Launch March Is Reading Month by setting up a quick and easy TV tray - table center.

I picked up my wooden TV tray tables at a garage sale for only $3.00.

They are perfect to set up a small center for students to stamp at or pick up supplies to do a quick project and are great space savers because they take up very little room, and fold up nicely for storage.

These Dr. Seuss “Thing 3” Banner-Bookmarks are sure to become a cute keepsake.

You can either print off color copies or use the black and white template and have students color their own.

Make up your own sample ahead of time, to show children the appropriate colors.

Cut students’ school pictures into ovals and lay them out on the TV tray along with pre-cut construction paper, a glue stick, a hole punch, and 18 inch strips of red, white or blue 1/8^th wide ribbon.  You can also use yarn.

Students can hang them on their doorknob or use them as a bookmark.

If you’re putting up a March is Reading Month bulletin board, these make an adorable boarder, or scatter them kitty whompus on a black background with the caption: Reading’s The Thing In ________________’s Room.  Come Read Along With Us!

Click on the link to view/download Dr. Seuss Thing 3 Banner-Bookmark

Newsprint Art:

Combine letter recognition and counting with this simple and fun art center.  This is a great "go green" recycling project for March.

Save up old newspapers and find the pages that have mostly printed articles with hardly any pictures on them.

Tear them out and put them in a pile.  Trace and cut out 6 tag board templates of a shamrock and a Seuss hat.  (Recycle some more by using old file folders.)

Choose one of these as a center activity for Dr. Seuss's Birthday (March 2nd) a Cat in the Hat Day for March is Reading Month, or do the shamrock for St. Patrick's Day.

Students trace the template on their sheet of newspaper, circle all the letter S's that they can find, and count as they circle them. 

Students write a grand total somewhere in a space on the newsprint. 

Children highlight the entire shape with a green highlighter if they've traced a shamrock, or color alternating red stripes if they've done a Seuss hat.

When they are done, they cut out their shape and glue it to a piece of construction paper.

For a great math extension,  graph results and add up the total number of S's everyone found.

These make sharp looking boarders for a b. board.

Click on the link to view/download Newsprint Dr. Seuss Hat and Shamrock

Looking for one more thing to plug in for Leap Day, how ‘bout an easy reader booklet that reviews the 6-basic shapes?

Your students will enjoy Who Leaped Away With The Shapes Today?

They read the repetitive sentence, trace and then write the shape word, as well as trace the shape around the critter that absconded with that shape.

Children who finish early can go back and color the characters.

When everyone has completed their booklet, read it as a whole-group activity to review concepts of print.

Print off your school photo, cut it in an oval and glue it to the last page. Run off copies for your students.

Before you give them the solution to the “mystery page”, graph their guesses as to what animal they think stole all of the shapes on Leap Day.

I’ve also included another graphing extension to see which Leapin’ animal is their favorite.

For more shape as well as color identification, run off my large animal shapes on a variety of colored construction paper.

To practice letter sounds, I’ve written an alliterative sentence on each shape.

Leave the character’s name as well as the shape out and have the students fill it in as you hold up the card and read the sentence.

Whenever I’m dealing with colors I have my students tell me the names in English as well as Spanish.

You can make an extra set and glue them to  8x10 pieces of tag board of a file folder.

Sprinkle the shapes on the floor and call on students to leap and hop to a specific one.

Choose the 4 most difficult ones for your students and hang one in each corner of the classroom.  Play 4-Corners.

Choose an “It”.  Cover its eyes and count backwards from 10-0.  Everyone else has to leap and hop to a corner before you get to 0.

Anyone not in a corner and standing frozen is out and joins you and “It” in the middle of the carpet.“It” (eyes still covered) calls out a shape.  Everyone in the corner with that shape is out.

Play continues ‘til only one child is left.  My Y5’s absolutely LOVE this game and the constant repetition of the shapes, helps them with identification.

Play “Mystery Shape”. Glue the shapes to old file folders and trim so they are that shape.

Toss them in a large paper grocery bag.  Students sit in a circle.

Pass the bag to the first child; without peeking they pick up a shape and keeping it in the bag they feel around it with one hand and try and guess which shape it is.

After 30 seconds they pull it out to see if they are correct and identify the shape that they are holding.

These shapes will also help your students get the wiggles out.

Add some music and movement to your Leap Day by gathering your little ones in a circle.

Pass out the shapes to 6 children and choose a 7^th to play the teacher.

Sing The Kids And Their Shapes to the tune of Farmer In The Dell.

When their part in the song is sung, the child with that animal shape goes into the middle of the circle and jumps and leaps around.

The song ends with the child-teacher standing alone, because she took all the shapes, finally everyone falls down!

You might know from past articles that I’m crazy over recycling and plan at least one project a month involving recycled items.

