In my classroom this year, I have a handful of 'little geniuses' who always tend to finish their assignments before others can even start. It boggles my mind when I check their work I see that it's neat, complete, and accurate. Therefore, I've begun to invest myself this year in developing fun projects that this small group of students can engage themselves in at the back table.
This project is a landform map of California that the students created out of a large poster and tissue paper squares. The first step was to print a map of California and then project it onto a large poster so that I could trace the outline of the state. Next, my students looked at an actual landform map and drew the lines which separated the different landforms (as close as possible). Then, they created a map key for the different landforms. Last, they color coded the different landforms by gluing on colored tissue paper squares.
This vertebrates poster project was completed during our unit on animal classification. I pretty much completed the entire backdrop of the poster and the students did the rest. I had a large collection of animal magazines which they sorted through. Then, they cut out the animals and pasted them in their distinct categories: birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. My higher-level thinkers really enjoyed this project as it allowed them to think critically about each animal and debate amongst themselves a bit before they came to a final classification decision.
I hung both projects up from the ceiling with paper clips. They're so great to display in the classroom because they promote learning and appreciation.
