[dmamec]

I am working on planning a short unit on bats...the key parts will involve reading fiction and nonfiction books about bats and recognizing the difference, doing some basic research and paragraph writing, etc.

I would love to find a few cute bat "projects" to display with our writing. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Angie]

paper plate bats, use the kids handprints to make the wings and the plate for the body/face. Paint them black.

Have the kids make a habitat diarama for the bats. I did this with my second graders 2 years ago and they loved it.

[ktbug6254]

I have done this activity K-2. We read a non-fiction book about bats, supplemented with Stellaluna. Then the kids write bat fact/opinion paragraphs--can be longer or shorter depending on the ability-level.

Then using sponge bats (in the past I have used a template that I printed out from Word and cut the bats out of a kitchen sponge--only to find this year that there are ready-made bat sponges at Michael's this year for 50c!), we sponge paint. The trick is using black construction paper for the background and then having pink, orange, red, and yellow tempera for the kids to dip their sponges in. They can sponge paint all over the paper. When the project is finished it looks like the bats are flying at sunset because of the warm colors and the black background!

After the paintings dry and we have edited our paragraphs, we attach them and display. It really makes a cool bulletin board! If you are not afraid of a little paint, you should try it!