I also love melting broken crayons in muffin tins or using candy molds.  Leap Day was the perfect day to make a variety of colored frogs so that my students could make a cool Leap Day Shape Collage to go with the above booklet.

Make just enough for a center, or one for each child.

I also recycled old file folders to cut into the shape templates.  Students arranged them on the “Who Leaped Away With The Shapes Today” paper  (included with booklet) and then colored around the edges.

Click on the link to view/download Who Leaped Away Leap Day SHAPE booklet.

This ending is similar to my booklet There Was An Old Lady that reviews the months and would be a nice “go along” to read with this booklet.  Children enjoy “feeding” her the monthly-words and their matching pictures.

Click on the link to view/download this extra Leap Day booklet.

Another companion booklet that my Y5’s really enjoy is Who Took The Cookies From The Classroom Cookie Jar? The cookie manipulatives have letters, numbers as well as shapes on them.

As with the above story, I’ve designed manipulatives to pass out to your students who fill the classroom cookie jar with them, when that part of the story is read.

Click on the link to view/download this fun booklet, great for Leap Day

Want more animal shapes?

Since Teaching With Angry Birds was such a huge hit, I just finished Angry Bird Shapes.

Save them for another day, or toss them into the Leap Day craziness.

Click on the link to view/download Angry Bird Shapes.

Whatever you and yours are leaping into on Leap Day I hope it’s simply grand!  

Leaping Through Letters And Numbers On Leap Day!

Although I made these sliders specifically for Leap Day (These are animals that are fairly good at leaping/hopping) they also fit in nicely with your other monthly themes.

I’ve designed a slider for all of my units and had my Y5’s make one every month to review a variety of report card standards.

They enjoyed making and collecting them.  Sliders were especially helpful for my ESL students and strugglers.

The Leapin' Animals have strips for skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's.  Students can also make an upper and lowercase "Letter Leaper" and younger students can count by 1's.

Here’s How To Make A Leap Day Slider:

Run off the animal templates on construction paper.

Decide which letter or number strip you want to review and make copies.

Cut them on a paper cutter. Pre-cut slits with an Exacto knife.

Give children a choice of which animal they want to make.

Students cut out their Leap Day critter and add some colorful details with crayons or markers.

Give students glue dots and wiggle eyes to add a bit of pizzazz.

Children trace the letters and numbers with a highlighter, marker or crayon.

Add a math extension to the process by having them choose 2 or 3 colors and trace in an ABAB or ABC pattern.

Demonstrate how to insert their strip into the slits.

I've made a template for some "Hoppy" Leap Day! sticker labels, if you want students to be able to add one to their creations.

When everyone is done assemble them on the carpet area and skip count together, start leaping from one number or letter to the next, sing the ABC song, spell words, names, etc.

To help get the wiggles out, children can take out their strip and you can do the Leap Day Animal Pokey with them.  I've included the song in the packet.

Students can also use their Leap Day Pal for a spatial direction review.

The teacher tells students to put the kangaroo beside, under, above, behind etc.

Teachers can also review body parts with students by having children place their squirrel on their knee, hip, thigh, wrist etc.

Click on the link to view/download Leapin' Animal Sliders for Leap Day

I hope you have a “Hoppy” Day learning and leaping as you go!

Scroll down for more Leap Day Articles

Be sure and pop in tomorrow for some more fun teaching tips!

One of the first things that come to my mind when I think of leaping is a frog, so I decided to design a few things for Leap Day with a frog theme.  Hopefully this will give you some more ideas so that you can share them with your fellow teachers, so that you can each provide a lesson for your "Leap from room-to-room" Leap Day!

Run off duplicate sets of these frog cards and laminate them to make a variety of Leap Day activities.

Play Leapin’ Letters: Print the upper and lowercase letter cards on two different shades of green construction paper to make playing a Memory Match game easier.

Students pick a partner and flip over an uppercase letter and then try to match it to its lowercase partner.

Play continues ‘til all of the cards have been matched.  The student with the most pairs wins the game.

Play “I Have…Who Has? Put card-pairs in a basket/bag/box. How ‘bout a kangaroo pouch?

Start with the person who has the letter A who says: “I have uppercase A who has lowercase a? “ Students lay the cards in sequential order on the carpet.

Finish off the game by pointing to the cards and singing the ABC song.

You can also mix in “Kaboom” bomb cards into the bag.

Children each choose a card from the pouch and keep it hidden.

Teacher also chooses a card.  She shows her card and tells what she has and then calls on a student.  They show their card and tell what they have.

If they have a bomb card, everyone yells “Kaboom!” and both the child who called on the bomb-card child, and the child with the bomb, are out of the game.

Play continues ‘til there is only one child left.

Scatter the cards all over the floor and have students leap around finding them.

When they are all picked up, have students hop over to the carpet area and sit in a circle.  Arrange the cards in correct order by counting by 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 5’s etc.

