Little Turkeys Making Little Flocks of Little Turkeys!

Last time, the kids painted their luminaries. I took them home, repainted them (in some cases more than once), and then twisted and added the little blue glittery pipe cleaners and snowflake washi tape around the neck of each of the jars. I brought them back to school fully dry, decorated, and with a little tealight in the bottom.  The kids were so excited to see them and to be able to take them home!

Table Group 1

I love how this student put the house at the bottom so then the snowflake could fall...

Table Group 2

 

I like how this one put the house at the bottom and then overlapped the snowflakes!

Table Group 3

And this student also put the house at the bottom and then had a ring of snowflakes all around the jar!

So this past week was the Monday before Thanksgiving. So, the theme was of course, TURKEYS!

I had two different projects planned. Kids could make turkey place cards (4) and then they could each make a turkey coffee filter magnet.

Model minus the name written on the place card.

The place cards required students to take 4 different sized half scalloped circles and glue them onto each other for the feathers. Then they took a lopsided heart, turned it upside down, and stuck that to the front of the feathers. Add a couple of googly eyes, and then they stick them onto the top of a place card, and add a name with a sharpie. They could do this 4 times.

Then I had students who were done, work with me to use paint daubers to add color onto the folded over coffee filter, and then add a circle for the turkey face, and use a Popsicle stick with a magnet already glued onto it, on the back of the filter.

Yes, this IS my model! The turkey face couldn't have been made any more complicated than this. Trust me.

If I had not limited kids to four place cards, then they might have made the four I asked them to. Yes, you read that right. I told them they could make four, one for everyone in their families, and most of them made less than four.

Because kids were finishing faster with their place cards and not making the number assigned, they were all crowding around me, poking me, whining "I'm done! I want to make the magnet!"

AAAAARGH!

We got the projects done. I had no time for photos, since it was all I could do to get kids to make everything and clean up. Well, it was all I could do to get the kids to make some of the projects. Cleaning up still seems to be beyond their capabilities. Which is why I used a minimum of glue and the googly eyes were already adhesive.

As was the magnet tape I used. Note to self - buy and adhere the magnet tape in enough time to flatten it out. Or use magnets.

And I had pre-punched every single one of the circles, cut them in half, and arranged them into carefully counted piles so that each student would have enough supplies. So if you consider the math here: 4 half circles of different sizes x 4 place cards x 26 students + extra... and then divide the number of circles in half since we used half circles... Yeah, I must have punched about 250 circles and cut them all in half.  Yes, these are the things I do at night while watching TV. My husband is thankfully very forgiving.

It was another art class of mayhem, but at the end of the period, the kids got to take home their luminaries and their place cards and their magnets.

I received the most lovely thank you from one parent, who took pictures of the unlit and lit up luminary and posted it on Facebook. I printed that page for my own records and as a reminder.

That's what makes it all worth it. The smiles on the kid's faces and the thanks from their parents.