We had a Ball! Final activity of the year

As our theme week concluded, we celebrated beach day.  As a final activity, the students made a beach ball book of memories.  Each of the students wrote about times that they "had a ball" in school this year, on circular writing paper.  The students then made a beach ball out of tracers and construction paper.  Once again, I used clip art to make the tracers as well as the ball.  The students cut out stripes in the colors of their choosing, and glued them to the ball.  On the back of the ball we stapled their memory pages.  I loved hearing about the events that they enjoyed, especially the ones that I had forgotten or had felt the kids were not as engaged as I would have liked.  Lesson learned: never give up on a lesson or activity!  Different students connect to different things, and that value is immeasurable!

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Olympic Pride

On the final two days of our Sports and Games mini-unit, my students learned about the Olympic Games.  They were excited to learn about the history, but were also engaged as we completed science and math activities.  It was especially interesting to see the students make connections to their Foss Science units of Air and Weather and Balance and Motion.  As a literacy extension, the children learned about the goals set by athletes hoping to make it to the London 2012 games, and the commitment it takes to achieve these goals.  The students completed a writing assignment about what event they might like to compete in, and what they think it would take to be part of the Olympics.  Some students even created new events, complete with rules and diagrams. 

Download "If I Were and Olympian" writing prompt here.

As a final piece, the students created a patriotic decoration they could display throughout the summer: Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and during the Olympics. I let each student choose a piece of construction paper for a background, and the rest of the paper came from our scrap collection. The students were given minimal directions, and had creative freedom to design a "Olympic poster".  Many of the students included the Olympic rings and the torch into their designs.  When the posters were complete, each student chose 12 strips of paper that I had them glue to the bottom.  Since I wanted the outcome to be a surprise, I did not tell them why - they all thought I was crazy!  After this step, I had them curl the poster into a tube and glue.  We then added a string hanger to the top, and all of the kids figured it out: a paper wind sock.  I love mystery projects, because the kids have to listen carefully to directions if they want to get to the final product.  These turned out great.  We sent them home with their writing piece, and many of the kids even attached their writing to the final project.  I told them to display them with pride, and one of my students replied, "Olympic Pride!"

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Hike and Scavenger Hunt Activity - Part 2

This is one of the activities that our team completed as a follow up to our hike.  This is an activity that one of our teachers found online, and we each tweaked it a bit to fit our class needs.  I made boot templates from a coloring sheet, so each of the students could choose a color and create their own boots.  The writing portion of the project was completed first, and I was so pleased with the work the students completed.  I encouraged complete sentences, descriptive language, and multiple items, and I received above and beyond that.  I was so proud of these kids as they did high quality work the last week of school, amidst the excitement and changes in their daily routine.

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Bouquet for Mom

We had so much fun today making bouquets of flowers for all of the kids' moms.  First the kids made 5 flowers, complete with stems and leaves.  On the back of each flower, the students wrote household chores or fun things to do with their mom.  Then the kids made a flower pot pocket attached to a piece of white construction paper, and added a Mother's Day sentiment.  The flowers slid right into the pocket.  All of the kids were so excited about giving this gift, and I think that was because they had the opportunity to choose what chores or activities they put on the card.  I love seeing them so excited about their work!  I saw some beautiful hearts today, that is for sure!

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Don't Be Crabby ...

As the year comes to an end, I wanted a way to count down the final days.  All year we have kept track with stars on the wall the number of days of school.  Once we reached one hundred, we started counting backwards.  Since there are 21 days of school left, and I have 21 students, I decided to make a board where each student could represent one of the final days.  As we pass a day, one student will get to move a star from the wall and put it by their crab.  I came up with the design for this idea from a few similar projects on Pinterest: theusserys.blogspot.com gave me the idea for the phrase, and a hand paint/print crab project that I can no longer find.  My kids made the crabs by tracing their hand two times,  overlapping the hands, and then gluing google eyes to the top of the thumbs.  This project was fun for the kids and super quick to complete.  I love that we have a hands on count down to end the year as well!

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Swing into Spring! Baseball Activity

Spring activities are so fun, but so many of them seem to be along the same lines: flowers, insects, rain, and sun.  Since we had done several multidisciplinary activities along these lines, I wanted to do something different.  Then I got another middle of the night idea - Baseball!  I came up with a literacy activity today, but have plans to tie the sport into our new science unit on balance and motion, as well.  Today we watched a video about baseball and opening day, and then talked about other activities that get people excited about spring.  The students then did some independent writing - Swing into Spring.  We made baseballs using tracers that I made, and put the two pieces together.  I covered our "wall" (a pole that serves as our art display area) with green paper and added a baseball diamond.  I also took pictures of the kids posing with a baseball bat, and their picture will go in the middle of the baseball.

Here is some individual student work.  The first is a first grader's work, and the next is a second grader's project.  The kids wrote about everything from playing tennis and running marathons to finding bugs and going for bike rides.  These two examples just happen to be about baseball.

