To start, each student made a jeep to wear around their neck and a pair of binoculars (made for toilet paper rolls). The teacher also got each student a safari hat to wear. Their job was to take their family on a "safari" ride around the room, pointing out all of the animals. All of the kids had so much fun with this, you could hear some of them saying, "now on your left are the zebras, and when you look up you can see some monkeys." They took their job as tour guide very seriously!
As families walked down the hallway they were greeted by a jeep big enough for 2 kids to sit in and a ticket booth/hut. The jeep was made from a furniture box and had 2 chairs inside with a dashboard, steering wheel and dashboard gauges. Parents were able to take pictures of their students "driving" the jeep. This jeep was the inspiration of Buzzing About Second Grade.
The jeep and ticket booth/hut was surrounded by parrots and student writing about their parrots. The parrot pattern was taken from DLTK.
Also in the hall were some chalk paintings of tigers and a zebra craft with student writing. The zebras were inspired from Tippytoe Crafts and the tigers were inspired by by this link.
Upon entering the classroom you were immediately emerged in the wild. There was a huge Acacia tree in the middle of the room with vines, monkeys and snakes hanging, and swinging from the vines.
The lions were made out of clay, paper, cardboard, yarn, felt, toilet paper rolls, foil, Popsicle sticks, foam, paper bags, sticks and acorns.
The kids did an anteater directed drawing, ant fingerprints, and watercolor Meerkats.
The rest of the room was filled with "life size" zebras, tigers, giraffes, a crocodile and elephant. We traced the animals and had the kids paint everything. We then stuffed everything with paper and either suspended it from the ceiling or used PVC pipe to stand it up.
Now, the question is, what should we do next year?
Happy creating!
Oh my word! How stinkin' cute!!
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Jessica Stanford
Mrs. Stanford's Class Blog
Thanks Jessica, it was so much fun to do and the kids LOVED it!
DeleteShawna
Those safari jeeps are beyond adorable!!! Love it!!
ReplyDeleteLisa
Learning Is Something to Treasure
Thanks Lisa! The kids had so much fun with those jeeps and many of the parents pretended with the kids. They pretended to get into the jeep and follow their child around as if they were really being driven around...it was so great to see!
DeleteShawna
This is awesome!!! It's my new theme for next year! I love it! Thank you!!!!!!! I'm your newest follower, by the way. Come visit when you have a chance!
ReplyDeleteAnn
The Caffeinated Classroom
Thanks Ann for coming to visit and becoming a friend. I just got back from visiting you...super cute blog!
DeleteShawna
WOW!! That is amazing. Quite the creativity and hard work. I can only imagine how much prep it took to bring this alive. I am sure the kids were so proud and the parents quite impressed! What an excellent job!
ReplyDelete