Up Up & Away With This Springtime Review "Craftivity"!

The windy days are here to stay for a while, so making a kite seems to continue to be an appropriate and fun way to review report card standards.

Review the basic shapes by using them as “tail ties” and have students glue them to a piece of yarn that’s attached to their kite.

Reinforce colors and a pattern as well, by making them in bright rainbow colors and have students glue them in that order.

To add a bit more pizzazz, I typed my students’ names in the WordArt program on my computer. This is super easy, so it would also make a nice computer activity for your kiddo's to do themselves.

They cut their name in a cloud shape while we reviewed some wind facts as they snipped away.

You could have students journal a writing prompt on the back or list some springtime - weather word-wall words,

This kite “craftivity” can be found in the 133-page Spring Art & Activity Book.  Click on the link to view/download it for lots more fun ideas.

Be sure and pop back tomorrow for more teaching tips.  Do you have one you'd like to share?  I'd enjoy hearing from you diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to comment here especially if you use one of my ideas.

Feel free to PIN too.  I truly believe in sharing.  Thanks for visiting.

Will March Go Out Like A Lion Or A Lamb?

The end of March is drawing near and I have some SHEEP and LION activities to help you end the month in a fun way.

-eep and –eap word endings can be confusing for students.  Help clear things up by making this “hands-on” sheep slider.

Run off the sheep template on white construction paper and have students jazz them up with wiggle eyes and 2 cotton balls.

If you have students pull apart the cotton balls into a nice fluffy pile, the sheep fleece will look more realistic, be a great fine motor skill and avoid the problem of having students simply glue whole cotton balls to their work.

I’ve included a Trace & Write – Sheep Rhyming ABC Order Worksheet as well as the traceable word cards.

Click on the link to view/download the Sheep Slider Activities.

I never have enough time to cover nursery rhymes as a separate unit, so I plug them in with whatever theme I’m doing, whenever they fit, as an added genre during story time.

Click on the link to view/download 4 sheep nursery rhymes including a nursery rhyme bookmark.  I’ve also included YouTube videos that are perfect for Smart Boards.

If you’re looking for some easy readers your students will enjoy:

The Shape Of My Sheep, which reviews the 6 basic shapes.

Where Have All The Sheep Gone? and Where’s The Lion? which reinforce simple subtraction skills.  Click on the links to view/download them.

A fun writing extension  asks your students “Are you more like a lion or more like a lamb? Why? This March writing prompt is turned into a class book and can be found in March Class Books. Click on the link to view/download it.

Make another class book by having your students guess whether they think that March will go out like a lion or a lamb and complete a page for the book by finishing the prompt, illustrating it and gluing their school picture to the page.  

If you'd like to include a "craftivity" with writing, have students make a lion or lamb paper holder and display their work on a bulletin board, before you collate their work into a book.

Keep things simple and merely use construction paper, or make students' work pop and have them add spiral noodles for the lion's mane and pulled cotton for the sheep's fleece.

Adding a pair of funky glasses and wiggle eyes also adds a cute 3D effect.  I printed the ones in the picture from Lee Hansen's graphic website where you can download free clip art, paper crafts, and scrapbooking items.  Click on the link to check out this interesting site.

There’s a graphing extension included to record the results.

Besides this writing prompt, there is also one that's a great activity after you read the above Mary Had A Little Lamb Nursery Rhyme.  Ask students what animal they'd like to bring to school if they could bring any animal.  Encourage them to think outside the box and not just think of the usual "show & tell" pet like a puppy or cat.  Students complete the sentence with their animal and illustrate the page.

Click on the link to view/download this March Lion or Lamb activity packet.

If you want some spring art activities like a lion and lamb puppet or mask made out of a cereal box, you'll find them in the 133-page Spring Art & Activites book and if you want some quick & easy table top worksheets or centers the 88-page Lion & Lambs unit will certainly have something.

Whether your students are meek and mild lambs or roaring lions, I hope you found something here to keep them engaged and interested!

Be sure and pop back tomorrow for more springtime tips.

Fun With Plastic Eggs!

Eggs are an easily recognized symbol for spring; you see them everywhere.  The plastic eggs are also an inexpensive manipulative.

I use them in a zillion different ways in my classroom.

IDEAS:

• Put part of a contraction on one side of the egg, put the other part of the contraction on the other and have students match them up.
• Have students find a half and then locate their partner with the matching half.
• Sort them by color.

• I have now collected eggs that are small, medium, large and jumbo and have students also sort by size.  They enjoy hiding them inside each other as well.
• Put a number on one side and a specified number of dots equaling that number on the other side and have students find the matching set.
• After they have found all the numbered eggs, have them sequence them.

• Put the eggs in rainbow color order.
• After my students have completed their tabletop work, they may choose a prize-filled egg from the Easter basket to take home.
• I fill them with jellybeans for jellybean sorting & graphing activities.

• Put math equations inside for students to solve.
• Put a writing prompt inside for students to write a sentence or a 1-paragraph story about.
• Put 3 stickers inside that students have to use, when writing 3 sentences or a 1-paragraph story.

• Hide them around the room and allow your students to find 1 to 2 to keep.

• Put an uppercase letter on one half and the lowercase letter on the other half. Break the eggs apart and sprinkle them around the room.  Set a timer and have students find the matches.  After they have found and put together all of the eggs, have them put them in alphabetical order and sing the ABC song.

• Make a set of eggs for all of the skip counted numbers that you have learned. Have students sequence them.

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• Put CVC words on the eggs as well as some word wall words so that students can choose 5-7 eggs and write sentences for Daily 5.
• Challenge students to learn a new word for the week.  Write a different new word in each egg and have students pick an egg out of the basket.  They crack open their egg and share it with the class.  This will be their bonus word on their spelling test and the one that they use in their work during reading and writing block time.
• Have students make long lines with the eggs and measure how long their line is.  Then have them take them apart and make a tower.  How tall can they build a tower before it topples?
• Have students make ABAB, ABCABC etc patterns with the eggs. How many patterns can they think of? 
• Use half an egg to make a circle stamp art picture by dipping the circle shape into paint and pressing it on paper or tracing it.
• Put pictures of flat and 3-D shapes inside the eggs.  Have students sit in a circle and choose an egg out of the basket.  They crack it open and identify what shape is inside their egg.  If they can identify it, they get to keep the egg.  If they cannot, the egg goes back in the basket.
• You can put anything inside an egg that you want to review.  Students choose an egg.  Play “I Have Who Has” with the contents of the eggs.  i.e. “I have uppercase letter A who has lowercase letter a? “Lowercase letter a asks “Who has the a ah apple word/sound?”etc.
• Play Doggy Doggy Who Has Your Bone? with a plastic egg and call it, Hen Hen Who Has Your Egg?
• Play Hot Potato and call it, Hot Egg

Use them for a quick and easy art activity and make a fat bumble bee, owl, bunny or pig (my personal favorites!)

Or simply add some wiggle eyes and a smile to make an egg creature.

Children can insert an "I love you!" note inside and give them to a family member or friend as a sweet Easter or springtime gift.

• Click on the link to visit Designs That Inspire for the directions for these cute animal "craftivities".

Whatever you decide to do with your plastic eggs, I hope it's' eggs-tra fun!

Have you thought of ways to include plastic eggs in your day? I'd enjoy hearing from you.diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment here.

Thanks in advance.  Be sure and pop back tomorrow for some more fun "Spring Has Sprung" teaching tips!