Month: May 2018

Every year, I  have  my students fill out a time capsule worksheet that I keep in a jar labeled “time capsule” in my room.  They fill it out on the first day of school and I store it on the shelf until the last day.  The students get so excited to  see what they wrote, and are astonished by their answers.  This year, I decided to elevate the time capsule and actually make a more detailed time capsule craft, and complete it during the first week of school.

I turned it into a lesson to discuss:

• Using scissors
• Traffic patterns around the classroom
• Coloring expectations
• Complete sentence structure
• How to turn in assignments using the file sorter

Instead of putting them on the shelf immediately, I hung them up to display them in my classroom.  The students enjoyed looking at what the other students created.  I also had an immediate decoration in my classroom for any impromptu Marzano reviews.

After the first month, I took down their time capsules and stored them.  They easily fold flat and I was able to fit them in a shoe box shape box.

Mother’s Day Writing Craft

I am so fortunate to have wonderful parents that support my class that I wanted to create something special for my students’ moms.  Knowing that this will probably be one of the last homemade school gifts that my class moms will receive  I wanted to make a special keepsake, that was more than a simple craft or card.  I created 19 questions that my students answer about their mom or special person.  There are two versions so it fits non-traditional households, so all of my students can participate.  Students answer questions as to what is the best thing their mom cooks to what kind of princess they are most like and why.

The project takes about two hours to complete.  There are plenty of lines that the students can write detailed sentences.  I teach how to elaborate when I complete this lesson.  I do grade this project and there is a rubric included.