Seahorse Under the Sea!

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, answers a question about the craft. They get so excited seeing their work be valued, shown to the class, and used for a fun activity. They are much more likely to remember the content we are teaching too.

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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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