Ice Trees (2nd)

During the late fall, while I was long term subbing, we had a HUGE ice storm that cancelled school for two days!

Students learned/practiced:
--Observation
--Drawing branches with 2 lines
--Tracing objects
--Planning ahead
--Critical thinking/problem solving
--Overlapping

When school resumed my 2nd graders and I used the ice storm as a perfect teaching opportunity. We looked out the windows at the trees. What did they look like? How were the branches formed? How big were they compared to the trunk? How did the ice make the tree look? Could we see through the ice? What color was the ice? Was the ice just on top of the branch? Were there leaves on the trees? What color was the tree/leaves?

We then talked about how trees have two sides to the branch -- that each branch is thicker than a pencil line -- so we drew trees making sure all the branches had two sides! The students then colored in their trees with a brown crayon of choice, outlined with white oil pastel and then used white glue to trace their branches, and last they sprinkled on their own 'ice' (glitter).