Items filtered by date: July 2012

Be First In Line and Get Ahead!

Are you looking for a quick and easy way to review or teach ordinal numbers in a fun way?

Simply run off, laminate and cut apart these cute ordinal number kid cards.  The clip art is by Laura Strickland.

Your students will be shining stars when they realize the child in line with the star, is the matching ordinal numbered child.

Pass the cards out and have 10 students sequence themselves, by appropriately lining up in the correct order, holding the right card. 

Continue to play until everyone has had a turn.

Make a mini bulletin board out of the cards, insert them in a pocket chart, or post them on the wall and use them as an anchor chart, near your calendar center, so they can be reviewed each day.

Click on the link to view/download Ordinal Number Cards

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

Scroll down for the promised "Jitters" Common Core packet! 

There are 2 articles today, because I have simply run out of time for back-to-school stuff!  Happy FIRST day for all of you who start tomorrow1

"Act enthusiastic and you become enthusiastic!” –Dale Carnegie

Making It More Meaningful and Memorable With Masks!

I have found that even the shyest of students become more vocal and less inhibited when they can "hide" behind a mask and "become" someone "different!

My Y5’s LOVED making and wearing masks. I’d have them partner up after a story, don their mask and retell it to the other “raccoon” or “bear”.

It’s a fun way to help ignite a child’s imagination and reinforce a Common Core State Standard at the same time.

It never ceases to amaze me how they really “get into” the “characters” of the story this way, and it’s so quick and easy to do!

The packet includes directions and patterns to make 30 masks.

Act out books, poems, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales.

Pass them out and when that character is talking in the book, have the child wearing that mask stand up, or read their “lines” like a reader’s theater.

Use them to count when you’re reading counting books.  As you read and count a new character stands up.  When you’re done, count all the characters forwards and backwards as they sit down.

Make them for special holidays and celebrations.

Finally, make a few of your own.   Laminate them, hot glue a Popsicle stick to the bottom and make your story time come alive!

Click on the link to view/download Mask Packet.

If there are some more masks you’d like to see, shoot me an e-mail, diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment here and I’ll start a new list for a new packet.

If you're looking for more creative tips to enhance your story time, click on the link to view/download my Storytelling Ideas Book.  It's filled with 260 simple tricks to add some zing!

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

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” –Richard Steele

1 2 3 Come PIN With Me!

I am a Pinterest Pinning Princess and LOVE that site! Click on the link to check out my pin boards.

It’s a super place to share and find ideas.  I, as so many of my students, am a visual learner.

A picture on Pinterest sends my mind into overdrive!

If you haven’t heard of Pinterest click on the link to check out the front page and prepare to go to Happy Land.

Pinterest, simply put, is pinning something of interest to a board.  Just as you would tack something "cool" on a bulletin board.

You can have as many, and any kind of boards that you want.   Mine are mostly about education, because that is what "interests" me. You give your boards a label so you can keep things organized.

People can pop over and check out your boards and "re-pin" something to theirs if they like it,  and so goes our wonderful techno-networking, flourishing in a frenzy of sharing some really interesting items and very creative DIY projects. 

(My "to do" list is beyond belief.  LIke I need another project!)

I just want to say thanks to all of the people everywhere who MAKE and TAKE the time to share all these super ideas; children are blessed daily by extra fun and creative lessons and brighter – happier looking classrooms, run by less-exhausted, more excited teachers.

We run our fingers through the Yellow Pages to find things, why don’t the Pinterest people categorize a list of people in a Red Book?

If you’ve wished for a list of other pinners who pin educational things, well wish no longer; Debbie over at Reachable Rainbows has a Pinterest Link-Up for you!

She’s made an Edu-pinner Directory, a

Primary Directory, an

Early Childhood Directory, and a

Kindergarten Directory.

Click on the link that fits you, scroll to the bottom of her BLUE list of other pinners, click on the blue “Click to enter” words by the "You're next!" phrase.

Copy and paste your PINTEREST URL into her form.

Click back to see that you are the next person listed on the list, and click on the link to make sure it takes you right to your Pinterest Pin Board, so everyone can see all YOUR cool pins!

Woo Hoo for Debbie for this great idea and getting us organized!

Be sure and pin the cover of the directory to one of your pin boards.

It would be nice, if you have a blog, to give a shout out there too.  The more people, the more ideas, the more fun; so pass it on and play it forward!

Come on teachers/home school parents, aren’t we known for our uncanny ability to herd cats?

Let the creativity and excitement begin--PIN!

"Work is LOVE made visible." -Kahlil Gibran

A Great Back To School Book: Chrysanthemum!

I designed the Chrysanthemum packet to help reinforce LOTS of Common Core State Standards in quick, easy and fun ways.

