There are a lot of different ANZAC Day Wreath ideas out there. This one is budget friendly and offers the opportunity to get your students involved as well!
You will need: – a large piece of foam board (or cardboard from a box) – at least two egg cartons (more if you want more poppies) – acrylic paint: red, black and green – scissors – stanley knife – string – skewer – lead pencil – craft glue – Lest We Forget template – paintbrushes – sponge dabber (optional)
Making your wreath: Make your wreath from foam board or cardboard. 1. This can be done by marking the centre of your cardboard with a pencil. Measure a piece of string from this centre point to the edge of your cardboard (leave a little extra before cutting. And from the centrepoint, move your string around to make sure the string doesn’t leave the cardboard – if it does make it slightly shorter).
Measure the string.
2. Tie one end of the string to a skewer and the other to a lead pencil. Stand the skewer on the centrepoint you created earlier and pull your string tight. The pencil should now be facing down towards the cardboard.
Pull the string tight. Skewer should be on the centre point and the lead pencil facing down towards the cardboard.
3. Keeping the string pulled tight move the pencil around the skewer. Your pencil should be creating a circle on the cardboard.
Keep the pencil pulled tight and draw a circle around the skewer.
4. After you have completed this large circle. Draw a smaller circle inside the large one by using the same technique (just make sure you make the string shorter.
Do the same to make a smaller circle inside the larger one.
5. Use a stanley knife to cut along both circle lines that you have created. You should now have a wreath shape.
Use a stanley knife to cut out the wreath.
Create your poppies. 6. Take your egg cartons and cut away the lid and any extra parts. Leaving you with the egg cup tray (note: don’t through away the extra pieces and lid – you will use those to create your leaves).
Cut all parts off the egg cartons except for the egg cups.
7. Use a stanley knife to cut out each individual cup and then use scissors to tidy up any excess from the cups to make them look neater and more uniform.
Cut out each egg cup.
Tidy them up with scissors to make them look neater.
8. Paint each egg cup with the red paint and then use your sponge dabber (or a paint brush) to paint the centre of each egg cup black.
Paint the egg cups red.
Paint the centre of each egg cup black.
Create your leaves. 9. Put the poppies aside and take the lids and excess pieces from your egg cartons. Paint the green all over. Leave to dry and then cut out leaf shapes from them.
Paint the extra parts from your egg cartons green.
Cut out leaf shapes from the green egg carton pieces once they have dried.
Bring it all together. 10. Take your cardboard wreath shape and glue the Lest We Forget banner to the bottom of it.
Glue the Lest We Forget Banner to the bottom of your wreath.
11. Using craft glue, adhere the poppies to the cardboard wreath.
Secure the poppies to the wreath using craft glue.
12. Use the craft glue to attach the leaves to the wreath as well.
Use craft glue to attach the leaves.
And you are done! Well done 🙂
The finished product.
Don’t forget to share your wreaths with me on your social media posts! Just use the tag @ridgydidgeresources to grab my attention so I can give your post a little love.
So as well as Lapbooks, I LOVE using Factballs in the classroom as well.
Why?
Factballs are easy to assemble and are a unique way to display research content in your classroom. This content could be recorded in your students’ books, never to be seen or looked at again, but with Factballs, student work is on display all the time. It becomes a talking point, reminding your students of the work they are covering in class. Parents are also easily able to see what their child is learning, creating an opportunity for conversation between child and parent or teacher and parent.
So how do I use Factballs?
I use Factballs in a variety of ways in my classroom. I often use them in my Literacy centres. Because each Factball comes with a fact sheet to complete each section of the Factball without the need for researching on the computer or borrowing books from the library, they provide the perfect opportunity to become a comprehension task with a difference. At first it appears that students are simply filling in another Q&A comprehension worksheet but upon completion of the worksheets, they transform into something far more exciting than a normal comprehension task sheet.
I usually try to match up the Factball with the topic we are covering in class to integrate other subjects into our Literacy rotations. It often means we can get on with other investigations during our allocated Science and History lessons rather than getting bogged down in teaching content.
I also like to use Factballs as a means of getting to know my students. At the start of each year I have my students complete these Back to School Factballs (available in my Free Resource Library). It is a great way to get to know them and get some of their work hanging up in the classroom straight away.
At the beginning of each term, I then get my students to complete these Goal Setting Factballs. These are a great way for students to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and set goals for the term/semester/year ahead. Having them hang up in the classroom means the students can constantly refer to them throughout the term/semester/year and it keeps them accountable for their own learning.
But how do you assemble your Factball?
I have digressed. I should really get down to the purpose of this post. How to assemble your Factball.
Factball assembly is quite straight forward really. All you will need is:
The completed Factball template
Glue Stick
Scissors
Hole punch
String
Now before you start I will put a disclaimer in. While the assembly of the Factballs is quite straight forward, assuming that a whole class of seven year olds can complete it without assistance may be a little fantastical. I will give you instructions on how they are assembled below, but please consider how you would communicate this to your whole class based on their age and needs. Personally I prefer to deliver these instructions to small groups rather than the whole class. I find this easier to manage in the younger grades. If I am lucky I will have a teacher aide assisting another group at the same time. But consider the instructions below and do what works best for you and your students.
After students have completed the details on their Factball and coloured it in, allow students to cut around the outside of each circle and rectangular labels (there should be two of these).
Once all the pieces are cut out, punch a hole at the top of each circle.
Fold each circle in half, keeping the title of each circle at the top. I like to use the hole that I’ve just punched into the circle as a guide. Don’t unfold the circles.
Take one folded circle. While still folded, add glue to one outside half of the circle.
Place the next folded circle on top of where you have just added the glue.
Continue adding glue and circles until you have no circles left.
On the last circle that you glue on, add glue to the remaining exposed side. Open up your Factball and secure this glued side to the remaining exposed side of your first circle. The Factball should now form a sphere.
Through holes at the top of your Factball, thread a piece of string. I like to flatten my Factball out (as in the image below) to make this step easier.
Putting your Factball aside momentarily, take your rectangular headings.
On the back of one heading add some glue.
Place the string of your Factball on top of the glued heading.
Place the remaining rectangular heading on top of the string.
Aaannnd… You are finished!! Well done! Easy hey?! Here a few examples of finished Factballs.
