My kids are tested out. It has been non-stop testing ever since April and they have had it. With 3 days left, I want to try and make these next few days enjoyable for them. Especially since they will be testing up until the last day of school. Luckily I had them take their final last week so now they don't have to deal with that from my class. I'm sorry but I just don't have stick up my behind like some of the teachers I work with. They want the kids to be working up until the bell rings that very last day. I've had them doing work up until today. It's like some people forget that they are kids. Anyway, I'm trying to look for fun things for them to do and I already got them the materials they need to make slime. But of course, I have to cover my behind. Does anyone have any ideas on how to tie in making slime to any language arts standards? Maybe looking at cause and effect?
Do you do writing as well? You could do functional writing by having them write up directions to make the slime. You could also have them write poems or something after they're done, using descriptive/ figurative language.
I LOVE that! I definitely do writing with them. In fact, they just finished creating fables. I will definitely incorporate figurative language into this assignment.
Bartholomew and the Ooobleck by Dr. Seuss! I've done this many times with numerous grade levels. Not "slime" but Oobleck. If you look that up on google or pinterest there are tons of different activities you can do with it (I'm not sure of your grade level). Solid vs. liquid, cause effect, etc. You only need water, cornstarch, and food coloring. And it cleans up easily with water.
I just need to say that it saddens me that there needs to be justification before doing fun activities with students.
I agree. Having to explain that activities like these build a great classroom culture is a bit bothersome.
Have them play with the ooblek and write descriptive paragraphs about it: how it looks, feels, behaves, etc. Have them try to describe it without saying what it is so that others can visualize it and guess what it might be (like a riddle).
Seconding the ideas to have them write instructions and descriptive writing after -- slime is a great way to practice really strong imagery and adjectives! It would make a fun poetry assignment too, use adjectives and imagery to describe the slime haha.
This is so awesome! One of our Physical Science teachers always has her classes make "slime". She sends out a warning email to us on the day so we know to be diligent about slime control when they want to play with it in our classes. I always want to play with it too, LOL. I'm THAT teacher. Instead of, "Johnny, put that away please," I'm all, "Oooo, let ME see!" and I hang it like a booger out of my nose and throw it at someone. Yeah. So anyway. Now I'm wondering if I can collaborate with the science teacher (one of my buddies) to have my crowd write about the slime. Better yet. Not all of mine are in Physical Science, so the ones that ARE can teach the rest of the class and they can make slime and then we can read the Seuss book too, and write, and...eeee!!!! So..ahem. Yes. I think there are some great ideas here to incorporate slime into language arts. That's kind of the cool thing about ELA. We can read and write about anything.
