1-2-3 Come Chew On Some Common Core With the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Me

Since so many people read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I wanted to use Eric Carle's cute little critter as a spring board to studying a variety of Common Core Standards.

I created the caterpillar template and made a list of all sorts of ways I could use it, then set about to design the details.   You can choose which one you want your students to do, or give them a choice. 

Teachers could also make up their own set and laminate to use as anchor charts. 

Make several sets but don't glue the body-segment circles together, to use for independent, sequencing centers or to play games with.  

You could also use them to  independently or whole group assess the various standards.

In The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eats the Alphabet, students trace and write upper and lowercase letters. 

I've also included a set where a bit of the butterfly's life cycle is also included with the letters. 

For example, for the letter  Zz, I added:  Zzzzzz sleeping in a chrysalis, and then included a butterfly pattern with the letters all over her wings to be cut and glued on the last section. 

Completed projects make a sweet spring bulletin board.  I've included a poster for the center of you display.

The packet also includes an alpha-pillar craftivity teachers can make, which features upper or lowercase letters, which actually look like the background pattern of Eric Carle's book! 

These make a wonderful  border, or puzzle center as well. 

There's also a set of uppercase, as well as lowercase (12-on-a-page) letter cards, with matching picture cards of things that begin with that letter, plus a set of word cards for those objects, which provides a variety of center activities and games. 

I also made a set of 2-on-a-page alphabet anchor charts, which feature the beginning letter object on the caterpillar's tail end. 

This packet makes a nice spring review, as I find that just because I've taught and practiced something with my kiddos at the beginning of the year, doesn't mean everyone retains everything later on.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eats a Rainbow, is a quick review of color words, plus days of the week, which follows the format of Carle's story line. 

There's a blank version, where older students think of something edible that color, then write it down and draw a picture of it, as well as a simpler version, where the black line graphics are on the page for children to color. 

I've also included a teacher's copy with full color graphics, so you can quickly make a sample to share. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eats Some Numbers, is similar to the alphabet packet.

This caterpillar counts from zero to ten, where students trace and write the numbers as well as the number words. 

There are also caterpillar "body" circles for skip counting by 2s 3s, 5s, and 10s.

If you are practicing counting backwards from 10 to 0, simply have children put the caterpillar in reverse order. 

I've also included a "You Can Count On The Very Hungry Caterpillar" craft for teachers to make, just like the alphabet one mentioned above.

As with the alphabet packet, there are posters, anchor charts, games and a worksheet.

In all of the packets there are 4 patterns for the caterpillar's head, plus a variety of options for butterflies.

Since I have many requests for shape craftivities, particulary 3D shapes, I thought I'd make The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eats 2D & 3D Shapes, which reviews: the circle, oval, triangle, square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, star, heart & crescent, plus 3D shapes: cone, sphere, cylinder & cube.

There are various options to choose from. Simply choose which "body segments" are appropriate for your students.

Older students can write the attributes of each shape on the back. One of the options also practices the days of the week.

On the last day the caterpillar rests in his chrysalis, then awakens as a beautiful 3 dimensional butterfly with the various shapes on its wings.   

Since telling time is also a standard, I made a "clock-apillar" which reinforces time to the hour and half hour. 

Use as a whole-group craftivity, game, center or assessment tool.

Like wise, we are also studying coins at this time, so I made a "coin-apillar" too.

These caterpillars feature a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar coins.

The packet also includes "What's the Value?" caterpillar-coin worksheets.  

Finally, if you want to practice reading with a very hungry caterpillar, your kiddos will enjoy making the versatile "Word-apillar".

I use this craftivity as a super-fun way to build vocabulary and practice whatever “word work” I want to reinforce: Dolch & Fry sight words, word-family words, seasonal words, whatever...

I’ve included a list of 31 “word work” ideas, along with ideas for games you can play after you choose your words.  

Whew! That's a lot of Very Hungry Caterpillar options!  I hope they help your kiddo-caterpillars blossom into smart little butterlies! 

Today's FREEBIE also features a butterfly.

It's one of my personal favorite spring craftivities, which makes a wonderful keepsake for mom, as the wings of the butterfly are a child's shoe print.

Do this with your butterfly activities, then tuck it away for Mother's Day.

Click on the link for the "Fluttering By With A Mother's Day "Hi" craft.

Thanks for visiting. I normally don't post on weekends, but I finished so many things up over spring break that I wanted to share. 

