SCARECROWS

It's fall!  That means it's harvest time, teachers, ... which means you can turn your attention to scarecrows and all the fun they bring to your classroom.

When I pull out my scarecrow unit, I love to focus on compound words.  After all, SCARECROW is a compound word and it's one of the best ones to explain how compound words work.

Once I've introduced compound words, I immerse my students in them.  For example, I create a farm scene on a bulletin board.  It's amazing how many compound words you can reap on a farm!  Then, as the kiddos identify compound word pictures on the board, we label them.

How many more compounds can you find in this picture?

Once we have acquired a bank of compound words, each student chooses one to illustrate for a barn craftivity.

A display of these barns in the hallway is sure to cause a traffic jam.

We routinely have a shared reading of a poem which later is placed in our poetry center. Each child receives a copy to place in his/her poetry anthology.  The following scarecrow poem affords us the opportunity to find and highlight compound words in text:

Another compound word activity could be used as a center printable, an anchor activity, or something for fast finishers. It's a word find composed of compound words. It's a Google doc so you can grab a copy if you like.

Google Doc

All of these activities and many more are available in my thematic unit, cleverly named "Scarecrows." 

It is available on TpT and TN.  You'll harvest a lot of learning with it.

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Sneak into a New School Year -- Pt. 5

It's about time, teachers... to finish up Sneaker Day.

It's never too early to start your class writing stories.  For Sneaker Day, bring in an old, worn out, holey pair of sneakers.  Write a story as a whole class, giving the sneakers a history from the day they were made until today. 

Older and/or more capable students could write a chapter a day, giving you, the teacher, the opportunity to model writing traits and to "think out loud" as you record their ideas. Younger and/or less capable students could write a simple story about who wore the sneakers, where they have traveled, how the sneakers got their holes, etc.  Again, acting as the recorder, the teacher should model her thinking as she write the children's ideas.

Another activity for Sneaker Day is to give each child a blank sneaker outline.

Google doc

Ask them to design a new sneaker that is especially for school children.  What would they include in their special sneaker?  A calculator?  A ruler?  A computer?  A pencil sharpener? . . .  Extend this activity by having the students write about their sneaker's features.

Hopefully, you can use these Sneaker Day ideas to get your new school year off on the right foot!

If you liked these Sneaker Day activities, you may wish to download a copy of the them for FREE on TpT.

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Sneak into a New School Year -- Pt. 4

It's about time, teachers, ... for some creative expression on Sneaker Day. Following are some ideas for art projects.

Ask your students to make crayon rubbings of the soles of their sneakers. Newsprint works much better than construction paper. If you have left over crayons from last year, give those to your students to make the rubbings. They may be hesitant to peel the paper off their brand new box of crayons! For best results, students should rub in only 1 direction. "Scrubbing" back and forth often causes the paper to rip. For young children, taping the paper to the shoe is often helpful.

After all the students have completed their rubbings, you can use the rubbings to talk about patterns, shapes, texture, design, ... The rubbings could also be used for categorizing according to such things as shapes in the sole or added elements (brand name, logo, or designs).

For more fun, allow the students to swap shoes and make additional rubbings on the same piece of paper. Encourage them to use multiple colors. Let them decide when they have enough soles to make their picture complete.   

Another idea is to use a single rubbing and add details to it to make a picture.  

Notice that the fish artist used multiple colors to make the initial rubbing.  

Your class can make awesome, abstract paintings with shoelaces.  Collect several old shoelaces (even frayed and broken ones). Have the children dip one in tempera paint and then lay the shoelace on a piece of construction paper.

As the picture shows, you can use multiple colors of paint -- each color with its own shoelace.  Just be forewarned that unless you have extremely patient students who are willing to wait until the first color dries, you will eventually have shoelaces that are sporting multiple colors; not necessarily in a pleasing way.

To reduce the messy factor somewhat, tie one end of the shoelace to an old pencil that will span the width of the paint container. Then students can lift the shoelace out of the paint without immersing their fingers.  

There are many variations of this project. Make it a printing project by placing another sheet of paper on top of the shoelace that was placed on the paper as above.  By gently pressing down on the top paper, you will produce a negative print of the bottom paper. My preferred method for doing this is to simply fold a 9" x 12" piece of construction paper in half first.  Then put the paint soaked shoelace on one half; fold the other half over the top of the shoelace.  Unfold and you will have a lovely, symmetric print.

