USA Paper Pillows - End of Year Project

One of the projects we did in the countdown to summer were USA paper pillows. I learned about this idea years ago from Teaching in Room 6.  She would have her kids make pillows about the 13 colonies.  Back in those days I taught 4th grade, so would have the kids draw the outline of California (since that's what our SS was all about), decorate it, cut it out, staple most of it shut, and stuff it with the left over paper before the final staple. 

I stopped doing that project when moving to 5th... don't know why. I think because other projects started taking over. This year I needed to go simple with projects that the kids could do at home.  I was reminded about it when Timehop popped up with my old 4th grade Open House pictures.  Seeing the California pillows hanging from the ceiling, I was reminded of how easy it was.  

When I was in 5th grade my elementary school used to have all the 5th graders head to the gym, where we had a huge USA state test.  Big paper on the lunch tables where we each had to draw the USA outline, and then fill in all the states and capitals.  So I decided to combine the ideas to make the pillows. 

It was fun.  It took a good 30 minutes, easily could have taken more.  Kids online and in class were both able to do it at the same time. 

I had the kids get 2 pieces of copy paper.  Then I showed them an outline of the USA, did not have them try to free draw it - posting a picture in our TEAMS conversation for the kids at home, and leaving under the document camera for the kids in class... 

Here are the student directions:

1. Draw the outline of the USA on copy paper or construction paper. Make it big to take up the whole paper. 

2. Write our units in the middle of the map and decorate with little pictures. You can use color.

3. Put your map outline on top of another paper and bubble cut both papers out. One cut for both papers. Do not try and cut the lines perfectly. 

4. Tape or staple the 2 papers together, leaving one end open. 

(This year I gave in class students a long piece of tape, and they just used their scissors to cut little pieces - they couldn't share a stapler.)

5. Scrunch up the scraps of paper, fill the pillow, and finish closing. 

Then being almost 6th graders they tried to use the pillows to take a nap... silly kids.  :)  

This project is great as a review.  Choose a shape that has significance and have them review what they have learned on by writing notes on top. 

Hope it helps,

The Best Part of My Year {Did you grab THIS freebie?}

Here's another project that my students completed last week.  We spent time writing down our favorite units of the year and creating an ice cream sundae to stick it all together.  I wanted to have these sundaes up to show parents for Open House, there's something special about all their favorite memories in one place.

 

These 6 scoops of ice cream became our favorites of Writing, Reading, Math, Social Studies, Science, and an Art Project.  The kids first wrote, then colored their sundaes, then cut it out before gluing onto their favorite color of construction paper.  I love how they personalized their ice cream - they really are their favorites.  :)

Head over to TPT to download it.  It's the same thing from last year, just sharing again in case you didn't know me back then.  :)  Hope this helps someone!  

Figurative Language Flowers

Has your room went Figurative Language CRAZY??!  It's like spring hit and the kids are picking up on Figurative Language everywhere.  I LOVE it!  To celebrate spring, or maybe just Figurative Language, or maybe just another Open House project... we made a Figurative Language bulletin board.  The top has our CA poppies (which each petal has examples of Hyperbole, Alliteration, Simile, and Personification), and then on the bottom the kids created their Literal Idiom Art.  Oh - that just capitalized on their silliness these days.  The flowers are just a big template that I give my students that they trace onto orange construction paper and cut out (I use file folders to create the template).  After writing, they fold the petals forward to make them POP from the wall.  The idiom art came from The Peanut Gallery.  I glue them 4 per piece of construction paper and then cut the green edge to form grass that also pops off the wall.  It's the little things people...  

What are you doing to have fun with Figurative Language these days? Hope this helped someone!  

Open House 2015

I wanted to share some pictures from Open House last Thursday - warning, there was a food theme going on:

California Pillows - smaller version than in past years.  I just used 12 x 18 white construction paper folded in half and drew the basic outline for the kiddos.  They filled in the main topics on the front of CA, and there's a summary on the back.  

