tie-dying with first graders

This past week was EOG week in our county. If you are a K-2 teacher, you know the feeling of three full days of lunch in the classroom, no specials and no recess! Oh and don't forget the part about keeping those kiddos quiet for 6 hours! So I decided it would be a great idea to tie-dye our shirts on Friday! (YIKES!) We are wearing them for our end of year performance "Seussical the Musical." It actually went very well. Each child brought in a white shirt. My room parent got me a kit from AC Moore that would dye up to 20 shirt. (Turns out it dyed 21 and there was PLENTY left over!) Anyway, as soon as the bell rang, we got started on spelling centers and word work. Then as they worked on their reading stamina (did I mention they are reading for 45 minutes independently!?) I called them out one at a time to pick which design they wanted. Then I tied their shirt (that had already been soaking) and they put it down on plastic and picked three of the 6 colors that were provided. They showed me where to put it and I colored them. They opened a gallon size ziplock bag for me and I placed their shirt into the bag. They then zipped it up and put it in my laundry basket (that we usually use to carry our library books in). After I got better at it, I would call 2 or 3 kids at a time. I had a parent help me for about thirty minutes or so. She helped tie some shirts before she had to go to work. It was nice. By lunch time, I still had 8 shirts (out of 21) to go! We went to the cafeteria and got our lunch and brought it back to the room to eat. After we ate, the kids went to practice their songs in another first grade classroom with the other 2 classes. (We have to get ready for the performance and we didn't have a special, so what better way to spend your special time, right?!) The other teachers were nice enough to let me take my kids out a couple at a time to finish the shirts while they watched the rest of mine. So- from 9:30 to about 12:45 is how long it took! This morning, I took them out of the ziplock bags and cut the rubber-bands off. Michael helped me spray out the excess die before we put them in the washing machine. I cannot wait to get them out and see how they all look! They all seemed to turn out beautifully! SO exciting! Tomorrow the kids will get to see their shirts AND eat cupcakes! I can imagine what kind of day it will be in first grade... a VERY exciting one indeed!

:) ~let go laughing!