My Super Heroes!

Hi Bloggetts,

The idea I am sharing today is a fun, joyful idea.  Looking at this project on the wall always makes me smile!

Here is the background:

Last year I went with my neighbors (who are dear friends) to their first grade daughter's Open House.  I brought my camera, which they thought was a little weird, but you all understand, right?  Well, thank goodness I brought my camera because I found LOTS of great ideas as I ran from class to class (which they also thought was a little weird).  There was one idea I loved so much that I quickly incorporated it into my own Open House.  How cute is this?!?!

That's my girl flying through the air!

I loved this idea so much, that I incorporated literature and even music into the lesson.  Here are the steps I took:

1) Read Quick as a Cricket to the class.  

2) Discuss the nouns (animal names) and adjectives in the book.

3) Play "Everything at Once" by Lenka.  (I learned about this song from a blog.  If it was your blog, just tell me and I will credit you for your great idea!)  I downloaded the song from iTunes to play to my class, but I just found a YouTube link that displays the lyrics while Lenka is singing.  (But you will have to quickly skip the ad if you use this!)
   Everything at Once

4)  Discuss the nouns and adjectives Lenka used in her song.

5)  Create a class list of adjectives that describe us and related nouns.  (Although I let my students choose whatever nouns and adjectives they wanted.)

6)  Students complete write five cloze sentences (I am as __________ as a __________.)  I actually gave mine a form to fill in to make it simple.
7)  I took photos of each student "flying".  At first I was too controlling and was trying to tell them how to stand.  This led to unhappy campers in my class and a very frustrated teacher!  I even had blue paper for them to pose in front of, thinking it would make it easier to cut the pictures out later - but it really didn't matter and it was sooooo hard to keep them in front of the blue paper!  Then I let them pose however they wanted for their flying photos and the results were much better!  Here are some examples:

Graceful!

Super Hero stance!

Original pose!

 

Superman pose!

8)  I typed up all of the poems and copied them on cloud paper (which I have never, ever been able to find at Dollar Store - sigh).
9)  I cut out my kiddos and glued their bodies to their poems and laminated.  (If I was brilliant, I would be able to do this all on my computer - but I am not brilliant!)
10)  I created a display titled: Mrs. Johnson's Super Heroes!  Thank you to the unknown teacher that had this on display in her classroom for me to see!

To close, I will leave you with the poem created by the future Steve Jobs / Bill Gates / Donald Trump.  (Andrew, when you make your first million, please remember your first grade teacher!)

When I questioned Andrew about the fat wire, he patiently explained to me that "fat wires" are actually very thin.  Who knew?  Oh, and the third line reads "I am as shocking as a circuit board."

Love to all,
Camille