1-2-3 Come Do A Little Magic With Me
I did a month-long mitten theme in January with my Y5's. They enjoyed all sorts of mitten matching games and activities, so I wanted to feature a few popular FREEBIES today.
If you teach the "magic e" spelling rule, I think you'll enjoy the Magic e Mitten packet. It took lots of hours to complete, but I think it was time well spent. Run the mitten patterns
off on a variety of colors of construction paper.
I wanted mine to have a red mitten with a green cuff + a green mitten with a red cuff, so I ran off two of each page (one on red and one on green).
Laminate, trim and then cut the cuffs off so that you create puzzles for a Magic e Mitten Matching Game.
The 29-page packet includes a My Magic e Words (dictionary). Students trace the word, add a magic e to the end (use a different color) and then write the new word that is made.
Encourage students to look up words that they don't know and define them on their new-word definition page.
There are also Mitten Math worksheets, where the word + an e ='s a new word, as well as an alphabetical list of 86 magic e words, + a pattern to make a magic e snowflake-mitten wand.
I added glitter to mine and glued it to a Popsicle stick. Give students a word from the list, have them come up and write it on the board.
Everyone waves their magic e wand, and the child adds an e to the end, creating a new word "magically!" Click on the link to view/download the Magic e Mitten packet.
Finally, help students practice their writing skills and organize their thoughts, by using a graphic organizer.
Keeping with the theme of mittens, I designed several graphic organizers, which help students work on adjective as well as verb word work.
Students describe mittens on one worksheet, and tell what kinds of activities they do when they wear them, on the other worksheet.
Afterwards, have children use the adjectives they thought of, to write several descriptive sentences about mittens. These are quick & easy activities for your Daily 5 time too.
I've included completed samples to help explain things. Click on the link for the mitten-themed graphic organizers.
Well that's it for today. Thanks for visiting. Here in Michigan we got over a foot of snow dumped on us, and the windchill and drifting caused schools to close all over the area on Friday. Wishing you safe and warm travels over the weekend.
"What a severe yet master artist old Winter is.... No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel." -John Burroughs, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866
1-2-3 Come Do Some Mitten Activities With Me
Do you read The Mitten by Jan Brett? It's one of my favorite winter stories and perfect for all sorts of sequencing activities.
With the aid of the materials provided for teachers on Jan's site, I designed 5 activity packets that cover all sorts of standards. I hope you enjoy them. They are today's featured FREEBIES and have been very popular downloads.
Help students retell the Ukrainian folktale, by making this cute mitten slider. This is a simple way to review sequencing too. Graphics copyright janbrett.com
The Language Arts Mitten packet also provides sequencing practice.
My kiddos loved making the mitten paper plate pocket to keep their things in.
This 24-page packet is chock full of activities that cover a variety of standards and includes:
- Move Over Please, So I Won't Freeze an emergent reader booklet, which reinforces lots of Common Core, especially ordinal numbers and verbs.
- A mitten paper plate pocket "craftivity" students make to keep all of their mitten-related work in.
- A set of ordinal number pocket cards
- A Mitten Matching card game, where students match the animal character to the animal's name, or the ordinal number position it had in the story, or all three: i.e. the word mole, picture of the mole, ordinal number card 1st-first
- Ordinal number character assessment strip with answer key.
- 2 graphing activities
- 2 mitten writing prompts
- Several mitten worksheets, including one that covers rhyming words + more verb-work. (Great for Daily 5 activities.) and ...
- A certificate of praise bookmark that can be used to play another game.
Another Mitten Literacy Packet, includes more ordinal number-sequencing practice that will help your kiddos retell the story, including a "beginning-middle-end" graphic organizer.
There's also a worksheet where students label the parts of a book, plus pocket chart cards for character, setting and event. I've also included 8 bookmarks to prompt retelling the story.
Another interesting way to review the story and practice end punctuation and capitalization at the same time, is with The Mitten Pocket Chart Punctuation packet.
You can do this as a whole group activity with laminated cards (give students a dry erase marker for them to make corrections) or give each child a card to fix, by rewriting it on a sheet of scratch paper, then sharing their corrections with the class.
Finally, Venn diagrams are a quick, easy and fun way to introduce students to the concept of comparison-contrast writing.
They're great practice if you've already done so, and especially perfect for visual learners.
There are 3 in the Mitten Venn Diagram packet to choose from.