Wishing you a relaxing and fun-tastic weekend.  

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." -John Dewey

1-2-3 Come Do Some Presidents' Day Activities With Me  

Because February is packed with so many special celebrations, I do President's Day throughout the week and tie Presidents in with our study of coins. 

Recognizing a penny, nickel, dime and quarter are part of our report card standards, so I designed some quick, easy and fun ways to practice. 

Here are four of my students' favorities. 

The coin “Popsicle stick puppet paddles” are a simple way for me to review various facts about the coins, as well as whole-group assess.

Students need just two Popsicle sticks, as they glue the penny & nickel back-to-back, and the dime and quarter back-to-back.

Since size is one of the ways my kiddos differentiate the coins, I designed the coins on a background circle.

Children color, cut and glue to the top of two different colored Popsicle sticks.  I’ve included small, medium, and large pattern choices.

They can simply write the names of the coins right on the sticks using a marker, or have them trace, trim and glue the labels.

Teacher reads clues from the poster.  Kiddos hold up their coin “puppet paddle” when they know which coin is being described.  You can see at a glance who is having difficulty.     

Number puzzles are a quick, easy and fun way for students to practice sequencing numbers from 1 to 10, counting backwards from 10 to 1, as well as skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s & 10s.

By featuring a penny, nickle, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar coin on the puzzles, they are also a way to reinforce differences, to help students identify and remember the various coins.

Print, laminate & trim and use as an independent math center.  I've also included trace & write ones as well, so that students can color & cut up their own puzzle. There are 42 coin puzzle options in all. 

Next up, is the "Money Matters Mobile".    There’s nothing like a “hands on” craft to get my students excited about learning something new.  This craftivity will help your kiddos learn to identify the fronts and backs of coins.

I’ve also included coin templates for the half dollar and dollar, and scanned in a real dollar bill, then adjusted it to use as a header for our mobile, giving our “dangler” a bit more color. 

Finally, the "Flipping Over Coins" is another crafty option.  I truly believe this visual helps students differentiate, helping them to remember which coins are which.

I not only wanted my kiddos to be able to identify the coins, but tell a little bit about them. In so doing, they have additional ways to remember each one.

I've included a variety of options for you to choose from, including a 4-coin flip up, as well as one with 5 coins.

Students color, cut and glue the coins to the front, then snip on the dashed lines to make a "flap" which they flip up to reveal the name, color and value of each coin, as well as which president appears on the coin.

Finally, they tally how much it's worth, as a fun way to get in a little more math practice.  

Today's featured FREEBIE is a sweet "You are cent-sational" craft, which would be fun for students to make after they have learned to identify all of the coins.  

To add some writing, have students write why they feel they are "cent-sational" on the back.  To tie the craft into Presidents' Day, have them choose a President that they felt was awesome and write why they think he was the best.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  The wind is howling outside my office window, but the sun is shining in; so I might venture out in this 2 degree weather, or not . . . Wishing you a super-duper day.

"Believe you can and you're half-way there." - Teddy Roosevelt

 1-2-3 Come Do Some Coin Activities With Me!

Since President's Day is in February, I did a lot of coin related activities with my students during that month.  We learned a bit about our US presidents at the same time practicing coin identification.

I made up a set of coin anchor chart posters that you may find helpful. Print them off; mount on a variety of colors of construction paper; laminate and then affix a real coin using a glue dot.  They make a nice bulletin board, as well as giant flashcards.

The packet also includes entire sheets of each coin, so that you can make manipulatives, games, and math centers. 

There are also separate templates for each coin featuring the head and tail side. Simply fold, cut, glue and laminate.  Punch a hole at the top and suspend them from the ceiling. 

Several coin conversion posters are included as well.  i.e. How many pennies make up each coin?  This anchor chart is a fun way to practice skip counting by 10s, as I made lots of groups of ten pennies.

Another visual that I use is a coin Venn diagram.  I believe that if a child has to compare and contrast the coins, it will help them identify them as separate units. 

You can do these as a whole group, as an independent worksheet or partner activity.  I pass out real coins for children to examine.  Completed projects make a nice bulletin board.  Making a coin Venn diagram also helps reinforce descriptive writing, as children use lots of adjectives while comparing.

Since putting a puzzle together, was one of our Y5's standards, as well as counting backwards from 10 to 1 and skip counting by 10s, I designed these coin-themed number puzzles. 

