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

On the first day back to school, I had my new 5th-grade bilingual group talk abou their lives. They then wrote their names, decorated the letters, cut them out, folded them and then glued them on yellow craft paper. I asked them to write a positive word for each letter of their name that would describe a liitle who they are. I emphasized that they had to write positive words. When they were done, each student came to the front of the class to share their work. One of the most creatives characteristics was "not dumb" for the letter N. 😊 They were excited to take their 3D names home to show their families.   

 These explosion books are amazing! There are lots of tutorials on YouTube teaching us how to make them and they can be used for several different activities. I used one of these tutorials with my 5th-grade students and after they had made the shape for the book, we used it to do an activity about the story Treasure Island. They first had to answer some questions about the story and then create their own character to add to the story. They had to draw their character, describe it, and draw objects their characters would own or use in the story. Also, because they weren't really able to get into the story, this was a way to get them to get more excited about it. In the end, the trickiest part was folding the book but they got the hang of it faster than I did.   

 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...

 In Brazil, we're all coming back from our summer vacations. We usually have photos and memories of our trips and holidays on our phones, right? So I thought that a great way for students to share what they did is to get them to make a paper cell phone, draw a picture of their vacation on one side, and write about it on the back. We used thin pieces of cardboard from cereal boxes and then glued their paper phones on the cardboard They can then share their stories and drawings with the class. I had my 5th graders pass their paper phones around and everyone got to read about what their classmates did. I guess these phones can be allowed in class. 😉

I used this activity with all my groups this year, even adults. On the first day of class, I had them draw themselves. Depending on how old the students are, you can ask them to also write something about themselves under or next to their drawing, so you can get to know them better. Throughout the year, I used these cards to form pairs or groups and choose a helper or someone to read or answer a question. Sometimes I'd let one of the students pick a card too instead of me always doing the shuffling and picking. They were a great classroom management tool, and they really helped me save time. I let the kids take home their drawings on the last day of class. They enjoyed the opportunity to compare how much their drawing styles had changed from the beginning of the year to the present.  

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! 💗