All things glitter!!!!

What elementary teacher doesn't like glitter?!  It is a must love in my classroom.  I use glitter every chance I get.  My students also share my love and excitement for glitter (or they are really good at humoring me!).  On my purchase order for school this year, I had ordered four pounds of new glitter. This may not seem like a lot, but I already had a few pounds worth of glitter in my classroom.  I have every kind of glitter possible!  This school year we have done three separate projects using glitter. 

In September,  we made these glitter apples to decorate our lockers.  We spent a few days studying facts about apples, completed some writings, and made giant apples to hang from our classroom.

The first week of October, we made leaves to celebrate the fall season and help to decorate our welcome area in the office.

 My favorite is the teeny tiny leaf on the left....yes that is a leaf.  The little guy who made that tried his hardest (despite his fine motor difficulties) and he was so proud of that leaf, I couldn't have him redo it.  After all, it was his leaf!

However, my favorite glitter project was created today!  Today my class made giant witch hats, using tons and tons of glitter.  This was a very fun project, and the kids absolutely loved it.

 One of my very talented aides, drew the outlines of the hats from a piece of DJ Inkers clipart,  To save us on time (because there were several steps) I had my aides pre-cut the hats and the spiders for the students.  The students did all the gluing and stuffed the hats themselves.  We completed this project in steps (allowing us to take a break from our bi-weekly progress monitoring and for the modge podge and glitter to dry), taking us most of the day to complete.

 We started by each student glittering their spiders.  They each got three and got to pick which colors they wanted to use. 

 Tip:  If we will be using a large amount of glue I cover my tables with vinyl table cloths.  After the glue dries, you can just peel it off the table cloth.  Plus, after you do the glue project you can just remove the table cloth and the table is ready to use.  No more spending time scrubbing glue off the table!  

 I had my aides draw the outline of where the glitter would go. 

 Again, we used modge-podge instead of glue.  These hats were completely dry in 20 minutes.

 Never waste glitter!  After we have done a glitter project, I will take all the left over glitter and mix into one bottle.  This allows the glitter to be reused as a multi-color glitter.

 We hung them from the white boards to dry, while we completed progress monitoring in math. 

 One of my students had the idea to add cob webs to the top of the hats.  I thought it was the perfect touch. 

When I was in elementary school we always had a Halloween parade and at the end of the parade had a school wide sing-a-long.  My favorite part was singing a song called "Witches Brew".  This was a memory that has always stuck with me, and it is now a tradition with my students.  Each year on October 1st, I get out my witch hat and teach my students "Witches Brew".  My students love it and it is a great way to get the kids moving around the room.  This song, my love for Halloween, and my OBSESSION with glitter,  inspired me to create today's art project.  

Modeling our new witch hats!!!