Snowflakes Stories & Sandy Hook Elementary

Its my turn to set up a bulletin board for January and I wanted to get ahead start on it before we leave for break. If your kids are anything like mine you know how antsy they get the last few days before vacation. I decided it's the perfect opportunity for some creative writing and encouraging my students to use their imagination.

I found these pins and was instantly pinspired!

Coffee Filter Snowflakes                                Copy Paper Foldable Snowflake

Guess which one of the two I chose to make with my kids?!? Yep, the copy paper foldable snowflake! 

I have plenty of paper in the classroom and it did not require me to go out and purchase anything.

I did have to practice making it a few times before I taught it to the kiddos though. 

There were no written instructions with the pin just pictures that I had to follow, so I made a little video for all of you if you wanted easy instructions.

Since my kids are foldable pros it didn't take them long to make them ;) I did stress that snowflakes are just like us, no two are alike. Each is unique! 

That statement did eliminate all the "does it look right?" questions.

Next, the students used their snowflakes to write an original story.

The brainstormed possible characters, 

(they had to turn the snowflake either into the protagonist or antagonist)

settings, and a plot.

We took our time reviewing the plot structure and began writing our first draft in class.

Students had to finish their draft for HW and revise & edit it in class the next day.

Today, we proceeded with creating our final copy and used blue construction papers with loose leaf lined paper layered on top of it.

Once the students copied their final stories onto the clean publication paper, they created cover sheets for their stories, attached their snowflake to it, and we posted them on our bulletin board.

For my South Florida kiddos that is as much snow as they'll see this season :)

I love that the bulletin board is completely kid created & holiday (content) free.

After we created our own snowflakes I found out that Sandy Hook Elementary's PTA is collecting student made snowflakes. They are creating an inviting Winter Wonderland theme to welcome back their students after winter break. They will collect them through Jan. 12.

They can be mailed to:

 Connecticut PTSA 

60 Connolly Parkway

Building 12, Suit 103

Hamden, CT. 06514

I ended up spending the day today walking into every classroom 3rd-8th teaching the kids how to make snowflakes and all will be sent to Sandy Hook Elementary tomorrow.

It was such a wonderful project that turned into a RAK opportunity :)