Teresa Wilson (I can't remember the address, but you can google her name) has a cute idea based around gingerbread houses. I am going to do the same, only use haunted houses. The students have to plan their houses, write a paragraph describing how to make their house, and decide on a budget for their house. At the end of the unit, parents are going to join us to make our Haunted (gingerbread) houses. On Teresa Wilson's website, it is listed under seasonal ideas. I hope this helps.
I make a folded paper house out of black construction paper and the kids use scraps to decorate them, a great open ended craft project that lets creativity fly (set up guidelines about appropriate subject matter).
If you want I can try to describe the folding.
Then we do a version of the GLAD Farmer in the Dell lesson to create little poems to go into the part of the house that opens like a door. We often do this with our first grade buddies. They make a great bulletin board and the parts of speech practice in the poem make it a great skills lesson. I can supply the frame if anyone is interested.
Use a 18X12 black piece of construction paper (You can practice on your printer paper)
Holding it vertically, fold the top edge down flush to the bottom (hamburger fold).
With the hamburger still in front of you fold the right edge to the left edge.
Open the last fold and notice the crease in the center.
Fold the right and left edge flush with the center crease.
Now comes the tricky part, lift the top left center one layer corner and force it to the left. You should see what looks like the bottom of a half rowboat, take the crease in the bow of the boat and lay it on the crease below it. You may need to stick your finger into the corner.
Press it down evenly.
Repeat for the right side of the house.
Now you have the framework of the house. The Farmer in the Dell poem goes inside the door. We use the parts of speech brainstorming to help us decorate our haunted houses and to write our poems.
I just supply my scrap box and let the kids decorate, the only guidelines I set down are what types of things are appropriate for school. I am always amazed at the creativity on their houses and even beyond as they create things that extend off their houses.
The published poems fit inside the doors. The house and the poem can easily be done in 2 45 min lessons.
Enjoy!
I would be happy to post the parts of speech poem that goes with it.
If anyone gets this far and had success making the house with these directions please let me know (and if wasn't clear as well).
I would love to have a copy of the poem. You can post it here or send it to my e-mail - Selman1<img src="images/smilies/symb...img" />aol.com
Thanks, this is really a cute idea.
Set up about 6 ft of chart paper and fold it into 6 columns (not equal)
It should look like this:
The adjective, adjective, noun verb prepositional phrase
Brainstorm the parts of speech that would go with a haunted house.
I usually start with the nouns (these will be the things that they use to decorate folded house from above)
Make an exhausted list of all the parts of speech. Then the students write their poem following the frame (repeating the same 2 adj nouns phrases)
(sing to the Farmer in the Dell)
The adj, adj, noun
the adj, adj, noun
the adj, adj, noun
verb, prepositional phrase
ex of student poem
(sing to Farmer in the Dell)
The angry, spooky cat
the angry, spooky cat
the angry, spooky cat
lurks in the attic.
LUVmycat. thank you so much. I love your idea and created a model today. I also appreciate the parts of speech poem you posted. Your idea is so cute! Thank you again.
I am glad the directions were clear enough. I teach 3rd grade and we have done this with our first grade buddies for a few years. I absolutely love watching the kids get creative by just adorning their houses with scraps. They blow me away every year with some new 'creation.' Some kids have even inserted little lifts kindov like pop ups to have ghosts hovering above and around their houses.
Again, I always have to talk about what is appropriate for school.
The Farmer in the Dell lesson fits so many other applications as well.
I can't seem to get the instructions. Alot of them are not very clear to me. Could you please be more speficic. I would LOVE to do this activity with my children because it is so cute!!
10-01-2007, 06:05 PM
Simple View
