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

Loved these compass roses my 5th graders made using old magazines . We were exploring the question: why is it important to learn about other places? Of course the topic of maps came up and this craft was fast and easy to make. They were able to use the craft to explore the spelling and pronunciation of all the cardinal directions.   

Children are often ecstatic to celebrate their birthdays, and what better way to do so than with a delicious cake! Recently, my second-graders and I explored the idea of celebrating birthdays with family by creating smeared paint cakes. To make these cakes, I provided each student with a piece of craft paper onto which I added drops and lines of various colors of paint. The kids used a piece of cardboard to smear the paint and create a beautiful effect. Although a squeegee would have been ideal for this activity, I unfortunately did not have one on hand. During the following class, the students were asked to add their age number of candles to the cake, write "I celebrate my birthday," and add additional details using a black marker. The resulting artwork was truly interesting, and there were many gasps of awe and appreciation as we admired each smeared paint cake. The artwork was later used as the cover of the students' portfolios, which they will soon take home to share

    My second-graders recently created colorful Chinese New Year dragons using paper. As we were learning about different family traditions and holidays celebrated around the world, I provided them with pre-cut dragon heads and slips of paper, and they used their creativity to glue the pieces onto black paper along a line I had drawn. If time allows, in the future, I would love for the students to cut their own paper and draw their own lines to encourage more independent production. The black paper really made the colors of their dragons stand out! In the following class, the students also wrote 'Happy New Year' on the black paper using white pens or pencils

I did this actvity with my advanced teens group. In one class they had to choose some colors and squirt paint onto a white piece of paper 3 times and fold the paper in the middle so the paint would create different patterns like in a mirror. I didn't tell them what it would be for. I also told them not to write their names on the paper. The mystery made the actvity even more engaging.  The following class I handed the papers out randomly, asking them to hand back the paper if it was their own. Next, they had to use vocabulary words we were studying to write sentences about the person who had made the images. I asked them to imagine they were studying the student's personality through the "painting" they had created.  They had to really use their creativity and also make sure they understood the meanings of each new word they used. They all had fun trying to come up with their sentences and then trying to find out who the paper belonged to. Last, when students got thei

My second graders are still studying and talking about what families can do together. One of the topics we covered is that families celebrate holidays together. So, we talked about New Year's and watching fireworks. They wrote: Families celebrate holidays together. They then could illustrate their sentence with paper fireworks made from colorful strips of paper. We all were truely excited with the results.