Happiness.
To bridge my
Hmmm...what to create? How about a reflective tool?
At our local craft store, Jo-Ann, we located these fabulously, inexpensive wood blanks. Jo-Ann had so many shapes and sizes. I think we paid $.29 for each wood blank.
Next, little O and I painted them with acrylic paints we had around the house.
Using leftover scraps of patterned paper, little O traced each shaped and I cut out the shapes. We broke out a must-have, craft companion...Mod Podge! Here you can see little O gluing on the patterned paper to the painted wood blanks. Mod Podge is a craftucator's best friend.
After letting the Mod Podge dry (about 20 minutes), this is what they looked like. Kind of fresh & engaging, no?
To help transform these gems into a reflective tool to be used in the classroom, little O traced more shapes for me. This time, she used plain, colored paper.
I then cut out the traced shapes and wrote reflective prompts on them in black Sharpie marker. The reflective prompts included:
- Describe the main idea from today's lesson.
- Describe something new you learned today.
- Explain two new terms from today's lesson.
- How can you apply today's lesson?
- What other topics relate to today's lesson?
- Why is today's lesson important to you?
- How would you improve today's lesson?
Don't you love reflective questions?
The finished product, the reflective prompt side, looks like this......
To protect these Mod Podge, craftucation treasures, little O and I brushed on two layers of Mod Podge on each side. We let the Mod Podge dry about 20 minutes between layers. They are sealed and student-proof now!
Not that my college students are destructive, however, now they can happily risk a vanilla-soy-latte being spilled on them.
Oh, craftucation and happiness!
Jen
PS - I just used this reflective tool with my college students after teaching a lesson about identifiying gifted and talented students in preK-12 settings. When I polled my college students about the tool they described the colorful prompts as "cool, fun, unique and playful." More happiness.
PSS - Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! I personally don't need a week because I appreciate you all the time. True.
