1-2-3 Come Make A Water Cycle Wheel With Me

I'm sorry this is getting posted late.  Because of an allergic reaction, I spent most of last night in the ER, and then was transferred to ICU 'til later this afternoon. 

Really makes your priorities in life clear, as well as appreciation of the much-taken-for-granted, simple act of breathing. 

Any hoo, I'm a firm believer in "better late than never" so here is a quick and easy water cycle lesson.

It is now even later, as I finished the article, and instead of hitting control save, I hit who knows what, and lost the entire thing!

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. Arggg!

I did this bit of science in April as it coincided with the April shower weather we were having outside, and was a nice addition to our weather studies.

Here's how to make a water cycle wheel:

Run off the templates on white construction paper. Students will trim into a circle and cloud shape.

Little ones may need help cutting the window on their cloud.

Students color blue raindrops onto the wheel windows and then place the circle behind their cloud so that it is in the center.

Poke a hole in the middle and fasten the wheel to the cloud with a brass brad.

To give the cloud more pizzazz and a 3D effect, have students press whisps of pulled-cotton on to the top.

Just an FYI: You need to model this step and explain to students how the pulled cotton balls look so much more realistic, than a whole cotton ball plopped on their cloud, other wise you may get quite a few kiddos who skip the pulling step and simply glue the entire cotton ball on their cloud. 

I further explained, that they were only getting a few balls that would be enough for their entire cloud if pulled apart, but certainly not enough if they just glued on the whole cotton ball.

This extra bit of explanation was very successful.  I not only wanted them to listen and follow directions, but to practice this wonderful fine motor exercise.

Inform students that they should pull apart all of their cotton balls and make a nice pile of "fluff" and then press it on their glue-covered cloud.

When everyone is done with their cloud wheel, review the water cycle concept as a whole group.

I've also included a cut & glue water cycle worksheet to further reinforce cutting skills and the new science vocabulary.

Another fun way to hone in on the words, and a great way to "get the wiggles out" is to do this action-chant:

My Y5's would crouch down and say: collection, then they'd jump up and say; evaporation.

Making a big cloud with their arms, they would exclaim: condensation. Their bodies would bend slightly forward as their clouds got heavier and heavier. 

Finally, they would fall down to the ground and yell: precipitation. I'd go through this 3 or 4 times. The 3rd time we'd say the words and do the actions as fast as we could.

For the last time, we'd do it in a low voice and move very slowly.  This quieted things down.

My Y5's LOVED doing this and learned the new vocabulary by the end of the day. Throughout the entire month, we'd practice the water cycle action chant.

Click on the link to view/print the Water Cycle activities.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.

"Chidren have more need of models, than critics." -Unknown 

Teaching Children, Colors My World With Love

The easy reaader, My Penguin Color booklet is  terrific for your penguin theme and a fun way to review colors and color words.

Students read the simple sentences, trace, write and color the color words. They can also color the penguin and the featured object.

There's plenty of room for students to draw the featured noun in the sentence, or write that word as well.

To nail even more standards, have student circle the beginning word capital letter, as well as the ending punctuation.

When everyone has completed their booklet, read it aloud as a whole group, so you can cover concepts of print.

While doing so, remind them that there are spaces between words and that they are reading from left to right and top down.

I've also included a cute certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/download My Penguin Color booklet.

In keeping with the color theme, I also wrote My Winter Colors booklet, which helps review Common Core State Standards: RF.K1a, RF.k1c, RF.K3c

It follows the same format as the penguin booklet does.  The sentences feature winter things that are a specific color, such as white snowflakes.

The last page offers a writing prompt.  Students write what their favorite winter color is and then name something that color and draw a picture of it.

Both of these booklets make nice activities for your winter Daily 5 work.

Click on the link to view/download My Winter Color booklet.

Thank you for visiting today. I hope your winter is filled with happy and colorful moments.

Feel free to PIN anything that you think others may find helpful.

Do you have a color word activity you can share with us? I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or post a comment here.

"Motivation is what gets you started.  Habit is what keeps you going." Jim Rohn

Come ABC With Me!

Boy do I have a terrific alphabet packet for you today!

It’s a whopping 90 pages long and took me a zillion hours to complete!

It was worth it though, because you can do so many things with it!

The packet is an outstanding way to help your students match letters and pictures to words and their sounds  and incorporates a variety of standards.

The packet includes:

• 439 picture cards with matching word cards.
• I've included CVC words, sight words + 65 Dolch nouns
• 6 different sets of uppercase letters + a lowercase set
• A blank set of picture cards so you can program your own
• A blank set of word cards so you can program your own
• 8 shape cards with matching word cards
• 11 number cards (0-10)
• ABC letter sorting mats so students can sort pictures and words and  put them under the matching letter.
• 34 category sorting mats so that students can sort pictures into appropriate categories. i.e big-little, vowels-consonants, farm animals-wild animals, winter, spring, summer and fall etc.
• A "My ABC Book" so students can make their own booklet. Includes cover + inside pages.
• A tip sheet of what sorts of things you can do with the cards, including games +
• A certificate of praise.

Many of these activities are great for your Daily 5 “Word Work.”

Click on the link to view/download the Alphabet Letter, Picture and Word packet.  I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others will find useful.

“The bad news is that time flies, The good news is that you’re the pilot.” –Michael Altshuler