1-2-3 Come Fill A Pail Of Fun With Me

Double-Duty! Writing Prompts and Bulletin Boards

I love this time of year.  Standards have been taught, assessments are pretty much done, and I'm looking for some fun pre-summer things to plug in.  

Students are anxiously waiting for summer vacation so why not cash in on that enthusiasm and use it as a writing prompt?

I like to incorporate writing with a bit of art to turn these lessons into "craftivities". 

Students seem to enjoy them more, creating awesome results and I have an instant bulletin board or hallway decoration when things are starting to look a little sparce.

Make A Bucket List!

I'm happy to report I've achieved just about everything I've wanted to accomplish in a college notebook "bucket list" and that's a wonderful feeling.  I now have mini-bucket "to-do" lists on a daily basis which triggered this idea.

These colorful sand pail buckets make an adorable bulletin board or hallway display, or can simply be sent home with your students.  If you're homeschooling they are perfect for a summer scrapbook page.

Run off my masters on a variety of brightly colored construction paper and give students a choice of colors.  Make sure children choose a DIFFERENT color for their pail and shovel as it makes a nicer contrast and more colorful bulletin board.

Students CUT out their pails and write their name on the back of them.  Children also cut out their shovel and write their name on that as well.  If you want to make this even more of a keepsake, add their school picture to the shovel as well.  Cut two, 2-inch strips of complimentary-colored construction paper, and glue them together. Mine are 22 inches long.

Glue the ends to the back of the pail on either side, for a 3-D handle. I looped mine down so that it crossed over the written paper, and then I folded the right end down.

Have children brush on Elmer's school glue to the oval section of their pail and then sprinkle on play sand. Set the pails aside to dry.  You could also simply cut oval shapes using sandpaper.

While the pails are drying, students write their "bucket list" of all the things they want to do during the summer and then glue the list to the bottom of their sand pail.

Mount the pails on the bulletin board or wall with the shovels leaning against them.  Use light brown paper as a background so that it looks like a beach or big sandbox.

Two or three paper seagulls suspended from fish line, flying overhead, complete the picture.  The caption:  Our Summer Bucket List! You could expand this idea and have a "not fun" bucket list for another day of writing.

This would be a list of things students have to get done over the summer that they don't really want to do, like clean their rooms, do yard work, etc.  For these buckets and shovels they would pick colors they don't like. 

Click on the link to view/download Summer Fun Writing Prompts  Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

"People don't notice when it's winter or summer when they are happy." -Anton Checkov

I'm Going To Have A Whate Of A Good Time...

This is along the same lines as the "Bucket List" and "Having A Ball" writing prompts above.  

Make a cute end-of-the year bulletin board with summery flowers that will have your students using all sorts of skills and reinforcing lots of report card standards.  Here's how:

Look How I've Blossomed & Grown!

I weigh and measure my Y5's at the beginning and end of the year, so I can do all sorts of math extensions of how much they've grown. This information used to be on their report cards.

They subtract their beginning and ending height and weight, we add everyone's height and weight for grand totals, we graph who was the tallest and weighed the most, and we compare these to last year's totals.

Children go on a hunt to see if they can find things in the room that are as tall as they are, and we guess-timate a list of things that might weigh as much as they do.

If you have weighed and measured your students too, you can include it on their flower, if not simply have them write how else they have grown.  Discuss with your students what it means to "blossom".

Brainstorm with them ways they have grown since the beginning of the year.  For example, they have not just grown physically, but they are smarter.  What new things can they do now?  Jot these down on the white board.

This could also be a Venn Diagram of how they are the same and how they are different since the beginning of the year as well.

Run off the petal master on red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, and purple construction paper if you're using white paper plates, and on white construction or copy paper if you're using colored paper plates. 

You can have students cut these out, or have some of them pre-cut for younger children.

To add some color to white petals, students can write with a colored marker, or draw some colored lines on the petals. (See photo.)

Each student will need 8 petals, 1 stem, and 1 leaf. (If you want the leaves 3-dimensional then they need 2.)

Have students cut out the petals and write something on each one.  If you've kept track of their height and weight, students can incorporate this information on their petals.

The ruler master should be run off on lime or light green construction paper so that you can read the numbers.  I like to run off the leaves on an emerald green paper so that there is a contrast.

If you want your bulletin board to be 3-dimensional, have students glue their petals to the front of an 8" paper plate.

Write student's name under their photo, along with the date they started and ended school. I also write the grade they were in above their picture.  (See photo.)

Flip the plate over, the flower will then look rounded and the bulletin board will "pop" out at you.  If you are using sturdier, colored paper plates, leave them face up, as they are deeper and the edges pop up. 

Glue the leaves to the back of the ruler- stem.  You can make the leaves 3-D as well by gluing 2 together and folding one half up.

Glue the leaves to the back of the stem and the stem to the back of the plate.  Make sure that when they cut out their stem-ruler, they leave some blank space at the top so they can glue it to the plate and not cover their numbers.

You can leave the center of the flower white or you can add colored construction paper circles. 

To make the flowers even cuter and more of a keepsake, enlarge your students' school pictures on the copier and have them glue the photo to the center of their flower.

Cover the bulletin board with blue paper.  Snip green construction paper and use this as a grass border on the bottom.  Add a yellow circle for the sun in one corner. 

If you want to make it more 3-D, twist some yellow crepe paper and staple on some strands as rays.

Add your students' flowers to the grass and you're set.  Caption: Look how  ____________'s Preschool / Kindergarten / 1st grade students have blossomed and grown this year!

Click on the link to view/print the flower bulletin board patterns.