Kindergarten & 1st Grade Germs!

Monsters are probably my favorite things to make with kiddos. They allow so many possibilities and original ideas and they don't feel any pressure to have them look a certain way because they can look like ANYTHING! It's seriously the best. Last year I did shape monsters with Kinderbeans and emotional monsters with 1st...also these rad 2D and 3D monsters with 2nd so I wanted to do something different...

GERMS!!!! Let's be real, they are literally everywhere anyways at school, might as well bring them to life :)

Inspiration from the project came from this image on pinterest and it seems as Thomas Elementary Art had the same idea as me and beat me to the blog post...mine were done in Dec ;)

I Can statement: I can use my imagination and own ideas to create a germ

Day 1: Started off with a great book called How do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? There is a whole series of these dinosaur books by Jane Yolen that are wonderful and I love the illustrations by Mark Teague!

After the book we watched this YouTube video about germs and good hand washing skills...

Best part of the whole thing...a bunch of Kinders freaking out and immediately asking me to wash their hands after the video. Must have really reached them! Hah!

After the video we looked at the above PDF I put together and talked about all the different ways that germs could look. I would have liked to make a word web during our discussion but I can't find the best way to do them and I would like it on the computer so we could use them again in the future. I might just have to go to the old school marker and poster paper....

To get started on their project they used this sheet...

In each circle they had to draw a different germ. It was amazing to see the difference between Kindergarten and First at this step.

Day 2: I wanted them to start the thinking process of looking at a "sketch" they did and using it to create their project so we dissected my germ and my sketches talked about how they knew my germ came from one of my drawings (i.e. same colors, shapes, designs) Then I drew a germ up on the board and talked through constructing it. "What color paper do I need?" "What can I do with string?" I think this step really contributed to the success of these... When they were ready to start, they came to me with their sheet to tell me which one they were doing and I gave them their main color paper. Scrap boxes and string for them to use for all the details were out on the tables. I tried to stress doing everything with paper or string but a few kiddos grabbed markers before I even knew what was happening!

At one of my buildings we were able to do an extra step of writing an awesome sentence about their germ on a sentence strip during writing in the classroom. I was able to go in and help out and float between the rooms so they were pretty willing to do it. It was a perfect extra to go with these awesome germs.

I am in love with my display for these, I had so many giggles from staff and kids... "Are those BOOGERS!?"

McDill Elementary....

 Jefferson Elementary...