The Magic Box- Up-Cyling Cereal Boxes

 Did you know that from ONE cereal box, you can make:

1 mini journal

4 bookmarks

2-3 postcards

ALL FROM ONE BOX!!

In class this week we have been talking about ways to conserve our natural resources. We talked about the importance of reusing items instead of just throwing them away. We also learned the new trendy term "up-cycling".

Up-Cycling- Turning an item from drab to FAB!

I brought in an example of how I up-cycled a cereal box at my house. This is the picture I found on the Internet- I just copied what they did! 

When I showed mine to my students, they loved it! They begged to be allowed to make their own. I told them that if they would bring in cereal boxes, we would do our own cereal box up-cycling projects on Friday. 

Well, thanks to great parents and teacher friends, every student has his or her own cereal box just waiting to be transformed! I brought in scrapbook paper that I had at my house, and we went to town! Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of my students doing this. I just did it again when the kids weren't there and got pics then!

I am going to show the pictures of the step-by-step. They are pretty self-explanatory. At the end, I will have a link to download the PDF of pictures and explanations.

Materials ready?

1 cereal box 

(regular or large size- small boxes will not allow you to make postcards too)

2 pieces of scrapbook paper

paper to put in the journal

(we used 4 pages folded in half)

glue stick (or mod podge if you're fancy)

tape (regular and Duct tape)

yarn

scissors

hole punch

Making a Journal

My daughter- Yes, we were at school on Saturday. Welcome to the life of a teacher. :)

Making Bookmarks

Journal and bookmarks accomplished!

Making Postcards

And, yes you can send them! Regular postage required of course.

If you'd like explanations along with the pictures, you can get a PDF file {HERE}.

My students had The. Best. Time!! 

I made a few extras to go on our display board in the hallway. Next week we will have a competition between the 5 third grade classrooms. Students with wonderful behavior will have their names put into a drawing- the students who win will be allowed to take an item off the board and take it home!

May the best behaved student(s) win!!

Research Projects- American Presidents

Part of our writer's workshop is having our students write informational papers, speeches, and brochures. Basically, researching topics and presenting them different ways. The 3rd grade team of teachers decided that starting with American Presidents would be the easiest way to start.

Students were given 3 choices: (as per the books we were able to find in our school's library)

George Washington 

Thomas Jefferson 

and Abraham Lincoln

 We grabbed all the books we could find, with the plan of sharing the books throughout the 3rd grade classes.

Students are to use different resources to find this information:

**BONUS**

Mrs. Kapp, our new librarian, volunteered to make us a "go-to" site for online research! Check out her AMAZING work!

**President Research Link**

We will be working on our projects over the next 3 weeks. This week we are researching and creating lapbooks on our chosen president. Most of my students chose Lincoln, and only 3 chose Jefferson. I'm looking forward to seeing what they find!

Science Vocabulary- Natural Resources and Conservation

Our science vocabulary power point for this week! For our Fun Friday activity, we will be up-cycling old cereal boxes. It's going to be epic! :)