Bye Bye Blockbuster

Our local Blockbuster is going out of business.  I stopped by hoping to snag a few DVD's.   I didn't find anything, but was lucky to snag these backers for 10 for $1.00!   They are the cards that go behind the DVD box on the shelf.   

I am going to have a writing lesson and have students be movie critiques. I know they will give this writing assignment 2 thumbs up!

Community Helpers

My son is a 2nd grader and he learned about community helpers.  His teacher is AWESOME and I wanted to share the work he brought home. 

                                          This is his tri-fold of a community.

Here is his grocer.


Check out the food inside the bag!




He wrote clues about his community helper on the cover and drew a picture inside:

President's Weekend Buys

Today I went to Michael's Craft Store because I had a 25% off coupon for my entire purchase.  Not that I needed anything, but for $15.00 I  found....

These Smencils are great for reluctant writers. They smell so good!

I am going to use the scrapbook paper to make origami bookmarks.  These are so easy to make.

The stretchy frogs and glow in the dark spiders will go in our Mystery Reward Box.

We are working on "quotation marks" and the Making faces stickers will be perfect to create some fun dialogue.  After we do this I'll post.

I'm thinking they might be really
cute on a balloon, too!

Cursive Valentine's Day project

Our Third Grade class is learning cursive.  We copied a Valentine's Day poem in cursive, glued it on paper then laminated it.  I love to memorialize student's writing so someday they can look back at how they wrote in Third Grade.  They gave them to parents today.  Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Valentine Robots

Our Third Grade class created valentine robots to use when we distribute our valentine cards on Monday.  Here are a few:  

 

Directions were to use recycled materials to create a robot that would fit on your desk and have an opening big enough for valentines.   They are all so unique!

Warm up with a good book!

Our class created these mugs of hot chocolate for a bulletin board.  We used cotton balls for the marshmallows and wrote the title & author of our favorite book along with a book summary.

We could all use some warming up around here!  We've had 6 snow days this winter! This was taken during our last storm.

Symmetry Valentine Hearts

These are Valentine hearts made using symmetry.   They can be designed to be simple or elaborate.  I have done them with my Third Grade students and they turn out great using different colored backgrounds.   The craft of Pennsylvania German paper cutting is called Scherenschnitte.  (Try to say that 3 times fast!)

First create half a heart design on white paper and place it on two colors of 12" x 18" construction paper.  Be sure the paper is on the fold:

Then cut the outside of the heart shape and separate the two papers.   Keep one color solid.  Cut the inside heart design out:

Open up the paper:

Glue the heart on the background:

Here is an example of a heart with cats. It is more challenging due to the cutting:

These activity can be done with a range of grade levels and differentiated by difficulty.  Students may enjoy making up their own designs.  

I have also seen paper doilies cut into heart shapes and they look great!