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

 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,

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?  

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.  

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. 🦊🌳  

 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.

 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.

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

In Brazil, we celebrate Father's Day on the second Sunday in August. I got this idea for my first-graders on Pinterest. We painted the hands in one class and the following class they drew themselves in the middle so it would look like they were about to hug their dad. I wrote I love you on the board for them to copy and they all practiced saying Happy Father's Day as I took their pictures. I thought this was so easy and adorable, plus, it can be used for other events, like, Mother's or Family Day, Valentine's Day or even to reinnforce vocabulary like hug or parts of the body. Happy Day, everyone!  

My first-graders have been talking about what they can and can't do. I had them decorate these paper wings I cut out.  I added a paper loop on the back of each wing so they could fit their hands in. In one class they glued sequins and fingerpainted the wings with different colors. The following class, they "flew" around the classroom as they repeated I can fly. They couldn't wait to take the wings home to fly around the house. 😀  

I strongly believe a Mystery Box is an essential item for any teacher teaching kids and teens. It can probably even be used for adults. I might just try it this semester since I do have an adult group on Saturdays.  There are so many ways you can use this box that's why it's so useful. It can be used to introduce vocabulary or sentences on slips, for example, place words in the box that are connected to the unit topic, have each student come and with their eyes closed pick a word, read it aloud, and try to guess what the unit is about. You can write their guesses on the board and then see how close they got to the correct answer. You can place different objects in the box and slowly show parts of the object for students to guess. The answer to a question can be placed in the box and at the end of the class a student can read the answer to see if students answered correctly. People always love a little mystery so this box is a great way to engage students and bring an unexpected

 My five-year-olds have been practicing playground vocabulary. And here's how we made our paper I-can-climb craft. They first folded a white sheet in the middle and drew their playgrounds. Then, we cut a strip of paper in any color, drew the monkey bar steps, and glued it onto the folded white paper. While the glue was drying, the kids drew themselves with their arms raised as if they were climbing something. They cut their drawings out and glued them onto the monkey bars. They were then able to share while practicing the sentence, I can climb. Pretty easy and simple.

This is pretty simple. We were studying clothes, specifically winter clothes. So, I cut out the shape of a long sleeved shirt. Everyone had a piece of paper with a hole in the shape of a shirt. Kids then had to go around the classroom placing their shirt in different places to get different colors and patterns. As they went around the class I asked them: what color is your shirt? They all had a different answers depending on where they placed their paper: my shirt is pink and orange or my shirt is blue, etc.  I punched out some snowflakes for them to glue to their papers to remind them we were talking about warm clothes.   

Took my 5-year-olds outside to find leaves to use as stamps to make forests. We were studying nature and of course the topic of trees came up. Back in the classroom with their chosen leaves of different sizes, we used yellow and blue paint to create our forest green. Some leaves we first painted yellow, stamped white paper, and then painted the leaves blue and stamped the same yellow prints. The other leaves we first painted blue and then yellow. The kids were curious about how the tones of green were somewhat different depending on what color we used first. We saved the leaves and each day observed as they hardened because of the dry paint and then withered away. They used crayons to draw and color the forest floor. Each part of this activity was exciting and created wonder.  

Which animals live underground? Well, ants do, so my five-year-olds made some tunnels for ants. We used toilet paper rolls glued onto a big brown piece of paper for the tunnels. Then the students made the ants. I used black paint to paint one of their fingers and they made three little circles, then used a black pen to draw the legs and antennae. After that, they glued googly eyes on the heads. Last we drew some leaves on green paper and also cut small strips of different tones of green paper to be the grass. We wanted it to look like the tunnels were underground. We made one ant, they'll probably make more next class, on a folded white paper and placed it coming out of one of the tunnels. I was able to use this ant colony to ask them how many ants and leaves there were, what color the ants were, if the ants were hungry, and they sponateously decided which ant was the queen. We were extremely proud of our ant colony creation. 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜  

My 5-year-olds are studying nature and the animals we can see in a forest. We made these owls out of cardboard, some leftover paper, and plastic bottle tops. We added a little stick for the owls to perch on. They could also finger paint some parts of the owl if they wanted to. We glued them onto black paper so it would look like it was nighttime.  When they were completely dry, we hid them around the room for students to find. We would help the kids by telling them if they were hot or cold. When they finally found their owl, we asked, what is it, and they had to say, it's an owl. I thought they all came out amazing!  

Who doesn't love to listen to a good song?! My little kids are studying about words to use to talk about feelings and specifically this day about what makes them happy. I used cardboard for the guitars. I made sure to cut them out before class because the cardboard was a little too hard for them to cut, although I do like them to be able to practice using scissors. The students painted them and glued the paper details. They pretended to play them the following classes as we sang our hello song and they would repeat the sentence: I feel happy when I listen to music.  The piano was drawn onto white paper but the black keys were srips of black paper the students glued onto their white keys. I let them choose the color of the paint they wanted for their hands. I painted each student´s hand and helped them stamp their pianos. We took around 3 classes to do all this. When the pianos were drying, I showed them a video of a little girl around their age playing the piano and they were mesme

 My little five-year olds are studying the letter P, so we made some pizza but with paper of course. I pre-cut small pieces of yellow paper for the cheesse and some small pieces of green paper for the oregano. In class, we cut red paper tomatoes and pepperoni, purple paper onions, and the kids drew mushrooms and cut them out. We practiced answering do you like pizza and repeated the names of all the toppings they added. They also practiced counting how many slices we had and also used their pizza to say, I'm hungry! They were very excited to take their pizza slices home to show their families.

My 5-year-olds made some messy art to practice the idea of messy and neat. It's always good to save pieces of paper from other projects, you just never know when they may come in handy. They would have made things even messier if we had had time. This  craft was really simple to make because there was no right or wrong, just cutting and gluing wherever they wanted to. Beautiful messy art. 😉

On the first day back to school, I had my new 5th-grade bilingual group talk abou their lives. They then wrote their names, decorated the letters, cut them out, folded them and then glued them on yellow craft paper. I asked them to write a positive word for each letter of their name that would describe a liitle who they are. I emphasized that they had to write positive words. When they were done, each student came to the front of the class to share their work. One of the most creatives characteristics was "not dumb" for the letter N. 😊 They were excited to take their 3D names home to show their families.   

 These explosion books are amazing! There are lots of tutorials on YouTube teaching us how to make them and they can be used for several different activities. I used one of these tutorials with my 5th-grade students and after they had made the shape for the book, we used it to do an activity about the story Treasure Island. They first had to answer some questions about the story and then create their own character to add to the story. They had to draw their character, describe it, and draw objects their characters would own or use in the story. Also, because they weren't really able to get into the story, this was a way to get them to get more excited about it. In the end, the trickiest part was folding the book but they got the hang of it faster than I did.   

 My bilingual 5th-graders were reading about wild animals and how their habitats are affected by humans. To wrap up the unit, I had them write a message to animals 100 years in the future. In their messages, they asked questions about what the world was like for the animals and if they were doing okay. Some students apologized for what humans had done to the planet while others drew the animals they were imagining. It was interesting to see how creative they got with their messages to the future. When they were done. they tied up their messages and glued them to paper bottles they had drawn and cut out as if we were going to throw these "bottles" in the ocean for animals to find in the future, find and read 😏  I then took these messages to another older group of students I had. I asked this group of older teens to imagine they were the animals receiving the messages 100 years in the future and for them to answer the messages. My 5th-graders were so excited to receive their b