I Spy A Letter!

My Y5's really enjoyed playing games.  It was a hands-on fun way to get all sorts of life-skills and standards covered in a short amount of time.

I designed "I Spy A Letter." with those concepts in mind, as they will help teach: Common Core State Standards:RF.K1d, L.1.1a

I Spy A Letter is a very versatile packet. Although the picture shows lowercase letter samples, the packet also works on recognizing and practicing uppercase letters in an interesting way as well.

Your students will enjoy becoming ABCDe-tives as they spy letters and then trace them.

They will also like making a slider. Sliders are simply the upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet, listed vertically on two separate strips of paper.  Students slide their strip through two slits that make a viewing "window".

You can use this packet for table top worksheets, Speed games, or even as an interesting and less stressful assessment tool.

I've also included traceable upper and lowercase letter flashcards with a cover, so students can make Itty Bitty booklets, a tip sheet of what else you can do with the traceable cards, + "kaboom" bomb cards to make games even more fun.

There's an upper and lowercase  trace and write worksheet; an upper and lowercase "I Spy!" tracing game sheet, that can double as an assessment tool; + the "craftivity" upper & lowercase letter slider for girls and 1 for boys. 

These too can be a fun "I Spy!" game, or used as an assessment tool.  Finally, I've also designed an ABCDe-tective certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/download the "I Spy A Letter" Packet.

Thanks for visiting. Feel free to PIN anything from my site. (Create, teach, SHARE!)

Do you have an alphabet activity you could share with us? I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or post a comment here.

"Worlds can be found by a child and an adult bending down and looking together under the grass stems or at the skittering crabs in a tidal pool." -Anonymous

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

Since the Silly Shaped Penguins, as well as the Shapely Owls have been such popular downloads, I decided to design a spring "craftivity" too.  When I took a look at all of the spring baby animals, the cute little chick clicked for me! 

Like the Penguin and Owl Shape packets, I designed all sorts of shape-themed activities around these cuties. 

I hope you enjoy using them, as much as I had fun making them.

I've included patterns for the standard 2D shapes, as well as the pattern block trapezoid and rhombus shapes, plus the 3D cone, cube and cylinder shapes. 

For more pizzazz, tape a real feather to the top of the chick's head and accordion fold the legs.  Adding wiggle eyes also adds more pop. 

You could also make the wings moveable by punching a hole and attaching them with brass brads. Click on the link to view/download the Shapely Slick Chick Packet.

The packet includes a set of black & white shapely slick chick cards, as well as a full-color set.

I've also made 2 sets of shape-word cards.

These are perfect for Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has?" games. 

Run off the black and white templates and have students make an Itty Bitty Slick Chick Shape booklet.

There's also an easy reader booklet, which covers lots of standards. 

Students read the sentence, underline the capital letters and add end punctuation.

They trace and write the shape words, add features on the first shape to make it look like a chick; trace the second shape and then draw the shape. 

On the last page they tell which shapely slick chick they liked the best. 

I've included a graph, so you can record the results.  Standards are also covered with worksheets for spatial directions, attributes, and matching the word to the shape. 

Finally, to build self-esteem, I designed a sweet certificate of praise.  Click on the link to view/download the Shapely Slick Chick packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away. 

"The first day of spring is one thing, the first spring day is quite another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month." -Henry Van Dyke

1-2-3 Come Do Some Fun Pattern Block Activities With Me

Carley, from Idaho, asked me if I had any pattern block activities for her kinders.  She was given 2 huge sets from retiring teachers and wondered what sorts of things she could do with them.  

I only had one activity, a (Monthly Pattern Blocks On A Roll dice game packet) so I thought I'd design a few more.  Three days and a zillion hours of work later, I came up with lots of fun pattern block FREEBIES!

So many, that this post is longer than I wanted, but I think you'll really enjoy some interestingly different pattern block goodies, as you kick back and relax a bit. 

Pattern blocks are a wonderful manipulative for all sorts of activities, and introduce students to a few more geometric shapes, like the rhombus and trapezoid. My Y5's especially enjoyed lying on their tummies and making long lines of various patterns. (ABAB, ABBA, ABC-ABC etc.)

Not that we need anymore "to do" things added to an already overwhelming list, but as long as your kiddos are playing with pattern blocks, they might as well learn the names of them. This is easily done through repetition and simply allowing children to play with them. 

Adding a few posters, so students can see the pattern block pictures through out the day, is an easy reminder of these new shapes.  Click on the link to view/download the Pattern Block Poster. 

I also made a set of Giant Pattern Block blackline templates.  Simply run them off on the appropriate color of construction paper, laminate and trim.  Punch a hole in the top and hang from the ceiling. 

For a center on the floor, make 6 of each piece and have students pattern and make pictures with them.  Suspend a trapezoid, hexagon, rhombus and triangle, in each one of the corners of your room and play 4-Corners at the end of a long day.

Another poster is a pattern block optical illusion.  Do you think the trapezoid on the top is bigger?  Chances are your students will think so, but it really isn't.  Both pieces are the same size.  Print and trim the pieces on a sheet of red construction paper to prove it to them.  Click on the link to grab it.

I've also designed a set of pattern cards for your pocket chart, with a matching blackline booklet your kiddos can make.   

There's also a set of Counting With Pattern Blocks, perfect for your pocket chart as well.  I've included a blackline template so you can make worksheets, or use as a center.

Practice counting, sequencing, making groups, plus numbers and number words, with the Pattern Block Number Booklet.