My students created a Book Buffet for their book reports (project from The Peanut Gallery) - I have no counters in the classroom though, so we had them all over the place.  In the back I had our Synonym Rolls and on the math wall they created Math Clocks with 12 topics we studied this year (the hands are pointing to their 2 favorites).  

Here's an up close view of the Synonym Rolls with my "cookie sheets".

We created Smores Inferences from Deb Hanson.  They were the perfect size to put on our pocket chart.  

Once again - here's my Earth Day board.  They kids still LOVE to show off their Agamographs by Jenny K.

On the back wall you can see those cupcakes - those were our Mini Biography Books.  Then we had our Self Portraits with our Braille names underneath.  Hanging were our Rainbow Goals for 3rd trimester, and our Theme Kites.  The kids separated out a square into 8 triangles, each triangle had a different theme we have learned about this year, complete with a definition and picture.  They are glued onto colored card stock with a crepe paper tail.  

We also had a board with Me Books, but since the kids' pictures are on the front I can't post it.  :)  Each Me Book was created out of 2 pages folded off center to create a flip book.  The kids had to write an Opinion paragraph, an Informative, and a Narrative - all about them! Super fun to read their writing.  

Under the board was our Best Part of the Year Ice Cream Sundaes.  The kids wrote their favorite thing they learned in each of the subjects.  

Hope you like it!  I had many kids stop by (not all from my class either).  Isn't it great to get those past students that just needed to stop by for a hug?!  :)  That made my night!  Also met some 3rd graders that were eager to check out what 4th graders do.

Do you love Open House?  Hate it?  

(Click the picture to visit my store.)  Have a great night!  

Class Canvas Portraits

Last summer I snatched these canvas packs at Michaels for a huge deal!  I wanted to have the kids create self portraits, and I'm so happy with how they turned out. 

Now before I dig into the 4 steps, I wanted to show you how I ended up putting them up on the wall.  I went the distance (since I was being OCD), and ended up tying yarn to a pushpin before stretching the yarn across the wall to another pushpin.  It helped a lot!  Usually I just eyeball everything, so this was a major accomplishment for me.  

Okay, onto the 4 steps.  The first day I passed out the canvases and the kids' cum pictures.  They used pencils to draw the outlines.  The next day we mixed paint to match their skin tones (starting with a brown base and adding a little white paint to the correct tone).  We used qtips to fill in only the skin, and then put it aside. 

The next day I had paint stations set up.  The kids took their canvases and went to a table to paint on their lips, another table to paint on their eye color, and the last to paint on their hair.

The final day the kids chose their favorite color, filled in the backgrounds, and added clothes.  Their cum pictures are on the bottom of their artwork.  Now they are up through Open House, but they will soon become the kids' Mother's Day presents.  :)  

I don't know if I'll always be able to complete this project, but I will definitely be looking for more canvases in the future!

Five for Friday/Saturday: Open House Pictures

I know I've shared a lot of our different projects over the past couple of weeks, wanted to show you how the classroom looked before the families started coming by on Thursday evening.  

This is the back wall - it has the Equivalent Fraction Laundry, Poetry Folders, Learning is Sweet ice cream bowls, and pictures of the kids from the first day of 4th grade.  The bubble gum books and braille names were on 3 sides of the room - it was nice to group things different this year, and not necessarily need everything to be the same exact thing on a single bulletin board. 

These are the tables - all 16 of their end of unit interactive folders, their art docent folder, their real poppy plant, clay poppy, and on the diorama they used our character pillars to make super heroes that battled against the "evils" of the world.  

I absolutely love how the room turned out.  The kites and CA pillows were flying overhead - will definitely be doing them again next year.  We watched a movie yesterday though, so all the hanging items came down and went home.  

Just another view...

Wanted to show this cute gift that I was given...  we celebrated Teacher Appreciation week this past week - so many goodies.  This is so cute that I almost don't want to use...  

Hope you had a good week!  Linking up all my Open House randomness with Doodlebugs.

CA Paper Pillows

Last night I actually had a chance to read my bloglist and I saw that Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6 was sharing her Floating Colony Pillows.  I got it in my head that my students could do the same type of thing for CA, so today they did (yes, I added another project even though I had said that I wasn't going to do anymore for Open House....).

