1-2-3 Come Do Some Mitten Craftivities With Me!

I did a month-long mitten theme in January with my Y5's.  They enjoyed all sorts of mitten matching games and activities, so I wanted to share the newest FREEBIES as well as some old favorites today.

If you teach the "magic e" spelling rule, I think you'll enjoy the Magic e Mitten packet.  It took lots of hours to complete, but I think it was time well spent.   Run the mitten patterns off on a variety of colors of construction paper. 

I wanted mine to have a red mitten with a green cuff + a green mitten with a red cuff, so I ran off two of each page (one on red and one on green). 

Laminate, trim and then cut the cuffs off so that you create puzzles for a Magic e Mitten Matching Game.

The 29-page packet includes a My Magic e Words (dictionary).  Students trace the word, add a magic e to the end (use a different color) and then write the new word that is made. 

Encourage students to look up words that they don't know and define them on their new-word definition page. 

There are also Mitten Math worksheets, where the word + an e ='s a new word, as well as an alphabetical list of 86 magic e words, + a pattern to make a magic e snowflake-mitten wand.

I added glitter to mine and glued it to a Popsicle stick.  Give students a word from the list, have them come up and write it on the board.

Everyone waves their magic e wand, and the child adds an e to the end, creating a new word "magically!"  Click on the link to view/download the Magic e Mitten packet. 

Do you do nursery rhymes?  If so, Three Little Kittens is perfect for your mitten-themed day. 

Students cut and glue the matching numbered kittens as well as the appropriate pair of mittens to the correct page. 

Children read, trace, and write the simple sentences, reviewing number words. 

This packet reviews pairs, as well as skip counting by 3's.  I've also included 4 worksheets, a maze + a certificate of praise.  Click on the link to view/download The Three Little Mittens.

Finally, the collection of 10-frame Count With Me Booklets would not be complete without one featuring mittens. 

Practice a variety of skills and standards with this cute 10 frame booklet. Students read, trace and write the number and number word.  Children see the numbered-mitten word in the sentence and say it.  They spy the number in a sequence and circle it.

Kiddo's X-out that many boxes in the ten-frame or use a bingo dot marker, stickers or stamp. Finally, students cut and glue the set/group to the matching numbered box.  Includes a variety of worksheets as well.  These counting booklets are great for your Daily 5 activities.

Click on the link to view/download the 1-2-3 Count Mittens With Me packet. 

Thanks for visiting today.  

"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" Percy Bysshe Shelley

1-2-3 Come Do Some Wintery Craftivities With Me

If you need a quick bulletin board for January, I think you'll like this simple but vibrant mitten craftivity.  Run off the template on a variety of colors of construction paper. 

Children choose one and press their painted white hand in the center.  Gluing pulled-cotton to the cuff, adds that finishing touch.  For even more pizzazz, write students' names with glitter. 

If you want, give students a writing prompt, and have them complete it on the back of their mitten, then suspend from the ceiling.  Click On The Link to get the mitten pattern. 

This is a fun activity to do with your kiddo's after reading The Mitten  by Jan Brett.

If your little ones are still working on identifying letters, another simple bulletin board "craftivity" is to have children choose either a mitten or snowman pattern, trace it on a wordy section of the newspaper and then trim.  

Children complete a matching recording sheet, filling in their guess of how many letters they think they will find.  Afterwards, they find and circle, either the letter Mm for mitten, or Ss for snowman, counting as they go.  

When they are done, they complete the data as to whether their guess was equal, greater than or less than their correct answer.  If you want, have them figure out how many more or less they were off. 

Children who chose the snowman, add facial features; those who chose the mitten can color it their favorite color. 

Gather students together to discuss their results.  Do they have any ideas of why more S's  than Mm's were found?

Click on the link to get the newsprint mitten/snowman patterns.

If you are starting to work on coins with your students, you'll want to take a look at Mitten Money.

This easy reader reinforces word wall and Dolch words, as well as all of the 2-D shapes, + the penny, nickel, dime and quarter coins.  Click on the link to view/download the Mitten Money easy reader. 

For more math activities check out the place value snowman.  Students can choose to draw their own face on the snowman, or color mine. 

To turn these into a dry-erase "board" cut squares of glossy photo paper.  Each student needs 4 to glue on top of the squares on their paper.  

Print; laminate and trim the snowman number cards (0-9) Toss them into a mitten; call on 3 students to choose a card. 

