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 Do Some Letter Activities With Me

Every year I had at least 3 or more kiddos that consistantly reversed the letters b and d.  Most of the other children, at one time or another, had also been a bit confused with these similar-looking letters; many had to pause and think about which was which, before they wrote.

Because of that, I taught b and d together when we worked on letter of the week.  All they needed was a little tip or trick that they could remember and the confusion ended.  With that in mind I designed a jumbo Taking the Confusion Out Of b & d packet. 

I'm beyond relieved that it's done, as it took a zillion hours of research and work. 

Like most of my projects, I started out designing a "few posters" and things morphed into so much more; a few hours turned into an entire week! 

I really hope you find it beneficial.  I know in my heart that your kiddos will enjoy the projects.

I truly believe the more you immerse children in a variety of engaging letter activities, the easier it is for them to learn, as well as differentiate.

The packet is chock full of  a huge variety of all sorts of different, interesting and fun activities: worksheets, games, posters, tips, craftivities, graphs, assessments, stories, songs, emergent readers, puzzles; and even a maze, Venn diagram, some graphic organizers and a nursery rhyme thrown in!

Select what’s appropriate for your kiddos to use for: table top lessons, homework, partner play, games, a sub folder, early finishers, assessing, or centers. 

Many completed activities make awesome bulletin board displays as well.  

I think I’ve stuffed just about everything you’ll ever need, for helping students to differentiate between the lowercase letters b and d, with plenty left over to use for your individual letter of the day/week activities.

Whether it’s a “bat and ball”, “bunny and dog”, “drum and stick”, “dish and spoon”, “handy hands”, “bulldog”, “baby b & daddy D”, a “closed and open mouth”, “Here’s looking at you”, or a “doorknob and door”, one will click for your kiddos, and I’ve included all of them in this packet.  

To help further reinforce the memory tactic,  for every tip-trick, there’s a poster, as well as matching worksheets and activities.

So that you can reinforce more than one standard, math skills like counting, adding, subtracting, greater & less than, as well as graphing, shapes andtally marks, are all incorporated in some of the activities and worksheets.

Because the world is not made up entirely of “Times New Roman”, a variety of fun fonts are incorporated  as well.  

I have so many "favorites" in this packet, but one of the things I really enjoyed dreaming up, was the silly "b is for bubble gum" and "d is for Doofus the dog" stories. I hope they make you smile.

To conserve paper and ink, I also designed many of the worksheets with two, even 3 on a page.  Click on the link to pop on over to my TpT shop, and arm yourself with an arsenal of creative and fun ways, to end the confusion of b & d.  

Because the initial packet got so big, my husband thought I should divide it into two, not an easy task, but worth doing.  The best deal is to buy the "Bundle" which includes both packets and is a whopping 294 pages long!  You save $4 by doing this, as it's just $9.95.

As always, I have some FREEBIES for you too.  I selected my 7 original tip posters, for taking the confusion out of b & d and included those in a mini packet.  Click on the link to grab it.

I introduce "Pinch & Pokes" as well as "Rip & Tears", in the jumbo b & d packet as well.  They are a great way to strengthen finger and hand muscles, so important in pre-writing.  My Y5's and kinders absolutely LOVED doing them!

Completed R & T's make awesome bulletin board displays too.  Click on the link to get your FREE 34-page upper and lowercase letter packet and let the muscle building begin.  

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  I have a zillion "I want to make this" piles on my desk, so it's time to get down to business. 

However, the summer sunshine is calling me, via the beautiful breeze coming through my office window; so perhaps a walk with Chloe, my poodle pup, might come first.  Is summer going way too fast for anyone else out there?

1-2-3 Come Make An Alphabet Paperclip Pal With Me

One summer I was attaching an upper & lowercase letter bookmark to my open house packet. As I slipped the paperclip over the bookmark, I saw the possibilities of children sliding the paperclip across the bookmark to "frame" a particular set of letters.

Thus, 14 years ago, the Paperclip Alphabet Pal was born.  I have since updated "Willie the Worm", and designed 37 Paperclip Pals for my latest alphabet packet. 

I hope your kiddos have as much fun with their alpha-pal bookmarks, as I did designing the assortment. They are a super-fun way for your kiddos to practice recognizing upper and lowercase letters.

Choose a pal that fits your needs or theme.  Run it off on construction paper or card stock and trim. 

Students add some color with crayons or markers. For some of the pals they also cut and glue.

Pass out large paperclips. Students attach it to their "bookmark".

Play “I Spy" with them by calling out a letter.  Children manipulate the paperclip, sliding it over the letters ’til they find the appropriate one.  The upper and lowercase letters should be peeking through the “window” of the paperclip.

Paperclip Alphabet Pals are a quick, easy and interesting way to whole group assess as well.  After a letter is called and found, students raise their bookmark in the air.  You can see at a glance who is having difficulty.  

I’ve included a recording sheet for this, as well as an assessment.  Later, you can work one-on-one with struggling students to individually assess all of the letters, pinpointing specific problems.

Children can also partner up and play the I Spy game together. 

By having made notes with the whole group game, you can now put a stronger child together with a struggling one.

Use the Paperclip Pal for spelling too. Little ones can practice spelling their names, while older students can practice a spelling list with a partner.

Manipulating a paperclip by pinching and moving it, provides good practice to help strengthen finger muscles, which will improve coordination and dexterity so important for pre-writing.

There are 37 Paperclip Alphabet Pals to choose from.  You can run them off and give students a choice, or choose one that’s appropriate for a particular season or theme.

They come in full color as well as black and white.  I made colorful ones, so that you can give them as a little gift for the first day of school. These can be laminated then trimmed.

Later, pick something different, and have children make one of their own.

There’s also an assortment for Halloween and Valentine’s Day, so that you can pass them out as gifts or prizes to celebrate those holidays, plus an elf-themed one you can give as a special surprise, if you do Elf on a Shelf activities.   

I’ve also included a blank one so that children can design their own, or have them glue their school photo at the top to make a special keepsake.

For additional practice, students can make an extra one to keep at home .  I’ve included a note home explaining this, as well as a recording sheet, plus a classroom chart and certificate of praise.

Ten worksheets also provide additional practice. 

The tongue-twisting, Paperclip Alphabet Pal Packet, is a whopping 86-pages long and just $3.95 in my TpT shop.  Click on the link to pop on over. 

As always, I have a FREEBIE for you from the packet. Besides practicing letters with a Paperclip Bookmark Pal, I also designed two "Color me" alphabet mats.

You can use these as homework, anchor charts, student-made posters, table top worksheets, something for early finishers, or a tool for individually & whole group assessing.

Play an "I Spy" game with them and have students cover the called out letter with a paperclip; or run them off and tuck them in your sub folder. Click on the link to grab a copy.

That's it for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  It's really hot today (pushing 90) so I think I'll stay put and chill in the comfort of my air conditioned office, "playing" with my school supplies designing more fun stuff, as I listen to the relaxing sounds of the surf.

 "Summer has filled her veins with light and her heart is washed with noon." - C. Day Lewis