Do one as a whole-group activity to explain things, (compare mittens and gloves) and then give students a choice of the other two. (Compare two characters in The Mitten, or compare the story The Mitten with Jan Brett's other story The Hat.)
To see a short (3 minute) YouTube video featuring Jan Brett click on the link. Another fun video (11 minutes) features Jan showing children how to draw a hedgehog.
Thanks for visiting. I hope you found some extension activities to do with your mitten theme. As for me, it's time to help my grandson pick up Toys R Us that seems to have deposited itself all over my office. Wishing you a day filled with contentment.
Cute quote: "If kisses were snowflakes, I'd send you a blizzard!" -Unknown
- mitten activities,
- activities to go with The Mitten
- Jan Brett activities
- activities for jan bretts the mitten story
- common core mittens
- venn diagram activities
- ordinal number activities
- graphic organizer templates
- beginning middle end story activities,
- sequencing a story
- retelling a story activities
- winter bookmarks
- mitten crafts
- end punctuation activities,
- capitalization activities
- comparing the mitten with the hat
Let's Go! Let's Get Out In That SNOW!
Yesterday I updated and posted the ordinal number winter poster packet to rave reviews. (Thanks! So glad you liked it. I guess lots of teachers & parents were in the same boat. ) This sort of “What goes on next?” always helped my Y5’s and expedited things, so we could waddle out for recess before the bell rang to come back in!
I decided to follow that up by updating an emergent reader booklet on the same subject, that will help you review Common Core State Standards: RF.K1a, RF.K1c, RF.K3c, L.K2a, L.K2b
Like the poster, the booklet helps your students identify winter clothing words and the order clothes should be put on. Students correct the sentences by adding ending punctuation and a capital letter to the beginning word.
They trace and then write the ordinal number, as well as the article of clothing that is put on.
Students use pictures as clues to read the sentences, as they cut and glue other pictures to the matching numbered boxes. This packet is great for your Daily 5 word work activities.
There are 58 words in the booklet, 30 of which are Dolch sight words. I've included 58 traceable word cards to practice with, as well as worksheets involving contractions also found in the booklet, plus some word work with compound words.
Since the booklet is all about getting ready to go out to play in snowy winter weather, I thought it would be fun to see how many compound words starting with the word snow, I could come up with.
Can you think up more than my 15? I’d love hearing from you! I still don’t understand why snow pants is not a compound word! Anyone have an answer to that? diane@teachwithme.com or post a comment here.
The packet also includes:
- 58 traceable word cards + covers to make Itty Bitty Booklets.
- 8 matching picture cards (Great for playing Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has?" games.)
- A graphing extension
- + 4 skill sheets, which include: Match the word from the story to the picture.
- An alphabetizing worksheet
- A compound word worksheet. (Trace and write 15 new words that begin with snow.) and
- A contraction worksheet +
- A certificate of praise when students can read the booklet independently.
Click on the link to view/download the Let’s Go! Let’s Play In The Snow Easy Reader Booklet Be sure to scroll down for yesterday's article "This Is How We Get Ready" if you missed it, and grab the matching FREEBIES.
Thanks for visiting. My feet have hit the floor running today, as my Christmas decorations need to be taken down and packed away, along with a myriad of other things. Anyone else hate that job?
“Leave as little to chance as possible. Preparation is the key to success.” –Paul Brown
- Getting Dressed For Winter Weather Easy Reader
- Getting Dressed For Winter Weather poster
- FREE common core lessons,
- common core lessons for kindergarten,
- common core lessons for 1st grade,
- December Daily 5 activities, easy reader booklets,
- daily 5 word work,
- Common Core State Standards: RFK1a, RFK1c, RFK3c, LK2a, LK2b
- compound word activities,
- contraction activities,
- compound snow words,
- traceable word cards, alphabetizing activities,
- Dolch word activities,
- dolch word lessons
1-2-3 Come Get Ready For Winter Recess With Me
Do your little ones take "forever" to get dressed for recess or to go home? Do they put their mittens on, only to have to take them off, because they haven't zipped their jacket? Do they put their boots on first and then get their feet stuck inside their snowpants?
I found that if I put a poster up in the hallway that listed the articles of clothing that should be put on first, second and third etc. my Y5's not only got ready so much faster, but I had a teachable moment for them to learn about ordinal numbers.
