Gingerbread Houses

Building gingerbread houses with the students is a seasonal activity that also develops oral language, reading and writing, and integrates Common Core Standards of science and technology.  Before we built the houses, we read some books about gingerbread houses (Jan Brett's The Gingerbread Baby) and a few different versions of the Gingerbread Boy.



We have also been writing and reading directions about building a gingerbread house.  For older students, they read a passage from ReadWorks.com and answered questions.  With the younger students, we wrote out on chart paper directions for putting together a gingerbread house.  Later children wrote about constructing their gingerbread houses in an informational piece and wrote a fiction

Materials for house construction:

Non-edible:  paper plates, muffin tin liners (for holding various decorating candies), small cups (Dixie cups work well for icing), popsicle sticks or knives for spreading icing, a bowl for mixing, hand mixer, if you are feeling adventurous- sandwich bags to use to "pipe" the icing


Optional:  a disposable table cloth, paper towels, small (rinsed and emptied) milk or juice cartons to build around

Food items:  egg whites (Egg Beaters are a good bet, they are pasteurized and no need to separate eggs), confectioner's sugar, cream of tartar, and graham crackers.  For decorating- the lighter the candy, the more likely it is to stick- sprinkles, Nerds, M & Ms, chocolate chips, more traditionally- gum drops and candy canes, but they are both heavy!

There are a variety of recipes for Royal icing, the white icing that hardens when it dries, here is one that I used:

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar  
•  2 egg whites, beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 

        Royal icing can be colored with food coloring
        - makes 4 cups
 (*if kids eat the icing, the eggs should be pasteurized)

Process: 
1.) Set up and out all of the materials 
     Each child receives:  a paper plate, a milk carton, a small cup for icing, a popsicle stick or   disposable knife, 6 graham cracker pieces
 
2.) Make the royal icing according to recipe

3.)  Children build the houses around the milk carton

4.)  After 5-10 minutes of drying time (they can read or color after washing their hands) start decorating
 

This was mad with gluten-free graham crackers, so proportions are different.

This is a super messy (but fun) activity-  be prepared!  

Leaf Rubbings

Such a great autumnal activity for any age group, because it can be extended and used in so many ways.  I do this with my preschooler just for fun and to create fall decorations, but at school, we can write leaf haikus, categorize leaves, as part of a nature study, for descriptive writing, leaf graphs- the possibilities are endless.

Materials:

leaves
paper (copy paper or scrap paper works well)
crayons (with paper peeled)

The first step is collecting leaves that are fairly freshly fallen and not too dry and brittle.  
Collect them in varying shapes and sizes (though smaller leaves are easier for smaller children). 

Place the leaves under the piece of paper and with the side of the crayon, rub over the top of the paper.  The outline of the leaf and all of the spines will appear.

Read alouds to support:

Mighty Girls Books

The website amightygirl.com offers huge amounts of resources for teachers (and parents) to empower girls.  One tool that is currently offered, is their top picks of read-alouds featuring strong women or girls.

The website itself is amazingly categorized, rich in history, contemporary women, literature and even television and movies.  Definitely worth perusing!

Below is the reading list link:

Mighty Girl reading list

Ghost Word Work Cups

An easy, low prep activity for welded sounds, blends, etc. 

Materials:  cups (plastic or small coffee cups work well), permanent markers, scissors
                  - adjust cup size to the development age/fine motor skills of child

Steps:  Pre-cut rectangular windows on each cup.

          1.  Give each child a permanent marker and have them write a blend or welded sound next to
              the rectangle.

          2.  Stack the cups.

          3.  In the window, have the child write the rest of the word.

          4.  Rotate one cup and in the next space, write the another word part.

          5.  Continue to rotate until words have been written in each space.

         6.  Draw eyes at the top of the cup and a mouth around the word rectangle.

         7.  Have the students read the words.

You can create a group of ghosts that review several sounds or have all children write the same words.

Halloween Spiders

A quick Halloween activity for kids. 

Materials:  circular objects or circles traced on oak tag, scissors, white colored pencils or crayons or googly eyes, pipe cleaners, thread or string, hole puncher

Steps:

1.  Have the kids trace a circular object on black construction paper for a head shape and a second, slightly larger circle for a body.

2.  Staple or glue the circles together.

3.  Draw eyes with a white crayon or stick googly eyes on. 
 
4.  Punch eight holes around the body circle.

5.  Cut pipe cleaners in half and feed them through the holes, twisting them near the body so that they stay in place. 

6.  Bend the legs.

7.  Punch a hole in the head and put thread through the top to hang it.

Robots

This is another speaking exercise in which students work in small groups to brainstorm ideas and then execute the illustration (or build a model if you are so inclined)!
The assignment is to design a robot that helps society in some way.  You can make the assignment broad or more specific.  The last time I gave it, it was with a group of fifteen year olds and we only had a half an hour to work with, so I left the assignment open, but with a time limit.  When they had completed their work, they had to explain it to the class and be open for questions and conversation.

A fun extension to the assignment is to have the students write a (fiction) story about some of the robots that their classmates have designed.


Materials:  chart paper, markers or crayons

one example of a robot

another example from the same group of students

Personal Timelines (Vertical format)

There are so many ways to do timelines, here is one example from an ESL summer program in which I teach.  Students chose major events from their lives (birthday, a sibling's birth, entering school, etc) and recorded them on a rectangular piece of paper.  We then hung them with ribbon and the students presented their own timeline to the class.  This was primarily a speaking exercise, but can be used for developing writing skills also.  I have used this at varying grade levels, though these students are fifteen years old.

Display of class timelines.

Close up of timeline.

Another rectangle on a student's timeline.