Sock Puppet Fundraiser...

My class made sock puppets to sell at the end of year to make money for the SPCA.  We managed to buy the socks when they were on sale.  

I helped the children to glue in the mouth plates and left them too it.  They chose the eyes and the type of hair for each puppet.  

When all the sock puppets were finished they were placed into brown paper bags.  The children really loved giving each puppet a name.  

On the front of each bag they wrote the name of the puppet, the puppet's age and the name of the puppet maker.  

All of the sock puppets sold in about 10 minutes!

  

Colour Poems

A few years back....that's how far I'm behind with my blog!  I have so many things to write about and share.  My aim this year is to catch up!

Anyway, getting children to create colour poems fits so well with feelings and the five senses.

Back then I thought carefully about how I wanted my eager learners to go about doing this.  None of them had written a colour poem before and had just been introduced to using the five senses in their personal recount writing.

I knew I had to get them out there in the school environment and explore their surroundings.

Day 1:
The children picked shapes out of a box then formed small groups.  They used an iPad to go and take photos or video footage of either anything green or anything blue.

Once back in the class children flicked threw their photos and started to explore the five senses.  I thought I could have kept them on the iPads to do this, but  I actually thought it would be quicker and a more powerful discussion face to face.  They used huge pieces of paper to write similes sentences about the colour green or blue using the 5 senses.  These sheets of paper were then stapled to the classroom walls.

Day 2 - 5:
I wanted to take this further.  We talked about other colours and I decided to use our class Pinterest as a tool.  I wanted to extend the children and to get them to really think about what objects, living or non-living were that colour.

Children worked in groups to find images for each colour.  They then picked a colour they really wanted to focus on.  Some children worked in groups and some wanted to work individually.

I created a sheet with the 5 senses that they could use to put down some key ideas.

Once each pair or individual had their sentence they wrote this out and stuck it to the whiteboard. Everyone then gave feedback and we looked at the vocabulary.  For instance, what other words could we use instead of big?

About Two weeks later...
The children then had to think how they'd illustrate their writing.  They used thick paper which had a canvas texture and water colour pencils.

Below is their finished pdf book.  The ePub version has each child or peer reading their sentence.

Be a Bucket Filler...

Making Buckets in the class....why not make some cardboard buckets?

Last year my learners created buckets with different pattern using cardboard, black vivid and water colour pencils.

This year the children created cardboard buckets using palette paint, crayon and glitter.

To view our finished buckets click here.

Be a Bucket Filler...The Bucket Fairy Movie

Have you filled a Bucket Today?

What a great concept to introduce into a classroom environment.  I came across this book while looking for books that could be used during Circle Time and could be linked with emotional literacy. At the time I pinned most of the books I found and called them Books with a Purpose.

I've been using this concept with children over the last three years.

The first time I used this book the children decided to make a difference and teach children about what it meant to be a Bucket Filler.  Our aim was to make a documentary to show children what it meant to be a bucket dipper and a bucket filler.  They liked the idea that we carried invisible buckets on our arms.

They surveyed groups of children throughout the school and asked them what problems they were having in the playground.  The scenarios the children used in their movie were based on the common problems they found.

First they used Show Me to record and sketch their ideas.  The writing for their movie script started orally. Once the draft script was developed it was re-drafted until the script was about 5 minutes long.

We decided to use puppets for this movie because this would appeal to our younger audience. Children auditioned for lead parts; everyone had a speaking part in the movie.  The children used iPads to video themselves to develop their puppeteering skills and to work using expression in their voice.  A group of children videoed and edited the documentary.

If you want to know how the children made their puppets click here.

The children set their movie at a school, designed and created their props.

Making the draws and bed for the bedroom scene in the movie....

Creating the principals office and playground scene...

All working together to create the backdrops and painting the draws and bed...

The finished bed and the playground backdrop is nearly finished...

To view the movie the children created click here.