Summertime Fun in the Classroom! Making Popsicles!! You can win it!

I wanted to share something super fun that I did with my class at the end of the year!

We made popsicles!!

Homemade popsicles.

With juice.

All by ourselves.

Ok, I sound like one of my students.

But that's how excited they were!  I'm thinking they've never made homemade popsicles before!

So, the idea started because it was so hot outside at recess...it just makes you crave a popsicle.  From there, I thought it would be fun for them to create their own flavor of popsicle, create a recipe using fractions of measurements, and then try their popsicle and reflect on the flavor.

Then, they advertised their popsicle flavor to persuade their friends that their flavor was the tastiest.

Here's how the whole thing went down.

First, I explained that we were going to make the popsicles.  Then, I gave them choices for different kinds of juices.  I had lemonade, limeade, watermelon, grape, and pineapple.  I thought I had apple and orange with me but I didn't.  :O(

I bought the watermelon in a jug because who'd have thought I'd find watermelon???

The others, I bought as the frozen juices and brought them in and mixed them in pitchers.  Mainly because we never have much fridge space so I wanted to be able to make the juices and then dispose of it without it taking up beloved refrigerator space for the other teachers in my school.

It was kind of messy and took a little time, but I mixed while they were working in groups of four to create their recipe.  The only rule was they had to use at least two flavors (or there wouldn't be a recipe!).

So, they wrote their recipe and then brought it to me and they measured.

They measured the juice into the measuring cup and then poured the juice into a larger measuring cup that they would use to stir and then pour into the popsicle molds.

I bought the measuring cups at the dollar store so I could use them again next year.

Once everything was mixed, they poured them into the popsicle molds.  I also bought these from the dollar store.

These popsicle molds were neat because they had a straw on the side (you can kind of see that above) that when they flipped it upside down to eat the popsicles, if it started melting, the liquid went into that little cup part and the could suck out the juice!  So smart!

Done!!  Now to freeze them!

Another activity we did was for them to create their own popsicle design.  It didn't have to be using the flavors that we had made our popsicles out of.  Then, they were to plan how they would advertise their popsicles on a poster and make the poster.  Sadly, these were the only pictures I took, apparently.

For some reason they really wanted to color the popsicle on the paper, which was not why I put it on there, but...ok!

We also did a writing craftivity where they chose one of two narrative writing prompts and then made a popsicle to write their final draft on!

Sorry- definitely not the best pictures.  Ugh.  I'll have to work on that over the summer.

But, they chose a color for the outside of their popsicle and then traced the template I had for them.  Then, they also traced the template on notebook paper, stapled the notebook paper and cover page at the top, and wrote their final draft on there.  Then, they pasted two popsicle sticks on the backside of the last piece of notebook paper.  I didn't take pictures of that either but here was my example I made them. (I promise I'll get better at this!)

So, because all of this was so fun, I had to make a unit for it and I definitely want to share it with you!  Here's what it looks like  (I'll give you a hint-  it looks like summer time fun!!!)

Soooo, what do you think?  Does it look like summer time fun??  I hope so because that's what I was going for!!

Did you ever know you could do so much with popsicles?

Oh, and I just pinned these bookmarks in my obsession with popsicles and I think they are so cute!

Source

There's a free printable on this website where the idea originated from!!  :O)  If we didn't do this so close to summer, it would be easy to make one that just said Reading is Cool!

Well, my goal was to make activities using the popsicles that would review what we had learned this year since we did this at the end of the year.  But, if could also be used at the beginning of the year as a review for 5th grade.

If you'd like to know more about this pack, please click any of the pictures and it will take you to our TpT store.  There, you can download the preview for a better idea of what is involved.

OR

You can pin it to win it and get an up-close look for yourself!!!!!!

Here are the rules:
1.  Pin one of the pictures of the UNIT.
2.  Leave a comment with the Pinterest ID in the comment (all you have to do is copy the URL after you pin it to your board and then paste it into the comment section)
3.  Be sure to leave your email address so we can send it to you when you win!

But if you can't wait, you can go ahead and snag it from our TpT store!

I'll pick 2 winners and announce them on Monday!

Thanks for entering!
:O) Amanda

And in case you haven't had enough, look!  Gummy bear and Sprite popsicles!!

How cool would it be to experiment with THAT!  (But with juice of course!)