Make a laminated booklet for your math center and have students use dry erase markers to fill in the information,  or make a booklet for each child and have them work on a page a day. I've included a color + black & white cover if you'd like to do this activity.

Instead of placing real pattern blocks on the pages, they can draw them, glue paper pieces, or paste on stickers. 

If you'd like some pattern block stickers (They do exhist!) you can find them over at purefunsupply.com They come 900 in a package for just $8.68.

If you have access to an Ellison Die Cut machine, they have a template for each pattern block shape.  This is a quick way to make zillions of little pieces for all sorts of activities.  I laminate my construction paper before hand, so my paper pieces last longer.  I also make a bunch that are not laminated, so students can glue them to the above booklet, or on sentence strips to make various pattern combinations.  

If you don't have access to an Ellison, I also found a blackline pattern block PDF on Pinterest.   I don't like to directly link to a PDF, and would prefer to send you to that person's site, but there are no identifying credits printed on it. You could have a room helper cut them out for you and sort them into Baggies.

Want to play some games with pattern blocks? Click on the link for a variety of spinner and dice games using pattern blocks. 

I also made Rack Up A Stack. Students roll the dice to see which pattern block they need to stack on their mat. 

A second roll, tells them how many of that pattern block they need to stack. Stacks can get pretty high if they keep rolling the same number. 

If their stack falls, children put only the spilled pieces back in the pile.  Because my Y5's tended to be pretty clutzy, you may want to make a rule that children only have to put one or two spilled pieces back, and only those from the column that they are working on, just in case another stack tumbles because they accidently bumped it.

The child with the most pieces stacked in one pattern block column can be the winner, or the one with the most stacks, or the one with the most total number of pattern blocks stacked. 

To practice addition, give students the point value card, so they can add up the points in each stack, as well as a grand total.  I've made the easier-to-stack pieces worth only 1 point, for easy counting, as well as higher point values for pattern blocks that are more difficult to stack.  I've purposely given these values of 2, 3 and 5 points, so that students can practice their skip counting skills. 

There's a recording sheet for them to show their work.   Click on the link to grab it. Rack Up A Stack: Pattern Block game.

Another game-like challenge, is to have students use the pattern blocks to see how many ways they can make a hexagon.  I chose this shape because it's a standard for many, and often a "toughie" shape to remember for lots of kiddos.  Click on the link for the Hexagon Challenge With Pattern Blocks packet.

As with anything we studied, I liked to throw in some hands-on "craftivity" as another way to immerse my kiddos in whatever concept we were working on. 

With that in mind, I made Pattern Block Pals.  (Blockheads!) I think they turned out pretty cute and hope you like them too. 

There are blank pattern block "head" templates, so your students can draw on their own faces, ones with a traceable word on them, plus ones with sweet faces. 

They look great as a boarder, bulletin board, or suspended from the ceiling against a hallway wall.  As a writing extension, have students list things on the back of their blockhead that also have that shape.  For example, on the back of a rhombus students could list kites, jewelry etc.

A caption for your display could be: "Mrs. Henderson's Kinders Are Really Shaping Up."  or "So Many Patterns, So Little Time." or "Pupil Pattern Blockheads With Personality". Click on the link to view/download the Pattern Block Pals packet.

Pattern blocks are not just for younger children either.  They are a wonderful way to explain fractions to students as well.  While doing research, I found quite a few great YouTube videos, demonstrating fractions using pattern blocks.  Click on the link to take a look.

I always do a bit of surfing to find out what's out there; (no sense in reinventing the wheel) I found some excellent pattern block resources and all of them are FREEBIES! Holly and Heather over at prekinders have over 20 free pattern block picture mats in full color, as well as black and white. 

I especially like using a black and white template, because it not only saves on printer ink, but forces students to search for the shape and not just rely on finding the correct color.   Note that they've included a caterpillar and butterfly in their packet; perfect for an independent center, if you're studying that life cycle.

ABC Teach also has a big variety of pattern block picture mats: toys, animals, flowers, and some really interesting and challenging patterns like the one pictured. 

I was really excited to find a complete set of FREE pattern block mats for upper & lowercase letters as well as numbers 1-10 over at Make Learning Fun.  They too offer full color or black and white.  Each link will take you to their respective sets. 

If you don't have a set of colorful "real" pattern blocks (besides wooden, they now come in plastic and foam, as well as magnets) and would like to do some cut and paste activities with paper pattern block pieces,  Make Learning Fun also has a separate, full-page template of trapezoids, rhombuses, triangles, hexagons and squares. 

Click the black and white template of your choice, and simply run off on the appropriate color of construction paper. The link for their  "Printable paper pattern blocks" appears after both the letter and number pattern block options.  

If you're looking for some "complete the pattern cards", Erica, over at Confessions Of A Homeschooler, made a nice set of pattern block mats.

Lory's 2nd Grade Page, also has some color as well as blackline "complete the pattern cards" + a really cute shape monster muncher game.

Erica also made a set of pattern block alphabet letters in color, as well as pattern block numbers 1-20 

Unlike Make Learning Fun, you don't have to click on each individual letter, but just one download for each complete set.  Because they are different from Make Learning Fun's sets, I have both, to add more variety to my centers.

She just completed a black and white set of pattern block letters as well.  Click on that link if you want the blackline version.

Finally, if you do a solar system or space theme, you'll want to take a look at Learning Resources' 32-page  FREEBIE, filled with pattern block skill-building activities and games.

Whew!  That's a lot of fun with pattern blocks.  Thanks for visiting today.  As always, feel free to PIN away. 

 “It is a happy talent to know how to play.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson