Hello Peeps,
My kiddos have been working hard and and I can see so many gains. With Spring break right around the corner, we have been learning all about rabbits. You can't learn about rabbits without making fun crafts along the way.

Our first craft was this cute Peep tissue rabbit. I literally got a happy uproar when my students saw me getting everything ready.

All you need is the following:
1. a rabbit template
2. tissue paper cut into small squares
3. wax paper
4. liquid starch
5. construction paper

STEP 1

Choose any icon. (here are many you can use)

STEP 2

Cut around both the outside and inside line of the icon's shape.

STEP 3

Lay the cut out pattern on top of a piece of wax paper. Trace around the inside opening of the shape with a pencil. Do not cut out.

STEP 4

Cut out 1" x 1" or larger squares from the tissue paper. You will need a lot of squares, so be sure to give yourself plenty to choose from when you start gluing.

STEP 5

Spread the starch in straight lines and make sure it reaches the traced section. TIP: If you go any larger, the glue will dry out before you can get the tissue down.

STEP 6

Lay tissue squares over the starched area, overlapping color(s) as you go. Try not to leave any blank space. Add starch and tissue squares until the entire shape is covered. Set aside to dry.  STEP 7 ADULT: Punch a hole in the top, center of the shape. Thread a 6" piece of yarn through the hole to make a hanger and tie a knot. Trim the excess yarn. TIP: To make this project easier for a younger child, start with smaller templates. Once it's dry you slowly remove the wax paper and can then add any extra decorations.I play spa music as my kiddos work and find it to be very relaxing. ;)

Happy Mother's Day Project

My kiddos like to act like they are very mature and sometimes too "cool" to do certain things, but this activity was truly a very special one.

We brainstormed together what they would like to do for their moms. They all wanted to do some kind of card, but they made it clear they didn't just want any ordinary card.

They wanted it to have writing, artwork, and presentation. They also said they wanted their handprint to "remind" their parents they have grown since they first started school--many years ago--and that way keep a memory of their current hand size. I though that was so cute. If I had suggested the handprint, they probably wouldn't have gone with the idea. Besides, they all know how much moms love that kind of thing.  They are right...we ooh and ahhh about it.

They then decided to do a poem instead of a letter. They said it took more thinking, because of the focus on the words and overall message when compared to a letter format. 

(The inside of the card)

The artwork idea came from Cheryl at Teach Kids Art. It is an unbelievably amazing site. It is my go to place for many of the art projects I have done with my kiddos this year.

Lastly, my students made their own tissue flower and we attached it to red pen-for love!

They felt so proud of their projects. Their are two students in my class that were going to give it to a grandma and one was going to place it at the cemetery. I was so touched. 

Geometry & Art

I have always been a looping teacher. I actually began teaching in a K-2 multi-age classroom. As a new teacher I was completely frightened. I felt so unprepared and I always felt like I could do more. What I realized at the end of the third year, was that keeping the same students for that amount of time gave me the time to work with them at their own developmental stage and to see them flourish at the end of our journey together. I grew to LOVE the learning, time together, and the fulfillment it gave me. I have never looked back since.

This has been the longest stretch of time that I have kept a group of students. Most of my class has been with me since first. A few left to other schools, but they were soon replaced by other kiddos. Every year, I tell myself that this would be the last, but I just couldn't not let them go. I kept going up in the grades with them. I think I grew quite possessive attached to them. Now that they will be leaving this June to middle school, I feel quite sad, but I above all, I feel so very proud of them. Today, I had a moment where I felt very validated. I received one of my kiddos at the end of third grade. She was far below grade level compared to the rest of the group. I saw some progress in fourth, and today as we finished our last practice test before the CST, she scored in the 90 percentile on both the math and language arts practice book. I felt so very proud of her, and I could see how proud she was of herself. It is these moments that make me love looping.

