07 December 2011

Step-by-Step Snowflakes - Part 2

 {ready?!?!}
 {note my boss in the corner}
 {i cut and fold all of them usually before doing any taping}
{i had the kids do all the folding first, then all the cutting, then all the folding/taping/flipping}
 {so repeat the process 6 times, and you will have 6 of these babies!}
 {gather 3 of them together in this way}
 {pinch them together in the middle at the ends}
 {bring the 3 tips together to staple them}
 {with this big paper i used 3 staples, regular paper only usually needs 1 staple}
 {so now we need to reinforce them in the middles, so we will staple in those parts as well}
 {grab the middles (where you taped the outer sections) and staple them together}
 {yup, right there!}
 {so those are the 3 places where you now have staples!}
 {now repeat with the other 3 sections}
{if you're OCD like me, make sure the pattern of colors is the same!}
 {place them together like shown, so middle pieces meet}
 {bring the two center tips together and overlap them}
 {staple these two together, again with bigger flakes, staple once or twice}
 {see how they overlap?}
 {now 2 more places to staple - the 2 sides where we brought the sections together}
 {all the places where we now have staples!}
 {do you feel successful?}
{fabulous! hang from ceiling with paper clip!}
 
 {this is what my kids had to do before we started. i demonstrated with already square scrapbook paper}
{for regular construction have kids fold it to make a square, then cut off excess piece}
{recycle the excess pieces for bookmarks!}



Now if you can bring yourself to have your kiddos do it, you must go step by step. You must go extremely slow and model each step. I had them all face the same way as me and did it in front of them. About 10 of them will manage to do something incorrect. It takes more patience than you'll have. You'll have 1 who just can't do it correctly no matter what and you'll help him and he'll love you for it. You'll have 4 that look like they did something wrong, but they didn't. You'll have 7 that need you to draw the lines on the folded triangles because they just can't seem to figure out how to make the cuts. You'll need a billion tape dispensers and tape. You'll need even more patience to staple them for all 30 kids. You'll need a nap when you're done. The kids will be beyond words excited. You'll be super amazed at them that they got through it. Your room will look gorgeous. You'll be in awe of how they help each other. You'll be able to brag about how amazing your class is at following directions and creating fabulous things. You'll be exhausted beyond belief, but it will be SO WORTH IT! I promise!

All of these are estimations. But realistic estimations.

Well, now that I've spent an entire evening doing this tutorial I'm going to go give my supervisor some attention, because as you have noticed, he's clearly lacking attention.

9 comments:

Jen R said...

way neat! looks like ill ne heading to joanns tomorrow for some paper :) thank you!

Erika said...

Awesome! Thank you for sharing.
2B Honey Bunch

ashley said...

Thanks so much for the tutorial. My class loved making these!
miss eye and the first 180 days

Diana said...

Beautiful and great tutorial. Seriously you did this with your class? Wow! I have 25 ot challenged (not really) second graders. We tried to make cootie catchers the other week, and afterwards I had to head for the excedrin.

Unknown said...

This is great! Thanks for the step by step tutorial!!
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A Teacher's Treasure

Christie said...

I'm so happy I could help everyone!! It took forever to do the step-by-step, but it's worth it knowing others could brighten up their classrooms (or homes)!

Diana - Believe me... I needed a bottle of Excedrin after this as well. It was definitely one of the most, if not the most patience-testing, challenging projects I've ever done. It was SO worth it though :)

Lisa Howard said...

These are so neat!! I have a lot of activities for teaching snowflakes in my cute snowflake packet at TpT... nothing this artstic, though!

- Lisa
ateachersbagoftricks.blogspot.com

Bethany said...

I LOVE the snowflakes! I am thinking of trying them with my kiddos when we return in January. We have a short week and can't teach curriculum, so maybe I'll be full of patience and have a full bottle of advil ready! :) Thanks for the great idea!!

Unknown said...

My 5th and 6th graders just finished these beautiful snowflakes!! Thank you for the wonderful tutorial. I even made them for my living room. I have high ceilings and at the top of the half moon window I have 3 different sizes hung from the ceiling!