I also will be making a sign for the wall that says "Swing into Spring".  I will not post pics of the completed wall, as it will have all of the student pictures on the projects, and I want to protect their privacy.  I hope to find more baseball ideas this weekend that I can tie into our lessons.  I am so excited to wrap up the school year this way!

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Seussical! Parade of Things Banner

Today was our first and second grade musical, and it was a huge success!  The production was excerpts from "Seussical" the musical.  Each class completed a Seuss-themed project to decorate the hallway outside the gym.  I wanted to do something a bit different, so I had the kids make a poster wishing the other classes good luck.  I had seen hand printed Thing 1 and Thing 2 characters on Pinterest a while back. (I did not pin it, so I cannot give credit - I wish I could because they were adorable!)  I had the kids created a "parade of Things" by first stamping a Thing body in red, and then a thing head and face in blue and white.  When this part had dried, we added a Thing number to the center (a piece of printed card stock), and each kid drew their Thing's face with a blue sharpie.  I then made our good luck sign and it was ready to go.  This was the easiest project I have done with kids in a LONG time!

Here are a few pics from the set:

We had such a great time!  I can't wait to get the DVD.  Their families were all so proud, as well they should be!

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Plants and Animals in the Springtime ...

I have been away from the blog for a bit, but I'm fired up and ready to get back to work!  So much has been going on in our classroom and at home, the blogging had to take the back seat for a short time. 

Our class has been studying Plants and Animals in science, and we follow the 2nd grade Foss Science curriculum.  The kids have been so excited about every aspect of the unit!  We have grown grass, alfalfa, wheat, oats, and plant cuttings, and just this past Thursday, we planted terrariums.  By the second day, we had sprouts!  It has been a good time for all of us, especially since we have worked hard to incorporate parts of the science unit into literacy and math as well.  As an extension activity the week we focused on the parts of a plant and their jobs, the kids made potted plants out of construction paper.  The front is a beautiful plant, while the back is a diagram.  At the end of the activity, the students were given labels.  They then had to label the various parts of the plant.  Since we hang all of our projects from the ceiling, this double sided project worked great.  Here is an example:

I used online coloring pages to create tracers.  The students came up with the idea to make it a "double flower" on top.  They each cut out 2 petal pieces, and then glued the stem between them.  When they attached the petals, they did not line them up perfectly, but "in the spaces", which made the flowers quite attractive. 



Here is a pic of the first plants the kids planted.  We "mow" the grass once a week, and take measurements.  We also make predictions for how much the plants will grow.  We have even gone outside of the curriculum and started experimenting with different locations and amounts of water to see what happens.  Their enthusiasm for this unit inspires me! 

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Love Bugs - A Quick and Easy Valentine Project

This is a project that I did with my students at the end of last week to add a little holiday flair to our classroom.  This was a last minute addition to our day, since my diligent workers finished their Social Studies activity in record time (In fact, I came up with this on my lunch break!).  I made a bunch of heart tracers, and this is what the outcome was.  My students loved this, and in fact, the kids immediately started calling these cute heart creatures, "love bugs".  I wish I would have had time to have them make antennae for them.  Oh, well, next year ....

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A Map Project

My students are currently studying maps in Social Studies; as well as state and national symbols and landmarks.  As we wrapped up the portion on our home state, Minnesota, I had the students make this project ( I had seen a similar one completed by another teacher in our building, and recreated it with a few changes.)  After tracing and cutting out a map, the students selectd pictures of state symbols and other important representations, and added them to their map.  We have created many projects this year already, so I was pleasantly surprised to see how proud they were of this relatively simple project.  They don't want me to take them down! (I tried on Friday in order to hang up a Valentine project, and they were really bummed - I decided to leave them up :) )

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Snowy Art Project

Even though the holidays have past, I thought that this was a nice project to share anyway.  My students made these as holiday gifts for their families, and they loved them.  WARNING: this was not a quick and easy project!  It was however, an excellent project for talking about different artistic elements: textures, layering, using different tools, and 2/3 spacing principles.  I bought ceramic tiles at a local hardware store for $0.35 a piece.  I then taped all of the edges with masking tape.  This made a frame on the tile, and prevented paint from going everywhere.  The students sponge painted a snowy landscape and brush painted the snowman.  The kids used a sharpie marker to write, "There's Snowplace like Home" (which they thought was hillarious).  After this dried, they painted the carrot nose, eyes, mouth, and arms using toothpicks. The next step was to paint on a scarf using a brush.  Finally, I splatter painted snowflakes on the the tiles (this could be done by students if you have a room with tile floors and a sink - I do not have either, so I did it myself).  I joked with the kids that it must have snowed in our classroom overnight, and once again, I was the comedian.  Anyway, I did spray them with and acrylic sealer so that they could be used not only as a decoration, but as a trivet.  This would be fun to do for other events as well - the first day of winter, Mother's Day, the 100th day of school, etc. 



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