Earth month projects begin with spaceships and cute caterpillars

 All of the classes have studied space and planets during the last few weeks so to kick off a month of projects made from recycled, reused or re-purposed items the 1st and 2nd grades created spaceships. They were given paper towel tubes, tp tubes, paper egg cups, egg cartons, streamers, ribbons, and scrap paper. It was up to them how to craft their space ship. There were quite a variety produced and each is different (copied ideas aside.) The 2nd grade wanted to fly theirs, the 1st grade wanted to wear them.  Interesting wing arrangements and quite a few have pilots or passengers.
The kindergarten got to do another critter--this time a caterpillar. We used water bottle, donated paper cut into strips, & old gift wrap. The kids made their own eyes, mouths and noses were left-over bits of tissue paper. We did add colored chenille stems for antena.

2nd grade takes on space and completes the display

Take a styrofoam balls, styrofoam rings, a bit of paint and clay and the 2nd grade can create whole galaxies, well at the very least solar systems. The students worked in groups of 6 with each responsible for one or more planets, the sun, and moons. 


By the end of class they had everything ready to hang above their tables. 

A repeat of a previous project--we used paper towel tubes, paper egg cartons, construction paper and a heavy dose of imagination to create space ships to hang around our solar systems. 
Some had hatches that opened, some had fire to drive them, several had passengers, wings and fins were added in a variety of configurations. It is always great to see what they can do with the materials. 


Next week they will hang the solar systems to make the project complete. 

We were able to mount all the planets and their moons around the suns and hang them from the ceiling on foam core boards. The kids drew on and labeled the orbits then attached the balls to dental floss and taped them to the foam boards. Great look in the room!!