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.