My Creative Friend Gwen plus Her Fifth Graders plus Leaf Man equals FALL FUN!

My friend Gwen, also known as Curious Jones, teaches fifth grade, and her class and my class are buddies. She had the absolute best idea for a buddy activity, and we got together this week for a little FALL FUN! Have I mentioned how much I love my new school, and how thrilled I am to have Gwen as a neighbor? This project was all her--- and I'm lucky enough to have the finished products hanging in my room.

I read the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert to my class the day before the fifth grade buddies came to visit.



And the fifth graders spent a few days before our meeting cutting out leaf shapes.

Once we were all together, the buddies paired up and got busy creating leaf people and animals and mermaids! Yahoo! It was wild and fun and amazing... my 30 students plus Gwen's 30 students... all packed into my room with tiny desks and chairs! But we totally made it work and all the kids had a blast!









Every single project turned out amazing! And there's still plenty of time to do this in your classroom, too. I often have fall projects that go into late November! If you don't have a buddy class, just die cut some leaves and get started. Of course, I had my students write stories about their leaf people afterward, too. It all ties to literacy!

So happy it's Saturday! I've got some time to catch up on sleep, projects at home, and errands. I'm gathering materials for my Halloween costume, which is going to be a ton of fun, since my whole grade level is dressing alike! I feel like a kid---can't wait to dress up!