5 Activities for October in the Upper Grade Classrooms

I love everything about the Fall.  It's the perfect combination of weather, beauty, and all things cozy.  It's also one of my favourite months in the classroom.  We're starting to get our routines down pat, beginning of the year assessments are complete (or almost ... haha), and our classroom community vibes are pretty strong.  We can start to handle some more engaging and hands-on activities ... and in my opinion, there is no better month to do it.  

1.  Fall Poetry Books - Falling into Poetry is easy with this resource that's perfect for the beginning of the year when the leaves start to change.  Students get an introduction to many different forms of poetry, as well as figurative language.  There are examples of each type of poetry and figurative language device, as well as space for students to complete their own examples.  Completed pages turn into a beautiful poetry mini book.  Each poetry form also has a leaf outline so students can copy their best poems onto the leaf and colour for display.  There is a branch included for each student to make their own little poet-tree, or individual leaves could be added to a bulletin board, kraft paper tree in the classroom, or REAL branches for a gorgeous autumn display.  

I have also integrated this into an art activity, where students paint a Fall background on a page, then choose 2 -4 completed poem leaves to glue down onto the background for a beautiful writing and art piece.  Click either picture to take a closer peek at this resource in my store.

2.  Clay Sculpted Leaf Art - Every year I look forward to decorating my classroom with gorgeous Fall Leaf Art.  For these beautiful Fall Leaf bowls, we used air dry clay.  I had students pick a real leaf from the school ground (a fallen leaf, of course) - one they felt they could trace.  Students were each given some air dry clay to flatten out to about 1/4 of an inch thickness (and just slightly larger than the leaf they chose).  Note - be sure to have them work with the clay on some type of paper, it's no mess that way.  Students then used a pencil to trace around their leaves on the wet clay, and then used a plastic butter knife to "cut out" their leaves and draw on the veining (copying their real leaf).  When done, we put them vein side down, over some crumpled up paper to sort of form the leaves into a slight bowl shape.  It takes about 3 - 4 days to fully dry.  Once dry, paint (we used acrylic paint) the leaves in gorgeous Fall colours.  Experiment a bit with this.  Using a toothbrush to splatter some of the paint on top makes very realistic spotting on the leaf - and practice mixing and blending with colours.  We sealed our leaves with a spray varnish when complete, but you don't need to do this step.

3.  More Leaf Art - This Fall Leaf Art Lesson is perfect to study line, shape, form, and colour with the elements of design.  Students will trace 2 - 4 leaves on their page, then fill the rest of the page with concentric circles (if you're brave you can have students use a compass, or use the page I included with the circles already drawn).  Choose 3 or more warm colours for the leaves, and colour each section made (by the circles) in a pattern.  When the leaves are coloured, choose 3 or more cool colours for the background, again alternating colours in a pattern.  The leaves look like they're falling against a beautifully windy sky backdrop, or falling into a pool of water.

4.  ALL the Craftivities - While I do love to sneak in my 3D craftivities at different points in the year, I have to admit, all the Fall ones top my list.  These activities make the perfect station activity, or independent work activity so you can meet with small groups or get some assessment done while students are hard at work.  Each one takes approximately one week.  I usually have students finish 2 questions (2 panels) from Monday - Wednesday.  On Thursday they colour all the panels, and then Friday is assembly day.  I have craftivity packages for both literacy and math.  The October Literacy 3D Craftivities Bundle has two different book report resources covering story elements and reading comprehension (the pumpkins and the ghost), as well as a fun one for synonyms and over-used words.  The Fall Math Review 3D Activity Bundle has a candy corn place value review, as well as a pumpkin pie shaped activity with word problems (about pumpkin pies, of course).  Click on either title or picture to the right to see these resources in my TpT store.

5.  Fall Drama Circle - You can't have all that Fall beauty without a little drama. ;)  A drama circle, that is.  This is a new drama circle with a Fall theme - make a circle, hand out the cards, and have some fun.  If the weather is nice, this one is even better outside!  All drama circles now contain colour and black and white copies, and a observation rubric for assessment of drama skills.  Click HERE or on the picture below to take a peek.

You can find all of these Fall-themed resources in one bundle that can take you through the month of October in your classroom.  You can out my Fall Activity Bundle HERE, or by clicking the picture on the right.

And lastly, if you made it all the way to the bottom, reward yourself with this little Candy Corn Decimals Place Value Printable.  Just click on the picture to the right to grab a copy for yourself.  Happy Fall, Y'All!

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A Tree for all Seasons

I'd like to introduce you to the newest attraction in my classroom - our beautiful, life-size learning tree.  I am in love with it.  And so are my students.  Seriously in love.  It took me a few days to get it finished, and the students weren't quite convinced it was actually tree for the first day or two, but it was so very worth it.  It's going to be a permanent and treasured fixture in our classroom all year long.


It all started with these little back to school apples. I like to do this craftivity during the first week of school.  They tell me a lot about the students, let me get some quick insight into their writing skills, and look great in the classroom - especially during parent nights and open houses.  I usually just line them up along the top of our bookshelves for a perfect back to school display.

