Well this year's Open House was a success! My students proudly displayed all of their projects and shared their knowledge with their parents. We took part in 6 weeks of ocean research. We studied many ocean animals and wrote informational writing pieces in our ocean research journals. We also completed culminating art projects for each of the animals we learned about.
This was the bulletin board that is displayed in the hallway as you enter the classroom. Our octopus project welcomed the families into our ocean research center. To find out how we made our octopus art click here!
We made these adorable shell and pipe cleaner crabs. I ordered the shells online and the students painted them red. They then glued on the pipe cleaner legs and eyes.
The students wrote an informational piece on each ocean animal we studied. We compiled these pieces of writing in our Ocean Research Journals. The students had an impressive 10-page book for the event!
We created divers and three-dimensional turtles. I attached the turtles on a sponge painted paper bulletin board with green butcher paper seaweed.
After reading The Rainbow Fish and discussing the story elements, the students created their own Rainbow Fish with glitter scales of course!
These adorable clownfish were so much fun to make out of paper mache! We studied these amazing creatures then created the fish. The students put layers of paper dipped in paper mache paste all over a balloon. After a few days the fish were dry and ready to be painted. The students painted them using a shiny orange paint, then added white stripes. Then the orange foam fins and tail were added with hot glue. The mouth is made of model magic formed into a ring and the eyes are large google eyes. I hung the fish in the classroom with fishing line attached to the top fin of each fish.
The students chose 6 of their favorite ocean animals and completed a research cube. These cubes were hung around the room using fishing line. Grab these Animal Research Report Cubeshere!
We also read Mister Seahorse and created watercolor seahorses to display on a bulletin board. First the students used the wet-on-wet method and painted all over a piece of watercolor paper. Then the students sprinkled a little salt to create a textured/bubble effect. Once the paintings were dry, the students traced using a pattern I created and cut out their seahorse. After the seahorse body was cut, the students cut little spikes to add to the back and drew on eyes.
We also created humpback whale diagrams to display the students' knowledge of the beautiful sea creatures as well as their knowledge of the diagram text feature.
The students took part in collaborative diagrams. Together they used our informational text to create a diagram of a toothed whale or baleen whale. They completed these diagrams in groups of six and we proudly displayed them for the parents to see.
I am so proud of all of the hard work from my students this year. Open House was a great way to celebrate the end of the year! I will miss this group of kiddos so much!
