I will be highlighting some really interesting ELA creative projects we have been doing in CLIC.  Each class is doing something unique.  Last week Mrs. Solomon/Cole's 5th grade class came to CLIC for a three day project.  Students rewrote their poems on shrinky dink paper.  I cooked the paper into small plastic tags.  Students got to hang their poem tags on the outside of the jar or put it inside.  Students then got to create their dry snowglobe scene based on their poem.  I loved all of the creative solutions.  Students built vintage style figures and scenes from the tables of materials.  I enjoyed seeing students make little people  from pipecleaners, pinecones, and fabric.  It was a great way to spend the days leading up to winter vacation.  I feel like these projects will be keepsakes for students' families  to cherish and enjoy.

Last week and next week are all about special little projects.  Some classes are coming to do season themed projects or just coming to slow down and relax from the hectic time of year.  I love to see the children carefully creating their projects with someone special in mind, wrapping it to give as a gift.  

I never do hoilday projects but instead do winter themed projects.  Students are allowed to take projects in any direction they wish.  One thig is clear.  Children love to do crafts during the holiday season.  The room is buzzing with people talking about what they love about this time of year.  Their excitement truly brings the magic of the season back for me.
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In the Slide show you will see:
4th grade-We did hand painted and sewn poetry books in Mrs. Gibbas's class.  Mrs. Kellher's class is creating color poetry illustrations next week. 

5th grade-We are doing poetry snow globes this week in Salomon/ Cole's class.  Also, we are creating LED light up projects in Mrs. Ellis and Mrs. Lampe's classes. 

6th grade- Students are doing an all school share of their Pangea projects that they created the physical maps in CLIC.

​ It's awesome to have a program like CLIC that can give students special time to create during the school day.  Learning by doing has great value when so much of learning is done on paper or computer. Students love to come do hands-on projects with unusual methods or materials. 

Please consider supporting CLIC. 
​CLIC can not exist without your support.  All of the materials used in CLIC are funded by donations from parents, corporate matches, and the community.  Please consider supporting this important program.

Please make checks out to CLIC/ Town of Topsfield.  Thank You!

Ms. Strobl's 6th grade science classes came to CLIC to create 3-dimensional maps of Pangea.  Students worked in groups creating maps of the continents showing evidence of continental drift. Groups also made fossils as part of evidence that animals and plants existed on these continents once connected. 

I was impressed with how teams worked together in order to complete a wide range of tasks in order to get this map created in one week.  It was quite messy and fun working with plaster and paint. The results are stunning!  This week students will label and complete the maps with written labels and keys.  

The whole school was buzzing with excitement over the cardboard challenge last Wednesday. 5th grade classes set up their cardboard projects in the gym and cafetaria for the whole school to enjoy.   It seems like the first all school project share event we have had in a couple of years so the children were ecstatic.  Teachers did a great job of spacing out classes to have a safe event.  5th graders were so proud and excited to share their creative solutions with peers..

We had tossing games, board games, paper airplane throwing games, bopping games, and games where children hid inside to manipulate the game surfaces.  We even had a mystery room and life sized boats and tanks to relax in.  I was impressed by this year's students and all that they collaborated to accomplish in three work periods.  There was so much creative problem solving that goes into getting a game from a drawing on paper to an actual standing game.  Students had to take in account the time restriciton, engineering in function, structure, creativity.  It was a great two weeks of innovation and fun!

Thanks to all that donated cardboard!  We had an abundance of every size of cardboard.  It made for great building.  Thank you!

This week was all about the 5th grade Cardboard Challenge.  There was a ton of cardboard thanks to you all.   The children loved coming to CLIC every day working in teams creating games or experiences out of cardboard.  It was so fun watching them problem solve and create such awesomely creative solutions. We will be sharing these projects with the whole school on Wednesday.  

CLIC Clubs are going great!  I am so impressed by how hard everyone is working.  It reflects in the craftsmanship of the work students are creating as well as the uniqueness in thought.

Mechanical contraptions class is especially challenging since there are so many factors that go into getting the cam driven gears to mechanize the top friction gears.  Every child's project is different so they can not just make it and it works.  Careful thought has to go into each step.  There is a huge learning experience when students realize they have to test, reengineer, retest, and probably reengineer again.  It is the engineering design process in real time and the kids are loving it when
they get their machines to work. This week we are adding the characters or scenes that will be mechanized.

Basket makers are whizzing along making all kinds of shapes, adding beads, and finishing off the top this week.  Students are going to learn how to weave a cover or flat trivet this week.

The last set of pictures is Mrs. Kelleher's 4th grade class doing expressive Landform pictures for Science.  We looked at the art of Georgia O'Keefe for inspiration and then drew different types of landforms in water soluble oil pastels. We then blended the pastel with water to create dreamlike paintings.  It was a great fusion of art and science.

All 6th graders came to CLIC this week for two hours plus optional lunch work blocks to create Panamesian coil baskets.  We learned about the different types of cultural objects from Panama and how the bright artwork is influenced by the tropical climate, animals, and people.

Students then learned how to create coil baskets based on authentic Panamesian techniques.  This was a challenging project for students and tiring.  It takes alot of strength to tightly pull the strings to create a basket or flat trivet.  In the end, my hope is that students will appreciate the workmanship behind these cultural objects.