Tear Self-Portraits

When I taught 6th grade my teaching partner and I would have the students do a great activity during the first week of school. We would print each of their photos in black and white onto a full sheet of paper and then cut them in half down the middle. The students would paste half of their face onto a blank sheet of paper and then use their pencil to draw the missing half. This was a great activity because they were working on symmetry and it was a great display that we would leave up the whole year. Parents and visitors would always do double takes because they didn't realize at first glance that half of it was a drawing. Unfortunately I don't have photos to share of this activity.

Moving to 5th I didn't want to step on my previous partner's toes because she will have some of those kiddos next year. Besides I had seen what 5th grade does and I was excited to give it a try. They would have the students do tear self-portraits using only construction paper. It was an extremely challenging project because students have to go slowly and make small tears. In the end they came out pretty impressive, especially because most of them you can look at and totally see that kid.

                                

Day Two - Class Rules and Time Capsules

On the first day of school I always guide my students to create the classroom rules. I base this off the Ideal Classroom activity in the TRIBES book and it really helps the students understand the importance of having classroom rules (to keep us safe and help us learn). Usually the students come up with A LOT of rules and I help them narrow them down to five (and they are usually very similar, if not the same, year to year). This year, though, I was quite impressed with the rules that my students came up with, and they couldn't narrow it any further down from six. I always write the rules on a poster board and the kids sign this "contract" for the year.

We have been working on our first week time capsules. Yesterday the students wrote their first day letters to themselves and today they worked on a posted that includes: handprint, footprint, thumbprint, and list of favorites. I went around the room and cut a piece of string to the length of each students' height. All of these are placed in an envelope and sealed until the end of the year. I got some free envelopes a few years ago and loved the black ones, but never had a chance to use them. I figured this was a perfect opportunity. They put their photo on the front of their envelope and wrote on them in white crayon/pencil. We have a few more items to add to their time capsules before we seal them up! Here are a few from today.