Open-Ended Leprechaun Hats

So every year we are on Spring Break when St. Patrick's Day arrives. This year the day before our break began we celebrated it anyway. We made green punch to drink and read Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie DePaola.  We also made leprechaun hats. Now you know me-I'm not a fan of cutting out the pieces and having the students glue them together and all the hats look exactly the same. We had a Project Runway moment-I just put out construction paper and they completely designed their own hats. I asked them to think about their client (the leprechaun) and how they like things like gold and rainbows-but they were free to design that hat however they wanted to. They were very proud of those hats!

Inkblot Writing

I taught my students about symmetry and we did a simple activity to show what that may look like. The students put droplets of paint on a paper in whatever patterns/colors they chose. We folded the paper in half and smooshed down the paint and voila opened it to show a new picture. They were just amazed at the way they could make designs with just a few drops of paint! It also gave us something exciting to write about.

I asked them to write a sentence to describe their pictures-what did they see? Here's what we came up with:

an angel

butterfly

black leaves

dragonfly

a creative tree

a beautiful heart desiring a beautiful cast to my heart

Police car

a sky

birdie

butterfly

Selfies as Writing Inspiration

We are entering into our 4th semester and we write every single day. At this time of year sometimes it's hard to come up with creative ways to get them excited about writing. We had a rodeo dress up day at our school and I took a picture of myself in my cowboy hat. Now, I don't do selfies very often but I was inspired--what if the kids took selfies and used them as inspiration for a writing assignment? So I had everyone use my phone and take a pic of themselves. Some students were excited to do it, some smiled, some made funny faces, some were incredibly reluctant. I got the pictures printed and asked them to write what that selfie says about them. Here are just a few examples:

"I look like a darling".

"happy"

My picture looks cute.

When I do this project again I may also have them create a selfie from a character in a story or maybe a historical figure-what would their selfies look like? Extend it a little bit more. But for us, the week before Spring Break, it put a little excitement into our writing. :)

Perspective of a Cowboy/Cowgirl

Continuing with our rodeo theme this week, I asked the students to put themselves in the shoes (or I guess boots may be more appropriate) of a cowgirl or cowboy. How would life be different?What would you feel, hear, see, do. They came up with some really great responses!

I would feel country and my country accent. :)

Well, the fun of being a cowboy is lassoing things, isn't it? :)

Love the pink horse.

... I would not drive a car, I would ride my horse everywhere.

I would lasso the whole earth.

New Uses for Cotton Candy

Here in Houston the Rodeo is a BIG deal! They have a parade through the city with some of the livestock, there are concerts and barbecue cookoffs. We are reading books to go along with that theme this week. We read this one:

Which is a story about a boy who inadvertently trails cotton candy all over the fair.

I asked the students to come up with a new use for cotton candy-here is what they came up with:

Book Clubs

I facilitate for 2 after school book clubs for students at my school-one for K-2 age group and one for 3rd-5th Graders. 30 years ago a teacher started this program with her students and the district picked it up and created a competition based on the books. So we get a list every year of different books from our Library Services Dept.-most of the books are Bluebonnet Nominees, the rest are librarian suggestions/classics. Every school uses these lists differently.

For me, it's not so much about the contest, but creating an environment where we can discuss and get excited about books. I know personally, the best part about reading a book that you just LOVE is sharing that with others. I don't keep books after I've read them-I pass them on to someone else or donate them to Better World Books. We meet after school every week and I really try to keep things interesting. We read a book this year called A Fine Dessert which is about how they made whipped cream 300 years ago to today. So we made whipped cream by hand using a whisk and a mechanical beater. They were surprised at how difficult it was:

Sometimes it's just a matter of making a snack to make a book memorable-this was from Fish in a Tree:

We read several books this year about political activism which has sparked many conversations about society today. I am so impressed with how informed they are at this age-that may be one good thing coming out of our current government. :)

My favorite part is having moments like the one I had this week. We went to our competition, we came in 4th-I think it was a good experience for them. I always write notes to them thanking them for their hard work and participation. I also encourage them to continue on with the program in Middle School. One of the 5th Graders came to my room this week to tell me that they were indeed continue next year. I taught this student in Kindergarten and he has always had difficulty reading. I think he started attending book club because his friends did it. But when he told me he would continue next year....that made every hour spent with the kiddos worth it!

So if you don't already have one on your campus-I recommend starting one. It's incredibly rewarding! I have ideas on how to make it better in the future-I saved an article from SeeSaw on how the kids could record their review of the books and then comment on each others. I want to do a graphic novel club which would end in a Comic-Con type activity at the end. There are so many ways you can do it.

If I Were in a Dr. Seuss Story....

We read several books by the author this week and talked about the similarities in all of them-the rhymes, the made up names, the silly characters. So I asked my kiddos to think about what it would be like to be a character in one of his stories. This is what they came up with: