Items filtered by date: January 2012

5 pages Students cut and glue the matching coins to the cover and slit the flaps to reveal information underneath that they fill in. Information includes the name of the coin, the color, the value, what President is on the coin and how many tally marks i

President's Day Games & Activities

A quick and easy center for your students on President’s Day is to make an Itty Bitty Alphabet or Counting booklet.

Students trace the upper and lowercase letters, cut them out and sequence them.

My Y5’s always enjoyed taking these “just the right-size” booklets home to share with their families, which helped reinforce the lessons that they learned.

They also liked collecting all of the different little booklets each month.

Make extra sets for in class.  Run the uppercase letters off on a DIFFERENT color from the lowercase ones and laminate them so that you can play Memory Match games.

I find that if you differentiate the sets via color, you make it less frustrating for little ones to play memory games and they don’t take an inordinate amount of time either.

You can also distribute the cards an play “I Have…Who Has?”

Click on the link to view/download the President’s Day Alphabet cards.

Besides these traceable word cards, I help my students learn letters by making up Bingo songs.

The Bingo song is a great way to review the concept of subtraction and a clapping pattern as well + students LOVE singing.

What better way to review who the President and Vice President are of the United States than with this little song.

Print off the OBAMA and BIDEN bingo cards. Put magnet strip on the back and put them on your white board. Use them to sing the Bingo song.

Here are the words:

Obama is the president.

He is our Nation’s leader

O-B-A-M-A   O-B-A-M-A

O-B-A-M-A

He is the President.

Biden is the VP

He helps the President

B-I-D-E-N   B-I-D-E-N

B-I-D-E-N

Joe helps the president.

Click on the link to view/print the Obama Bingo Cards and song.

Click on the link to view/download my other Bingo Song Cards

If you teach a song each month you will have reviewed all of the letters of the alphabet except X.

Besides the alphabet, I made sets of numbers for counting by 1’s with pennies, by 5’s with nickels, by 10’s with dimes to reinforce not only skip counting, but recognizing these particular coins and their value.

There’s also a set for counting by 2’s and 3’s.  All have covers so that the students can make individual Itty Bitty Booklets as well.

Finish up the counting activities by getting the wiggles out and have students count backwards from 20 or 10.

Once they’ve jumped into the air they can bounce out to their lockers and take their booklets with them.

Click on the link to view/download the President’s Day Counting Cards.

Whatever you’re doing on President’s Day I hope it’s letter perfect!

Pennies For Your Thoughts

If someone caught you daydreaming and a million miles away, you might have heard them asking you, “A penny for your thoughts.”

This is a nice writing prompt for students, especially on President’s Day, and makes a cute class book.

Brainstorm with your students of what they could think about. I think… the cafeteria should serve… I think that someday I would like to be a...  I think tomorrow I will… etc.

Run off my template and have students fill in the conversation cloud and then glue their school photo next to it as if they are “thinking”.

 Collate the pages and make a class book.  Share it with the class by having students read their page when you come to it.

You can reward them with a shiny penny after they have shared their thoughts.

A similar activity is “Thoughts On A Penny.” So that students become familiar with what is on a penny, explain to them the data on the coin.

Run off the penny template on brown construction paper and tell students they will cut it out and fill in some informational thoughts.

Instead of In God We Trust as the motto on their coin, have them come up with their own personal motto, or simply write down one of their favorite quotes.

To help them with this, read a dozen or so very short ones from a list of favorite quotations and have them choose one.

Discuss where and when coins are minted and show them where that information appears on the coin.

In lieu of that, have them write down the city where they were born, and the year.

Around the bottom, students complete the sentence: I’m cent-sational because…

Students glue their penny to the kid character, add some facial features and hair; color and cut it out.

These make a nice bulletin board or hallway display.

Click on the link to view/download A Penny For Your Thoughts ideas

Whatever your plans for President’s Day I hope they are simply cent-sational!

Scroll down for some ABC-123 President's Day cards, perfect for a center activity or game for President's Day!

You are "Cent-sational"!

This patriotic necklace is perfect for President’s Day.

Make them up ahead of time as a sweet surprise for your students and have them lying on their desk, or let them have the fun of making them as a quick and easy center activity.

This is a nice review of small-medium and large as well as a patriotic color pattern plus the heart and star shapes.

Click on the link to view/download the You Are “Cent-sational”! star necklace patterns.

For another President’s Day activity scroll down to check out A Penny For Your Thoughts!

Show Me The Money! Manipulatives That Motivate.

I find that students learn so much better with manipulatives, all the more if they make their own, because they are reinforcing concepts as they put their project together.

Not only will children enjoy making these coin Popsicle stick puppets, they will have fun playing the "What Am I?" game that follows perfect for a President's Day activity.

Here's how to make the Coin Sticks:

Run off the masters. Students cut out their coins and color them the appropriate colors.

Children cut and glue the penny and nickel back-to-back and the dime and quarter back-to-back. This way they will only have 2 “puppet” sticks to manipulate for the game.

I've pictured the fronts and backs of the coin sticks in the photo as I made 2 pair.

Students trace the coin words with a crayon, cut them out and glue them to the matching coin stick.

Older children can simply write the name of the coin on the stick with a marker.

To make the papers a little more durable, I glued mine to a scrap of construction paper.

Using a hot glue gun, or glue dots, teachers glues REAL coins to their Popsicle sticks.

Students sit on the floor in front of the teacher. Teacher reads one clue at a time for a coin.

Children can raise their Popsicle stick coin puppet anytime they know the answer, but may change it only once after the teacher reads: What am I?

The teacher holds up a real coin stick and asks: "Is this the correct coin?"  This can be the correct one, to which the children reply “Yes!” or an incorrect one. The teacher then chooses another stick, ‘til (s)he gets it right.

This is a great way to whole-group assess, and a fun way to have students learn the different facts about the coins.

Have students keep their coin sticks in their desks/cubbies so you can play the game daily/weekly. When the novelty has worn off, or when students can identify the coins they can take them home.

You can also use these coin sticks to help students with spatial directions.  i.e. Hold the penny stick in your left hand. Show me the quarter stick in your right hand. Put the dime beside the nickel etc.

Likewise, you can review body parts and have children put the penny on their thigh, the nickel on their wrist, the dime on their hip etc.

Your students will enjoy these “Simon Says” type games. They are quick reviews, and you can whole group assess in a matter of a few minutes.

Click on the link to view/download the Coin Popsicle Stick Puppets  To hang up some coin posters with poems click on the link. Coin Poster Poems

To reward students with a certificate of praise click on the link. Coin Certificates

Because President's Day is tomorrow I wrote 2 more articles for you. Scroll down for a "You're Cent-sational!" Star Student neckace.  Perfect for President's Day. 

Do you have something you'd like to share?  I'd enjoy hearing from you: diane@teachwithme.com OR...feel free to leave a comment, especially if you use an idea.  Thanks in advance!