1-2-3 Come Do Some Alphabet Activities With Me

I'm working away at the ever popular alphabet wheels. I featured Aa is for Apple in September, and Pp is for Pumpkin in October.

For November, I just completed Ll is for Leaf, Tt is for Turkey and Vv is for Veterans.

Since we continue to work on the alphabet throughout the year, it's nice to add something new to my Alphabet Center activities each month.

Because of the seasonal themes, the Alpha Wheels are  a perfect addition, and my kiddos LOVE making them.

I enjoy them, because they are a quick, easy & fun way to practice letters, and build the vocabulary needed to give an example of a word, with that beginning sound.

They feature 6 nouns that begin with that letter, and come in black & white, as well as full-color.

Use a colorful one for an independent center and use the black & white pattern for a whole-group or individual word work activity, where kiddos make their own.

You'll find that your students will look forward to making and collecting them. 

For writing, vocabulary building and alphabetizing practice, I've also included a worksheet where students trace & write the words then put them in alphabetical order.

Click on the pictures or hot links above, to zip on over to my TpT shop to have a look.

I sincerely hope these alpha-wheels make letter practice more fun for your kiddos. 

Fittingly, the featured FREEBIE today, is an alphabet packet, with a set of alphabet cards & poster which you can play games with.  I hope you find it useful.

That's it for today. A work crew is coming in to put a new window in my office, so I don't get to "play" today, but it's time and money well-spent, as I won't be freezing all winter!

Wishing you a relaxing day.

1-2-3 Come Make A Name Ornament With Me

I'm not sure about your kiddos, but as the last day before vacation neared, I could sense the energy levels climbing.  To help them stay focused, I always tried to do a few hands-on "craftivities" that my students would really enjoy, but also wanted to include standards to keep the administration content as well.

With that in mind, I designed the Keepsake Name Ornament packet.  It's a quick, easy & fun Christmas ornament that helps reinforce your students' names, letter recognition, vowel identification, capitalization, graphing, counting and addition!  Woo hoo! 

This would be a wonderful center on the last day before vacation, or a special "craftivity" to do for your Christmas party day. 

I've included upper as well as lowercase letter tiles that your students trim and glue to a strip of construction paper.  I used red & green, but just one color looks nice too.

While children are at lunch or recess, laminate your students' completed projects and have a room helper cut them out, punch a hole at the top & add a yarn tie.

Gluing on a school photo makes them even more special, and even though the ornament spells their name, have them write their name and the date on the back.

For some math fun, I've included two point value charts, so your students can practice a bit of addition, by adding up the point value of their letters. 

Use the chart with point values to 4, with younger students, and the chart with numbers to 26, for older students. Because their total will be large, have children figure out the place value of their name using this grand total.

There's an ornament worksheet to record their answer, along with other data, so that you can review consonants and vowels as well.  Students can color this ornament, or simply run off on a variety of colors of copy paper.

Vowels are also reviewed, with a graphing extension. There's a graph for the total number of letters in your students' names too.   As you can see, I've packed in all sorts of math extensions in this simple ornament "craftivity".

To add to the fun, I've included a "secret" coded Christmas message that you can challenge your students to solve.  Students refer to the point value poster to figure out what the sentence says. 

Make it a "speed" game, and see who can decode the message first. To save you time, I put two on a page for quick printing, and included an answer key.  Click on the link to view/download the Keepsake Name Ornament activities. 

Thanks for visiting today.  As always, my December days fly by.  I've got to get to the post office today or my family in Wisconsin, won't get their goodies in time for Christmas.  Wishing you a stress-free day.

"May voices join with the multitude of the heavenly host to proclaim His glory. May hearts be filled with His everlasting song of joy and peace this Christmas season."  -Unknown