Punt With A Scavenger Hunt
One of the sayings I heard from the boys on the football team was, "When all else fails, punt!" You can do that quite successfully with a scavenger hunt for your Open House or the first day of school.
Sometimes teachers need a few quiet moments to get their sanity back and have their students doing something to keep them occupied, while they tackle that "paper mountain" of administrative duties on the first day of school.
Why not go on an alphabetical scavenger hunt? "Go exploring and you will see, things in our classroom from A to Z!"
These ideas come from my 28-page ABC Scavenger Hunt booklet. I'm posting the check list as a freebie through the 31st of July.
Here's how:
- Run off copies of my Alphabetical Scavenger Hunt. Click on the link to view/print it.
- Tell the students that they are going to be ABCDe-tectives!
- Handout a clipboard and yellow highlighter along with the ABC check list to each student.
- I've got adorable badges and magnifying glasses in the booklet to make this even more fun and "detective-like".
- Review the list with them so that they know what they are looking for.
- Even if they don't know how to read, they should be able to understand and find the picture next to the letter.
When they find an object on the list, they color in the small circle.
- When everyone is done, review the letters of the alphabet again.
- Ask students if they can think of anything else that they see in the room that starts with that letter, like p is for pencil, but there's also lots of pens, paper and pupils in the classroom too!
- Make the sound of each letter as you say the object that they found and call on a child to point to it.
- I have used this list to make 38- Read-Around-The-Room cards too.
- They can be put up for the scavenger hunt so they can locate the word as well as the object, or you can put them up later, or to save you time, have students put them up as they point to the object.
I always include a cover template for the word cards so that you can run off a set for students to cut, sequence and make into Itty Bitty booklets.
Children enjoy these "just-the-right-size" books.
26-upper and lowercase alphabet cards are also included as well as 38-picture cards.
These can be made into several different kinds of Itty Bitty Booklets or used in a Memory Match or "Find the Pairs" Game.
All the word cards are traceable for handwriting practice. My Y5's enjoy using a highlighter every chance they get.
- Sing the alphabet song and allow a child to hold a light-up laser to point to the letters on your ABC border.
- Graph the activity for a math extension.
When everyone is done, I pass out a certificate of praise for them to write their name on and take home. These are included in the ABC Scavenger Hunt packet that's only .99 cents.
Why not become a Gold Subscription Member and get my entire shopping cart for an entire year at no additional charge + our 40-70 page Apple Bytes newsletter packet each month!
Click on the links to check things out.
My ABC School-Words Dictionary booklet, goes perfectly with the scavenger hunt, as the pictures and words match!
It's a wonderful activity for students to transition to, after they complete their ABC scavenger hunt. The dictionary is something that they can work on at their own pace through out the month of September and makes a nice keepsake.
Students trace and then write the words for a nice fine motor skill and handwriting extension. Both upper and lowercase letters are shown for the perfect letter review as well! Click on the link above to check it out.
Be sure to pop back Friday when I'll tell you about my Open House Scavenger Hunt!
It's All In A Name...
Part of the excitement of the first day of school for teachers, as well as the children, is meeting all of the new students! I try to make learning everyone’s name fun. So I do several activities that involve names. There are several report card standards that the Y5’s have that revolve around their name: being able to recognize it as well as write it, so they’re not only learning each other’s names, they are practicing standards. Woo-hoo for a first day win-win!
Table Top:
- To help my little ones recognize & write their name, I have name cards on the tables for them to copy.
- I also have a “table top” skill sheet each day involving “finding” their name on something.
- I just designed this new balloon heart.
- Simply fill in your students’ names to make one.
- Click on the link to view/print a copy. Heart-Balloon Name Pattern page
Gather ‘Round:
Have students sit in a circle.
Decide on a fun “movement pattern” like clap twice, pat knees twice.
For older students you can add snap fingers twice too.
Say the following after the movement:
_______________(child's name) ______________ (child's name)
How do you do?
Who's that sitting next to you?
Child says name of person sitting beside them.
Count to 3 slowly and if they don’t know then that child says their name.
