Making the world a little brighter...

Every other week my class gets together with our 5th grade dual class (sidenote...check out my colleague Laura's blog as well @ Mrs. Castro's Class) to do a reading or writing activity. Recently we did a writing activity together tied to Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream for our country. After learning about Martin's dream, the kids worked together in the buddy pairs to compile their own dreams  for our world to make it a better place.

The kids each wrote a dream (the 5th graders were wonderful helpers for my kiddos) as well as each cut out a different colored hand to represent Martin's dream of us coming together and embracing diversity to attach!

Here are some examples of beautiful dreamers:

1.) "I have a dream that people will not fight."

2.) I have a dream that there is no war in the world."

1.) "I have a dream that people will play and learn more."

2.) "I have a dream that people will take care of animals."

As you can see, below each dream the student wrote his/her name on the shorter line. You could do this with another class, or within your own room by putting your students in partners. Or you could even have each student do it individually and write 2 dreams instead of one.

Here is our finished bulletin board with our dreams for our world!

If you'd like a free copy of this activity, click on the image below. It comes in English and Spanish.

(Border by Creative Clips)

In the spirit of thinking about how to make the world a little brighter, this week my kiddos completed their monthly service project. 

Our service project theme this month was "saying thanks" and "staying warm"!

Combine the two and we've got some adorable hot chocolate thank you cards.

First things first, yesterday, my kids and I taste tested some delicious hot chocolate after lunch and worked to describe it. Here is what we came up with:

Then today, we went back to this list and discussed which of the adjectives could also describe people, in particular the teachers and other staff members that work with us each day in our building. We outlined these words that described both hot chocolate and people with the blackish/brown marker.

After this, each of my kiddos received a post-it with the name of a teacher or staff member that has made a difference in our lives. 

I asked them to use 3 of the words from our chart that describe the selected individual to complete the key phrase "Hot chocolate is _________, ___________ and _____________. Just like you! Thank you for all that you do!"

They then glued their writing onto a hot chocolate mug (which you can snag free from Caitlin @ Kindergarten Smiles ) and glued on a few marshmallows for effect!

Finally, once they were finished, the kids brought over their project to me so I could add on the final touch- the real hot chocolate tied on by a ribbon to the back!

The kids had so much fun today delivering the chocolate to all of our super school helpers and were delighted to surprise them with such a simple gesture!

A little thank you goes a long way!

Here is the writing paper used for the activity if you'd like to try it out with your class in English!

(Border by Creative Clips)