Items filtered by date: October 2012

3 pages. Glyphs are a wonderful way to whole group assess listening and following directions. Completed projects make sweet bulletin boards.

Now You See Them; Now You Don’t!  1 2 3 Come Do Some Elf On A Shelf Activities With Me

The Elf on A Shelf is a children’s picture book written by an American mother and daughter Carol Aebersold and Chanda Bell, and illustrated by Coë Steinwart.

The book was self-published in 2005 and  comes with a small elf. It's written in rhyme with watercolor illustrations.

The gist of the story is that Santa knows who is naughty and nice by what his elves report back to him as they fly back and forth each night.

Upon returning, they pick a new place to hide. By choosing a new hiding spot, the members of the family play an on-going game of Hide and Seek.  Children are encouraged to name their elf.

Once the elf is named, the "scout" elf receives its special Christmas magic. Now they can fly! However, the magic might go if touched, so the rule for The Elf on the Shelf states: "There's only one rule that you have to follow, so I will come back and be here tomorrow: Please do not touch me. My magic might go, and Santa won't hear all I've seen or I know."

In the hope that students will settle down, stay on task, and be better behaved during the hectic month of December, teachers have now gotten on board and purchased an elf for their classrooms. 

To launch Elf on a Shelf read the story and let the good behavior modification begin!  After all, Santa now has a spy in the room, and the teacher has a helper that is watching.

If you're looking for a costume to wear on the day you introduce your elf activities, or perhaps dress up in for story time, I found one at Oriental Trading.  It's just $16.  They also have an apron, or simply don the hat for $3. Children's sizes are also available, and would be a real hit in your dress up box, 

I spent over an hour sourcing pictures of elf antics, 'til my head was actually spinning!  There are virtually 100's of ideas Online, so I decided to start a PIN board with my favorites.  Click on the link to catch the Elf Excitement.

If your budget is tight and you'd like to make an elf, instead of buying one, I designed "Twinkle."  He's made out of a decorative lunch bag.

I bought my bags at  Hobby Lobby. Click on the link to view/download Twinkle, the Elf on a Classroom Shelf "craftivity."

This is also a very easy thing for your kiddo's to make, and can act as a great behavior modification technique, as I've included "Tally Tags." 

Children choose one and glue it to the front of their own elf.   Whenever you catch a child being good, or when they have completed a task, they may add a tally mark to their card.

Have them use a red marker for tally marks 1-4 and then cross the 5th tally with a green marker. 

To ensure honesty, remind students that the elves and Santa are watching, so no cheating. You could also let them know that you have a student tally total that you keep track of, so if you find a discrepancy they will lose their card.  You really don't have to keep up with this, just show the paper and it will hopefully do the trick.

Feel free to walk over and add tally marks to children’s bags without saying a word.  Believe me, they will be aware of what you are doing and get right down to business.   After school, add tally marks to whom ever had a good day. This tally mark can be from the Elf on a Shelf.  So children can readily see a difference, make the elf’s tally mark in another color like blue or purple.

Because of the book’s popularity, elf activities were being requested, so I decided to design some.  I also had a few "oldies but goodies" which you can find below.

Click on the link to view/download The Christmas Elf, which is a spatial direction booklet, that also has several “craftivities” included, like the stocking with a photo of a real elf tucked inside.

Simply take a picture of each of your students wearing an elf/Santa hat.  Students trim and glue to the back of their stocking.  A graphing extension is also included.

 The booklet Little Elf What Do You See? is a rhyming booklet that incorporates the 5 senses. 

If you have lots of kiddo's and want to conserve paper, you'll want to use my up-dated mini version.  Click on the link to grab this FREEBIE.

Lots of Common Core is covered, as students read, circle capital letters; add end punctuation; underline adjectives; trace and write the "senses" words and then color, cut and glue the matching pictures.

 If you're looking for an elf-related writing prompt have students respond to Santa's wanted poster. 

He's looking for seasonal elf help.  Children write why they feel they'd make a good elf. 

After students share their page, collect and collate into a class book.  A "You're Hired!" certificate and "Official Santa's Helper Button" are also included.   Click on the link to view/download the Wanted: Elf Help packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and try to blog daily, so I hope you can pop by tomorrow for the newest FREEBIES hot off this elf's computer.   Feel free to PIN away.

"I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel." -Buddy, from the movie Elf

ABC and 1-2-3 Come Learn With The Turkeys and Me!

Are you looking for an interesting way to review Common Core State Standard: RI.K1d?

Why not try these Alphabet Turkey Cards and play some games?

