Platypus

Our next animal is a little unusual.  It has the bill like a duck, the tail like a beaver, the body like an otter, walks like a reptile, and lays eggs.  What is it you ask?  A Platypus.  Most of my students had heard of a platypus but were thrilled to learn more about these unusual creatures.  We learned what they eat and how they live and how they take care of their young.  Our favorite videos about the platypus we found on YouTube.  We found the platypus song addicting.  The kids kept asking me to play it again, and again, and AGAIN!  I'll be singing it for days! 

Our platypus art this week included making our own platypus with one fact they learned. 

Zebra

Our first and second graders are learning about unusual animals to prepare for their big research projects.  We started off with the zebra.  We compared the zebra stripes to our own fingerprints.  Each zebra has a unique set of stripes just like our fingerprints are unique to us.  We looked at the three types of fingerprints: the arch, the whorl and the loop, and classified our own prints. 

The kids tried to think of other animals that have unique coats like the zebra.  Can you think of any?


After we learned some fascinating facts about the zebra we read a clever book called "A is for Zebra".  The kids all had puzzled looks on their faces.  "Wait!  Z is for Zebra!"  Once we started reading our book they quickly learned why A is for Zebra.  This book uses the last letter of the word instead of the first.  We went through the whole alphabet and found many things in the pictures that ended with each letter. 

Our animal lesson wouldn't be complete without doing a fun art activity.  The kids cut out blank zebras (with no stripes).  We used marbles to paint the stripes on our zebras. What fun it is to roll the marbles around all over.  Some got more paint on the box than they got on the zebra, but that is part of the fun.  Here are our finished products.

Augmented reality

This has to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  The students color a picture and it magically comes to life with the app called ColAR Mix.  So you go from a picture like this:

To a picture like this: 

The kids can touch the screen and the zebra will move.  Touch different parts of the zebra and it will do different things.  AMAZING!  

Biography Project

My kids have been working for months on their biography projects.  Each one picked a person that has made an impact on our world.  The chosen people range from athletes, to singers, to presidents and scientists and everything in between.  The kids have researched facts on their person and will even dress like that person for their final presentations.   So what better way to showcase their hard work- BACKGROUNDS.  The kids each painted their own mural of sorts for a backdrop for their final presentations, a Living Museum.  Here are some of my favorites.  We found clipart on the internet, traced them on butcher paper and the kids had a blast painting them all.


                                                                     Rosa Parks

Frida Kahlo

Stan Lee

Michael Jordan

Abraham Lincoln

Christmas Around the World

How do you celebrate Christmas?  Do you think people celebrate differently in different parts of the world?  My third and fourth grade students decided to find out.  I found this great foldable activity from Teachers Pay Teachers Holidays Around the World.

All I needed was a few paper bags with the folded end snipped off.  Once folded in half it made a great book with pockets.

 I premade the books for my kids just to save some time.  The kids glued each page on to the book for each of the different countries.  Now it was time for some research.  The kids had their ipads equipped with QR Readers.  Each country had a QR code that once scanned, would take you to the different information about how they celebrated Christmas.  The kids would fill in the blanks from each page as they learned about how that country celebrated Christmas.  Each country was also equipped with an art activity.  These were small and easy but helped the kids remember what each country did to celebrate.  These art activities fit perfectly in the pockets for storage.

How Santa Got His Job

Well, the semester is almost over.  What better way to wind down than to do a few Santa activities.  We read How Santa Got His Job.  We talked about what Santa learned at each job that made him more successful.  The student's jobs right now is to be the best student they can be.  We talked about what we wanted to be when we grow up and what we could do now to help in our success later on.  The kids were encouraged to remember that we attend school to learn how to be a better worker in the future.

We also read Santa's New Suit and completed several of the writing activities included.  

TPT Santa's New Suit.  Their homework was to use their imagination and create a new suit for Santa.  

I think the kids thought the Santa Slime was their favorite though.  I found the recipe on Pinterest.  Here is the recipe we used: Santa Slime Recipe.  I had made oobleck before using white school glue but never with clear glue, or glitter glue.  

Snowmen at Night

What's more fun than watching Frozen? Reading about what snowmen do at night.  Who knew that the reason my snowman was always disheveled every morning is because he was out on the town every night?? Not only does this book have fun pictures of what the snowmen do, but on each page there are several hidden pictures.  My kids were so fascinated by the hidden pictures that I was not allowed to turn the page until we found them all!   

After reading this fun book, I let the kids watch a youtube of a funny snowman trapped in a snowglobe from Pixar.  

Trapped in a Snowglobe Snowman Video

My students also painted fun pictures of what they thought the snowmen did at night only using a Qtip.  I found this idea on pinterest.  

Once we were done, the students created borax snowflakes.  See video here: 

Borax snowflakes