1-2-3 Come Make A Common Core Scarecrow With Me!

So much to do and so little time to cover it all.  Sound familiar?  It's a no wonder that teachers constantly complain that there's simply no time for any of the fun craftivities of yesteryear. 

But wait!  There's hope! I spent a zillion hours making a comprehensive "Patches" the Standard Scarecrow. 

He's 17 scarecrows in one, so you can pick the standard(s) you want to practice.  Patches covers the following Common Core/Report Card Standards in a quick, easy and super fun way:

upper & lowercase letters, numbers 0-30, odd & even, skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s, 2D shapes, 11-colors, vowels, telling time to the hour and half hour, and words: SC blend, contractions, compound words, beginning Ss sound words, CVC words that begin with S, plus rhyming words!

Wow!  That's a whole lotta bang out of one little scarecrow craftivity, and completed projects make a wonderful fall bulletin board, or look sweet hanging back-to-back from the ceiling.

To make this extra special, fold a sheet of white construction paper, have students trace their hand and then cut once, to get two hand prints for their scarecrow's "gloves".  I ran yellow construction paper through a shredder to make the "hair". 

Run off the scarecrow's body templates on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim and glue together. 

For more fine motor practice, cut yellow rectangles with a paper cutter.  Have students snip the bottom portion and glue the "hay" to the back of the scarecrow's pant legs, then crumple.

I purposely made these patterns super simple to cut out, but if you think this is too much for PK kiddos, have a room helper trace once and then cut 3-6 shirts and pants out at a time,  leaving just the head for preschoolers to cut out.  

There's a blank head so children can draw their own scarecrow face, as well as a completed template for little ones to color.

 Students make their scarecrow and then trim and glue on the appropriate patches.  The vowel scarecrow is especially versatile, as it not only covers vowels, but shapes and colors too. 

The packet also includes shape and color cards, along with a variety of worksheets for more practice.

For extra reinforcement, when everyone is done, play an "I Spy" game and give students a piece of candy corn to use as a manipulative.  Choose a student to call out a "patch". 

Children locate that letter, number, shape or whatever, cover it with the candy corn, and then raise their hand. 

This is a fun way to practice and review standards, as well as a quick and easy way to whole group assess, as you can see at a glance who is having difficulty. 

I've also included blank patches for you to fill in with whatever, plus ideas and templates to use the number, letter and shape scarecrows for matching games.

i.e. match the lowercase patches to the uppercase letters; match the number word patches to the numbers match the colorful patches to the color words, and/or match the shapes to the shape words.

For more scarecrow-themed letter fun, click on the link for a set of scarecrow alphabet cards.

The following scarecrows are wonderful for vocabulary building and Daily 5 word work: Carl is the Compound words scarecrow; (Click on the link for a FREE alphabetical list of over 3,000 compound words.)

Connie, is a contraction action scarecrow; (With an alphabetical list of 72 contractions)

Sam, is a scarecrow that loves 37, 3-letter words that begin with S; (CVC practice!)

Scott, is the SC blend scarecrow, with a list of 50 word cards as well as pocket chart cards.

The packet also includes an entire SC blend section, with lots more activities.

Sophie, is a scarecrow with 47-picture patches, for simple words starting with the letter S. 

For a quick review, I've also included 4, Ss word, picture posters.

Rodney, is the Rhyme Time scarecrow, with 56 words that rhyme with scare and a list of 274 words that rhyme with crow.

Write the words that rhyme with scare on the front of Rodney, and have children choose some words that rhyme with crow and write them on the back.

In the sample, I chose 24-scare rhyming words and wrote them on the shirt, and then wrote an equal amount of words that rhyme with crow, on the pants.  The alphabetical lists include rhyming words that start with every letter except U & X.  I chose one of each.

Finally, the number scarecrow, has several options and serves double duty.  There are number patches from 0-30, which  I traced in a variety of colors. 

You can make Odd Todd and Even Steven scarecrows (front and back) or put the odd numbers on the top and the even numbers on the bottom.  (See photo.)

For more math number practice, I've also included skip counting patches.  Children can skip count by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's. 

There are matching worksheets in the packet as well, along with number cards, plus number puzzles in color & black and white. 

The puzzles review counting from 1-10, counting backwards from 10-1, as well as skip counting to 100 by 10s.

Two emergent readers also reinforce numbers, as well as colors.

For more odd and even scarecrow number fun, click on the link to practice numbers from 1-120, in the Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch packet.

If your kiddos are familiar with that concept, but need to work on matching numbers to their number words, use the Norman & Nancy number scarecrow patterns, with numbers 0-10, along with their matching number word patches.

Glue the numbers on the shirt and the number words on the pants.  For more practice, have students write the words above their matching number patch.

The Common Core Craftivity Scarecrows are part of a whopping 184-page jumbo packet in my TpT shop for just $5.95. Click on the link to pop on over. Patches, The Standard Scarecrow Packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  It's a really hot July afternoon, with temps expected to flirt with the 90's, which is too hot for this midwest gal.  Time to put the AC on and make some lemonade.