Print and laminate for an independent center, or run them off and give children a choice.  They color, trim, mix up their pieces and then put their puzzle together.  For an interesting mosaic craftivity, have students glue their pieces to a sheet of construction paper, leaving a small space in-between each piece.

Ten frames are also wonderful for visual learners.  With that in mind, I designed a set of 10 frames for pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, plus extra tiles of each, so you can run them off and use them as manipulatives. Click on the link to view/download the 10 Frames Coin Packet.

There's nothing like saying "Would you like to play a game?" to grab your students' attention.  I used dice to help my Y5's  subitize, (Quickly identify how many in a group, without having to count.) so I designed the Coins On A Roll dice game. 

Simply run off the coin bookmarks.  Students pick a partner and take turns rolling the dice.  If they roll a one they color in the penny.  If they roll a two, they color in the second coin, which is a nickel and so on.   However, if someone rolls a six, they lose their turn. 

The first child who colors in all of the coins on ther bookmark is the winner.  The game is also a nice opportunity to review ordinal numbers as well. Before the game starts, ask children what the first coin is, the last coin, third coin etc. is.  Later, when children are done playing the game, for a quick whole-group assessment, have them cover the names of the coins and ask them to: "Point to the penny."  "Now point to the quarter." and so on.  Click on the link to view/download the Coins On A Roll dice game.

If your school requires you to send homework home, or if you need some coin-themed worksheets for early finishers to do, click on the link to view/download the 10-page Coin Worksheet packet. These are also great for Daily 5 word work or a sub folder.  

For a more advanced activity, students can make a Flip For Facts File Folder. They are a simple and effective way to introduce research to early elementary students.  Children search for interesting facts Online, choose their favorites, and then put them into their own words. 

As with my other flip for facts file folders, I've included several pages of how to explain citations to your kiddos. Helpful links are also provided.  The Flip For Facts File Folders are a nice pre-cursor to writing a report. 

Finally, to help review coin facts as well as grammar, I designed 30 coin-themed grammar cards. Students circle letters that should be capitalized and add end punctuation. 

You can do this with a pocket chart and call on students, or pass one card out to each child, to correct with a dry erase marker. 

After eveyone has shared their card, have students choose 3-6 cards and rewrite the sentences correctly.  This is a great Daily 5 word work activity.

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting. I hope you found a few things to help make learning about coins a bit more fun. 

For all of my FREE coin activities, click on the link to zip on over to the money section of TeachWithMe.com

The wind is howling outside my window, so it's time for a well-deserved hot cocoa break.  Wishing you a warm and snuggly day.

"Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen, on the 'gotta have it' scale." -Zig Ziglar

 1-2-3 Come Do Some Christmas Coin Activities With Me

Here is a quick, easy and fun game to help reinforce coins (penny, nickel, dime & quarter) that would be perfect for a December math activity, or your Christmas party day.

You can run off the Christmas tree on green construction paper and have students trim, or simply run off the template on white paper and have children color their tree.

Pass out a set of paper coins to each student. They color and cut them out, and then pick a partner, taking turns rolling a dice four times. 

Their 1st roll equals how many penny ornaments they will glue to their tree, the 2nd roll is for nickels and so on. 

I've included a poster for you to hang up for children to refer to.  To practice more math, I've provided a worksheet extension for the game, where students fill in data. 

There are several options for different levels of study. I've also included completed samples to help clarify things.

For more coin identification practice, there's also a "color the coins" worksheet.  Color words are also reinforced. 

One worksheet simply has students count the coins; another has them count each type of coin and then total them. 

Click on the link to view/download the Cent-sational Tree Trimming packet.

If you'd like to see all of the FREE money activities I have on TeachWithMe, click on the link to pop on over to that section of my site.  One of the things I think you may find particularly helpful, might be the coin anchor charts.

Thanks for visiting.  Our refrigerator "died" Friday, so I have some major clean & toss chores to get to, before the new one arrives this afternoon.  Wishing you a happy and productive day. 

  "Magic makes believers out of everyone, especially at Christmas." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some More Coin Activities With Me

The more opportunities you give students to experience coins, the better chance they have of latching on to some sort of comparison, fact or piece of trivia that will help them identify the coins. 

Making the Coin Autograph Booklet is a fun way to do that.  Run off copies for all of your students, or simply make one for yourself and share your teacher’s copy with them.

