Open House Rainforest!

Oh. my. SNAPS, Peeps!! Kerri here...
Lindsay and I STILL have 8 more days of school left! We are LITERALLY hanging on by a thread, friends. Like, for reals. And, we both have BUNCHES of stuff left to do! Like testing, report cards, end of the year certificates and what have you, FATHER'S DAY gifts. Seriously....Calgon take me away!


We will be doing a DUAL post tonight, so we can show you pictures from both of our Open Houses. Ours was last Thursday and here are some pictures of the RAINFOREST madness! Most of these projects are from my Rainforest Art and Writing Pack! 


Check out the rainforest in my room...

Toucans and Fun with WORMS pictures!

Toucans and Leaf-Cutter Ant projects

Sloths,  flowers,  and Monkeys!

This is just a big old rainforest Party right here!!

Rainforest Animal Research Reports and clay snakes

Rainforest Acrostics and Sloth Stories

I just love their sloth drawings! We step-drew them together!

Step-draw Macaws

Jaguar stories

Mini-Me's, jaguars, and red-eyed tree frogs

Rainforest Guide projects and another Rainforest Wall

Layers of the Rainforest

Self-Portraits and Autobiographies

Big, fat, hairy caterpillar (I'll let Lindsay tell you about that one!)

My front door!

Aren't these toucans so fun??

A boy teacher that I work with, who shall remain nameless, but has something in common with a certain LARGE PURPLE SINGING DINOSAUR, told me that one of his kids had an ACTUAL seizure when walking through my room, and the other kids all came out with their eyes going wonky, like they were in a cartoon. 
HARDY HARDY HAR. Doesn't he know that Open House is all about FIERCE and FABULOUSNESS? Whatevs... :)


I know I promised you directions on the Toucan art and I will give it to you for FREE (dimensions and directions!) but not tonight, I am T.I.R.E.D. and Lindsay wants her turn to share! 


Hope you had fun visiting the rainforest!! G'Night, Peeps!

Happy Tuesday friends!  Its MY turn!!

Luckily for me, my Open House was a week and a half ago . . . whew!  The rainforest madness about did me in - but the look of pride on the kiddos faces as they take their parents around the room is ALL worth it!  Our room was jam-packed full of rainforesty goodness!  And there was SO. MUCH. WRITING.  It was actually a wonderful way for me to focu on non-fiction writing with my kidlets.  Ya know, instead of writing about a roller-skating Sloth named Sprinkles . . . my students had to use our anchor chart and think of some facts they knew and could put into sentences about sloths . . . and other rainforest critters! 

Here is a look at the whole room.  Holy Rainforest Batman!

Here are our fabulous step-draw macaws in their 3-D frames.  I was so proud of how well my kidlets did with oil pastels!  

Here are our rainbow fish with . . . yes, a pirahna right in the middle.  

Here are the Mini Me's all dressed for the Rainforest, along with our jaguars and butterflies.

One of my FAVORITE projects is our 3-D ABC art that we do with our Big Buddies. Each student brings in an item (or items) that are used to cover their assigned letter.  Then my kiddos write about things beginning with that letter.  They got SO creative with their letters this year!

Isn't this R adorable??  Covered in ribbons, rocks, rainbows, rubber bands . .

Sloths and monkeys and flowers . . . oh my!

Our Rainforest Guides and layers of the rainforest.  I love, love, LOVE the little animals with each Rainforest Guide.  Isn't that grey gorilla the cutest?  

Sloth stories.  Lots of great writing on this wall!

"Sloths never groom themselves.  Then they grow their algae.  It takes one whole day for a sloth to take him to another tree to another tree."

Wonderful Me writing and our tree-cutter ants and more writing!

This cute idea came from A Cupcake For The Teacher's TPT store here.  We brainstormed a HUGE list of things we had learned this year, and the kids did a great job of writing about one thing each.  This little guy says "This year I learned to write new words.  I sound them out by myself." Sigh.  Insert proud teacher face here.

And last but not least, here is the cover of our A to Z art book.  I didn't get a shot of all of the books on the tables, but I loved their little self-portraits in their hot air balloons floating off to First Grade!

It is SO fun to look back at all of the wonderful work my kiddos accomplished.  They are ready to leave me and become fabulous little firsties! 

I had one mom share the sweetest story with me at Open House.  She said her daughter was in the backseat talking with her little sister (not knowing that mom was listening), and the following conversation took place:

Little sister: Who is your best friend?
Big sister: Does it have to be a kid?
Little sister: Nope.
Big sister:  Good, cuz Mrs. Messner is my bestest friend!

Ay yi yi - how cute is she?  I will miss my lil enchiladas! 

Well friends, that is it for tonight.  I promise to be back with some Father's Day things to share soon!  G'night!