These will make the 3-digit number that students write in the number box, using a dry erase marker.  

Children figure out the place value position of each, and write the appropriate numbers in the one's, ten's, and hundred's boxes.  

When they are done, they show their work; you can whole-group assess with a glance.  Play continues 'til all of your students have had a turn to choose a number.  Click on the link to view/download the Place Value Snowman Packet. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  I hope you can stop by tomorrow for the newest FREEBIES. 

"In seed time, learn; in harvest, teach; in winter, enjoy." -William Blake

1-2-3 Come Frolic With Me: Winter Craftivities, Bulletin Boards and Games

I was really on a creative roll yesterday.  All one needs to do is spend a little time on Pinterest and your brain will shoot into over drive!  So many ideas and not enough time in my life to do everything I'd like to.  Sound familiar?

While browsing, I found a wooden snowman used as a countdown to Christmas.  I found versions of this idea all over, so not sure who was the originator, but I thought the moveable carrot nose would be perfect for the classroom. 

It was fun designing a paper snowman face that can review upper and lowercase letters and numbers to 20.  I've included a face for skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's or 10's.  

You can also simply make one for your calendar center and countdown the days in January.  

These make a quick and easy way to whole-group assess too. 

Call out a number/letter and have students move their snowman's nose to that position or... move your teacher sample to an uppercase letter, and have students find the matching lowercase letter on theirs. 

For added pizzazz I ran the carrot noses through my crinkle machine.  My Y5's called this the "Cruncher Muncher."  It provided great fine motor practice as students turned the crank to get the paper through the rollers. 

Poke a hole at the end of the carrot and use a brass brad to fasten the nose to the snowman.   Click on the link to view/download the Snowman's Nose packet.

For more letter and number practice, have your students put together these winter pine tree puzzles.  They can be done as an independent center activity, or you can make copies for your students. 

Children cut the green number/letter tiles and then glue them in appropriate order on the boxed grid.  For that extra bit of pizzazz, run the template off on blue construction paper and have students dot on "snowflakes" with a Q-tip. 

If you celebrate 100 Day in January, this is a wonderful "craftivity" that makes a cool bulletin board.  Caption:  Mrs. Henderson's Kinders Are Doing Tree-mendous Work!  Click on the link to view/download the Pine Tree Puzzles

Another awesome bulletin board for January, features a New Year's writing prompt. 

Basketball, soccer and football are all sports where players score goals, so I thought it would be fun to have students write what their goals were for the New Year on the ball of their choice.  

I've included a poster that you can put in the center of your bulletin board as a caption. 

Besides the balls, there are also 2 writing prompt pages for journal writing, which includes one with a hockey theme.   Click on the link to grab the New Year Goals Packet. 

Another New Year's activity you can have your kiddo's do, is see how many words they can come up with, using the letters in Happy New Year.   I've included a list of 267 words. 

When students are done, share your list to see if there are any words that they aren't familiar with; have them write them on their paper and look them up.   Click on the link to check out the How Many New Year activity.

Since the fact family houses have been such popular downloads, I designed an igloo "Frosty Fact Family Fun" packet.  Choose whatever number you want your students to work on. 

They write it in the center of the snowflake and then write all of the equations that they can think of, on the outer sections of their snowflake, to show that number.  

Do one each day; to make their booklet, have students glue their snowflake to an igloo-shaped page.  Add their photo for that finishing touch.  Click on the link to view/downlaod the Frosty Fact Family Fun packet.

For More number fun, I think you'll enjoy the snowflake number cards.  Use these for your word wall, a bulletin board, flashcards, games, or an independent center. 

Print; laminate and cut into puzzles for even more ideas.   I've also included 3 sets of snowflake tiles so students can sort, pattern and make groups/sets to match the number on the cards.  Click on the link to grab the Snowflake Number cards.

Finally, I had a request from Karla out in Vermont, for penguin alphabet and number cards. 

She wanted something small that her pre-schoolers could manipulate.  She only needed numbers to 10, but I included a blank template for you to program with more. 

There's also a list of ideas you can use the cards for, including games like "Kaboom!"  Click on the link if you'd like a set of these mini-penguins.   

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  My "Pin It!" button is at the top.  As you can see I design and blog daily, so I hope you can stop by tomorrow to see all the newest FREEBIES, created by this brain that needs a shut-off button!

"Celebrate what you want to see more of." -Tom Peters