What does all this have to do with 2D art and geometry? Well, I had never before done 5th grade beyond subbing. This past summer, I dedicated a lot of time to planning and looking for resources that would engage, motivate, and help my students do their best. I also found Blog-land and I am so grateful I did. There are just so many amazing teachers out there that inspire me every day. One such teacher/blogger, that I am constantly 'borrowing' ideas from, is Jen from Runde's Room. She is just an unbelievable teacher that has saved me more than I wish to count.

As way to have my students de-stress, get their mind of the CST, and close up our unit on Geometry, I decided to do 2D geometry activity Jen did. My kiddos totally love it and loved the end result of their project. They also want to try other things instead of shapes--maybe their names. We'll see.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you for being my life jacket through the year.

Winter Writing Fun!

Coming back from a three week break has been a challenge. Trying to get the kiddos back into a routine and in "working" mode has been an uphill battle, but things are getting better now.

We do art activities throughout the curriculum as much as possible and the kiddos love it. I decided to bring something back that we used to do a lot in 2nd grade--cookery/art. Every Friday, our writing is going to be centered around some kind of art/cookery activity that we will use as a springboard for our writing task. This will give me my kiddos time to review and practice other genres we have covered without deviating from the genre of study that goes with our Treasure Unit.

Snowglobes
Our first activity was on Pointillism, a technique of neo-Impressionist painting using tiny dots, which become blended in the viewer's eye. I found a snow-globe activity on www.artsandactivities.com that would be perfect to go with our Winter theme. In their activity, the teacher taught them about foreground, middle ground, and background. I decided to change it a bit so that we could study neo-Impressionist works of art. They were blown away from the pieces of art that I showed them. They couldn't believe that these pieces of art were made from tiny dots. What was interesting, was that they thought it would be so easy to do and they soon discovered that it is difficult and time consuming. I had them use q-tips to make the dots. They really want to do this technique again. I have to figure out where it will fit in again. After that we wrote Cinquain poems about Winter. We focused on strong verbs and descriptive adjectives. This was a great parts of speech review.

Hot Chocolate
The second activity was having the students make some hot chocolate. While navigating through Pinterest (the link gives me an error page, so if anyone knows who I need to credit please let me know), I saw a bulletin board decorated with cups and kid writing on winter fun). I took the same idea simply modified it into a functional piece of writing. We brought in the ingredients/materials, read and followed the directions together. They got to decorate a "cup" with a winter theme, and then they wrote their functional piece. They were so eager to write down what we did, how to make it, and the fun they had making it. I did not have to be on anyone to do their writing-yippee!

Snowman 

Another activity we did involved making these cute snowmen I saw on Dukes&Duchesses. We used the small, white powdered donuts, M&M's, leather fruit, and skewers. I thought that this might be a little to "youngish" for my kiddos, but you should have seen them---the laughter and the joy in the room was too much! My kiddos then wrote a narrative piece about what they like most about winter.

Snowflakes
We had a blast making paper snowflakes. We began by following some patterns I found on Pinterest. If you click on the picture it will take you directly to the link. As you can see, they are quite intricate and difficult for some of us. I was having a hard time.

                                                                                Source: epherielldesigns.com via 4everateacher on Pinterest

What I really liked was that even though some of my students found these difficult, they didn't give up. They kept trying or asked other students for assistance. They had unlimited blank newsprint to practice on.

These are some of the snowflakes they cam up with:

After we were done with our paper snowflakes, we began our eatable snowflakes. This yummy activity came from Fun Family Craft. We had to use silver and colorful flakes instead because we were unable to find the white sugar crystals anywhere. I know may kiddos had fun--"This is the best activity yet!"--was a common phrase. I sometimes forget that what I take for granted as common activities are something that my kiddos don't always have exposure to and relish when they do. Definitely doing more cookery! This week we will be working on the writing-Acrostic Poems.

 Ingredients /Materials

 Pretzel sticks connected with white frosting

 Each kiddo got melted white chocolate in a baggie to decorate their snowflake.

 Silver flakes

Colorful flakes

Winter is yet not over and we still have more to do. What do you do to motivate your kids into wanting to write?