It was actually pretty simple.  The longest part of it was cutting up the butcher paper, but even that was decent because I used my roll of IKEA butcher paper - the stuff I picked up last fall that I have done nothing with at school.  It turned out to be about 3 feet wide that was then folded in half.  

I had all the folded papers sitting under our heavy dictionaries until it was time for the project to try and make it as flat as possible.  Then I drew the basic shape of CA onto the papers.  (My example that I whipped out last night was filled with the ragged edge of the coast, but for my sanity I kept the northern part of CA intact - less staples today).

The kids cut on my pencil marks to make the above shape, through the folded paper, and I told them to save their scraps of paper.  That became the filling later on.  They used their scissors to hold the paper down as they wrote and drew the different units we have studied this year.   

This was on my whiteboard as they drew...  I wanted them to show the different regions, but also the Native Californians, Explorers, Missions, Gold Rush, Railroad/Train (which brought a ton of people westward), our state becoming a state, tourism, and the crops for our valley.   

The kids had a great time, and it was nice to see how they all came about.  I didn't do it for a grade, more to have fun celebrating all we have learned.  I know the kids could have drawn CA, but honestly I wanted to make sure that they ended up being a decent size to hang and display.  

When they were done decorating, I showed the first couple of them how to staple up half the edges, make snowballs with their scraps of paper, and GENTLY stuff the paper inside.  Then we finished up stapling.  Those first couple of kids then helped other kids with the staplers (being experts), and soon everyone was done.  The idea was to keep them on their desks for tomorrow night, but then I started thinking that hanging them would be better (space wise).  The corner was then hole punched, and they were hung with a pipe cleaner above their desks.  

Have a great night!  

Favorite Story - Reading Kites

I know I'm doing a double post today, but I'm sure you'll forgive.  :)  Every year my students make kites that fly above their desks for Open House.  In past years I have had it be more of an All About Me kind of thing, but this year I wanted it to be about their favorite stories that we've read.  

Each student got a piece of card stock (8 inch square) and a piece of colored copy paper (7 inch square).  I had hole punched the card stock beforehand.  I had them fold their copy paper into 4 triangles, and then trace over the lines.  The sections were set up like above.

First they chose a story - and wrote the title, author, and drew a picture.  Then they filled in the summary section by writing a couple of sentences about it.  The character and setting section needed to be both a picture and a description.  The theme area had to be what themes the story fit in and the WHY.

As they finished they glued the copy paper onto the card stock, making sure to leave room for the hole punch at the top corner, and then chose a color of crepe paper.  I have a bin filled with rolls of crepe paper - it's so easy to throw a party in the classroom. :)  

After school I put 2 kites back to back (it limits the amount of kites flying around to clutter the ceiling), and used a pipe cleaner to thread through the hole punch.  In the past I have always used yarn and paperclips to attach to the ceiling by it was SO EASY using a pipe cleaner.  I just twisted the top, bent it 90 degrees, and stuck it under the ceiling panel to hold it into place.  The kites are flying above the tables that the kids sit at - easy to show their parents on Thursday night's Open House.  

Hope you had a good day!  Linking this up with Holly's Tried it Tuesday.  

2 Years of Blogging - Open House Bulletin Boards

Today marks 2 years of this little blog.  2 whole years...  It has been an amazing experience and I thank you.

In the classroom today I was still prepping things for Open House. Thursday is quickly approaching.  Here are some more bulletin boards.  

I had to take down my math and writing boards to fit all these projects.  The kids have their poetry folders (opened) up, next to their bowl of ice cream, and their picture from the beginning of the year.  The poetry folder has an I Am Poem, a Color Poem, an Acrostic with their name, and one more that I can't quite remember at the moment...

