I was hoping that we could do something creative with our beach finds. First of all, I wanted my students to know and appreciate the different kinds of shells, specimens, and artifacts they could find on the beach. We studied these a few days before our beach field trip.
Secondly, they were each told to bring a bag and to collect as many items as they could from the Beach Treasure Hunt list. Then, we brought our goodies back to school, washed them off, and started designing.
I gave each student a 7" x 7" or larger piece of foam board and showed them a few examples to give them some ideas. Some students asked for rectangular or circular pieces of foam board, which is great. I encourage creativity. I also told them that they don't have to use everything that they found--just the pieces that would look nice. They were also encouraged to move the items around and try different designs until they found an arrangement they were happy with.
Finally, we glued them into place, and I hope to have them on display at our Christmas program. That's the plan, anyway.
