President's Day Games & Activities

A quick and easy center for your students on President’s Day is to make an Itty Bitty Alphabet or Counting booklet.

Students trace the upper and lowercase letters, cut them out and sequence them.

My Y5’s always enjoyed taking these “just the right-size” booklets home to share with their families, which helped reinforce the lessons that they learned.

They also liked collecting all of the different little booklets each month.

Make extra sets for in class.  Run the uppercase letters off on a DIFFERENT color from the lowercase ones and laminate them so that you can play Memory Match games.

I find that if you differentiate the sets via color, you make it less frustrating for little ones to play memory games and they don’t take an inordinate amount of time either.

You can also distribute the cards an play “I Have…Who Has?”

Click on the link to view/download the President’s Day Alphabet cards.

Besides these traceable word cards, I help my students learn letters by making up Bingo songs.

The Bingo song is a great way to review the concept of subtraction and a clapping pattern as well + students LOVE singing.

What better way to review who the President and Vice President are of the United States than with this little song.

Print off the OBAMA and BIDEN bingo cards. Put magnet strip on the back and put them on your white board. Use them to sing the Bingo song.

Here are the words:

Obama is the president.

He is our Nation’s leader

O-B-A-M-A   O-B-A-M-A

O-B-A-M-A

He is the President.

Biden is the VP

He helps the President

B-I-D-E-N   B-I-D-E-N

B-I-D-E-N

Joe helps the president.

Click on the link to view/print the Obama Bingo Cards and song.

Click on the link to view/download my other Bingo Song Cards

If you teach a song each month you will have reviewed all of the letters of the alphabet except X.

Besides the alphabet, I made sets of numbers for counting by 1’s with pennies, by 5’s with nickels, by 10’s with dimes to reinforce not only skip counting, but recognizing these particular coins and their value.

There’s also a set for counting by 2’s and 3’s.  All have covers so that the students can make individual Itty Bitty Booklets as well.

Finish up the counting activities by getting the wiggles out and have students count backwards from 20 or 10.

Once they’ve jumped into the air they can bounce out to their lockers and take their booklets with them.

Click on the link to view/download the President’s Day Counting Cards.

Whatever you’re doing on President’s Day I hope it’s letter perfect!

First Aid For the Alphabet!

 Are some of your students still struggling with a few of their letters?

Is identifying body parts a problem for some of your little ones too?  It’s a Y5 report card standard that some struggle with.

Boo-Boo Alphabet to the rescue!

This is a fun ABC booklet that I made out of Band-Aids!

Students trace the various words that start with that letter of the alphabet.

For added fine motor fun, make a trip to The Dollar Store, buy a few boxes of Band-Aids and have your students design their own boo-boo initial.

You could also make a boo-boo number line.  It’s currently on my long “To Do” list!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, have students cut a heart on the fold, tear it in half and then “mend” it with a Band-Aid.

Get the “wiggles” out by doing the Band-Aid Pokey with their hearts or Band-Aid initials.  Click on the link to view/print the Band-Aid Pokey.

You can also review and whole-group assess their body parts, by having students place their heart/Band-Aid initial on various parts of their body.

Reveiw spatial directions as well.  Have students place their Band-Aid behind, above, between, on, beside, to the left, to the right, under etc.

Click on the link to view/download The Band-Aid Alphabet Book

I hope this little booklet is the first aid that does the trick in getting your students over that learning hump!

You might find these Animal ABC cards helpful as well.  There are two different sets.

Print off a double set of each one; laminate them and make Memory Match games, or run off copies so that your students can make Itty Bitty Booklets that they will enjoy sequencing and sharing with their families.

You can also play: "I Have, Who Has?" with your students. 

You hold a letter card and show it to your students and then ask for a letter.  The child holding the "asked for" card shows that letter and then asks for another card, until you have gone through all the letters of the alphabet. 

This is a quick, easy and fun way to review letters that your little ones will enjoy. 

Click on the links to view/download the neon animal alphabet cards and/or the realistic animal alphabet cards.

Don't Break My Heart by not knowing your letters, is perfect for February too!

Sprinkle the puzzle hearts on the floor to match the number of students you have in class for the day. 

Students with the uppercase letter find the matching lowercase letter to mend their "broken heart."

This is a great way to partner off students for a game or lesson. 

You can also play Memory Match and I Have-Who Has? with these cards as well.  Run off a set for struggling students to take home to play with their families.

Click on the link to view/download Mend My Heart ABC Matching game.

Do you have a teaching tip you could share with us?  I'd enjoy hearing from you: diane@teachwithme.com OR... feel free to leave a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas.  I so enjoy and appreciate feedback.  Thanks in advance and...

please pop in tomorrow for more fun ideas!