Items filtered by date: May 2013

1-2-3 Come Learn About Community Helpers With Me!

For a social studies lesson, many teachers choose to study community helpers. 

I've had quite a few requests for community helper activites, so I decided to design a nice variety of items incorporating the Common Core whenever I could.

To get the ball rolling, I spent a kajillion hours online, at the bookstore and reading at the library, to compile a bibliography of 63 of my favorite Community Helper books.

Summer is the perfect time to add to your classroom library via garage sales, and introducing a unit with books, is a wonderful way to get children excited.

Click on the link to view/download the Community Helpers bibliography.

I also wanted to make an alphabetical list of all the community helpers/occupations I could think of, so that students could make an ABC booklet, ask about community helpers and jobs that they were not familiar with, and use the list to do a variety of writing activities, including what they'd like to be when they grow up.

From astronauts to zookeepers, I came up with a list of over 300 community helpers/occupations.

Click on the link to view/download the alphabetical list of community helpers/occupations.

I love dj Inkers artwork and am thrilled to have her permission to use it to design lessons for you. She has a variety of licenses available.

Her community helpers, done with bears, were perfect to make picture word cards, that can be used for your word wall or pocket chart.

I've included a 3-page tip list of what else you can use the cards for, including writing prompts, puzzles and games.

There are also several booklet covers, so you can make individual or a whole group class book.

Click on the link to view/download the Community Helpers card packet.

I also used them for a Roll, Count and Color Community Helpers dice game. 

You can run off a few of each kind of community helper, and give students a choice of which one they want to color for the dice game, or you can choose whatever community helper you are working on, and give each child the same one.

Before you begin, have students point to each number. As a whole group, count to 12. Explain to students that whatever number they roll, is the section that they color.

Demonstrate how you roll one die first, and then color numbers 1-6. If they’ve already rolled that number, they lose their turn.

When students have completed those sections, they roll 2 dice, and then add them together to get numbers 7-12 to color.

The child who colors all of the numbered sections first, or has the most numbers colored when the timer rings, is the winner.

After you explain the game, have students choose a partner to play with.

Remind them that they should write their name on their paper, as well as trace and write the name of their community helper.

Click on the link to view/download the Roll and Color the Community Helpers Dice Game.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful, and be sure to pop by tomorrow for more community helper activities!

"Books are not men, and yet they are alive.  They are man's memory and his aspiration; the link between his present and his past; the tools he builds with." -Stephen V. Benet

1-2-3 Come Make A Special Treat With Me

Make these treats for your students at the end of the year using the summer "Orange you glad summer vacation is here? Have a sweet one." template, or  pass them out at the beginning of the year for Open House or the first day of school using the "Orange you glad you're in __________ grade" header.

I've included headers for kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade + a blank template for you to fill in for whatever grade you teach.

You can make your treat bags filled with a few orange candy slices that look like smiles, or slice up real oranges or tangerines.

Since Capri Sun juice bags were a favorite with my Y5's, I thought it would be cute to attach the header to an orange juice bag or orange juice box.

You could start your year with the juice box, and end it with the candy.  Click on the link to view/download the "Orange you glad..." treat bag headers.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.  My "Pin It" button is at the top of the page.

"Everyone has talent. What is rare, is the courage to follow the talent to where it leads." -Erica Jong

1-2-3 Make A Gift Baggie With Me

If you're still in school and want to make a sweet treat for your kiddo's to give their dad's for Father's Day, you may want to try this puzzle activity.

I designed two different puzzle headers: I love you to pieces as well as, we love you to pieces.

You can use the "I" header for a beginning of the year treat bag for your students, or a gift for Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Use the "We" header for a gift for Secretary's Day.

You can buy bulk Reeses Pieces at Sam's Club. Have children put a few scoopfuls in a Snack Baggie.

If you're only making a few gifts for volunteers or secretaries, you can buy Reeses in a snack package or mini box, and attach your puzzle pieces to the top and bottom.

Run the headers off on white construction paper and have children color them lightly with crayons in an assortment of colors.

Add a bit more pizzazz by having students glue their school photo to a puzzle piece and then sign their name on yet another one.

Click on the link to view/download Love You To Pieces Gift Baggies.

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

"A college degree and a teaching certificate define a person as a teacher, but it takes hard work and dedication to be one." -Paul McClure

8 pages. Make these treats for your students st the end of the year using the summer template, or the beginning of the year using the "Orange you glad you're in __________ grade" header.

1-2-3 Come Make A Father's Day Booklet With Me

As I've stated in a previous article, daddies sometime get jipped out of a homemade gift or card for Father's Day, that their little one made in school, because many children are alreay on vacation, before that special day rolls around.

If you still have a few days or weeks left, you may want a sweet summer writing prompt for your kiddo's to work on.

This booklet makes a wonderful card for Father's Day and a nice independent activity for your Daily 5 or writing/reading center.

It's a nice review of a variety of Common Core State Standards, that students need to incorporate, as they work on their booklet. 

Students use adjectives and verbs to describe their dad and then draw a picture of him.

Children can also cut out the happy Father's Day heart or the square and glue it to their paper for a bit more pizzazz. 

Make this even more of a keepsake by adding a school picture.

Click on the link to view/download the My Dad, Father's Day activity.

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

My "Pin it" button is at the top of the page.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used to create them" -Albert Einstein