Start with the folded construction paper as described above. Again put the shoelace on just one half of the paper, leaving an inch or so hanging out.  Fold the paper over the top of the shoelace.  Then, applying pressure to the paper with one hand, pull the string out slowly.  This will create a lovely smeared effect.  I especially like to do this project with white paint on black paper or black paint on white paper.  The display is really striking.

Until next time --

Presidents' Day Craftivities

It's about time, teachers, to honor our presidents, especially those born in Feb.  I've got 2 craftivities that will brighten your classroom and engage your students.

#1:  Presidential Silhouettes and Weaving

For every student you will need 1 sheet each of red, white and blue 9"x12" construction paper.  You will also need cardboard patterns of Washington & Lincoln.  The beauty of this project is that by encouraging your students to choose 2 colors of their choice for the background, saving the 3rd for the silhouette, you will give your classroom a burst of color without having all 20+ projects look the same.  

Since paper weaving has been around forever, I'm assuming you know how to create the woven background.  After each student has chosen which 2 colors to use for the weaving part, ask them to exchange 1 of those sheets for about 6 - 8 pre-cut strips of the same color.  I always cut my strips about 1" wide for 1st graders. 

When the weaving is completed, each child should borrow the silhouette pattern of their choice to trace on their remaining sheet of paper.   After tracing, if they are careful about cutting out the silhouette, they can actually make a 2 sided craft.  One side features the traditional silhouette.  The other side can host the scraps from the silhouette making a reverse or negative image. (See Lincoln projects above.)  Of course, just gluing the silhouette on 1 side makes a perfectly good craft.

I strongly recommend cutting the patterns out of sturdy cardboard, such as from the back of a tablet of paper, in order to have them survive for next year's students.

You could also do the weaving project with patriotic symbols, such as the star, above.  And, again, you can use the scraps to create the negative on the backside.  A star and liberty bell pattern can be found below.

#2 Patriotic Chalk Art:

This is one of my all time favorite crafts, but please realize it can be quite messy.  The pattern piece above actually reflects 2 methods of making the chalk rubbings.  One uses the shape pattern and rubs out from the edges; the other uses the scrap or negative of the shape with rubbings going in toward the center.

For the bell images above, provide cardboard patterns for the shapes.  Ask your students to trace the pattern on construction paper (color doesn't matter).  Insist that they trace the pattern onto another piece of paper because if they all try to rub chalk on the pattern, you will endure many complaints about purple symbols.  Each child should use his/her own shape.  

After cutting the shape out, students should generously rub blue or red chalk around the edges of the shape.  They MUST do this on what I call a "dirty" sheet, which is actually paper reclaimed from the recycling box.  It is essential that they rub the chalk on while on the dirty sheet, then move to the chosen construction paper background.  Demonstrate holding the shape securely with one hand while pushing the chalk out onto the background paper with 1 finger (hence the messy part).  You can make this project as easy or challenging as you like by making a single shape on the background or using multiple shapes and colors all on the same background, perhaps creating complex patterns.

The negative version of this craft works much like the presidential silhouettes above.  After cutting out the shape, the student should tape the scraps together (see lower left corner) and then rub the chalk around the edges of the missing shape.  Again, this step must be done on a dirty sheet.  Then, holding the negative steady with one hand, have the children rub the chalk toward the center on their background paper.  

Clean up absolutely requires lots of soapy hand washing in order to prevent chalk smudges everywhere, and especially on their clothes.

These patterns can be cut out of card stock or heavier cardboard.  You should insist that the students not put chalk on your templates.  Who wants to have to remake the patterns year after year????

Enjoy Presidents' Day!

Leap Year FREEBIE!

It's about time, teachers, . . . for Leap Year.  So leap on over to my TpT store to download this freebie.  It has literacy center ideas, a craftivity link, and a couple of ideas for sponge activities that exercise your students' verbal fluency and orginality.  Here's what it looks like:

Remember, it's FREE.  You can download it here.  OK, you can start leaping for joy now. ;o)