1st grade

Animal Soup: A divergent thinking activity for K-2

Friday, November 28, 2014


Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!

Hi All! I am checking in today to share one of my favorite K-2 activities - Animal Soup! Animal Soup, by Paul Doodler, is a short, lift-the-flap book that combines everyday animals to create silly outcomes.

Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!

Let's check out how it works! Below are two sample pages from the book. After considering the question, students can lift the flap to see the 3rd page. Give it a try:

What would you be if you had wings to fly like a bird . . .

Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!

and walked slowly like a turtle?

Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!

A BiRdLe! 

Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!


Seriously, this book cracks me up every year! My favorite combination is the flamingo and monkey. (A flamonkey :-)

Once we read the story as a class, I give students the task of creating their own animal. Each student selects two animal cards. (I cut the cards and put them in a "magic box" prior to the lesson. Students randomly select their animals from the magic box; it makes the selection of the animals for their soup a little dramatic and a lot of fun!)
Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!

Students then glue the cards to the activity sheet below.

Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!download here for free


From here, students combine elements of each animal's name to create a new animal species. Some examples might include:

  • alligator + gorilla = gorillagator
  • lion + dinosaur = linosaur
  • monkey + kangaroo = monkaroo
  • puppy + hippopotamus = puppyotamus
Because the goal is to develop divergent thinking skills, I frequently remind students that there is more than one correct answer. For example, if you were part alligator and part octopus, you could be an allipus, an octigator, or a gatorpus. The possibilities are endless.

Then they draw a picture to illustrate their animal soup creation. Here are a few examples from one of my first grade nurturing lessons:

Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!



Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!



Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!


Oftentimes, I compile the student pictures and make it into a class book. Most times, the kids are too eager to take them home right away to share :-)

You can download the activity sheet and animal cards for FREE here.
Need a fun divergent thinking activity to inspire and engage your K-2 students? Try making animal soup! This post includes free printables and implementation ideas to make creativity in the classroom a breeze!



To learn more about fun ways to nurture creative thinking in the classroom, check out two of my earlier posts: Let's Get Creative and Creativity in the Classroom. Thanks for checking in!

4th grade

GIS Day!

Saturday, November 22, 2014


Wednesday, November 19th was Geographic Information Systems Day! I was lucky enough to have two local experts come introduce and celebrate GIS Day with my 4th and 5th grade students. Let me tell you . . . it was amazing!


Our presenters shared a series of short videos about maps, including their history, uses, and global applications. Students learned that maps not only provide information about our geographic location, but also about our climate, economy, and humanitarian needs and efforts - just to name a few. Below are links to the videos shared. Each one is under 4 minutes and totally worth watching!



Then students were given guidance to explore maps using an interactive tool designed by National Geographic. You can check it out here! This website is a PBL project waiting to happen! My wheels are definitely turning . . .



Using GIS, students were asked to make a map. They could select from the a series of choices or design their own challenge. Students explored everything from Carbon Dioxide production to global electricity use to trends in food consumption.




It was an eye opening experience for the students (and their teacher)! The visual power of GIS is astounding, on a personal, local, and global level!

I think this tool has great potential for classroom learning. For those of you who are already implementing interactive mapping in the classroom, how do you use it with your students? What works best for you and your class? I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

3rd grade

Film Festival - Here We Come!!!

Wednesday, November 05, 2014

I am so proud of my students who participated in last year's 3rd grade film academy!!! And I am infinitely grateful to the parents, particularly our director/producer Chip Hackler, who made the entire opportunity possible!

Because of my talented students and parents, we are headed to the 20th annual Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, NC in two weeks! :-)



Among the thousands of films that were entered, our short film "Shot Reverse Shot" was selected as a favorite! Based on Jack Johnson's song, the music video is about point of view and perspective in both film and life. The festival will take place November 12-16th. Our film will "premiere" Sunday, November 16th at 1:00. Tickets are only $10, so I hope you will come join us to enjoy and celebrate!!!!



Click HERE to watch our short film. Check out the following link to learn more about the 3rd grade film academy! Some day I promise to post about all of the Elementary Academies in detail!! They have become one of my favorite aspects of teaching.

Stay tuned :-)

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