Items filtered by date: January 2013

1-2-3 Come Make A Horton and Who With Me!

I always try to design some sort of "craftivity" to go with my lessons.  This helps motivate students to get down to business and stay on task, so that they can transition to the fun center.

I especially love making a manipulative that students can use while I read the story, or to show me that they understand spatial directions.

I've also found that some quiet students really come out of their shell. when they are behind a mask, or talking for a puppet, so I designed a double puppet with this Peek A Boo activity. 

How To Make Horton:  Run off the elephant on gray construction paper. Because of copyright laws I did not draw the “real” Horton.   Students color the tusks white and then cut their elephant out. Add wiggle eyes with glue dots for extra pizzazz.

The toilet paper trunk is simply covered with matching paper. Cut 2 slits so that you shove it between the elephant's tusks.  Students cut out their clover “flower” curl the end of a green pipe cleaner and tape it to the back of the clover.

I fastened a mini white pom pom for the “dust speck” but you could also use a little piece of cotton ball.  Stick the clover to Horton's trunk with a glue dot, or piece of rolled Scotch tape. The little poem on the clover says: Peek-a-me, Peek-a-you-Peek a Who from Whoville too!

Making a Who Popsicle stick Pop Up Puppet:  Tape or glue-dot 2 Popsicle sticks end to end.

I got the picture of the Who from Coloring pages ABC.  They have a variety of licensed characters that you can use to make worksheets to match your themes.

Because of copyrights, I did not make a page of Whos. You can click on the link and check out the Whoville characters you want, and then just copy and paste them into a word document so you can make them smaller.

Run off a master set, rough cut, and let students have a choice of  a Who.  They could also design their own.

Children color their who, trim and glue to the end of the Popsicle stick. I chose this girl from Whoville, because she had a feather on her head, so I added a feather for that finishing touch.

Children manipulate their puppets to show all sorts of spatial directions: “Poke your Who up, down, out, in" etc. "The Who is between the elephant’s eyes."

Students can also manipulate Horton and place him above their head, behind their back, in their left hand, in their right hand etc.  If you don't want to fuss with the toilet paper roll puppet, you can use Horton for all sorts of writing prompts. 

I've included 22 writing prompt  "trunk" templates. Students' completed projects make an adorable Seuss bulletin board, for March is Reading Month.

Click on the link to view/download The Horton Writing Prompt Puppet.  

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"Think left and think right and think low and think high.  Oh the thinks you can think up if only you try!"  -Dr. Seuss

1-2-3 Come Count and Flip Stripes With Me!

This Seuss flip hat is a bit more complicated than the money “cent-stional” one that I designed earlier, but it is still a pretty easy project that nails a lot of Standards in a fun way. Common Core State Standards: K.CC.4a, K.CC.4b, K.CC.4c, K.OA.1,K.OA.5, K.CC.6, 1.MD.3

How To Make A Hat:Run off the templates. I’ve made a teacher answer key with the time-consuming parts done, to expedite making a sample to show your students.  Because of the cutting. gluing, and assembling, this is a terrific fine motor skill activity.

You can have students either color every other stripe on the front cover flip portion of the hat, in an ABAB pattern, or you can run off the cover template on red construction paper.

Cut the stripes so that one child gets the odd numbers to glue to his white cover, and another child gets the even numbers.

By gluing the stripe to the matching number, you are reinforcing sequencing, one-to-one correspondence, as well as odd or even numbers, plus skip counting by 2’s for the even numbers.

Before assembling, have students fill in the inside of the hat.  If you have them use a yellow and green highlighter, you can revisit the science fact that apples come in red, yellow and green.  You can also have them color their apples in an ABC color pattern when they get to that portion of the hat.

I used apples for the group/set of things, because it’s a school theme, easily recognizable by students, and is a terrific transition activity, if you read Seuss’s 10 Apples Up On Top to your kiddos.

There is plenty of room to have your students write the numbers in as well.  I did this AFTER the tally marks, so that the first column of numbers stays separate from the writing of the numbers, so that the first number does not look like an 11, the next a 22 and so on.

Children draw hands on the clock to the hour.   Remind them that the hour hand is shorter than the minute hand.

Making A Hat: Students cut and glue the correct matching dice to the appropriate column.

I purposely used part of the fact family of 5.  Counting the dots on the dice and adding them together to = their number, will reinforce yet another Standard.

Students trim their front and back covers, and cut out their hat.  I found that it was easier, to fold the edge of the front and back covers and then glue them to the front and back parts of the hat, before cutting the stripes.

This way everything wasn’t flapping all over the place, with the risk of getting torn or completely ripped off.  This will also help prevent children from cutting their strips entirely off, if they don’t stop at the dashed line.

My Y5’s often did that because they were simply on a roll and kept cutting.  Once students complete their hats, there are all sorts of things you can do with them.

How Can I Use The Hats?  They are great for whole group assessing. Call out a number and have students flip to it.

Have them flip all of their even or odd numbers over. As they flip the even numbers, have them count by 2’s. Call out a number and have them flip over all of the numbers that are greater or less than that number.

Call out a time and have them flip to that. Do quick story problems by saying: “Flip to 2:00 o’clock. If 3 hours go by, flip to what time it will be.”  Call out 2 numbers, have them flip them and then add or subtract them.

Students can choose a partner and take turns rolling first one dice ‘til they have flipped numbers 1-6 and then add the 2^nd dice to roll and flip numbers 7-10.  The first one to flip over all of their flaps, or the one who has the most flipped stripes, by the time the timer rings, is the winner.

If you happen to think of more ways to use this number hat, I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com, or post a comment here if you like.   Click on the link to view/download the I've Got Your Number Dr. Seuss Hat.

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“The most precious jewels your arms will ever have around your neck, will be the arms of a child.” -Unknown

6 pages. Common Core State Standards: K.CC.4a, K.CC.4b, K.CC.4c, K.OA.1,K.OA.5, K.CC.6, 1.MD.3 This is an easy project that helps review quite a few standards in a fun way.

12 pages. A wonderful collection of helpful coin posters to aid in teaching recognition of the penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar coins.

3 pages. My Y5's really enjoyed making necklaces. I had one little boy who hung all of his on a hook in his bedroom, so he could remember all the different fun days that we had celebrated.

1-2-3 Come Make A Flip Hat With Me.

I got the idea to make hat flip books from Mrs. Zrihen over at A Teachers Treasure. She teaches 6-8 grade reading and made one for figurative language.   Click on the link to check out her creative blog.

My wheels were of course turning, of what I could do for lower elementary,  so I whipped together this one on coins.

The Cent-sational Seuss  hat is a quick and easy little activity for your Seuss unit that will help review coins in a fun way.

Students cut their cover into flaps and glue it to the edge of their hat, so that when they flip a stripe over, it reveals the appropriate coin that they've glued and how much it's worth.

Completed projects make a great spring bulletin board.  Click on the link to view/download the Cent-sational Seuss hat. 

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For another fun Seuss hat activity (this one on patterning) scroll down. 

"If you follow the crowd, you might get lost in it." -Unknown

10 pages. Making a Venn diagram is a quick, easy and fun way for students to compare coins. I've made one for each type of combination for a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar.