Paper Lantern Lesson

For the past couple of weeks, I have been volunteering at my friend Maria's summer school. I had a lot of fun, and this is one of the reading lessons I worked on with the first and second graders.

To begin, I read aloud the book Red Knit Cap Girl by Naoko Stoop. I saw this book on display at the library and had to pick it up. It is about a little girl who wants to talk to the moon. She tries to use paper lanterns to get the moon's attention. The illustrations in this book are absolutely beautiful, and the story is very touching.

After the read-aloud, we created a beginning, middle, and end tri-fold. When we were finished writing, students drew illustrations to go with each part of the story. 

Then, the fun started! Since the girl in the story made paper lanterns to communicate with the moon, we made our own lanterns too! First, I blew up a balloon for each student. I found that smaller balloons were easier to hold and worked better for the activity.

I whipped up some mod podge by adding two parts glue for every one part of water. For five students and an example lantern, I used two four oz. bottles of glue and one cup of water. It is easier to mix if you heat up the glue and water in the microwave first.

Then, the students and I cut newspaper into strips and used the mod podge to cover the balloons. You need to leave an opening at the bottom and top to make the lantern. I drew circles on the balloons with permanent marker to remind the students.

We let the newspaper dry overnight on the balloons. The next day we covered the balloons with tissue paper, again using the mod podge. Once again, we let the balloons dry overnight.

Once everything had dried and was nice and hard, I punched holes on two sides of the paper lanterns. Then we tied twine to each side. Viola, lanterns! The kids had a lot of fun making these, and they turned out great. I will definitely be using this activity again! 

What have you all been making? I can't wait to see!

Sequencing

I have been working on sequencing with my third graders this past week. We had previously focused on putting events in order, but this lesson highlighted the use of sequencing words. To continue practicing this skill, we read a version of the popular fairy tale Cinderella. This also gave us the chance to review the elements of fairy tales. Some of these elements include princes, princesses, magic, and the phrases "once upon a time" and "lived happily ever after."

I particularly like this version of the classic fairy tale because it has a reader's theater version of Cinderella at the end. The kids really loved acting out the play, except for when the prince had to ask the princess to marry him. We all had a good laugh at that part!

Before reading the story, we discussed some common sequencing words to be on the look out for. These phrases included: in the beginning, next, then, the next day, later, at the end. When students finished reading the story, we went back and discussed which sequencing words/phrases were found in this version of Cinderella.

Then, we worked together to pick out the main events of the story and selected certain sequencing words to create a summary of the fairy tale.

Each main event was written on a notecard. I chose lined notecards to help students with their writing. We folded the notecard in half. On the outside, we wrote the sequencing word. Then, we wrote the event on the inside. We then glued the events in order on a long strip of construction paper.

The students really enjoyed creating these sequencing strips. They added a more creative spin on sequencing.

I also could not resist reviewing cause and effect with this story. Cinderella provides some great examples of cause and effect relationships. I created a graphic organizer that included three of the main events from the story. These events are found in most versions of Cinderella and could easily be used with a different version than the one I used in my lesson.

I listed the causes, and the students and I worked together to identify the corresponding effects.

Here is a look at the graphic organizer and the answer key. You can find your own copy by clicking on the image below. Enjoy!

I am also linking up with Teaching Blog Addict to share this free resource with as many wonderful teachers as possible! I cannot wait to see what everyone else has created!  :)