1-2-3 Come Do Some "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" Activities With Me
Do you read "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" by Charles Shaw?
It’s a terrific, springtime story for introducing your study of clouds, and helps children stretch their imaginations.
Because my Young Fives really enjoy this story, I designed several cloud-themed activities for them to transition to, after we read the tale. They are both featured on the blog today, along with an awesome FREEBIE.
Since "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" is perfect for practicing the “sequencing and retelling a story” standards, I designed a quick, easy and fun slider craftivity, which will help your students retell the story in the proper order.
There are 2 outside slider options to choose from.
One features a cloud, the other a square with a spilled milk "splat".
I chose blue construction paper, to resemble the story as well as the color of the sky.
Pick your favorite or give children a choice.
Students color the story elements on the “slider strip” then cut and glue it together.
There are 2 "storytelling slider strip" options as well.
One, for beginning readers, has the pictures labeled, while the other strip's graphics are blank.
As they pull on the end of the “slider-strip” the various “cloud” pictures go through the “window”, so that children can take turns retelling the story to a partner or reading buddy, then take their craftivity home to share with their family, once again practicing these standards.
I introduce the lesson by reading the book ”It Looked Like Spilt Milk”, then share my completed "slider craft” with my students.
After I read the story, we retell the tale together, using the picture prompts on my slider.
I have them guess which story element they think comes next, before I pull the picture through the “window”.
My students now know what’s expected of them, and are very excited to transition to making an “It Looked Like Spilt Milk” storytelling slider of their own.
Storytelling sliders are also an easy & interesting way to assess comprehension.
I’ve included a “Let’s “sequence the story” activity for this, where students color and trim the picture “windows” then glue them in the correct order on their worksheet.
There’s also a “Here’s What Happened…” writing prompt worksheet, as another way to check comprehension, plus practice sequential writing, hopefully using a variety of ordinal numbers and other transitions.
Finally, I thought it would be fun to practice upper and lowercase letters with a "cloud alphabet", which also includes an "animal cloud" for each letter as well.
The "Cloud-Themed Alphabet Packet" includes:* An “Alpha Clouds” (color, trace & write) booklet.
With 4 pages on one, to make a "just-the-right-size", mini booklet.
*An “ABC Animal Clouds” booklet, with the same above format.
* A boy & girl “Look at my cloud name” worksheet craftivity.
* 3 sets of alpha-cloud cards for upper & lowercase letters.
* 2 sets of animal cloud cards. There is a “cloud animal” for each letter of the alphabet.
* There are also matching animal word cards, which will provide more ways to play “Memory Match” and “I Have; Who Has?” games.
* Children can also pick a picture card and describe the animal using 1-3 adjectives OR…
* Pick a word card and use it in a sentence. OR…
* Students can arrange the letter and/or word cards in alphabetical order.
-Use the “Kaboom!” cards to add to the fun.
-Use the cover to make an “Itty Bitty” booklet.
* I’ve also included a 5-page, tip list of other games and things you can use the cards for.
* 2 poster poems to introduce the lesson
These activities can be used for independent centers, whole group activities, Daily 5 word work, early finishers, homework, or tossed in a sub tub.
Today's featured FREEBIE is a set of number posters.
These anchor charts are perfect for a math bulletin board that you can refer to daily and review:
* fractions, colors, patterns, telling time, fact families, money, tally marks, ordinal numbers, measurement with a ruler, +1 addition, sequencing numbers, counting groups and sets of objects, and using a ten frame for addition or subtraction.
Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. My feet have hit the floor running, as I'm watching 3 of my grandchildren today.
They are age 4, 2 and 1, so it will be a busy day of play, filled with lots of fun and giggles. Wishing you a love-filled day.
"Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you’re just a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric." ~Pam Brown
1-2-3 Come Do Some Zoo Animal Activities With Me
Are you planning a year-end field trip to the zoo? If so, I think you'll enjoy looking over these before and after-you-go, zoo activities.
Studying a variety of animals was always a fun theme for my Y5's and me. I didn't have a specific zoo theme with them, because I didn't want to steal the thunder from our first grade teachers. When I taught 1st grade that field trip was a much-looked-forward-to "ed-venture," culminating with our animal reports.
However, I know that lots of preschoolers and kinders all over the map visit the zoo, especially at the end of the year. After all, June is National Zoo Month, so why not! With that in mind, I decided to whip together some "zoo stuff" that you could review with your kiddos before their trip, as well as some activities you could do with them afterwards.
I have a huge collection of animal and zoo books, so I thought I'd make an alphabetical list of all my super-duper zoo-per favorites. It was a difficult task narrowing down my 3 boxes of these themed books, but I finally came up with 90.
I always tried to read some non-fiction books along with all the wonderful fictional storybooks, and have included them in my list, such as the job of a zookeeper. If you do a community helpers unit, these would be quick and easy read-alouds for that too. Click on the link to view/download the list of 90 Favorite Zoo books.
I really enjoy making templates for programmable notes home to parents, using cute clip art, so I whipped together a "We're Goin' On A Fieldtrip" form featuring dj Inkers sweet creatures.
Simply write in your data and you're good to go. Another item in the Zoo Fieldtrip Packet are some zoo scavenger hunts.
I sent my students on all sorts of scavenger hunts throughout the year.
They truly enjoyed them and learned a lot along the way, so I designed two zoo scavenger hunts that involve the alphabet.
I never liked to have my students holding things in their hands when we were on a field trip, stuff got dropped and slopped or lost.
Tears would ensue and something that was meant to be helpful became a hindrance.
Thus I suggest sharing the scavenger hunt with children before hand, so they are aware of what they need to be on the look out for.
Teachers can carry a copy on a clipboard with an attached pen. When someone spies something that begins with that letter or is on the list, you can check it off, circle it, or jot it down depending on what form you choose to use.
Once back, students can circle animals that they saw that are on the alphabetical list, or they can fill in something that they saw that begins with each letter of the alphabet.
You can make this a bit more interesting by having a competition between your students or another class that also went on the field trip, to see who got the most points.
Since we have a huge Hispanic population in our school, I tried to teach some Spanish words with each unit. My students really enjoyed learning new words and parents were pretty impressed when they shared their new-found vocabulary at home.
With this in mind, I included a list of Animals in English as well as Spanish.
There's also an alphabetical order worksheet, where students trace and write the animals in alphabetical order.
Finally, there's a "We Went To The Zoo" class book activity. I've designed a black and white as well as full-color cover, plus a template for the inside pages.
Students complete the prompts and draw a picture. (I've included a sample for you to share.)
Teachers collect and collate their pages into a zoo book. Read it as a whole group. When you come to a particular student's page, they read it.
Click on the link to view/download the Zoo Field Trip packet.
While working on these activities I wondered about students who don't live near a zoo, or teachers who don't have the time or the budget to take their students on a field trip, so I started researching virtual zoos online.
After several hours of work, I came up with a list of my top eight, the San Diego Zoo was one of my favorites.
I chose them because they were kid-friendly, contained live animal cams, videos, games, activities and a plethora of photographs with interesting information, which would be helpful for any animal report your kiddos might be working on. Click on the link to view/download the Virtual Zoo list.
Thanks for visiting today. As always, feel free to PIN away. My Pin It button is at the top on the menu bar. Be sure to stay tuned, as I'll be working on more zoo-themed activities the rest of this week.
"Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings!" -Evan Esar