bottom center the one that is all blue, one friend got creative and decided to cut out and glue on his own light bulb. Although he didn't create a color pattern with it, I felt that it was worth displaying as he took it upon himself to extend the activity.

I like how both of these turned out with the bright colors. I felt that they really stand out!

Playing with Light and Color Patterns

Snugglepuppy and I have been playing with different apps that allow you to create with light. I will list the ones we have found that we like that are free.

Android:

1. KidsDoodle

This app is lots of fun. You can draw or write with many different brushes including the ones shown in the pic above. You can change the background color, undo and redo brush strokes and the really fun part is you can watch a video of how you made your creation!

2. RotoDoodle

This app is a digital version of a spirograph. It is fun to play with. You can choose the size, color, and pattern. We decided to look for an app like this after buying a spirograph from the dollar store for Snuggle Puppy's prize box and then realizing that it requires a lot of hand strength and hand eye coordination. He's not quite ready for it yet, but this one is much easier to work with.

3.Magic Brush Box (Kaleidoo)

This one is similar to the last spirograph type app. The difference is you can control more of the factors on this one. You can change the type of brush you use and you can draw your own pattern instead of choosing a pattern that will just keep repeating. This app is by the same people as KidsDoodle and you can do the video of how your created your drawing on this one as well.

4. Glow Spin Art

This app is so fun to play with. It spins and you put your finger or stylus on the screen to make spirals out from the center. You can change the speed at which it spins, the size, color, and shape. You can also stop the spinning to take a closer look at it.

Ipad or Iphone

1. Art of Glow

This app is kinda like fireworks. Wherever you touch the screen, shapes explode out everywhere. You can control the shape, color, amount of shapes, size, length of time they last, speed, blink speed, and whether they will renew or burn out. Kids love this one. You can stare at it for hours!

2. Forge of Neon

This is by far my favorite one. You can make patterns in symmetry of 2,4,8,16, or 32. The picture shown above is with 16. Then you can also choose your shape and color. The best part about it, is your pattern is 3-dimensional. You can pinch and zoom, use 2 fingers to move the image on the screen, or use 3 fingers to rotate the image around. It is very interesting to play with.

Hope you found some apps you will try that can be great for teaching math concepts to your kids!