So children know the order of how to get dressed, show the poster and explain the order. To help review the ordinal steps, ask children why they think putting on winter clothing in a specific order is important.
I included the line about socks, because for some unknown reason, many of my little ones were peeling them off along with their shoes wasting more time. Print off several posters and put them up in various locations in your hallway by your students' lockers.
Wahla! No more wasted time taking stuff off and starting over again using up valuable recess time. Before the helpful poster, many of my kiddos barely had time to play, because recess was only 15-minutes long, and they burned up most of those precious minutes getting ready to waddle out the door.
Dressing quickly had another incentive. I hung up a sticker chart of who got done the quickest. The first three done, got snowflake stickers; 10-stickers meant a trip to the treasure box.
This incentive was truly motivational and really got things moving quickly. I don't think the sticker was as much of a big deal, as the fact that my Y5's were highly competitive and merely wanted to be the first one done and out on the playground.
If you'd like to try this, I've updated the file to include a chart. Simply add your students' names, explain the concept, get some stickers, hang the chart and let the racing begin.
To reinforce the order of how to get dressed, as well as review ordinal numbers, I designed a worksheet where students match the article of clothing to the order it should be put on.
For vocabulary building and word recognition, I've also included a worksheet where students label a boy or girl who is dressed to go outside.
So that you have samples to share with your kiddos, I've completed the two worksheets for you to use as anchor charts to easily explain what you want your students to do.
Another dilemma for my Y5's, was getting the correct boot on the appropriate foot. I had a room helper cut silver Duct tape squares with me.
We stuck them on the right toe of everyone's right boot and taught students to put their right boot on FIRST. (The one with the silver square on it!)
This was not only a terrific time saver, but helped save my sanity as well. Click on the link to view/download the This Is How We Get Ready! winter poster packet.
I hope these items help your students get ready fast, so that they can get outside, get those wiggles out, and have a great recess; with the added benefit of learning from a less exhausted teacher.
Thanks for visiting. It's time to brave the minus windchill factor and take my poodle pup out. All she needs is her leash; if only getting my grandchildren out with us were that simple. Wishing you a fun-filled day.
"Perhaps the wind wails so in winter for the summer’s dead. And all sad sounds are nature’s funeral cries for what has been and is not." -George Eliot (Spanish Gypsy)
1-2-3 Come Make An Ug Mug With Me
January, is the perfect time for a delicious cup of cocoa, so I used hot chocolate as an incentive to help promote great classroom behavior. I wrote the words Hot Chocolate on the board.
Each time my Y5's completed a whole group task, or were exceptionally good, I'd underline a letter. When all of the letters were underlined, they earned a cup of hot chocolate after a chilly recess.
Since mugs and marshmallows are real life examples of the cylinder shape, they provided an extra teachable moment.
With that in mind, I designed the ug mug, which reviews the ug word family in a super-fun way. I've included a cylinder anchor chart-poster, to share as well.
Simply run off the mug patterns on a variety of colors of construction paper.
I've included 6 mug options for your kiddos to choose from, including left and right handed patterns, as well as a blank template for them to design their own mug.
Share the ug word family poster with your students and review the words. Define any new words your students may be unfamiliar with.
Children write this list of ug family words on the back of their mug.
They choose 5 favorite ug family words and write one on each of their 5 marshmallows. (A pattern is provided.)
You can have students color the "hot chocolate" oval brown, or run off the template on tan construction paper.
They trim and glue to the top of their mug, along with their 5 marshmallows.
Completed projects make a sweet winter bulletin board. (For that finishing touch, have children glue their photo to the center of the snowflake, or if they chose another mug pattern, have them glue their photo somewhere on their mug. )
If you have students write the ug word family words on the back of their mug, punch a hole in the handle and suspend them from the ceiling. They look wonderful swirling and twirling in the breeze.
There's also an ug word family ABC practice worksheet in the packet, as well as a programmable ug word family sentence writing worksheet.
So that you can easily make a sample to share with your students, I've included completed sample pages too.
Click on the link to view/download the Ug Mug Craftivity packet.
Thanks for visiting. The wind is whipping through the trees today, causing the snow "frosting" to fly off the branches, and boy is it nippy!
Certainly time for a hot chocolate break for me! Wishing you a warm and snuggly day.
"And finally winter, with its biting-whining wind, as all the land is mantled with snow." -Roy Bean
