December Activities

December is such a fun time to engage in some fun, holiday themed curricular activities. One of my favorites is a perspective writing that students complete: Dear Children, Love Santa.

This is an activity that requires students to think about the perspective of their writing; writing through Santa's eyes instead of through their own. The best part is the fun way that this writing gets published! Students draft their letters, do a quick self-edit, and then publish them on butcher paper hung in the wall for all other students to see. So fun!

This activity came from Lesson Plan SOS's Crazy for Christmas unit. It is FILLED with fantastic, fun, curricular December activities!

Pumpkin Activities

Each year on Halloween, I get each of my students a mini-pumpkin (expensive, yes, but totally worth it!). We use the pumpkins throughout the day for various activities, and then we paint/decorate them during our party. I've prepared some new activities to do this year. I've put together a very simple pack- some language, math, and a compare/contrast. Check them out! :) Click on the pictures to get a copy.

 

 



Finally!

Well, I'm FINALLY finding the time to get some posts up. It has been a super busy start to the year, but I'm so excited to start sharing some pictures and activities that we've started! We've been engaged in a lot of review activities, goal setting, community building, and nailing down the procedures and expectations for all of our workshops (math, reading, and writing).

This goal setting activity was one of the first things we did in class. I love having my kids set goals for the year. This was a really fun and different way to set goals and integrate some art into it as well.

How great did these turn out? You can find the inspiration for this activity and the template provided for FREE from the amazing Art Projects for Kids blog. I get SO many ideas from her. :)

Angry Verbs!

The most excited my students have EVER been to do a writing activity? You won't be surprised to hear it involved the characters in the game Angry Birds. This idea originated from a second grade blogger. We started by talking about the game Angry Birds. I had a YouTube video all ready to go, but every single student, I kid you not, already knew exactly what it was, and could tell me every single detail about the game. We started generating a word bank of verbs that describe the actions of the birds- dive, soar, fling, bomb, crash, tilt, etc. Once we got a massive list, students began their Angry Verbs writing.

Students developed an Angry Birds story that incorporated the verbs from our list, or others they generated on their own. Typically, with most writing activities, I have the same few students who have to sit and think for some time about how to get started. Not this time! Every student attacked this lesson immediately. Some students wrote a narrative story about the characters in the game, and others wrote a descriptive detailing of how the game works. They all turned out great! Once we did a brief edit/revision, students went through and highlighted their verbs. Add on the coloring page of a character of their choice, and tada!

You can find my Angry Verbs writing template HERE.

The linke for the coloring pages is HERE.

Book Making & Harris Burdick

We've been doing a fabulous project in class. In an effort to integrate some art and creative writing, I used prints from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg to inspire student stories. I mean, what better images are there to spark ideas? If you haven't seen these images or read this book, click HERE to preview this book at Amazon. I've never had students so excited about writing!

After reading the story and discussing the images, students chose one image to write a story about. To incorporate a fun way of publishing, students are making mini books to write their stories. Fun! Check out our work and resources below.

Have you seen this yet? Well-known authors wrote a story to accompany one of the images from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. My students loved reading the story from Kate Dicamillo. Check it out HERE.

Anchor Text

Our display of the Harris Burdick images. Students did a silent art walk, and then we discussed each print and read the book.

Students working on their story.

Instructions on making the boxes:

Start with two rectangles, 8 1/2 by 5 1/2. Turn paper so that short edges are on top and bottom. Draw an X with a ruler, connecting diagonal corner to corner.

Find the center of the X. Fold up one edge to the center.

Turn paper and fold up the other edge to center. It should like like this when both edges are folded to the center.

Turn paper so that long edge is now on top and fold up long edge to center. Contine with the other side.

It should look like this once you've done all the folds. You should have four smaller rectangles, made by the folds, in each corner.

Now, make a cut on all four corners on the fold line, up to the top fold line. You'll see my scissors on the left. That's the line you cut on, and also where you end the cut.

Repeat on all four corners. It should like like this when all four corners have been cut.

Now take the two outer flaps that you've created from the cuts. You'll glue these together first.

Add glue to one of the flaps...

And paste the two strips together, so that the box maintains its shape with the fold lines.

Now, take the last piece hanging out, add glue, and fold it up and bend it over the edge of the two tabs.

One more side to go!

Your box is complete!

Repeat with another piece of paper the same size. You have a top and bottom for the box.

Now, for the inside strips. Start with two strips of paper, 11" x 4"

Fold the paper in half.

Now, fold one part of the half toward you, meeting the bottom edge of the fold.

Turn it over and repeat. Pull the remaining half toward you down to the edge of the fold.

This is what it should look like once you've unfolded.

Repeat so that you have two completely folded strips.

Glue the end panel on one of the strips.

Place the ending panel on the other strip on top to seal together.

Completed, glued strip.

Write, draw, etc.

Now, take the top of your box, and add a lot of glue.

Add the first page of your strip, and push to seal.

Take the bottom of the box, and repeat, gluing the last panel of the strip.

Ta Da!

Carefully fold up the strip inside of the box, and place top and bottom together (you'll need to do some "fedangling" to get them to fit together).

Add a title to the top, and cover art if desired. Open at any time to reveal inside of book!

One more image of how students are publishing their stories on their strips.

Finished student books to come!