Feature Friday Fun: Casey Harlan from Grow and Enjoy!

It's finally Friday! Not only are we all screaming TGIF {or maybe that's just me? :) }, but today's the day we feature one of our amazing Kinder Tribe members!

Today we are featuring Casey Harlan who wrote a fabulous post all about colors. This is an activity that is not only perfect for the beginning of school, but is extremely functional throughout the entire school year. There's nothing better than meaningful classroom decorations! Take it away, Casey! :)
 

Hello fellow Kinder Tribe members! I hope you have had a great start to your school year. My name is Casey and I am a second year kindergarten teacher in Kentucky. I also blog over at Grow and Enjoy. You can find links there to my other social media platforms and my TPT store.

Today I am going to share one of my favorite projects that is perfect for the beginning of the year!

 

I completed this project with my students for the past two years and it has been a huge success. The students love participating in a project that becomes a permanent part of their classroom.

The color wall project concludes a week long emphasis on colors. It is also part of the students' first homework assignment. Students work with their parents throughout the week to collect examples of different colors.

Some favorite things to bring in are magazine clippings, photographs, fabric, and food labels. You can tell from the pictures below that we get a wide variety of items!

The students bring their items in on Friday. We then sort them as a class onto the various posters. I cut the words for the posters out with a Silhouette Cameo.

Not only do the posters look awesome, but this project also teaches me a lot about the students. One student spent time with her grandmother searching through her sewing fabric. One student brought in clippings of all different color cars last year because he loves cars. Another student brought in Iron Man for the color red because that's his favorite super hero.

I love that each of my students have a little piece of themselves hanging up in our room (even if it is one of their socks!) The posters then become a functional part of our classroom known as "The Color Wall". Students use it throughout the year as a reference for spelling. 

Here is how our color wall turned out this year. I would highly recommend this project for all kindergarten teachers! Students practice color recognition, sorting, and immediately feel ownership for the classroom.

Thank you for the Kinder Tribe for hosting me today! If you would like to follow me elsewhere please check out Grow and Enjoy. You can also search for Grow and Enjoy on TPT or Pinterest  or @caseharlan on Instagram.