Sunday, February 19, 2012

Our Symmetry Projects


Normally for symmetry, I cut  6 inch by 6 inch poster board squares for each student. Then I have students break the board down with a ruler by 1 inch by 1 inch squares. Then they use two to three crayons and draw a symmetrical design. I show them examples that I have collected over the years. In simplifying this project over the years,  I have had them choose shapes and letters from the alphabet. After that is finished, I have checked it.  Then I have them glue 1 inch by 1 inch construction paper squares of the color they used and they glue over their crayon shades. It is a pain but they love it. 

So since I have several students from last year, I couldn't do the same thing. I looked to Pinterest for inspiration. This blog totally inspired me and I am going to use for different projects. I created a smart notebook lesson about symmetry and Frank Lloyd Wright. Then we worked. It took about 3 days. Some had to redo. Some had tears. A lot enjoyed putting colors together. The students were in awe of what they looked like once they were on the windows. They all turned out beautiful! One thing that surprised me is that two of my high students struggled with this. I guess they couldn't tap into their creativity. I can't tell you how awesome they turned out..BUT I can show you.  I will totally do this AGAIN next year. 

*I have several more but I they were in the lunchroom and the doors were locked so I couldn't take pictures of them. I will later next week and add them.  



Saturday, February 11, 2012

mY rECent ReAd AlouD

I enjoy reading to my students and I feel that they enjoy being read to as welll. Last year, I read almost the entire series about Poppy from Avi. I love that series. I can't wait to read it next year to my upcoming 4th graders. This month I started reading Cricket in Times Square by George Selden. I have never read all of it just little excerpts from our reading anthologies. So we started reading it and I found an awesome website that has activities to go along with some of the chapters. This is where I am getting my inspiration for the different activities. Here is a LINK to it. Below are pictures of crickets that I had the students create. They created their own "pet" cricket. We used clothespins, pipe cleaners, markers, and tissue paper. The next day, they grabbed their crickets, and sat with them while I read a chapter from the book. So cute!