Writing prompts for preschool kindergarten and first grade
Do you need some quick and easy ideas with a butterfly theme that reinforce standards, but your students will also enjoy?
You’ve come to the right place.
If you’re assessing right now and looking for something to prove your students can listen and follow directions, a GLYPH is a super easy and fun way to do that as a whole group.
The end results also make a terrific decoration for a bulletin board or hallway. Students can either guess who did which glyph, and practice all sorts of skills, or they can share them with the class and practice their verbal acuity.
Click on the link to view/download the butterfly glyph.
123 Count Butterflies With Me is one of many “count with me” easy readers, that reinforce a variety of math skills.
Students enjoy using a bingo dot marker to stamp sets in a specific pattern. They also cut and glue groups of butterflies to the matching numbered boxes.
When everyone is done, read the booklet as a whole group to reinforce concepts of print and recognition of number words.
Because students can work on these booklets independently, they are perfect for Daily 5.
Children not only enjoy making them, they feel empowered; teachers are then free to assess or work one-on-one.
Click on the link to view/download 123 Count Butterflies With Me.
Click on this link to view the collection of 22 123 Count With Me Books.
I’m always looking for ways to fit in a mini lesson on compound words and rhyming as this can get a bit tedious if you constantly “skill-drill & then kill” it.
I’ve found that tossing in a fun-themed skill sheet, whenever it’s appropriate, is much more palpable and interesting for most students.
Butterfly Word Play does just that. It breaks down the compound word butterfly and has students think of rhyming words for both butter and fly.
Students trace, write and alphabetize the words on a skill sheet. This is a quick plug in for a tabletop lesson, as is adding UT to consonants and making up words for the prefix of butterfly.
Click on the link to view/download Butterfly Word Play.
Finally, I think it’s a lot more fun for students to complete a writing prompt if they know their page is going to be part of a class book.
Writing about being a caterpillar or a butterfly is a wonderfully imaginative thing for a child. Illustrating how they would look as one results in adorable pictures.
I’ve also included a graphing extension to hit yet another standard and learn a bit more about your students.
Click on the link to view/download Butterfly and Caterpillar Class Books.
Happy fluttering through your spring lessons; I hope these helped! Feel free to PIN anything you think might help someone else and thanks for flittin' on over.
I hope you can fly in tomorrow for some new tricks.
1-2-3 Come Do A Fun Spring Writing Activity Via a Venn Diagram With Me!
Since Bunny Buddies were so popular, as promised, here’s another Venn Friend, with more on the way for the other months. Here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we are close to the city of Holland, and like the country, they are all about tulips and even have some awesome windmills too.
If you ever get a chance to visit, it's worth the trip! Literally 1,000's of tulips are everywhere, in every color imaginable and all sorts of varieties. Click on the link to take a look at some fabulous photographs.
The hot pink and purple ones are a particular favorite of mine. Since a tulip is a simple pattern, I thought I'd design a tulip Venn Friend.
Venn Friend Diagrams are a great way to introduce or review the compare and contrast concept and a terrific way for students to get to know more about their classmates.
The finished product provides an adorable spring bulletin board and working with a partner enhances all sorts of life skills.
Simply run of my masters on a variety of construction paper that is conducive to tulip colors.
Write half of your students’ names on scraps of paper, toss them in a basket and have the other ½ select a Venn friend from this basket or bag.
To make these more of a keepsake, take a photo of each of your students, or use their school picture and have them glue it to their side of the tulip.
Use my list of questions, so each pair of students can interview each other appropriately and come up with lots of similarities and differences. Students then choose from this list, which things they want to include on their Venn diagram.
You may want to brainstorm this part as a whole group, writing things on a white board, so that younger students know how to spell words. Each student writes their own “different” tulip side, and then shares the writing of the "same" middle section.
You may want students to number things so they are easier to follow. When they have completed the writing portion, students glue their tulips together and share with the class.
These make a lovely spring bulletin board, or can be suspended back-to-back and hung from the ceiling by punching a hole at both ends and making a yarn loop. Click on the link to view/download this spring Venn diagram. April Venn Friends
Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN away.
"In the spring, I have counted 136 kinds of weather inside of 24 hours!" -Mark Twain
1-2-3 Come Hatch Some "Craftivities" With Me 
I Hatched, is an easy spring writing activity that makes an adorable bulletin board or hallway decoration.
Your students will not only have fun with this March/April writing prompt, but will learn more about their classmates and possibly about themselves as well.
Simply run off my chick and egg templates. Students cut them out and fill in the information.
I’ve included a letter home to parents, as younger children don’t always know any more than the month they were born in, and some don’t even know that. You could also send this activity home to be completed over spring break, and then share on the day children return.
The “favorite activities” pennant adds more flair and an additional writing extension. I’ve included 6 graphing extensions to reinforce that math standard and so students can visually “see” their classmates' answers.
Add feathers; wiggle eyes and straws to jazz things up and you hopefully have “eggs-actly” that little something you’ve been looking for to spice up your writing block.
To reinforce verbal acuity skills and learn more about their friends, have students share their creation with the class, after everyone has “hatched” their egg, then hang them in the hallway for that finishing touch of springtime.
Click on the link to view/download the I Hatched Springtime Writing Activity
Each year our preschool hatches baby chicks in their classroom. It's a fascinating experience they share with my Y5s.
I found a short baby chicks hatching video (1:13) on YouTube, if you'd like to share it with your kiddos before or after they do the "I Hatched" craftivity.
Thanks for visiting. Do you have a spring writing prompt or craft that's a favorite? Would love to hear from you. diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to leave a comment below.
"If you want to feel rich, count the things you have that money can't buy." -Unknown