The 20-page packet includes the upper and lowercase letters together as seen in the picture on the left + separate uppercase letters and separate lowercase letters, so you can play a variety of games like Memory Match games as well as "I Have; Who Has?"

I’ve also included a blank set of turkeys to program however you want + a 3- page list of tips of what else to do with the cards.

Click on the link to view/download the Alphabet Turkey Cards.

After I finished the alphabet template, it was easy enough to make a numbered one too, so I designed some Turkey Counting Cards.

The 20-page math packet includes numbered turkeys to 30 + skip counting turkeys for 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's.

I've also included covers, so students can make Itty Bitty Turkey Counting Booklets.

There's a blank set of turkeys + 2-pages of tips of what else you can do with the cards including games you can play.

Simply laminate the sheets and then cut the turkey cards into whatever shape you desire.

Click on the link to view/download Turkey Counting Cards.

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

Do you have a Thanksgiving lesson you could share with us? I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment here.

“There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that’s you own self. “ –Aldous Huxley

20 pages. Common Core State Standard RI.K1d Includes Upper and lowercase letters together, + separate uppercase letters and separate lowercase letters, so you can play Memory Match games as well as "I Have;Who Has?" games. Includes a tip list of what

Setting Sail For America.  It All Adds Up!

Are you looking for an easy and fun way to review simple addition facts?

You’ve come to the right place.   I found that if I made a game of things, my Y5’s got into the lesson a lot more.

Dice games are simple and don’t take a lot of time.  They are perfect for easy addition practice.

Your students will have fun reinforcing their addition skills, as they roll the dice and compete against their classmates, to see who can make equations that equal the sums on the Mayflower picture.

Students can play with a partner or in groups of 3 or 4.

When a child rolls a 2 and a 3 they add the two dice together to get a sum of 5.  One of the bottom sails is labeled with that sum, so they color it.

If you want, you can have your students write the equations on the back of their paper.

Set a timer for a designated amount of time.  The first child to color their entire picture, or the one with the most sums colored when the timer rings, is the winner.

If you want the game to be a bit more difficult, you can inform students that they must roll sums of 8, 9, 10 and 11 twice.

The first time they roll that sum, they will color the clothes of the pilgrims; the second time they will color the pilgrims’ hair and body parts.

Click on the link to view/download the Mayflower Addition game.

I hope you and your students enjoy sailing through addition this way.

Do you have a math game you could share with us?  I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment here.

Feel free to PIN anything from my site that you think others may find helpful.

Thanks for visiting today.

“Organization brings peace and makes room for creativity.” –Apples and Chalkdust

Teaching Shapes With a Pilgrim's Hat Buckle!

Yesterday I posted a booklet with a turkey theme that reviewed shapes.  (Scroll down for that article.) I had requests for more Thanksgiving-themed ideas, as many mentioned they are difficult to find.

Keeping with the shape idea, here's a booklet that has a pilgrim theme. 

When I was looking at the pilgrim hat, I thought the buckle was a perfect vehicle to change into the various shapes, thus My Pilgrim's Hat Shape Booklet was born.

I begin the booklet with a rhyming introduction, so you can cover that standard as well.

Students trace the buckles and shape words, as well as the letters that the shapes begin with. 

There's also enough room if you want your students to write the letter, shape word, and then try their hand at drawing the shape.

When students have completed their booklet, ask them which buckles they liked the best.  You can also show them some pictures of real pilgrims wearing hats from that period and ask them what the shape of the real buckles were.

This booklet makes a nice independent activity for your reading block time, or "word work" if you do Daily 5.

I've placed two pages on one master page, for easy printing and to conserve paper.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others might find useful.

Click on the link to view/download My Pilgrim's Hat Shape Booklet.

Do you have a Thanksgiving idea you could share with us?  I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or you can leave a comment here.

"The way you travel through your life is the most powerful legacy you can give your students." -Vicki Caruana

Help Your Students Strut Their Stuff With This Turkey Booklet

If you're looking for something for your Daily 5 "word work" or a reading block activity, with a turkey/Thanksgiving theme, I think you and your students will enjoy The Shape My Turkey's In.

Students trace the shape and the shape word and help Gobble, the turkey, disguise himself  with a variety of shapes, so he doesn't end up on the table for Thanksgiving dinner!

There's 2 on a page for easy printing.

Rhyming text,  makes this a fun read aloud and allows you to reinforce a Common Core Standard.

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

You may want to pause before the second rhyming word to have children fill it in.

I hope your students have fun gobbling up knowledge this month.

Click on the link to view/download The Shape My Turkey's In rhyming booklet.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything from my site that you think others may find helpful.

"If a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking him if there's anything you can do.  Think of something appropriate and do it. -E.W. Howe