Items filtered by date: April 2012

10 pages. Whether you send this home for students to work on with their families, or do a page or 2 each day during the last week of school, this booklet will make a wonderful keepsake of the year your students were in your grade.

1-2-3 Blast Off Into Summer With Me!

I discovered rather quickly that my Y5's, K's and even my 1st graders, had no real concept of time.  After all, the calendar involves many new vocabulary words that most of them were not familiar with. 

When introducing a new month I'd ask them what the name was.  For October they'd often say "It's pumpkin month." 

Likewise, their passage of time was limited.  Their focus was mainly on the present, or something special that was going to happen and they were completely clueless of how many days were in a month or left before that special day arrived. 

Consequently, I was inundated with daily questions of "How many days before.....?"  With that in mind, I designed some countdown activities that alleviated the problem.   Are you tired of being asked: "How many days 'til summer vacation?" or..."How many more days of school do we have left?"

A quick, easy and fun way to solve that problem and get some math skills in, is by hanging up this cute countdown paper chain.

Make the chains into a specific color pattern (ABAB or ABCABC, were the ones I used most)  and review patterns and colors. Have students say the color words in English and Spanish.  Review the days of the week to see what weekday their last day will be.

You can also cover a variety of number skills as well. Count in English and Spanish; blast off from 20 to 0 or 10 to 0 when you have 20/10 links left; skip count by 2's and 3's; review greater and less than; count how many chains are left and then count from that number or ask students some addition and subtraction questions like, "What's 1 or 10 more; 1 or 10 less."

Wow! There are so many things you can do with a paper chain!  If you think of more please leave a comment below.

You can simply make one for your class and suspend it from the ceiling close to your calendar, making this part of your calendar routine, or have each child make one to take home and keep track of the days there too.

Click on the link to view/download the Summer Countdown Paper Chain  If you like this idea and want to plan ahead and incorporate it next year, as one of your daily routines, click on the link for the How Many Days Left In The Month packet. 

As you can see, this is a quick, easy and fun way to cover all sorts of concepts in a few minutes, and was especially helpful when students were looking forward to something special like a fieldtrip, Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's day or 100 Day celebration.  

I used Velcro dots to change the picture on the blackboard hanger each month.  i.e. The apple was for September; I had a pumpkin for October etc. 

To make extra special days standout, I put stickers on the various paper links.  Before counting, I'd have students glance at the chain and guess-timate how many days they thought we had left that month.  

To build vocabulary, I'd also ask them if our chain was getting longer or shorter and if the chain was bigger yesterday or today.  You can throw in some measurement by guess-timating how long they think the chain is and then use a yardstick to measure it.  Click on the link to view/download the How Many Days Left In The Month packet.

Finally, another "keeping track of the days" option, is the Monthly Special Date Wheels.  The packet includes a generic schoolhouse you can use all year, or a special one for each month. 

You can change the event that students are looking forward to, by turning the wheel.  Students can also see the numbers. 

Click on the link to take a look or download those for free as well. 

Thank you for visiting.  I hope you have fun counting down the days.   The last month of school always went by really fast for me.  

Feel free to PIN anything from the site.  My "Pin it" button is at the top.

"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Emerson

15 pages. Use these as puzzles, games, worksheets or a booklet. Uses 20 summer-sun compound words. Also includes a blank pair of sunglasses so that you can program your own skill sheets.

18 pages. Common Core State Standard RI.K1d and L.1.1a You can make an alphabet booklet, flashcards, and Memory Match Concentration games, using these templates. There are also puzzle cards that can be used as such or in several other games.

1-2-3 Come Read With Me

Are you looking for some easy readers with a summer theme?  Well, you’ve come to the right place.

My Summer Senses is a great way to review the 5 senses as well as the 4 seasons!

Students get practice tracing and writing words and use picture clues to read the sentences.

Children also get cutting and gluing fine motor reinforcement by matching the numbered picture to the box in their booklet.

There's a graphing extension and a set of 10 word-wall word flashcards for the seasons and senses as well as a certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/download the My Summer Senses easy reader booklet.

At The Beach is another easy reader where students enjoy cutting and gluing the various things that they can do at the beach, matching the pictures to the sentences.

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

I’ve also included a certificate of praise, 36 word-wall word cards that can be turned into an Itty Bitty booklet, and an Our Class Beach Book writing extension.

Click on the link to view/download the At The Beach easy reader booklet.

In The Colors of Summer easy reader, students trace, write and color the color words as they use picture clues to read the words.

They practice their cutting and gluing skills by matching the numbered pictures to the appropriate boxes in their booklet.

There's a math-graphing extension, 40-word wall word flashcards, and a certificate of praise + two color-word worksheets.

Click on the link to view/download The Colors Of Summer easy reader booklet.

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

"When you look at a field of dandelions you can either see 100 weeds, or 100 wishes." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Fill A Pail Of Fun With Me

Double-Duty! Writing Prompts and Bulletin Boards

I love this time of year.  Standards have been taught, assessments are pretty much done, and I'm looking for some fun pre-summer things to plug in.  

Students are anxiously waiting for summer vacation so why not cash in on that enthusiasm and use it as a writing prompt?

I like to incorporate writing with a bit of art to turn these lessons into "craftivities". 

Students seem to enjoy them more, creating awesome results and I have an instant bulletin board or hallway decoration when things are starting to look a little sparce.

Make A Bucket List!

I'm happy to report I've achieved just about everything I've wanted to accomplish in a college notebook "bucket list" and that's a wonderful feeling.  I now have mini-bucket "to-do" lists on a daily basis which triggered this idea.

These colorful sand pail buckets make an adorable bulletin board or hallway display, or can simply be sent home with your students.  If you're homeschooling they are perfect for a summer scrapbook page.

Run off my masters on a variety of brightly colored construction paper and give students a choice of colors.  Make sure children choose a DIFFERENT color for their pail and shovel as it makes a nicer contrast and more colorful bulletin board.

Students CUT out their pails and write their name on the back of them.  Children also cut out their shovel and write their name on that as well.  If you want to make this even more of a keepsake, add their school picture to the shovel as well.  Cut two, 2-inch strips of complimentary-colored construction paper, and glue them together. Mine are 22 inches long.

Glue the ends to the back of the pail on either side, for a 3-D handle. I looped mine down so that it crossed over the written paper, and then I folded the right end down.

Have children brush on Elmer's school glue to the oval section of their pail and then sprinkle on play sand. Set the pails aside to dry.  You could also simply cut oval shapes using sandpaper.

While the pails are drying, students write their "bucket list" of all the things they want to do during the summer and then glue the list to the bottom of their sand pail.

Mount the pails on the bulletin board or wall with the shovels leaning against them.  Use light brown paper as a background so that it looks like a beach or big sandbox.

Two or three paper seagulls suspended from fish line, flying overhead, complete the picture.  The caption:  Our Summer Bucket List! You could expand this idea and have a "not fun" bucket list for another day of writing.

This would be a list of things students have to get done over the summer that they don't really want to do, like clean their rooms, do yard work, etc.  For these buckets and shovels they would pick colors they don't like. 

Click on the link to view/download Summer Fun Writing Prompts  Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

"People don't notice when it's winter or summer when they are happy." -Anton Checkov