Message in a Bottle

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 bottles back with the answers. They were also very curious to know more about the students who had answered their letters. It was great to be able to see them use English spontaneously and to be so willing to do this activity even though we were almost at the end of the year and feeling tired. And, the best part was that they asked to do more activities like this one. 💓

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Eggs, Easter, and Mr. Rabbit's Portrait

It's chocolate time again! In Brazil, Easter means chocolate Easter eggs. Easter also brings to mind bunnies. Since we're still basically at home waiting to get vaccinated here, an Easter craft has to be made with something kids have at home, so egg cartons it is. Saw this with a range of different animals on Pinterest and thought I'd use it for a bunny Easter craft, so here's Mr. Rabbit's portrait. One of the good things about an egg carton is that it has some curves to it, which you can use for the rabbit's ears. I cut up a cereal box to use as the base, which is another thing kids will most likely have at home, of course, it can be any cardboard. I used markers to decorate the frame-like base. Let kids get creative here. I used hot glue just because I wanted everything to dry faster. I then painted the bunny white, waited for it to dry, and added the details with a black pen. The pink on the ears is also paint. I used a little bit of red and when it mixed wi...

Easter Part 2

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.

My Best Shot

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.

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

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