Phew! Welcome Back to School!

I have officially been back to school for 2 whole weeks (that's right- 10 days....we started on a MONDAY!). Much like many of you, I feel like I have been running some imaginary race, where I never reach the finish line! Even though there is a ton going on, I am happy to be back to school:) My new class is very sweet, and we're getting a lot done! One of the projects that we completed was "Just the Facts about..." Each student had his/her picture taken with a maginifying glass held near his/her eye. The pictures were so cute! I loved seeing how they turned out! Then students wrote facts about him/herself scattered around the picture. To complete this project, students mounted their paper/pictures on brown construction paper and traced/cut aluminum foil to make it look like a clipboard. This didn't take very long, and all of the students will love seeing their pictures in the hallway when they get to school tomorrow!  Here's a close-up of two kiddos' work:

 

We have done so much these past two weeks, but I wanted to show you this project. We read the story Miss Rumphius, about a woman whose dream it was to make the world a better place. She did so by planting lupine flowers that people in her community could enjoy. My students and I discussed how we could make our school a better place, and then they made bookmarks to connect to the story. Students created the background how they wanted using colored chalk. Then they were able to use paint to create the stem of the flower. Finally, students used their thumbs to make the pink/purple lupine flowers. I had the bookmarks laminated, and now students can enjoy their very own bookmark every single day!