Around the World: Chile Rain Sticks

 

Hello all. We are continue with our study of South America with a stop in Chile. This week we made rain sticks out of paper towel rolls, foil, construction paper, and beans. The kids really liked making the rain sticks and thought it was cool that they are made out of dried out cactus. Here are some pictures.

 

Organizing handwriting

At my school we do Handwriting Without Tears, http://www.hwtears.com/hwt .  The school adopted it last year but myself and another teacher piloted the program the year before.  I have really liked it and I think it has been a big help and improvement over years past handwriting.  In the program the students have books they write in but they also have chalk boards and wood peices to make the letters.  The wood peices come in boxes and there are enough wood peices in each box for about 3-4 kids, depending on the letter you are doing.  I had the boxes labeled with a number and the pieces in them with the same number, but it still took a lot of time for the kids to get out pieces.  It was the same for the chalk boards, once you got out the boards, chalk, sponges, and rags it took time.  This year is different.  I go the ideas for organizing my handwriting from one of my fellow teachers and it is working wonderfully.  The wood pieces are out of the boxes; they are still labeled but now there are bags for each student with enough wood pieces for any letter.  The bags are in tubs for each table.  The boards are in containers with the chalk and rags for each table. I did the same for the workbooks.   Each tub and container are labeled for each table.  So far it has cut down on pass out time considerably and is much more organized.  Here are some pictures:

Here is the shelf with all the tubs for the books, wood pieces, and chalk boards.

These are the containers for the chalk boards

Inside look

The bags with the wood pieces

Around the world: South America

My next stop on my around the world tour is South America, looking at Brazil and Chile.  Both are new this year and I am really excited for both.  We just started and the kids are really liking it.  Here is my display for Chile and Brazil:

It contains a guiro rasp, Easter Island statue head, hat, rain stick, llama, parrot, carved bowl, both flags, and a cute brazilian jungle play set I found on amazon.
We started with the Amazon rain forest.  We learned about the 4 layers to the forest and the animals found there.  For an art project the kids made their own forest pictures.  The used tussue paper for the tree leaves, yarn for vines, and I found these cute frog and monkey shapes at Hobby Lobby.  (The frog is too big but looked cute.)  The kids really liked making them and did a great job.

More to come on including Easter Island statues and rain sticks.