Teaching tornado safety through literacy

Tornado safety is an extremely important subject to teach no matter where one is teaching! This is another activity that can be altered depending on the grade level you are teaching, especially since a refresher is usually needed before tornado season starts no matter what grade level!

Materials Needed:

Book about tornadoes (magic school bus is a great one for younger grades, dependent on grade level)

Black construction paper

Pencil

White crayons

scissors 

Steps:

- Read grade level appropriate book about tornadoes to students

- Discuss as a class different safety tips during a tornado, importance of these tips/rules

- Write down these steps on a small piece of paper (one tip per piece of paper)

- Hand out one piece of paper to each student

- Give each student one piece of black construction paper

- Have the student trace an outline of a tornado on their paper with pencil

- Have the student cut out their tornado outline

- Have the student write down their safety tip with white crayon inside the tornado outline

Extension/Assessment:

- This activity should be done shortly before tornado season begins so that it is fresh in the students' minds.

- The students' tornadoes can then be taped up onto the wall inside the classroom as a reminder for the students of all the tips incase of emergency

- Students will be assessed during tornado drills performed by the school.

Learning the flower (science and art)

This activity is great because it can so easily be altered to fit any grade level!
For the younger children, I recommend providing a picture for the students, where the older children can draw their own picture!

Materials Needed:
- Paper
- List of terms
- Colored pencils
- Picture of flower *optional
- Textbook for proper labeling *optional
- Pen/permanent marker

Steps:
- Either have the students draw the outline of a flower, including all the parts to be labeled, or provide a handout
- Allow the children time to color their work of art
- Have the children use their textbook, or list of terms to label the flower

Extension/Assessment:
- Have the students label different types of flowers, then you can have them on the wall or in the hallway for students to see similarities and differences among flowers
- Have the children do this activity as a review for a test, or even do this activity as an assessment and do not provide the list of terms or allow use of the textbook.

Multiplication and Division with art (prime factorization)

While having students working with multiplication and division and learning prime factorization, it could be a more interactive and fun experience for your students to do this with more than just white paper and their pencil! The more a student is engaged, the more a student will remember and learn!

Materials Needed:
Three different colored papers or sticky notes
A white board, desk, large piece of paper
Pen/Permanent marker
Glue/tape

Steps:
Give your students a list of numbers for them to practice their prime factorization

If using paper-
- Have the student cut the paper into 3 different sized circles, squares, or whatever shape they choose
- Have the different sizes match the color. (example- orange-largest, purple-middle, blue-smallest)

If using sticky notes-
- Have three different colors available
- Have three different sizes or cut into three different sizes

Have the student write the number to be factored on the largest piece of paper/sticky note, then factor using the middle sized paper/sticky note, and continue with the smaller sized paper.
The student should glue/tape the paper shapes as they go so that they do not get mixed up

Extension/Assessment:
- For assessment the students should be tested regularly on their multiplication and division
- Extension- the students can be assigned different numbers, then present their prime factorizations to the class, or have these placed on the wall or white board for help within the classroom for all students.

Literacy and art (4th-5th grade)

To help promote literacy within reading, one easy quick art project is to have students create a "movie poster" for a story read in the classroom or at home.

Materials Needed:
Story book (short chapter book recommended)
poster board/card stock
Colored pencils, crayons, markers
Rulers

Steps:
After completing the story in the classroom or at home, have the student brainstorm important ideas
If time permits, have the student do a practice sketch of the "movie poster" on printer paper
Have the student draw out their sketch onto a poster board or card stock
Have the student color and finish their "movie poster"

Extensions/Assessment:

- Option for extension is to have students do a "movie poster" for each chapter instead of book as a whole
- Have students present to class (explain why they added what they did, why the colors, etc)
- Test/quiz on the book if it was one assigned to class as a whole

teaching 1st-3rd grade symmetry (Math and Art)

Students will work with art: line, shape, color, pattern, texture and space while exploring bilateral and radial symmetry to create a symmetric mask/face and begin a math lesson

Materials Needed:
Poster board/Card stock
Colored papers
Scissors
Glue/Glue sticks
*optional* shape stencils


Steps:
Have the students pick a poster board or card stock

Instruct the student that the face they create should look the same on both sides

Have the students sketch their shapes on different colored papers, and cut out the shapes

Have the students arrange the shapes on the poster board/card stock 

Have the students glue the shapes onto the paper/poster board

Extension

Explain key terms such as symmetry
Enter math lesson

Science- Does hot air rise?

To show preschoolers how hot air rises in a science lesson is surprisingly easy!
This lesson can also be connected with story time by reading The Magic School Bus: Inside the Hurricane.

Materials needed:

Piece of paper

Scissors

Tape

Lamp

Steps:

Draw a spiral on the paper

Cut out the spiral

Tape the thread to the spiral.

Hold the spiral by the thread above the warm/hot light bulb

Watch the hot air rise and make the paper spiral spin

Questions for assessment:

Ask your children why they think the spiral spins?

What does the light bulb do to the air?

What happens to the warm air? Where does it go?

What does this activity do to the spiral?

How can you add art into your classroom?

Many educators, administrators and parents are incredibly surprised to see how important the arts are in a student's learning. These people are even more surprised to see how easy it is to integrate art into the core subject areas!

As an elementary education major, the goal of this blog is to show educators how easy it is to do arts in their classroom while adding to the core subjects. This blog may also have parents encouraging their child's teacher to integrate arts into the classroom!!
This blog should be a helpful resource to all!!