Name Maps

Tuesday morning each student began working on a name map.  This is the first piece of work that will make its way to the hallway so that others in the building can learn about us.

Each name map includes the students name surrounded by pictures of things they enjoy.

 Bakarri and Micavela worked hard at making their name maps perfect!

 Reagan completed her name map and began working on an All About Me book that she did not have the chance to complete Monday morning.

Summer School Sun Art

This morning I joined forces with the fabulous Mrs. Davis and Mrs Watkins to create a bright and fun sun art project to display in the Leon Sheffield hallway.  We had around 20 upcoming 3rd through 5th graders attend the class and we all, teachers included, had a blast making our art project.

Mrs. Davis found the idea on a Teaching Blog.  Most teachers follow others teaching blogs and borrow their wonderful classroom ideas.  This is a wonderful example of how sharing what goes on in your classroom on a blog can be helpful to others.

Mrs. Watkins was the creative brain power behind the logistics (<---logistics is a big word.  Do you know what it means?) of this activity.  She is the artsy one so Mrs. Davis used a little strategy in selecting her to help with the activity.

I just volunteered my time to help with crowd control and the management of supplies.  What I didn't realize was that I would get to create my very own awesome sunshine painting!

Supplies:

1 Gallery Wrapped Canvas per person

Blue Paint

White Paint

Orange Paint

Yellow Paint

Red Paint (optional)

Paint Brushes (we used foam brushes)

Various Scrapbook Paper

Modge Podge

Bowls/Plates for paint

Step 1:  Paint the entire canvas, including the sides, blue.  The canvas is to resemble clouds.  We incorporated some white to provide a "cloudy" look and used swirls, zigzags, waves, etc...to create cool effects.

Step 2:  Once the blue paint is dry, use orange and yellow paint to create half of a sun on your canvas.  The bottom of the sun must be touching the side or the bottom of the canvas.

I chose to lay my canvas horizontally and place my sun at the bottom, but the canvas can be turned vertically and the sun can be placed on the side rather than the bottom regardless of the orientation of the canvas.

Step 3:  Cut strips of scrapbook paper to resemble sun rays.  Keep in mind that these strips do not need to be perfect.  Mrs. Watkins taught us that randomness was an important component of this activity!

Step 4:  Select a variety of strips to be the rays of your sun.  You will need approximately 8 strips.  Choose different sizes, colors, and patterns.  Once you have selected your rays you may paint the blue sky using the modge podge.  Modge podge acts as glue but it dries clear!  Lay your rays on top of the area that has been modge podged and then modge podge again.  This time you are sealing the rays in place.

Step 5:  Proudly present your work!

We had a great time!!!

If I found a pot of gold...

We are currently working on our writing skills.  We started small by writing a simple paragraph.  Our paragraph told what we would do if we found a pot of gold.  Some of the students ideas were to:  shop, buy a mansion, meet Justin Beiber, go to several concerts, and live in the White House.

Decking The Halls - Literally

We began getting in the Christmas spirit by decorating the LSMS Gingerbread House.  Each student decorated peppermints and peppermint sticks. 

 We took all of our materials and colorful cut-out circles to the house and began decorating.  It turned out so cute!

Later, each student received 3 post-it notes.  The students were asked to draw what comes to mind when they think of Christmas.  These post-its were used to form a large Christmas tree that we placed on our bulletin board in the hallway.

They also each received a coffee filter.  The students colored the coffee filters with washable markers and then sprayed them with water causing the colors to spread.  They folded their coffee filters into eights and then cut along the edges to create beautiful snowflakes.  To break things up in the hallway they also made white paper snowflakes.  Our hallway looks so festive!

The last thing we did was use snow globes to illustrate our favorite scenes from our favorite books.  I think each snow globe represents a different book.  They wrote about their scene at the bottom of the globe.  You should stop by and read some of them if you have a chance.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM MRS. UPTON'S CLASS!

Happy Halloween!

 This year the teachers chose to dress up as candy.  Mrs. White, Mrs. Parker, and I enjoyed being creative and making a fun costume!

 One of the activities the students did in class on Halloween was a Jack-O-Lantern Glyph.  These Jacks provide information about our class.  The stem height, smiles, noses, eyes, and vines all provide different bits of information like favorite Halloween treat, whether or not we like pumpkin pie, and if we've tried pumpkin seeds.  We had a GREAT time celebrating!

Self-Portraits & Autobiographical Poems

Yesterday we began working on a guess who self-portrait to hang in the hallway.

The inside of this self-portrait will host an autobiography poem.  Today we generated several lists of ideas to help us write our poems.