1-2-3 Come Make a Pumpkin Slider With Me!

Making a hands-on craftivity, is a fun way for students to learn about, and review the basic 2D shapes and the shape words associated with them.  I tried to do at least one shape activity a week with my Y5's. The more exposure they had to shapes, the better the chances of their light bulb going on, in an interesting and non-stressful way.

My "sliders" have always been extremely popular, so I wanted to make a pumpkin one with shapes.  They are called sliders, because students pull(slide) their strip through slits, to reveal whatever I want to teach.  Sliders are a quick and easy way to whole-group assess.  Simply call out a shape and have students find it on their slider and then hold it up.  You can also individually assess with a slider; the game-like activity, lessens a child's apprehension when being tested.

Here's how to make the Pumpkin Shape Slider:

• Run off the sliders on white construction paper and the pumpkin on orange.
• For younger kiddo's, you may want to pre-slit the lines on the pumpkins, where the sliders will be pulled through. I use an exacto knife.
• Students trace and color the eyes. Encourage them to use different colors, so you can also review that standard. For a bit more pizzazz, have students add some color to the stem, nose and mouth sections.
• Teacher asks students to make their pumpkin’s eyes triangles. Children pull their “slider” ‘til they have located the triangle eyes, and then pull the mouth strip ‘til it says the word triangles.  
• Everyone “reads” their pumpkin together as a whole group.
• There’s a teachable moment for fractions (cut and glue 1/2 the strip) as well as plurals: The pumpkin has 2 eyes so the shape word needs to have the letter s on the end.

Click on the link to view/download the Pumpkin Shape Slider. I also made a Pumpkin ABC-123 Slider that has different strips, so you can review: upper and lowercase letters, numbers from 0-30, skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's, as well as counting backwards from 10 to 0 and 20 to 0. Run off whatever strips you want your students to work on.  Make a laminated one yourself to use as a demonstration, review, or assessment sample. 

So that the strip is easily managed, students can fold the ends up. Have children TRACE the letters/numbers with two different colored highlighters in an ABAB pattern. Click on the link to view/download the ABC-123 Pumpkin Slider. There are 3 pumpkin templates to choose from: students can draw on their own face, add wiggle eyes, or use the pumpkin that has a face on it. TIP: Decorate the pumpkin on both sides and glue 2 slider strips back-to-back for double duty.

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"The only place success comes before work, is in the dictionary!" -Vidal Sassoon

Hey Super Student Syllable Sleuths, Let's Go On A Word Hunt!

Some teachers like to make up packets to send home over the summer so that students don’t forget things that they learned over the year, or perhaps you need a home-school connection right now for those little ones still struggling with some of their letters.

I designed a fun activity called ABCDe-tective Home Alphabet Word Search.

Children trace the upper and lowercase letters, (you can also have them write them) and then scamper around their home looking for words that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

When they find one, they write it down in the appropriate spot.

There’s a blank space in the magnifying glass so students can write the capital letter as well.

This packet includes a letter home to parents explaining the project + a certificate of praise and an ABCDe-tective Achievement Poster to list the student’s names who complete the booklet, if you decide to do this as an all-class activity.

Click on the link to view/download the ABCDe-tective Home Alphabet Word Search Activity Packet.

If you like this activity, be sure and check out the other ABCDe-tective activity that’s a Classroom Scavenger Hunt.

It includes:

• A large magnifying glass template to make scampering around the room a bit more fun and "detective-like"
• A small magnifying glass template for locating and "framing" words, letters, shapes and numbers in books, charts, papers etc.
• Two detective badges.
• The ABCDe-tective treasure hunt list complete with picture icons.
• 26 upper and lowercase alphabet cards.
• Covers to make Itty Bitty books.
• 38 word wall "read-around-the-room" word cards.  These can also be turned into another Itty Bitty book.
• 38 picture cards.  Use these to play a Memory Match game, make pairs, put next to the words on the word wall, include in the Itty Bitty books and
• 2 certificates of praise.

Click on the link to view/download ABCDe-tective Classroom Scavenger Hunt

Scroll down for article #2 today, a helpful Behavior checklist.