But then, two of my blogging friends raised the bar ... all the way to the top.  Mrs. Mathis' Homeroom  and Teaching is a Gift also completed this apple craftivity and sent me the most gorgeous pictures of the trees they made to hang the apples from.  I was hooked.  And I just knew I had to do this right away.  

I started with a roll of brown craft paper I bought at Staples (the kind you use to wrap packages in).  A small roll will do because you don't use all that much.  I cut a strip the length of the wall I was working on, and began scrunching it up and taping it to my metal wall with packing tape - now, these metal walls are terrible for tape actually sticking to them, but the packing tape has worked wonderfully.  For the branches I cut smaller strips and scrunched and twisted them up.  I slid in one end behind the trunk and taped it there, and then used another piece of tape at the end of the branch.

After the first day my students didn't believe this was really a tree.  I'm quite sure they questioned their new teacher's artistic talents.  lol

But then, as more branches were added, the tree began to take shape.  And then once the leaves went on (I used two colors of construction paper, cut out random leaf shapes, and just stapled the leaves to the branches), it really really started to look like a tree.  

To hang the apples, I stapled the apple leaves to the branches - two staples through one of the leaves, and it held perfectly.  One of the other teachers used tape, and the other hung them with Christmas hooks.  All three techniques have worked quite well.

Early November Update:  We've taken down our apples and added our Fall poetry leaves to the tree - and now it is a beautiful Poet-tree.  :)  The leaves may be dropping off the trees outside, but we have a gorgeous Fall tree of learning in the classroom to brighten our days.

If you've been following me on facebook or instagram, you may have already seen some of these pictures as part of my #project 188 - where I share a pic from my school day for each of our 188 school days (we just finished day 14).  I often share different pics on instagram and facebook, so be sure to follow both!  

Happy Sunday!!!

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Earth Day Ideas for the Classroom

Earth Day is coming up on Tuesday, and we always devote our whole day to it in the classroom.  Yes, we do believe that every day is Earth Day, and we're big on recyling and conserving energy in the classroom, but on April 22nd, we tend to go a bit bigger with our thoughts and actions.

Here are some ideas I've done in the classroom with my kiddos:

Integrating Art and Language into Earth Day

-  Earth Day Report Card - click on the link to try this freebie out.  Students complete a "green" report card for either their home, classroom, or school (all three versions are included).

- Recyled Earth Art Project - These are projects were a big hit!  I gave each student a piece of paper with the outline of the Earth on it.  They then used recycled magazines to fill in all the white space with the appropriate colours (green for the land, blue for the water, and a darker black, grey, or black for the outside area.  So simple, and so effective.

We put both of these ideas together on our Earth Day bulletin board.

I've recently updated this Recycled Art Idea to integrate Poetry Month, as well.  This "I am the Earth" activity has your students creating a collage of the Earth with recycled magazines or colored paper, and writing an "I Am" poem, from the point of view of the Earth.  My students' poems always contain the most beautiful phrases after we've spent some time discussing our impact on the Earth and the actions we can take.

Integrate Math into Earth Day

- Take the current math concept you are studying in class, and turn it into a problem-solving activity with an Earth Day Twist.  For this problem, we were studying perimeter and area.  Students completed their activity on half sheets of recycled chart paper, complete with diagrams.

Integrate Math and Phys Ed into Earth Day

- We usually get out for a yard clean-up on Earth Day (however, I doubt this one will be happening this year with all the snow we STILL have).  Last year we did a Yard Clean-Up Relay Race.  So much fun!  I divided the class into teams.  Each team had a garbage bag and a whiteboard.  As each person came in with their garbage to tag the next team member, the team also had to keep track of every piece they collected with tally marks on a white board.  The team that collected the most garbage won, but really, the whole school won with a clean yard.  We then used the data we collected on our white boards to complete a graphing activity.  We were amazed by the amount of garbage we were able to collect ... and requested a few more garbage cans be placed in the yard in hopes of reducing the amount of garbage.

Integrate Drama into Earth Day

- Have a little fun on Earth Day with this brand new Earth Day Drama Circle.  Students will love sharing ideas and information about Earth Day with this activity.

Integrate Technology into Earth Day
- We've been making infographics for Earth Day this year.  We're using a great site - www.easel.ly to create our infographics, and the students are LOVING it!  What a great way to integrate technology, research skills, and media all into one.  Another site you can use to make a graphic collage is www.mural.ly
I took some screenshots of some of the infographics my students are currently working on.

Integrate Language, Oral Speaking, and Leadership Skills into Earth Day

- This year my students have also written Earth Day announcements they plan to read over the P.A. system during morning announcements for the next two weeks.  Some of their announcements were research based about Earth Day, and some were activity based for the events we would be taking on in the school (I let the students choose their own topics for their announcements).  Because the students have an authentic audience, they took extra care with their writing, and their announcements turned out great!  We discussed using hooks to start our writing, and satisfying conclusion to end our announcements.

Integrate Language, Art, and FUN into Earth Day
- For our last Earth Day project this year, we plan to complete an Earth Day Craftivity I made.  This will be the final piece to our bulletin board display - alongside our announcements and infographics.  I can't wait to pull it all together!!!

You can see this Earth Day craftivity by clicking HERE.

I hope you enjoyed all these Earth Day ideas for your classroom!!!  How do you recognize the day in your classroom?

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