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

This paper activity can be used in so many different ways! My first grade class is studying cities and the helpers who work in a community. We made this craft today to practice asking and answering about each helper. They showed their helper and I would ask them: where does the (firefighter) work? We drew 4 workers but more can be drawn. I let them choose which ones they wanted to draw. After folding each paper in the middle, they are glued back to back to each other. I made the same craft with my second grade class but instead of helpers we drew different kinds of transportation. I added a popsicle stick in the middle to be able to hold onto it and spin it around. Use your imagination with this and let me know how it goes.  

  Here's a really creative activity plus craft to practice places in the city and the use of there is/are. Students have to create 3 layers of their city by adding 3 different paper levels. The first buildings are drawn and colored on a sheet of paper, cut out and glued onto the blue creative paper which should be cut in half. The other 2 levels with the smaller buildings and the cars on the street have to be longer strips of paper than the blue one so they can be glued by their tips onto the first paper. After the city is ready, students should write about their city and glue it onto the back of the blue paper. Each student can show and describe their city to the class. The cities can also be placed around the classroom (we hope next year) for everybody to be able to check out and read about their friends' cities. Encourage students to be creative with their cities and only use yours for inspiration.                       ...

I had seen this art project on Pinterest and recently a friend sent me the idea on Instagram. My first grade bilingual class is studying communities and one of the places was a park with slides and swings. I didn't want them to just draw a playground and I thought making a model of a playground on an online class would be too challenging, so I decided to make this paper project into a crazy wild playground. All the students needed were strips of paper which they could decorate if they wanted to and a cardboard or some other paper to glue the strips onto. They loved the idea and it was really easy for them. When they were done, they all got to show their swings and slides to the class. And here is my wild playground.  

Kids love a guessing game! I'll be using this activity to review pet names. I'm having a student pick a color and then a number. They have to guess which pet is behind the door. If they guess correctly, they get a star. After we play, they can choose any pet and make their own door for the rest of the class to guess. I used 3 sheets of creative paper cut in the middle. This way, I was able to make 2 doors with each paper. I drew the pets on white paper, cut them out, and glued them in the doors after I had already drawn the doors and made the details. I didn't draw a cat and a dog because these are the easiest ones and we had made cats and dogs in other classes. I glued all the doors onto a piece of cardboard, so I can hold them all up at the same time for students to easily see. I really liked the final result and how all the colors look together.  

I want to do this when we finally go back to our classroom. Students in groups would make their take one posters with activities people can or can’t do and place them around the classroom. Everybody would go around the room and take slips of things they can do.  They then would sit in their groups and compare what they can do. After, they would write  sentences using their slips.  Last, students can also be divided into teams to mime the sentences.  

Still on the topic of pets, we will be talking about unusual pets people have. I will read the story A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni  besides the one they already have in their book. They will do this activity after they listen to the story. I drew a Pinterest inspired (almost always) on a box I had, colored it and cut it out. I glued it onto a bottle cap so students would be able to slide it around. I  then painted several chopsticks I have been saving from sushi orders for students to match with the colors of the chameleon. After the matching is done, they will draw their own chameleon to match one of the other sticks. One day, when we go back to our classrooms, I want to do this activity and have the students draw their chameleons and paint their own sticks for other students in the class to match up. I love chameleons, maybe, because we have all had to become one this year. 

                In August, my first grade class will be studying pets. I found some simple ideas for using corks to paint on Pinterest. Kids use the corks and paint  to stamp circles on a white sheet and complete the animals using a paintbrush or a pen. These animals can be cut out and glued onto bottle caps to produce other activities. You can have the students add or subtract animals. See how many animals there are altogether. You can use them to help students practice making or completing patterns.The animlas can also be used to play Tic-Tac-Toe. When they play, each time they place an animal, they have to say its name.  It's great to see how just one craft activity can be so flexible.