Ocean Food Chains

There were so many ideas I didn't get a chance to share this year, so travel "back in time"with me to about 2 months ago, when we were studying ocean animals and food chains...I started doing these little ocean food chains back when I was a student teacher! They are so stinkin' fun to make, and they are such a fun visual to reinforce the concept!  Each child drew a giant shark, cut out a circle for the belly {well, I cut the circles--this was pretty hard for most of them}, then drew a fish, and cut out a circle belly, then added some plankton inside the fish!  Each piece was then taped to a piece of curling ribbon--but I have used yarn and string before too!  Teacher friends...this idea could be used with any food chain--you wouldn't have to wait until your ocean animals unit!

Shooting Stars!

Space craft-tivity of the week:  shooting stars!  Very simple to make (just takes a little prep work to cut all the ribbon), and the kids will have a BLAST making them fly!  

Directions:  

1. Cut 2 different lengths of banner strips (any color), and 3 or more different lengths of curling ribbon.  {Curl one or 2 of the curling ribbons with your scissors!}
2. Have the kids gather all of the ribbons together at one end, then twist together tightly, and tape to a square of aluminum foil.
3. Crumble up a paper ball, then wrap the foil (with ribbons attached) around the paper ball.  
4. Tie a piece of yarn to the ribbon bunch found right underneath the foil ball. {This is your flying string.}
5. Take the shooting stars outside to watch them fly!

They are AWESOME!!!!

Totally "Turkified"

Our school is totally "turkified". There are unique turkeys everywhere! Big ones, ones in disguise, handprint turkeys, sparkly turkeys, turkey glyphs, turkeys with real feathers, and turkeys with paper feathers. My class has done the same little turkeys every year, and I will probably do them every year until I decide to retire--coffee filter turkeys! I just love these little guys! This year has been the first year I tried them with googly eyes, and they turned out just as precious as always. To make the coloful feathers, the kids color all over a coffee filter with washable markers, then dip the coffee filter into a cup of water and let the marker colors run together. Next week I'm going to have the kids tell me how they would cook a turkey and compile their answers into a turkey cook book...should be hilarious!