As with The Kissing Hand Packet featured in yesterday's article, this packet reinforces Common Core State Standards: RI.K5,RI.K6,RI.K9,RI.K10,RL.K2, RL.K3,RL.K6, L.K1d, RI.1.9, RL.1.2, RL.1.3

The packet includes:

• A beginning-middle-end story map, that will help students retell Chrysanthemum
• A "favorite part" retelling "writing prompt" bookmark
• A compare and contrast Venn diagram with Hooway For Wodney Wat
  
  • Character, Setting and Event cards. (Laminate, put magnets on the back and put them up on your white board. Write down students' answers under the cards.)
  • Cover to label book parts + review author and illustrator
  • Question words activity sheet, reinforcing who, what, why, when, where & how
  • 2 cover templates for the following activity:

I use the book Chrysanthemum as a wonderful lead-in story that the nursery rhyme: “Sticks and stones may hurt my bones but names will never harm me” is simply NOT true’ as words can be very mean AND hurtful!

I Xerox off the cover of the book Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes, and read the story.

Each time someone hurts Chrysanthemum's feelings, I pass the paper around the circle.

We each crumple up the paper, say "I'm sorry" and then smooth it out.  By the time I am done reading the story, the picture of Chrysanthemum is in shreds and full of holes as well.

We discuss the fact that words hurt, and even though we say that we are sorry and “smooth things out” with that person, we have still hurt them.

The words sort of leave “scars” on their heart and in their mind, just like the dilapidated paper visually demonstrates.

I cut out a large red paper heart and glue the poor shredded cover of Chrysanthemum next to a fresh cover, as a gentle reminder to think before you speak, as words DO make a difference.

I also want children to understand that being critical of each other and saying things like "I don't want to be your friend” and leaving them out of a group when they play, is also hurtful.

I'll ask them a question like: “How would you feel if Mrs. Henderson said that to you?”, or how would they feel if I gave everyone else a toy or piece of candy, or let everyone go out for recess and didn't let them go?  It really gives them a wake up call.

Chrysanthemum discusses making fun of a child’s name.  Hooway For Wodney Wat is a wonderful book that delves into bullying and making fun of a child with a speech impediment.

This is a great comparison-contrast book to work on that Common Core Standard, using a Venn diagram that once again brings home the fact that teasing is hurtful.

Click on the link to view/download Chrysanthemum Packet Thank you for visiting today. Hope you can pop back tomorrow for more helpful tips. Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find useful.

“All you need is a plan, a road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.” –Earl Nightingale

10 pages. Common Core State Standards: RI.K.5,RI.K.6,RI.K.9,RI.K.10,RL.K.2RL.K.3,RL.K.6, RL.K.9, L.K.1d, RI.1.9, RL.1.2, RL.1.3 A variety of fun reading and writing activities to go along with Kevin Henke's Chrysanthemum, that will help reinforce the

1-2-3 Come Do Some Kissing Hand Activities With Me

Since the first Kissing Hand Activity Packet was such a huge success, I decided to make another packet designed specifically around Common Core State Standards.

This packet will reinforce: Common Core State Standards: RI.K5,RI.K6,RI.K9,RI.K10,RL.K2, RL.K3,RL.K6, L.K1d, RI.1.9, RL.1.2, RL.1.3

It has a variety of fun reading and writing activities to go along with Audrey Penn's adorable story The Kissing Hand, about a little raccoon who doesn’t want to go to school. This is one of my all-time favorite back to school books.

This packet, is the first in a series of quick and easy common core packets, where I use kiddie lit to teach standards.  I'll be posting and blogging about these FREEBIES for the next few days.

The Kissing Hand Packet includes:

• A beginning-middle-end story map that will help students retell The Kissing Hand
• A "favorite part" retelling "writing prompt" bookmark
• A compare and contrast Venn diagram where students compare The Kissing Hand to another of my favorite first day of school books, First Day Jitters!
• Character, Setting and Event cards. (Laminate, put magnets on the back and put them up on your white board. Write down students' answers under the cards.)
• "My Feelings" discussion, skill sheet, and graphing extensions.
• 1st day writing prompt
• Kissing hand poem introducing rhyming words.
• Question Words activity sheet, reinforcing the who, what, why, when, where, how words.
• Cover of book to label book parts + review author and illustrator

Click on the link to view/download The Kissing Hand Packet 2   It will be FREE for an entire year.  After that, it will become part of a big literacy packet in my TpT shope.

Stay tuned for a similar packet for First Day Jitters. For lots more activities forThe Kissing Hand click on the link to zip on over to that section ofTeachWithMe

I'm off for a swim to cool off! (90's today.) Hope you're enjoying a sunny summer day as well!

“Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.” –John Wayne