1-2-3 Come Add Some "Egg-citement" To Teaching Time With Me

Are you working on telling time with your kiddos?   What’s the Eggs-act Time? packet, is filled with fun analog and digital time activities with a spring-theme. It's and "oldie but goodie" that's been around for a while, but is still a popular download.

Your students will enjoy making their own egg clock. Simply run off the pattern on a variety of colors of construction paper.

Teachers can easily whole- group assess, by asking students to show them an “egg-sact” time.  Children adjust the paperclip hands on their clock and hold it up.  Teachers can see at a glance who is having difficulty.

I’ve also included an egg spinning game as well.  Children play in groups of 2-4 and take turns spinning.

Whatever number they land on, they trace and then write that time to the hour.  The student who fills up their time card first is the winner.

There are also digital and analog traceable time cards so you can make Memory Match games, as well as Itty Bitty booklets, or play the game “I Have Who Has?”  Cards are for time to the hour, half hour, as well as quarter hour times too. 

For example, the child with the analog 2:00 O’clock card, asks for the digital 2:00 time card.  Students can also sequence these cards.

Play “Speed-Flash” where the teacher flashes a time card and students show that time on their egg clock.  The child who shows the correct time the quickest, by holding up their clock, earns a sticker for the back of their egg.

Match Three is yet another game with 3 matching time cards to the hour: an analog clock, a large digital time and a time that is written out.   Students can play a Memory Match game with these by finding all 3 matches, or play a card game with another partner that works like Go Fish.

This game is called, Do You Have The Time?  Deal out 5 cards and put the rest face down.  Students match their groups of 3 with the cards they have.  When it is their turn they may take a card from the pile or ask their partner “Do you have 2:00 0’clock? “

If their partner has any time card that is 2 O’clock they give it to them etc.  Play continues ‘til all of the cards are matched or when the timer rings.

The student with the most matches is the winner.  When you are done with the various activities, you can reward your students with a certificate of praise bookmark, which is also included in the packet.

Click on the link to view/download Eggs-actly What Time Is It? packet.  If you'd like to see all of my time-themed FREEBIES, click on the link to pop on over to that section of TeachWithMe.  I also have an entire Pinterest board devoted to free telling time activities, crafts, and ideas.

Thanks for visiting.  I just glanced at the clock on my computer; (So glad that that's there, as I totally lose track of how my morning is flying by!) and it's time to do some major work cleaning up my garden. 

Winter has certainly wrecked havoc out back, and I'm anxious to take advantage of a 50 degree day, where it's finally warm enough to work!  Wishing you a prosperous day. 

"A garden requires patient labor and attention.  Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions.  They thrive because someone expended effort on them." -Liberty Hyde Bailey

Getting To The Core With A Box

If someone asked me what was the most Googled Word or phrase that was "hit" for my site,  I would easily answer Elkonin Boxes.

If you are not familiar with them, they are a huge help in teaching the Common Core State Standard: RF.K2b as they are simply "boxes" that are a visual representation that helps students count, pronounce, blend and segment syllables in spoken words.

The 20-page packet includes 50 word templates + 3, 4, and 5 letter box blank templates, for teachers/parents to use in a variety of ways.

• Elkonin boxes can be used to teach phonemic awareness by having students listen for individual sounds and marking where they hear them in the boxes.
• Each Elkonin box in an Elkonin box card represents one phoneme, or sound.
• Elkonin boxes are a physical segmentation of words into phonemes.

• I make my boxes a bit longer when a digraph or blend is involved because it fixes the spelling in a child’s mind. (I think this helps them with decoding and spelling, as phonemes count as one sound not one letter.)
• There are many activities that teachers can do with Elkonin boxes, but the main activity teachers usually use them for is to 'stretch' out words, identify similar or different sounds and then guess at spelling.
• I’ve made an alphabetical list of some of the more popular words for kindergarten and first grade.

• You can use them as skill sheets or run them off and laminate them and use them as a center activity, or flashcards.
• Students can use counters, chips, or unifix cubes to mark the boxes or run the masters off on copy paper and have students use a bingo dot marker or write in the letters.
• There's also a writing master, where students are given a word to break down and then they use that word in a sentence. 

Here you can remind students to separate their words, capitalize the beginning word and use end punctuation, which are  Common Core State Standards: RF.1c, L.K2a, and L.K2b.

Any of these Elkonin Box worksheets make great "Word Work" for Daily 5 activities too.

Click on the link to view/download Elkonin Boxes

Do you have an activity that you use Elkonin boxes for, that you could share with us? I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment here.

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

"What comes from the heart, goes to the heart."-Samuel Taylor Cooleridge

 Ready. Set. Action!

Having to write a simple sentence with a noun and verb, with appropriate capitalization and end punctuation is now a standard for even our youngest students.

This can be a pretty big mountain to climb, as some of them are just learning how to write their name and to identify the letters of the alphabet, so I thought why not cover all of these standards in a fun way with an alliterative class-made alphabet book!

The 36-page Name & Action Verb and Noun Class Book packet, is perfect for first graders, and something that can be done later in the year for kindergartners and makes a great Daily 5 or reading or writing center activity as well.

The packet covers the Common Core Standards: RF.K1a, RF.K1c, RF.K1d, RF.K3a, RI.K.5, RI.K.6, L.K1a, L.K1b, L.K2a, L.K2b I'm very familiar with Kindergarten standards, and I know some of the first grade standards over lap, but I don't have a handle on all of them. Sorry I don't have the numbers for you. 

Students write a simple sentence using a letter from the alphabet that starts with the letter of their name.They underline the capital letter of the beginning word, as well as the ending punctuation. So that you have a complete alphabet book with all of the letters, you can also assign a letter to each student, and allow them to make up a name.

To make sure they have included an “action word” (verb) and a “thing word” (noun) they need to underline those as well. Children then illustrate their page.

I chose to make this an alliterative book because I think tongue twisters are not only more fun, and a bit more challenging for first graders, but they help reinforce the Common Core Standard RF.K3a where students demonstrate basic knowledge of letter-sound correspondence, by producing the primary or most frequent sound for each consonant.

If you think this is too difficult for your PK’s or K’s, simply have them think of any verb or noun and simply work on that skill, rather than make it too complicated.

I suggest sitting in a circle around the white board and brainstorming each child’s words, as a whole group, which would help the light bulbs go on via repetition, as you are continuously working on the same concept over and over with different letters, with everyone helping you until you have completed the task.

You could also send the page home as a home-school assignment, and let parents work one-on-one with their child.  For that finishing touch, add a photo to make the book even more interesting.

You can run off the last page so everyone can work on their letter skills.  Have them trace and then write their letters and then pair up with a partner and quiz each other on which letter is which.  I've also included a certificate of praise.

When everyone has completed their page, laminate and collate them into a class book. Make sure that you do a sample page of your own.  My students are always surprised to find out that I too, have a first name.

When they are done, they can choose one question to ask the class: What the action verb was, what the noun was, what was the name of the end punctuation or what letter was capitalized?

Students will enjoy “playing teacher” and you will be reinforcing several standards in a fun way, as each child shares their page! Click on the link to view/download Name and Action Class Book

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away. 

“See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little.” –Pope John XXIII