Decide which concepts you want to reinforce for Leap Day, run off those pages and have students make Itty Bitty booklets by tracing the numbers/letters, cutting out the individual cards and then putting them in appropriate order and stapling them into a mini-Leap Day booklet.

My Y5’s really enjoyed making, sharing and collecting these “just-my-size” booklets.

Click on the link to view/download Leap Day Frog Letter and Number Itty Bitty Card Booklets

To get the wiggles out show students how to play “Leap Frog.”  Set a timer to ring in five minutes.  Have students keep track of how many children they have jumped over.

Take this leaping activity a step farther and make large lily pads cut from green tag board.

Scatter them within leaping distance and write sets of skip-counting numbers on them.  Have a set for counting by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s.

Program a set for younger students to count by 1’s to whatever number you want them to count up to.

Have students leap from lily pad to lily pad skip counting as they go.

I adhere them to the floor with duct tape so children don’t slip.

To end the activity run off my “Hoppy Leap Day” lily pad and have them trace the numbers and make a 3-D lily out of a coffee filter.

Print off my "Hoppy Leap Day!" sticker labels to add that finishing touch.

For more number fun on Leap Day, I’ve also designed  “Don’t get stuck!” Frog Facts.

A frog’s tongue is extremely sticky so they can zap insects for a tasty meal.

Children will enjoy writing fact families on the frog’s tongue.

Choose a specific number or two, have students write the equations on the frog’s tongue and then solve the problem.

Keep the tongues flat, or for a fun fine motor skill, have students roll the red or pink paper tongue strips into a coil using a pencil or crayon, they'll look like a party favor horn!

Click on the link for Frog Facts and Leap Day Lily Pad activity.

Another game that you can play as a reward for a job well done counting is “Hot Frog, Lizard, Rabbit or Kangaroo!”

This is played just like Hot Potato.  Children sit in a circle and you play some jumpin jivin’ music.

They pass around a stuffed frog, lizard, rabbit or kangaroo.

When you stop the music every few seconds, the child holding the “Hot” thing is out of the game and has to Leap out of the circle.

Students who are out of the game, leap around to the music, ‘til there is only one child left who is the winner.  

Scroll down for more Leap Day articles. 

Pop back tomorrow for another Leap Day Activity, plus I'll have the entire Leap Day Unit done!

Leap Day Coin Game: Let's Leap To 29

To coincide with their studies of Lincoln and Washington, many teachers start their intense study of coins in February,  so I thought it would be fun to make up a game for Leap Day, using pennies, nickels, dimes and a quarter, to help review those coins.

I find that the more times you can immerse children in hands-on activities, that involve the concepts you’re trying to teach them, the better chance you have of having the perverbial lightbulb go on, as they latch on to something that will help them differenciate the coins.

What better way to do that than by playing a game!

Since Leap Day falls on the 29^th and I’m trying to get that fact stuck into my students’ heads, as well as the fact that this is an extra day, since February usually has only 28 days, I made the game Leap To .29 Cents.

I also want students to try and figure out what their best chances are of reaching 29 the quickest will be, depending on the column of coins they choose.

A discussion about strategy can follow of whether column choice matters and why.

I’ve also provided a graph to see which column won the game the most to see if it really did make a difference.

Students choose a partner and take turns spinning the coin spinner.

Whatever coin their paperclip lands on they color in that coin.

If they have already colored in those coins it becomes their partner’s turn.

Play continues ‘til the timer rings.

If someone has not reached 29, the student who is closest to 29 is the winner.

I hope this gives you another idea for your bag of tricks for Leap Day.

Click on the link to view/download Leap Day Coin Game, Leapin’ to 29.

Scroll down for my post from yesterday and the Leap Day Leapin’ Animals booklet and be sure and pop back tomorrow for more Leap Day activities.

Rewind History To The Present For A Peek Into The Past!

I wanted to post these pictures in case anyone is looking for some pix of civil war times just in case you’d like to enhance your study of  Abraham Lincoln. 

These would make a nice slide show.

During the summer, while we were visiting the Tawas Point Lighthouse in Michigan, my husband and I happened upon a “Living History” reenactment of this time period.

The folks pictured, were kind enough to pose and give permission to post.  They do this kind of thing often and enjoy providing a really educational look into the past.

There were lots of hands-on activities, like dipping wicks hung from a stick into hot wax to make candles, a blacksmith demonstrating his trade, soldiers explaining their uniforms and shooting off their rifles.

You could even try your hand at sawing wood.

People displayed quilts, photographs and other things of the time.

Click on the link to view/download Living History Civil War Reenactment Pix

If you’re looking for another history-based activity, I wrote a play that my daughter’s class presented when she was in the 8^th grade.

It was a terrific way for them to do research and learn about Lincoln and the time he lived.

Click on the link to view/download the play: A Day In The Life Of Abraham Lincoln

I hope to see you tomorrow! I'll post some more fun stuff!