Pumpkin Painting

My father-in-law donated 60 pumpkins to our grade level for the students. We decided to paint the pumpkins to make them more festive. This was, obviously, the safety-first decision :)

Foil Boats - Science Experiment

According to our school's Science standards, each grade level should practice the scientific process at least once each quarter. We began 2nd quarter with a foil boat experiment.

Students worked in partners to create a boat from a single sheet of foil. Each group created a slightly different boat. My favorite idea was to use one of the partners' heads as a template for the boat (see photo below). The students also named their boats and shared how they came up with names. This may have been just as fun as the entire experiment for some! One at a time, the boats were placed in a pan of water and tested with half dollar coins.

After all the boats were tested, we discussed as a class which boats were able to hold more coins. The "winning" boats were larger with a flat surface on which the coins could rest. The smaller, more compact boats tended to sink with just a few coins.

 

*we added salt to the water to help with boyancy

May I Be Frank? Our Class Made Frankensteins

We are getting into the Halloween spirit in art with Frankenstein as our inspiration. The students were given orange, green, black, white, and red paper. They created their Frankenstein head/neck and got creative in making their monster however they wanted.

Red Ribbon Week - Ocean Door Decoration

Our school is celebrating Red Ribbon Week with a door decoration contest! I have a fish theme in my classroom, so of course my door decoration goes right along with that theme! Each student decorated a fish (white crayon and watercolors) for our door and we brainstormed 'pearls of wisdom' activities that we would rather do than get involved with drugs and put them in the treasure box.

Student Made Community Maps

To culminate our study of geography and map reading, each student created their own community map. They used the first letter of their first name to create the shape of their community. Each added a compass rose and a map key/legend with symbols represented on the map.

The students had a lot of fun creating these maps. Students added pools, airports, hospitals, water parks, mall, restaurants, homes/neighborhoods, beaches, forests, mountains, and much, much more!

Muliplication Game - Toss the Factor

Our new math curriculum (Math Expressions) covers the entire multiplication chart facts (0-10) within the first month and a half of school. Because of this, my students have been practicing their facts like crazy since the first day of school. Seriously: our first lesson of this curriculum was to introduce the 5s multiplication/ division tables.

To practice this, my students played a bean bag toss game. I whipped up these (lovely!) game boards for my the students to use. They toss two bean bags and multiply the two factors to find a product. The other students they are playing the toss game with check to make sure the product is correct. They LOVED this way of practicing their multiplication facts!

Timeline of Our Community

One of our Social Studies standards is to learn the history of the community we live in. After researching major events in our little town, we came up with a timeline. To jazz up the lesson, the students depicted each of the events in our timeline with their own art. I printed out each event and glued them to cardstock, partnered up the students, and let them get creative!