Mrs. Reid's Class: Magic Tree House

Wow! We recently finished our reading fair projects, and I must say...they were amazing! The students all worked so hard that I decided to plan a "top secret" activity last Friday as a reward. I "borrowed" some great ideas that I found online and planned away. The hallway between the bathrooms was transformed into the magic tree house. We had a strobe light for the spinning effect, a fan for the wind, and a lot of imagination from all the children. We went in the hallway and turned off the lights. They had to imagine they were spinning and feeling the wind blow as they were transported to a historical period. Each time we stopped, we were at a new location from one of our favorite tree house books, and we had a special activity to go along with the story.

A view into the "tree house"

We made special "tree" treat bags to collect goodies at each stop. We also made signs and paper trees to hang around the room.

When we arrived in Egypt, we had a contest to see who could "mummify" their partner the fastest. (Mummies in the Morning book)

Our next stop went along with the Dinosaurs Before Dark. We had 75 balloons (dinosaur eggs) to pop (hatch) before the "Walk the Dinosaur" song ended. Needless to say, they popped all 75 balloons in time. I did not get any pictures because my hands were being used to cover my ears.

Our next stops were Afternoon on the Amazon and Knight at Dawn. For the Amazon activity, we shot poison dart frogs from the back of chairs with a nerf gun. For the medieval activity, we elected a king or queen. The students got to take turns being the court jester. They had 10 seconds to make the king or queen smile or laugh.

Caroline trying REALLY hard not to laugh.

For Pirates Past Noon, students hid compasses in the play room. They had to give their partner clues to help them find the compasses. For Hour of the Olympics, students played a game in which they all had to hold hands and get a hula hoop through the circle without breaking hands. Bailey was a good sport (as he always is) and joined the girl's team because we had an uneven number.

Our last two stops were High tide at Hawaii and Vacation Under the Volcano. When we "landed" in Hawaii, students received a lei and a nice little snack. For our volcano activity, we erupted a real (miniature) volcano.