Wrapping Up the World's Fair

The World's Fair is officially over!  We ended by taking a trip to Australia last Friday.

My class's study of Africa/Egypt went really well!  I was SO proud of them and it was a blast!  I told the other classes as they came that they would have the "TRUE" African experience because it was 85 degrees that day and our air conditioning was NOT working!  Oh my...it was SWELTERING!

The kids came up with their own products to sell to the other students.  Some even dressed the part!

Welcome to Africa!

The students had to go through Customs before they could enter the new continent!

After going through Customs, the classes were greeted by some of my "Africans", who put a sticker in their passport.  Then they heard some amazing African facts from our 2 tour guides before entering!

The first shop was an African Necklace Shop!  These girls cut, glued, and decorated 100 necklaces to sell!

This group of boys made 100 Egyptian Hieroglyphic Bookmarks!

These girls made "Egyptian Cotton Bracelets" to sell.

I bought one and still have it on my ankle...I intend to wear it all summer...

Here are the girls who made 100 paper pyramids!

These little safari explorers sold "Egyptian Petroglyphs" (ancient rock carvings).

And then there's our "Get Wrapped Like A Mummy Shop!"  Omg...MILLIONS of rolls of toilet paper later, my room (and the entire 2nd grade hallway) was a DISASTER.  But oh my, did they have fun!  They LOVED it!!!!  It was quite the hit!

Here are a couple of the shops with my our crazy attempt at creating Victoria Falls behind them...HA!

And finally, here is a shot of our "Pyramid Shop" and "Egyptian Bread Shop."

Needless to say, I slept REALLY well that night!  What an EXHAUSTING week, but it was a blast and the kids absolutely loved it!

I'm adding my "Africa" mini-lesson to TpT in the near future, so check it out!  :)

Happy Weekend!

World's Fair

This week is the World's Fair in 2nd grade!  Wow, talk about fun.  Talk about chaos.  Organized chaos.  Yep, that's it.  ;)

Each 2nd grade classroom studies and features a specific continent.  We have one classroom doing Asia (focus on Japan), one doing Europe (focus on Great Britain), one doing South America (she featured a little bit of everything), one doing Australia, and I'm doing Africa!  We're honing in on Egypt a little more.  Everyone completely transforms their room for the week.

Here's the entrance to my room...

Prior to the actual fair, we studied goods and services.  The students pair up and come up with something authentic from the continent we are studying to sell during the fair.

Here are some of my students cutting out money for the other kids in the other classes to spend at our market.

Some students are making braided bracelets in honor of African textiles.

I found this awesome pattern online for the large Egyptian collar necklaces!  The students colored them and glued beads to them.  They are fab!  

Next a group of students made their own petroglyphs (rock wall carvings).  They simply used white crayon to draw pictures and then painted over it with watercolors.

Another 2nd grade teacher had gone to the museum in Chicago a few years back and brought back a hieroglyphics stamp set!  So I had another group of boys make hieroglyphic bookmarks!  They stamped out different words onto card stock and then tied some yarn to the top.

And of course we decorated our outside bulletin board with a collage of African animals...I just love children's art!  TOO FUNNY!  :P

I'll be back this week with more photos and updates!  Our class goes on Wednesday.  I can't wait to share more and let you take a peek at our room transformation!

Happy Monday and have a great week!  I don't know about where you teach, but we are down to 23 more days!!!!!  Yippeeeee!!!! :D