the lorax

Next week, my 6th graders are taking the ISAT {Illinois Standard Achievement Test}. The kids will be taking tests most of each day, but we will still have about 2 non-testing hours at the end of each day. As a grade level, we came up with a Lorax literature unit and I'm super excited!!!! {We got most of our materials from teacherspayteachers.com.}

I dyed cotton balls with kool aid this past week to use for the tops of the truffula trees when the kids draw their setting pictures! I have to say it was pretty easy! I had four different flavors/colors, so I put 2 cups of water in each of the containers. I stirred the whole packet of kool aid in the container and put 10-15 cotton balls in each. I let them soak for 15 minutes. Then I used a wooden spoon to scoop out each cotton ball. I squeezed a little of the kool aid out of the cotton ball, but I didn't want to totally flatten it! I laid them all out on a cooling rack for about two full days before they were totally dry. They puffed back up a bit after they dried completely. I'm really surprised that neither one of my children tried eating one since they sat on the counter for so long....they smelled really good!

I had to get my classroom ready also....so I used {this tutorial} to make tissue paper pompoms - aka - truffula tree tops!!
We won't kick off the unit in the classroom until Tuesday - but my lil kiddos and I had some fun with it today!
After reading the book, we took a "Lorax" picture and I added a quote from the book using picnik.com.

Then we made foam frames...testing out the cotton balls!

We also ended up going to the movie this afternoon....not much else to do on a cold, dreary day!! I love that the message in the book/movie is versatile enough for kids of all ages!!