In sixth grade students needed to know about the structure of plant leaves. As I was reading I was thinking it might be fun to do an interactive cut out of a leaf that students have to engage with (hoping this might help them remember all the parts they needed to). This was a lot of work and if I was teaching sixth grade again I might modify the assignment. However, it did give me some experience with interactive cutouts.
In this assignment I precut a leaf on green cards stock (sturdy). Then students taped the stem to the book using clear packaging tape. I had precut out the bubble wrap (probably wouldn't use that again due to the popping distraction) to serve as the stomata. In the middle of the leaf student used a clear candle to wax up the area to serve as the cuticle. The top part students had to draw tiny chloroplast cells. Underneath the leaf the students had to draw something guarding the plant to indicate the guard cells (students drew guard dogs, guns, soldiers, you name it...I wasn't too picky as long as they could associate their picture with the function of the guard cells. They then had to label all the parts and explain what function they served.
I have not tried interactive cut outs with my elementary students yet...nothing has sort of lent itself to it in our curriculum but feel that students could easily handle a toned down version.
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