Family Tree Art

Step 1: cut out circles of paper and write initials of family tree members on them. Arrange circles on a piece of paper and lighlty glue them down. Paint your hand 'green' and make the first layer of handprints. Paint your hand 'yellow' and make the 2nd layer of handprints. Paint the trunk of the tree. Connect the family members correctly by painting branches. Let paint dry.

Step 2: next day or a couple hours later- take off the paper circles to reveal the empty white circular spaces, then write in the names of your family members. Sign and date the art and frame for all to see.

*My students did this activity in response to reading 'The Hobbit'. Bilbo Baggins has quite the family tree so to make a connection to the text, students worked with their parents at home to gather their family tree info so they could make this piece of art.

Step 1: Owen's art

Whole class:

Karen's:

and Daria's:

Step 2: My family Tree

'Starry Night'- Group/Partner Art Activity

Students divide Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' into 2 or 4 sections and work with each other to recreate the famous painting, using pastels. Students name their masterpieces and a picture is taken of the 2-3 sections all together before the student takes home their individual section. I had my students do this activity twice so they could make another section for them to take home.

Group 1: 'Bright Night'

Group 2: 'The Recreation of Starry Night'

Group 3: 'The Lovely Pastel Art'

Group 4: 'Uh-Oh Starry Night Copyright'

Group 5: 'Lonely Night'

Students publish their own hardcover story book!

Using Bookemon.com, my1st and 2nd grade students uploaded one of their creative stories they wrote this year to create a hard or soft cover book of their story. The site lets the kids design the template for each page. They even get their own copyright, allowing them to truly be young authors.

Mother's Day Gift

Students created a portrait of their mom using buttons, scrapbook paper, jewels, beads, construction paper and lots of love to make a nice gift for their mom on Mother' Day. Of course I had to make a prototype so I made one of my mom! I love getting ideas from my teammates- they're so creative...and also very inspired by Pinterest!  ;p

Active Reading

I'm working with the concept of active reading in my classroom right now- teaching kids to recognize when they are using a specific reading comprehension strategy and to then stop and think about and record the thinking that they did while reading.

I created this chart below, with my students help! They came up with the italicized keywords below each reading comprehension strategy to help them remember the different reading skills they're practicing.

After they complete actively reading their story, students pick a few of their examples on the chart and explain how they used that specifc strategy on a certain page of their story book. Prior to this, I modeled how to conduct a Think-Aloud with their picture book so that after they complete this activity, they can do their own Think-Aloud with a partner or tin front of the he whole class even. When a student does a Think-Aloud, they read their book aloud and when they get to a page where they used one of the comprehension strategies they will have the language to say,  for example, "On this page, I used the synthesizing strategy to make sense of the character's behavior. At first I thought Trap (from Geronimo Stilton- Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye) was rude, but he is actually rather nice because he..." (This is an example from one of my 2nd grade students).

Strategies: Put the page number of your picture book or short chapter book in the boxes below each reading comprehension strategy as you use each one.

Questioning	Inferring	Visualizing	Determining Importance	Synthesizing	Making Connections
Ask yourself	Predict, Experience + Text Examples	Picture, Personal	Identify, Reread	Rethink, Changed thinking	Self, World, Text
Pg.

Cranes for Lisa

Fighting cancer with cranes! Students from the elementary school where I work made cranes for our librarian who is fighting cancer so courageously. We made a total of 1,201 cranes and our amazing secretary went to our beloved Lisa's house and strung the cranes for her to be reminded of our love for her and our wishes and prayers for a full recovery!

Biography Book Reports

My students have just finished up their 2nd book report of the year! These are some of the products they made...

Helen Keller
Annie Sullivan

MLK Jr.

On the back of the miniature people, students who chose to do the biography project had to write about the characteristics that made their person of interest important/famous and what they were famous for, his/her biographical information, and the student's reason for admiring that person. The Road Map...another project option, was done beautifully by a 1st grader. It takes you on a trip of Martin Luther King Jr's Life!