All You Need is Paper (and a little love) ESL/EFL activities

Back to school for our second semester. Of course, we talked about what the kids did on their vacation. We brainstormed everything people do while on vacation and put all their ideas on the board. Next, I asked them to think of one of their best moments and imagine they had taken a photo of it. Then, we folded half of a white sheet in half, they drew their cameras and on the inside they had to draw their "photo" and write a sentence about it using the past. The sentence had to start with, on my vacation I_____. Last, we added string to their cameras so they could hang it around their neck like a real photographer and each student got to present their work to the class.  

Here's one more craft I did with my 4th-graders. They dipped their fingers in paint to make the little bunnies or eggs. We did the paint one day and the next day after the paint was completely dry, they added the details and wrote "Happy Easter"!  We folded half of a craft paper in half so it could stand up on a table. I had told them they could use it to decorate their houses for the holiday. This was fast and easy.  

Here are two super simple Easter crafts you can do with different ages. In the first craft, I made a bunny shape out of cardboard and glued on a plastic bottle top to use as a grip for a stamp. Just either paint the front of the bunny or dip it into a little paint from a plate and stamp a paper. Let the paint dry, glue the little tail on and have the kids write Happy Easter. And you're done.  In the second craft, I cut a small strip of paper and folded it in the middle so it would stand up. Next, I dipped my finger in a little bit of paint and stamped  the paper four  times. Let the paint dry and draw either bunnies or eggs and write Happy Easter. These are crafts you can do in one class if you don't use too much paint so everything dries fast. And you're done again.  

 I made a cardboard stand for that last minute substitution we might have to do. It has the opening routine with how are you, how old are you, what's the day, how's the weather, and letter of the day. The right side has community helpers kids have to match to their locations of work, two envelopes with memory games that can be changed, and an envelpoe with different words that can be used for a spelling bee or just a spelling activity. Everything was easy and fun to make. Depending on the age of your students, they could help make this. 😉

I had only one fifth grade student on the last day of class 😊 I had already planned on making a Christmas card with them so I told her we would make cards together. We first folded and cut a red piece of paper like the white paper in the photo. We laied the sheet flat out on the table and drew a wiggly line at the top to be the wire for the Christmas lights, We dipped our fingers in different colored paint to make the lights and while the paint was drying, we cut out 3 green triangles, each one just a little bit smaller than the other. We glued them together, added the sequins, and then glued the tree onto the cut out part of the red paper leaving just enough space to draw the tree trunk.  We added snow with a white pencil and then wrote Merry Christmas. I'm sure if I had more students they would have been creative with the details. We both ejoyed this Christmas card moment together and it was nice to talk as we worked and get to know her better.    

 Studying about food always makes me hungry! We've been talking about picnics and what people in Brazil usually take to one. My first-graders painted a white sheet of paper to look like a picnic towel then they made ants by dipping their fingers in black paint and stamping another white sheet. They then drew the legs and antennae. When eveything was dry, they cut the ants out and pasted them onto the picnic towel. Last, they made playdoh food and presented their picnics to the class.