Artistic Treat:
- Apples are a big theme for us in September, so I just designed “You’re a smartie!” WELCOME apples.
- Run off my master on red construction paper.
- Make a template for the leaves and stems.
- Run the worms off on green construction paper.
- Cut everything out.
- Glue a Popsicle stick to the back of the worm.
- Write your students’ names with a black marker.
- Using an Exacto-knife, cut a slit in the top of the apple.
- Tape a pack of Smartie candies around the stick worm.
- Insert the worm in the slit in such a way so that the candy slides over the top of the apple, while the stick goes behind.
- Sprinkle them on the floor around the room and have them find them.
- To make it harder for older students, make puzzles out of the apples.
- After you finish making them, cut them in zig zag diagonals so that part of their name is missing. They will have a top-left, and a bottom-right apple piece.
- As with any candy treat that I give my students, I preface it with: “This is for you to take home.”
- To ease the disappointment a bit, I’ll have one Smartie candy as a reward for everyone when they find their apple.
- Click on the link to view/print the patterns. Smartie Name Apple
Word Find:
- I make word finds all through the year of our word wall words and special vocab words each month.
- This increases all sorts of skills and helps reinforce recognition of whatever words we are working on.
- Making a word find of your students' names is especially fun for them, and is something that can keep them occupied while you do that endless list of administrative chores that has to get done on the first day.
Pattern Please:
This is also a fun and easy “busy activity” while you’re doing those crazy little “have-to-get-done’s”, or assessing to see where children are at.
- Children write the letters of their name in the boxes and color the vowels their favorite color and the rest their second favorite color.
- A pattern emerges.
- When they are done they pick a partner.
- (You can use one of my many fun partner ideas from 2 previous articles)
- Students compare their interesting art.
- Collect and put up on the wall for a quick and pretty first-day hallway display!
- Click on the link to view/print the name pattern page.
I hope you got some name ideas to use for back-to-school.
Do you have a name tip that you’d like to share?
I’d enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com
K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Silly...) So everyone can keep smiling!
Our principal required that each teacher have a handbook for their classroom. I included mine in my Open House packet. Click on the link to view/print all of my handy handbooks.
When I first started teaching elementary, I was coming in as a high school teacher. It was difficult for me to “dream up" all of the handbooks and handouts that were required for the beginning of school.
That’s why I post them all on my website. I was grateful to Stephanie, a Y5 teacher, who lent me her handbook so I had a skeleton to start with!
Hopefully mine will jumpstart your brain and you can tweak them anyway you want; at least you're not reinventing the wheel and hopefully this will be a real time saver for you, especially if you are a beginning teacher.
I find all too often tho’ that parents are inundated with “paper mountain” from the school and have little time to read “everything”, so I made up this cute little ABC checklist to cover my main points and send it home with my students the first day of school. I feel that “short and sweet” is more apt to be read.
You can tweak mine to fit your needs. To help you do that, I’ve included one that has some of the information blank for you to type, cut and paste.
You can send this home the first day, tuck in your Welcome to school summer letter/packet, or your Open House packet.
Click on the link to view/print My ABC’s Of School Info Sheet
I hope this helps you get YOUR personal “paper mountain” of back-to-school “stuff” into a mole hill!
Happy Planning!
Thanks for visiting! Feel free to PIN anything from my site you think others will find helpful.
"The really great man is the man who makes every man feel great." -G.K. Chesterton
Do Yourself and Your Students A Favor and Give Them A Notebook!
This is tip #17 & my 100th blog article! We will be celebrating our 1st-year anniversary at the end of next month!
You can click on the writing notebook ideas separately or click on the entire packet at the end. Enjoy!
My young Fives will see a writing notebook all too soon as they progress through the elementary grades, but to get one at this age is really a big deal.
Since most of the chain supply stores and even Target, have them as huge loss leaders in August for their back-to-school sales, I can pick them up for as little as .10 cents, so for the small investment of $2.00, I can light up the faces of 20 children in a few seconds!
For a few dollars you can use a notebook for a variety of writing skills for your students.
Mine is at the introductory level of simply practicing how to write their name.