Their bowls of ice cream have 6 scoops of ice cream of different units that they thought were challenging this year.  I asked them to choose units that they are proud of, that they didn't give up, and that they considered "fun" overall.  They were able to decorate their scoops of ice cream, and glued it onto the paper 1 scoop on top, 2 in the middle, 3 on the bottom.  When done, they then took the bottom of the paper and cut out 2 triangles to make a bowl, and then cut out their scoops so they couldn't see the construction paper around.  I love how it turned out.  :)   

  

The kids finished up their Bubblegum books last week too, and now have their pictures with them blowing a bubble on front.  Under their books are their braille names.  These books are around the classroom

  

Not everything has been prepping for the walls - we also made our CA poppies last week out of Model Magic.  I've done this project for many years, and Model Magic is the only clay that doesn't crumble and fall apart.  This year I was bummed that the store was out of white, but the orange kind that I picked up has been perfect - no need to paint!  These will be on their desks that night.

 I'm sure you can relate - it's been a crazy couple of weeks with the end of the school year quickly approaching.  I'm sorry that life has gotten nuts and I'm not able to blog as much at the moment.  Thanks again for 2 wonderful years!  

Five for Friday: Figurative Language, Fractions, and Flip Books

Can you tell I like alliterations?
I'm actually off school today to attend my son's Preschool Mother's Day Celebration.  It's not for a little bit, so I wanted to stop by and share what's kept me busy this week.

Open House is less than 1 week away, so we have been busy tackling a lot of projects.  

The other day we made our Literal Idiom Art by the Peanut Gallery.  I made them half size and glued it onto green construction paper.  We turned the edges of the construction paper into "grass".  Last year I made math flowers that went on top, this year I wanted it to turn into a figurative language wall - so we made some construction paper CA poppies.

I had forgotten how easy it was to make a template - copy it a few times on file folders, and then pass around the card stock so the kids could trace onto their own piece of construction paper.  I LOVE how they turned out.  On the 4 petals the kids had to write a simile, personification, hyperbole, and alliteration that all revolved around poppies.

  

We also finished up our Equivalent Fraction Laundry.  That was a fun project, and not hard.  

Step 1: Write equivalent fractions on the laundry

Step 2: Color background (a little grass, a lot of sky)

Step 3: Cut out laundry and check spacing

Step 4: Glue on popsicle sticks, yarn, and laundry

This week we have also been working on our Bubble Gum books.  The kids took 2 pieces of beige construction paper and made a flip book.  Then on the flaps they wrote opinion, persuasive, and narrative.  As a reminder, I had them trace the edges of the page flaps so they could remember how much room they had to write when the pages were open.  

*Opinion - Their opinion about gum, what's the best flavor, brand, etc.

*Persuasive - They tried to convince someone that they should have gum (Me, Parent, Principal - should be allowed at school, Dentist - should be allowed with braces).  They had to come up with reasons they thought it was a good idea.

*Narrative - Fiction or Nonfiction Story about gum

I took pictures of them pretending to blow a bubble, and have the pink balloons ready for next week to add as the cover.  The balloons will thread through their mouth in the picture so it will look that the bubble is coming directly out of their mouth, and then the entire picture & bubble will be glued onto their booklets.  

Yesterday was my birthday.  I love my birthday - May 8th is the best day of the entire year!!  My boys treated me like a princess, and my hubby surprised me too.  He brought flowers, a gigantic balloon, and a package of red vines to school.  I went out to lunch with my good friends, had a good laugh - and spent the day with 31 amazing ten year olds.  EVERYONE was on their best behavior.  :) 

Amazing day!  

My boys picked up some new "toys" for me (with the help of my hubby).  I had so much fun last night doodling with that Creative Pen and Touch Tablet.  My boys had fun too.  It plugs into my laptop (worked just to place on top of the keyboard), and then the images showed up on my screen.  I love to doodle, and now have a way to record what I draw!  :)  Little things!    

Like I mentioned above, I'm not at school today - spent yesterday afternoon getting ready for a sub.  Do you do the same type of thing - everything laid out on your desk, in order from morning to afternoon, with a ton of post its over everything?  I do leave actual plans too - they aren't in the picture, but were on the main cart with my sub binder.

Linking this all up with Doodlebugs!