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Seahorse Under the Sea!

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 This was pretty easy for my first-grade students to make. They drew and colored their seahorses on white paper, following a step by step image. I made a loop with a strip of blue paper and glued it onto the blue paper base. Then they cut out their seahorses and glued them onto the loops so the seahorses looked like they were floating in front of the paper. Some kids also added some seaweed to their oceans. What I enjoy the most about what my students make is being able to use their creations to teach and review structures and vocabulary. And, the best part is that students pay more attention then if I just used random images from the internet. Look at all the questions I was able to ask them with this craft: How many seahorses are there? Where do seahorses live? What color is your seahorse? Which seahorse is bigger/smaller/the biggest? These questions can be also asked using the craft during a game of hot potato or even during a game of hide and seek and whoever finds the craft first,
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How many teeth are there?

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We're still under the sea and this time with hammerhead sharks! After watching a video about sharks, my first-graders were able to choose which one they wanted to make and surprisingly, they all chose the hammerhead. We used light and dark blue paper for the ocean and the head, and then purple paper for the mouth. The kids just drew everything with a pencil, cut them out and glued them all together. They also drew triangles on white paper, cut them out, and glued them onto the mouth and we were then able to practice answering how many teeth are there. I made sure they gave me complete answers: there are (ten) teeth. The eyes were pretty easy because they just glued googly eyes to the head. The sharks look friendly, don't they?  
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Under the Sea

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So, we made turtles out of egg cartons. Took us 3 classes because we, by we I mean me and my first graders, had to wait for the green paint to try before drawing the details on the shell with black markers. I glued the legs and heads on with a hot glue stick just because it was faster but it can be done with liquid glue just as well. The last class the kids made their "sea" so their turtles could be under the sea like they were supposed to be. I gave them some blue strips of paper to glue on their blue paper base and then they added the sequins. We are studying sea animals and still working on the prepositions in, on, and under, and this fit perfectly. Of course, I played the song Under the Sea for them to try to sing and mostly to look for the turtle in the music video.  
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The Fox is in the Forest!

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My first-graders are studying the letter F as in fox and forest. It took us 3 classes to get this whole craft done because we had to wait for the paint to dry but it was definitely worth it. I cut the heads and ears from egg cartons and had them paint only the white the first class. The following class they painted the orange part of the head including the ears. Then, finally, the third class, they added the details with a black marker and we used a hot glue gun to glue everthing onto this little black paper frame I already had. I pre-cut the leaves, they added the details and then used regulat white liquid glue to paste them around the fox. Last, on a small white paper they wrote: fox in the forest, and glued it onto the back of the black paper. They were all excited to take their work home to show their families. 🦊🌳  
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Van Gogh's Chair is in the House

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 My first-graders are studying what objects we can find in different parts of the house and of course, there are chairs. We watched a short video about Van Gogh's bedroom painting which they were flabbergasted to find out had sold at 117 million dollars. Then, we got busy making our own chairs (I made one too). I used a pencil to limit where they were supposed to draw their chair and they could add anything else they wanted to their bedrooms. When they were done, I cut the paper and glued their work onto another paper so it would stand up more firmly. I love to be able to use the kids' work to review vocabulary and that's what we did the following class with their chairs.
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Living in a City

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 Every time my first-graders finish a unit, I send all their work home from that unit along with a progress report in a big brown envelope. I usually glue some activity they did on the cover of the envelope but this time I decided to do something different. Since we're studying parts of a house and cities, I had them use different colors of paint on a square sponge to stamp their envelope creating houses and buildings on which they later added windows, doors and other details. I also had them write the sentence, I live in Brasilia. I believe I'll keep doing something like this in the future, so they have one more activity to show their families.
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Where is the monster?

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I used the standing 3-D triangle again with my first-graders. We were studying parts of the house and the preposition IN. They first made all the rooms in a house, one room per class, so it took us 4 classes to finish the complete house and glue everything togther with a paper bag handle glued in the middle so they could take it home more easily. They also had to write the names of the rooms. Last. I used plastic bottle tops for the students to make their little monsters. After they dried, I would say the monster is in the living room, for example, and the students tried to be the first to place the monster in the correct room. Then, I let the students say where the monster was for their classmates to place the monster in the correct room. They also got to place their monsters wherever they wanted and I asked them, where their monster was and they would say it's in the bedroom, for example. The class was really excited about this project and couldn't wait to take their houses h
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