Get parents on board and work as a team and you will definitely see improvement.
I buy an assortment of colors and give them a choice. It doesn’t matter that they don’t stay on the lines. What I want them to do is just practice holding a pencil, crayon or whatever they can take delight in holding, and practice writing their name once each night. I want it to be fun, not a hassle.
You can see the “My Writing Notebook” sticker in the photo. I print these off on large Avery labels on my printer to add a bit of pizzazz.
Each time they bring their notebook in to be checked they get to pick out several stickers to decorate the front of their notebook as an incentive to bring them back.
Since writing their name on everything we do in class can be labor intensive, I need parental help in getting these little ones over the hump ASAP and the notebook has been key in accomplishing that.
Their hands “poop out” or “run out of gas” as one of my students so adorably put it!
The notebook is a great At-Home connection and is easy, quick and fun, especially if parents buy some glitter or gel pens or some goofy or wiggly fun pen to make writing time more exciting.
I include due dates in my newsletters as well as post them on my monthly calendar.
Students get an award certificate for a great-completed notebook and a trip to the treasure box.
Click on the link to view/print a notebook award certificate. I also have certificates of accomplishment when they can hold a pencil correctly. Click on the link if you are interested in those.
To practice verbally expressing themselves, I have them share their favorite page of their notebook with their classmates.
Parents often ask me: “How can I help my child learn how to write?” So I typed up a list of fun things they can do to help strengthen their muscles. I tuck this list in the notebook. Click on the link to view/print hand-muscle building tip list. I also include a diagram of how to hold a pencil correctly.
The other thing I tuck in the notebook is a tracing guide of the alphabet. Click on the link to view/print the alphabet-writing guide.
I include a letter explaining the notebook to parents and asking for their help. If you’d like to see mine, to use it as a guide to tweak and develop your own, click on the link.
Since I started using the notebooks I’ve seen a dramatic improvement in my students’ penmanship, muscle coordination, and self-esteem.
What used to take me ‘til the middle of November with some of my little ones is now accomplished by the beginning or middle of October. Some really diligent students (and parents) who had no preschool, are set by the end of September.
If you have older students, decide what you want the notebooks to be used for, and make it a daily or weekly writing assignment that is simple, short and fun, so they will WANT to write. I give my college students ideas for them to journal about in their notebooks each week.
The notebooks can be kept in their desks to work on during free time, or kept at home like a “secret diary”.
I hope this idea is one that you can use and gets you excited to plan for your new class.
A quick and easy handwriting activity for you to do the first day of school is simply a Welcome To School "Trace & Write" Click on the link to view/print several different kinds.
If you want the entire writing notebook packet click on the link to view/print it.
Staples started their back-to-school penny sales this week. Click on the link to check out the deals! Every week they offer new things so start watching for the notebooks to go on sale! Staples allow teachers to buy 25 of their penny items here in MI. I imagine that would be a National thing.
Happy Shopping!
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A Treat For The First Day Of School
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I like to have practical little goodies for my students the first day of school. One of the things that I make for them is Willie the Alphabet Worm.
Willie has upper and lowercase letters on his back.- Run my master off on green construction paper and laminate the sheets.
- There are 6 on a page.
- Cut them out and add colored paperclips.
- By moving the paperclip up and down, students can practice spelling their names. (One of my report card standards is being able to recognize your name.)
- You can also review and teach letters in a fun way!
- Moving a large paperclip helps strengthen finger muscles and enhances fine motor skills and coordination too!
- You can make two, one to keep at school and one to send home if you want to.
- I’ve included a letter of explanation to send home to parents so that they will work with their child and practice the alphabet with them!
I have a saying: “Together Everyone Achieves MoreI” It’s an acronym for TEAM!- I let parents know that I’m depending on them to be part of my educational team that will help their star player shine their brightest!
- Click on the link to zoom to Willie and view/or print a template and letter.
I hope Willie helps your students as much as he’s helped mine wiggle their way to knowing their ABC’s!
Be sure to check back tomorrow when I'll have another fun back-to-school tip!
Do you have a fun tip you’d like to share? I’d enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com