“I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year.” -Edna ST. Vincent Millay

1-2-3 Come Learn Some New Compound Words With Me!

Summer is a wonderful time to revamp things for next year.  My daughter could never understand why I was always working on teacher stuff, no matter how many years I had taught a certain grade. 

She felt that things should get easier and therefore the time commitment for "making stuff" less.  Even though things did get easier, I was always revamping and trying to make lessons more exciting and current. 

I also have this unquenchable drive to learn new things, and really enjoy spending hours designing educational items.  It's like an addictive hobby for me.

Surfing the Net doing research on something that I'm designing, is exciting for me.  I feel like I'm on a treasure hunt of sorts, and not a day goes by where I don't learn something new and extremely interesting.  

I think that's one of the best things about computers, you have an unbelievable resource at your fingertips on just about anything you're looking for.   Thus it goes when I make a word list. 

It's never quite finished, as I'm always discovering new words to add to my lists. Just when I think I've exhausted anymore possibilities, another word comes my way and I add it to my notebook, 'til I've reached a point where it's worth redoing the published item.  I'm going to put this list to rest now as 3,000+ seems pretty comprehensive.

I've added over 500 new compound words in this 6th and final update, for a grand total of 3,317 compound words!  It's also in alphabetical order for easy reference.  So that your students can make their own compound word dictionaries, I've made a helpful dictionary cover template, 

I also thought it would be fun to feature a new compound word each day, as an interesting way to count up to 100 Day. 

So that your students can make their own compound word dictionaries. After discussing the word, students write it in their personal dictionary.  What a quick and easy way to build vocabulary!

To get things rolling, I've included a poster for the compound word of the day, as well as a definition of a compound word poster, that you can use as an anchor chart.

Click on the link to view/download the alphabetical list of 3,317 compound words + activities.

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

"If you're doing your best, you won't have any time to worry about failure." -M. Jackson Brown Jr.

 A Heart-y Surprise: Lessons With Heart!

I LOVE Valentine’s Day.  It’s my favorite holiday. I wanted to design a valentine that you could use for more than just a Valentine.

There are lots of things you can do with this folded heart pattern.

I made an example of each one.

A Special Valentine:

First off, run the owl template off on white construction paper, and the “Me!” heart insert on red & pink,, if you want to give your students a color choice.

Students cut out their hearts and fold the large one on the dashed lines.

Children glue their red/pink insert in the center of the middle heart, which can be viewed when you open the flaps.

To make it more of a keepsake, print off a copy of your class composite.

Students glue their picture somewhere on the inside of their card.

Children sign their name and perhaps x’s & o’s, or repeat “I love you.”

The Alphabet:

You can also assign a letter to each one of your students.  If you don’t have 26 you can ask who wants to make an extra one, or you can make up the difference.

Children write the uppercase letter on the left heart flap, and the lowercase letter on the right heart flap.

Students think of a word that begins with that letter and write it on the inside.

If you want, they can also draw a picture or find clipart or a sticker to put under the word.

This is a great Daily 5 “word work” activity, or send it home as a home-school connection.

When they are completed, each child shares their letter heart.

Collect and keep, so you have a nice set of cards for your students to practice sequencing with.

Compound Words:

The flaps are also perfect for compound word practice.  I have a list of 1,718 compound words that you can use to choose for your students to work on.

Click on the link to view/download this comprehensive compound word list.

Each child does 2-3, writing the two words (1 on each front flap), and then what compound word the two make, when you open the flap.

If you want they can draw a picture, or add a sticker or clipart to illustrate the new word.

Contractions:

Just as with the compound words, contractions can also be reviewed in this fun way.

I’ve included an alphabetical list of 69 contractions to choose from.  You could run off the page and cut the words out.

Toss them into a container and have students glue X number of contractions in that many hearts.

Students write the two words on the outside and then open up the Valentine to see the contraction.

Math:

Assign numbers to students and have them make a math heart.

Students can do addition or subtraction, by writing the equation on the front flaps: (1 + on the left side, 1 = on the right flap.)

When you open it up you will see the answer 2, and the word two and a group/set of 2 things.

Students can draw the objects, use stickers or clipart.

Practice spelling & writing.

Students could also have fun writing 2 spelling words on the front and then making up a sentence that includes the 2 words on the inside.

Paper love:

You can also just run off a variety of colored hearts and have students practice their fine motor cutting and folding skills, and then write “I love you,” or whatever other “secret” message they want to give their family.

My Y5’s enjoyed making “paper love” and hiding it around the house, and then telling me where they hid the PL, and the result when someone found their note.

Bulletin board:

Do an assortment, or all the activities and sprinkle them on a bulletin board with the caption: “We LOVE Learning.”  Or “We have a heart for learning.”

Click on the link to view/download the Folded Heart Activities.

If you think of any other things you can do with the hearts, I’d enjoy hearing from you,  diane@teachwithme.com, and then I’ll add them to this list.

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

"A New Year is unfolding-like a blossom with petals curled tightly, concelaing the beauty within." -Kushal Verma