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

 Still on the topic of camouflage and hiding in habitats, students used paint to create a colorful and then brownish background for their bugs and small animals to hide in. We first placed different colors of paint on a cardboard paper, spread the paint out with popsicle sticks (I think that was the best part), waited for the paint to dry, and then drew the animals with a black pencil. We glued some green paper to resemble the forest floor at the bottom. When they were done, they wrote about which animals they added to their forest. I wanted them to practice the plural there are , so they drew 2 of each animal. They glued their text to the back onto a paper handle, so they could easily take their work home and hang it up somewhere. We all loved the final result, and it was one more way for them to creatively practice the content and vocabulary from the story we read in class.

Our studies of what animals need and do to survive continue. This time, we wrote about owls. I introduced a story we are going to read called Twilight Hunt. It talks about different owls hunting at night to feed themselves and their babies.  We made our owls with paper, some gold sequins, and coffee pods for the eyes. My family got a coffee machine recently, and I have been waiting for a chance to recycle and/or reuse those plastic pods! The kids loved the idea. They said the activity smelled good. 😁🦉 Have you ever used these pods for a craft? Let me know!  

 Had my bilingual group rip paper to create stems for flowers, a sun and part of a tree. They were doubtful but it worked. They used scissors for the flowers which they cut from paper circles into spirals and then rolled the paper up around a pencil to get a flower effect. They had first written about what butterflies need to survive on a white sheet of paper and glued it to the back of the black paper. I asked them to highlight the important wordds from the texts. Today they will read their texts to the class and present their butterfly houses. Here are some examples of their work. The text is mine, I forgot to take pictures of their texts.😬

 My third-grade class has started studying animals and their habitats. After trying to find some animals which use their habitats to camouflage and hide, they made colorful backgrounds as habitats and chameleons in the same colors to show how chameleons can use their habitats to protect themselves. I've shared this idea here before. This time we glued the chameleons on small paper rings so they would stick out of the background a little and then glued everything to black paper to make the colors pop out. Students also practiced asking and answering each other: where is it? Here it is.

 My 3rd-grade bilingual class is studying animals and what they need to survive. We started talking about how we can describe animals, for example, a tiny, round, black, and red bug. Guessed it? Yeah, that’s a ladybug 🐞 They read about how they can use colors, shapes, and sizes to talk about different animals.  They then made ladybugs out of red paper, drew some details, and glued them to water bottle tops. They also made a leaf for their ladybug because one of the things they mentioned animals need to survive is a home. Different animals have different homes. We taped the leaves to popsicle sticks, mostly so they wouldn't get lost. At the end of the class, we made a game out of everything.  They placed their leaves on the floor. The ladybugs were placed around a meter away from their leaves. The students had to flick the ladybugs and try to get them as close to their leaves as possible. The student who was able to get their ladybug the closest won the game.  

  We are finally all back in the classroom, still wearing masks and maintaining our distance, but back. It was easier for my third-grade kids to use the "standing paper corner" idea to create a 3D Easter card. They enjoyed themselves and were so happy to take their cards home to decorate their homes. I also made a little paper bunny pocket with some chocolate for each student which they were very excited about. Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

I made a mini advent calendar for the week before Thanksgiving. Students cut out 8 leaves and write something they can do each day. Then, they paste the leaves over what they wrote by adding just a little glue at the tip of each one, so they can lift them up to see what's written underneath. They can make these to gift to a classmate or to take home to do with their families. I glued a paper handle on the back, so they can be hung on a doorknob or any other place.  The teacher can brainstorm what the students can write under the leaves, or let each student use their own creativity. Another idea is to make a collective one for the whole class to do together.  Hope you all have a nice time with your families this November. Stay safe and remember we always have something to be thankful for.