It's Coming to a Close

The end of the year is quickly approaching!  We have 9 days of school left...single digits!  I can't believe it!  We're working hard on the K-PREP state assessment this week, so I've been trying to come up with some worthwhile activities that the kids can enjoy doing in the afternoons.

Source: 2nd Grade Pad 

I found this great pin on pinterest and we'll be doing this activity this week.  Special thanks to Cynthia at 2nd Grade Pad for the inspiration!  I can't wait for summer to be out on the lake!  I'll have my writing workshop books with me, but I'll be on the water!



Since our transition day is coming up soon and the second graders will be visiting us I thought it would be great to have a little gift for them!  We have done some prewriting to come up with ten helpful tips for them before they start third grade.  I made a top ten list for the kids to write their final drafts on using the cute, cute font, alphabet soup, from KPM Doodles.  While I was at it, I made top 5 pages for K/1 and top 10 pages for kindergarten through 5th grades!  You can download them for free at my TPT store!

Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher is having a 300 follower giveaway!  Congrats to her for reaching that milestone!  Go check out her terrific blog (click on her button below) and enter her giveaway for an e-gift card, items from her TPT store (she has great stuff), or a handmade pinterest inspired magnet board!  Yes, I just named 3 different items for 3 different winners!  3-6 Free Resources is having an amazing Mayday giveaway too!  There are too many prizes to name!  Definitely click on their button and check it out!

            
So, what are you doing to mark the end of the year with your students?

Getting Artsy

Our third graders just read Elena's Serenade from our Basal.  It's a story about a little girl from Mexico who wants to be a glassblower even though everyone, including her papa, thinks only men can be glassblowers.  She doesn't let being young and a girl stand in her way, and she follows her dreams!

I saw the perfect opportunity for an art project to go along with our story and began searching for ideas.  I found some great art teachers' blogs and ultimately found our project at Miss Oetken's blog ARTASTIC!  We didn't have any of the Graphix Shrink Sheet or anywhere in our small town to buy it so we went with the plastic punch cups.

After taking our reading test for the week we watched two videos about glassblowing.  First, we watched a PBS Kids video telling and showing us how glassblowing is done.  As if that wasn't amazing enough for my kiddos, we then watched a video about renowned artist Dale Chihuly.  We saw many of his famous pieces such as a tree in New York City's Botanical Gardens and explored his website looking at more examples of his art, like the ceiling of the Bellagio in Las Vegas!  They were truly in awe!

The kids wrote a paragraph about Elena and her glassblowing.  Then they wrote a paragraph about Dale Chihuly's work and made sure to use lots of adjectives and descriptive writing!  Finally they wrote about and drew what they would make if they were glassblowers and could make their own piece of art.  Fast forward to after lunch and each student gets to decorate a clear punch cup with colorful permanent markers.  I popped them into the toaster oven on broil for a few seconds to make our "glass sculptures".  They turned out great and the kids absolutely loved it!  Take a look at a few of our finished projects!

I'm so thankful to Miss Oetken for sharing this wonderful idea!  I think this is a keeper for next year too!  Have any of you ever done this or a similar project in your classes?  Our kids don't get to have an art class at my school so if you have any great ideas for incorporating art into the regular classroom please share!

Now, on a side note, make sure that you head over to Stellar Students and check out her 200 follower giveaway!  She's choosing 2 winners when her giveaway ends on Monday, April 30, at midnight to win items from her TPT store and more.  Click on her button below to go to her giveaway post!

A Monster-ously Fun Project

To go along with our frightfully fantastic theme this year (monsters), we made our own monsters during the first full week or school! I got the idea for this project from pinterest (where else?) and changed it up a bit to make it work for us! Thriving Third Graders posted a great blog post titled "Snow Art" showing off her students' shaving cream/glue snow men. Here they are!

The more I looked at these adorable creations, the less I wanted to wait until winter to make them. After thinking about how I could make this project unique for my classroom, I decided to try it out with some food coloring in the mix! From that, our shaving cream and glue monsters were born as was a great writing opportunity and a lesson in adding details! Take a look at them, and don't forget to check out the "snow art" blog post at http://thrivingthirdgraders.blogspot.com for her directions on how to make your own!

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! I know I enjoyed mine!