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

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 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!  

 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...

Lots of fish in the sea! In this activity, my second-graders first added some drops of light and dark blue paint on one side of a sheet of paper and then folded the paper in the middle to make the ocean background for their fish. While the paint was drying, they drew their fish on a magazine page. I gave them many colorful circles to fold in the middle and glue onto their fish to be the scales and one googly eye. After the paint had dried and they had cut out their fish, they wrote that fish can swim and have tails and then glued their fish onto the ocean paper. The following class, each student came to the front of the class to share their fish and read their sentence.  I always love that although they are all doing the same activity, each one comes out just a little bit different. 🐟  

My third-graders are still on the topic of how animals grow and change. After listening to a chant about changes in animals as they grow, we made these 3D spiders. Before they glued the spider legs to the yellow paper, they drew a spider web and wrote the sentence: spiders grow and change. The following class they made little playdough spider eggs and glued them to the web. We'll be using these spiders on the last day of class when parents come to our open house to see what their kids have been doing.  Just look at all the happy spider faces protecting their eggs! 💗  

  For my third-graders to illustrate a story, we made finger-painted sheep. They first used white paint to make the sheep, and while the paint was drying, they wrote what happened first, next, then, and finally in the story. We came up with the sequence together as a group. I wrote their ideas on the board for them to copy on notebook paper. When they were done, they drew the head and legs of the sheep on black paper, cut them out, and glued them to the bodies. They also glued googly eyes onto the head. One other thing some students did was to add a small slip of folded paper on the back of the head, so it would stick out a little. I always love the fact that each one comes out different, even though the idea is the same. In the following class, they each used their work to practice reading.

  We've been studying what happens first, next, then, and finally in a story. We're also still talking about what our responsibilities to each other are, so I thought the story of The Selfish Crocodile would be perfect. The story can be found on YouTube here . First, they watched the video, and we discussed the story and the moral they got from it. They then made a paper crocodile, and I elicited the sequence of the story from them. After they had written their ideas on the board, everyone copied the sequence on a white sheet of paper and glued it onto the back of the crocodile. I had them practice reading what they wrote in pairs. The green crocodile was my sample for them. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough green paper for the whole class, so the crocodiles came out very colorful. Luckily, the students ended up loving the different colors. I used a paper cutter for the paper circles, but you can also fold a paper sheet twice and cut out different-sized circles. I han...

I had my third graders make these frogs to share their favorite part of a story called Frog Brings Rain. They first made the paper frogs and then drew their favorite part on a white sheet of paper to glue inside. Then, they had to write a sentence about what they drew. Finally, each student came to the front of the class to share their drawing and their sentence. They really enjoy sharing their work with their friends. Plus, I believe it's essential for their work to have a purpose besides just me collecting and checking what they do. I made videos of their presentations and posted the videos for their parents to be able to see on an online platform I use called  Seesaw  .  

So, we are studying multiple-meaning words and at the same time we are working on the story Frog Brings rain. In the story, a snail lives in a spring, so I decided to have the students make snails. It's the same snail I made for the Shelby snail story (video below). I brought the circles which would be the snail shells already cut out, just to save time. The students folded a paper in the middle, drew a semicircle, and cut the folded paper. After they decorated the shell, they glued it onto the snail, then added the eyes and mouth. They wrote a short text inside the snail to practice using the 2 meanings of the word spring we are studying. I had each student read their text. I love snails and how creative we can be when we color or draw them. The kids were excited to take them home to show their parents.  

We've come to the end of our unit on animals and what they need to survive. One of the last texts was about how porcupines and sea urchins use spikes to protect themselves. I didn't want to use the usual toothpicks to make an animal so, of course, I decided to use paper.  I first explored the images of the animals with the students and discussed why spikes can be important to some animals. They then wrote a sentence about it and glued their sentence onto a black piece of paper. Next, we rolled up different-sized paper squares and rectangles to make the spikes and cut 2 or 3 slits on the sides to glue them to the black paper. Last, we glued the black paper to a yellow sheet and cut the sides to look like spikes. I loved how the final product looks like some modern art project. 😍  

   My third-grade class just finished studying about living things that produce their own light. I love using black paper to highlight other colors and thought black would be the perfect color for this activity. To start, students used gold and silver pens to draw the living things we have been studing. They added sequins to make the drawings pop out even more on the black background and some students added googly eyes to their fireflies. We glued their drawing onto another paper so they could not just write the names of their drawings but also add why each living thing uses light. They were all very engaged and amazed at how beautiful these creatures and fungi are.

 We made a game! Remember the standing paper I've used before? Well, we used it to make a habitat game. We first made four habitats using different colored paper, crayons, markers and sequins. We drew some of the details on white paper, like the trees for the forest and the cactus for the desert and glued them onto their habitats. We glued all the habitats together with a paper handle added to the middle. I wrote the names of the animals on paper circles and glued them onto bottle tops. Each student wrote on a white sheet of paper which animals lived in each habitat, for example, in the desert, there are snakes, lizards and spiders , and glued the paper on the bottom of all the habitats. Students then played the game. They had to mix the animal names up, and we timed how fast they could place them in the correct habitat. They were excited to see how fast they could do it. It was a fun way for them to not only practice thinking and discussing each habitat but to also practice readin...