Remembering September 11th - craft

"Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?"

I was doing my student teaching in Plainfield, Illinois with a group of 4th graders.  Ironically, that day I had planned to teach a Health lesson about dealing with death.  Boy, oh boy, did we need that lesson that day.

Fast forward 14 years . . .

Talking to a group of 7-year-olds (who weren't even a twinkle in their parents' eye 14 years ago) about the events of September 11th is not an easy thing to do.  They can't even comprehend the pain and bewilderment of such an event; the absolute betrayal and anger; the fear that it could happen again.

  But it is something that MUST be remembered.  Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day.  Just because a group of children weren't even alive, does not mean they shouldn't know and grow from it.  

So last Friday, I introduced September 11th with these two videos from YouTube.  

These do great job of  giving the facts of the day without being too much for the little ones.

American Heroes for Little Learners (Freebie) by Mel D Seusstastic

Then I found this A-MAZ-ING packet on TpT that has 42 pages coloring sheets.  The great thing is, that she provided several versions of the coloring sheet so you can make it match whatever you may be teaching about: like Memorial Day, Patriot Day, heroes, etc.

 I grabbed what I liked best, as well as, some construction paper.  I thought this coloring page would look great with an American flag.

Here's what you need for each student:

1 sheet (9x12) white construction paper 

1/4 of sheet of blue construction paper 

5 strips of red construction paper (these are 1" strips)

1 white star

(Click on the image below to get your own copy of the stars)

Start by cutting out a star and glue it to the blue paper.

Now glue the blue into the upper left corner of the white paper.

Start gluing strips at the very top, along the bottom edge of the blue and along the very bottom of the white.

Fill in the gaps with the last two strips and trim. 

So pretty!

~Stacy

Happy Mother's Day!

Whether we have our own, or our students give us a huge family, we are all mothers in our own right.  We love these babies as if they were our own and give them our whole hearts.  Though they move on at the end of the year, they will always be "Our Kids".  

Here is the Mother's Day gift we make each year:

I spotted this hand craft on Pinterest.  The link is in another language but it's pretty self explanatory.  

Then I googled Mother's Day Poems and I found this sweet one at "It Works for Bobbi".  

You can find more ideas how to use this poem here.  There is even a super-sweet Grandmother version!

I printed the poems out onto #8163 Avery Shipping Labels and then let the kiddos trim the excess with scalloped crafting scissors.

I punched a hole in the lip of the cup and tied that handprints with curling ribbon.

Happy Mother's Day!

~Stacy

{VERY Belated} Earth Day Fun!

Another Crafting, turned Reading, turned Writing opportunity happened in my classroom last week!  

   

Mel from The Pond posted this uber-cute Freebie a few weeks ago and it just started my wheels a-turnin'!

I grabbed my crafting binder and pulled out this beauty:

Click here for your own copy of the patterns.

And here is the great hold-up:  I had ordered some books from Scholastic but they didn't show up until Thursday afternoon.  But they were totally worth the wait!  My kiddos loved these books and they helped to inspire some conversations about conservation and recycling.

To put all this new info to perfect use, I used this:

A HUGE shout-out to Laura Ritter of Adventures in Multigrade for sharing this great page.

Click here to get a copy of this awesome freebie!

I just love how each item has its own personality!

And here is a final product using Mel's and Laura's freebies.  I think they all turned out great!

~Stacy

Some Great Things About Spring!!!!! {Crafting & Writing Freebie}

I can't believe I'm saying this, but SPRING HAS FINALLY SPRUNG here in Illinois!  We've had three consistent days above 50 degrees!  I know, right?  Many of us never thought this day would come!  And now that it has, we all have a little Spring Fever.  

So I pulled out my craft binder and found these cuties:

We always have a solid hour on Wednesday afternoons when kids are getting pulled out for Math RtI, Reading RtI, Title I, or the Reading Grandparents.  So instead of trying to do lessons,  I plan extension activities and crafts.

This is the result:

  

 Click here and here to get your own copy of the patterns.

And of course, these spring-y crafts got me thinking about all the great things about Spring.  So I pulled out all the books in my library that are Spring related.  I also like to keep old issues of Time for Kids.  I dug out magazines about gardening, thunderstorms and tornadoes, the effects of the sun, and insects.  We spent the last half of our crafting time reading.

I was actually amazed how many books I had that related to Spring in some way.

Hibernating Animals and Holidays 

Fiction and Gardening 

Weather and Life Cycles 

Non-Fiction and Time for Kids

And to put all that new information to good use, we wrote about all the great things about Spring!

Since most of my class struggles with writing, (and don't we all?!?!) I like to do a whole-class writing before I set them loose on their own.

Though this writing is more expository-like, I encourage my students to write using elements from narratives: an introductory and closing paragraph, and feeling and transition words. 

Now it's time to see what they can do on their own!

At my school, we use the 4-square writing method.  (I guess technically this is a 5-square.)

Click here to get your own copy of this graphic organizer.  

Here are a couple shots during our pre-write.  This part of the process is very slow because I have each student share what they're planning to write before they write it.  This gives the strugglers a chance to "steal" some ideas on what to write themselves.  I also refer to our whole-class writing often during this stage.  

But I gotta say that we are ROCKIN' this!  My kiddos are coming up with some A-MA-ZING sentences!

Then we did a little peer editing . . .

and voila!

Isn't great when a craft leads to a reading opportunity, which leads to writing opportunity?  Some connections MUST have been made. Right?