I did a bit of research to see if I could find the the President’s signatures, and found them extremely interesting. Washington and Jefferson wrote with feather quills, so set up a center activity where your students can write their name with a feather-dipped in paint.  

I did this for a Constitution Day activity and have a template for that you can use.  Click on the link to view/download the quill page from Activities For Constitution Day.

To get some name writing practice in, include an extra page with the booklet and have students collect some autographs of their friends, or to expedite things, have each student sign one paper, and  run off copies for everyone, entitled Your Classmate’s Autographs. Click on the link to view/download the Coin Autograph Booklet.

Set up a center with these 6 coin puzzles and help your students practice counting, counting backwards from 10 to 1, and skip counting by 10's to 100, as they review the various coins.  Click on the link to view/download the coin puzzle packet.

Another way to review coins as well as skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's is with these President trace and write skip counting skip counting cards. 

I used nickels for students to count by 5's with, and dimes when they count by 10's. 

Covers are included if you want your kiddos to make Itty Bitty Coin Counting booklets. Click on the link to view/download the coin cards. 

When I'm studying something with my students, I try and cover several standards. 

With that in mind, I designed 30 grammar coin cards.  Use them as pocket cards and read them as a whole group.   This is an interesting way to review facts about the various coins.  

Using a dry erase marker, call on students to circle any letters that should be capitalized and have them add end punctuation as well.   I made enough cards so that you can pass one out to each student. 

When everyone has shared their corrected card, put several on the board and have children rewrite the sentences correctly on a sheet of paper.  Click on the link to view/download the 30 grammar coin cards.

The Dollar Shapes Up is another money-themed easy reader that reviews shapes.  Click on the link to view/download it.  

Finally, My Buck Book is an easy reader as well, and reviews ways students can make a dollar.  Click on the link to view/download it. 

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  I hope you found a few things that will help your students with coin identification.   To check out lots more money-themed FREEBIES, click on the link to zip on over to that section of my site, and feel free to PIN away.    

" If you are resolutely determined to make [something] of yourself, the thing is more than half done already." -Abraham Lincoln

1-2-3 Come Make A Flip Hat With Me.

I got the idea to make hat flip books from Mrs. Zrihen over at A Teachers Treasure. She teaches 6-8 grade reading and made one for figurative language.   Click on the link to check out her creative blog.

My wheels were of course turning, of what I could do for lower elementary,  so I whipped together this one on coins.

The Cent-sational Seuss  hat is a quick and easy little activity for your Seuss unit that will help review coins in a fun way.

Students cut their cover into flaps and glue it to the edge of their hat, so that when they flip a stripe over, it reveals the appropriate coin that they've glued and how much it's worth.

Completed projects make a great spring bulletin board.  Click on the link to view/download the Cent-sational Seuss hat. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  

For another fun Seuss hat activity (this one on patterning) scroll down. 

"If you follow the crowd, you might get lost in it." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Make A Venn Diagram With Me!

Comparison and contrast is an important concept for children to understand.  An easy way for them to visualize this and get their thoughts organized is through a Venn diagram.

Comparing and contrasting coins, will help your little ones remember them.  By examinining and analyzing the similarities and differences, something will stick in their mind to help them differentiate.

I've made a coin Venn for each of the combinations of comparison.  (i.e. penny with a nickel, penny with a dime and penny with a quarter etc.)

Students choose two coins, cut and glue them to their Venn diagram paper, so that they overlap a bit, and then write their results above the coins.

Click on the link to view/download the Coin Venn Diagrams.

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope you can pop on over tomorrow for a few more President's Day activities.

Feel free to PIN anything you think others might find useful.

Do you have a coin activity you could share with us?  I'd love to hear from you: diane@teachwithme.com  or leave a comment here.

"One small positive thought in the morning, can change your entire day!" -Unknown

This Little Piggy Went To Market, and This Little Piggy Went To School For 100-Day!

What started out to be a few simple piggy bank worksheets, to help students count coins to 100, turned into a  whopping 50-page 100-Day Piggy Packet.

You don't have to use it just for 100-Day, reviewing these "hog wild" counting skills, throughout the year, is important no matter what the day, and it's nice to have a variety of tricks in your bag of how to do that in an interesting way. 

After all, counting to 100 can get quite boring for some little ones, and extremely frustrating for those kiddo's whose light bulbs haven't lit up yet. With that in mind, I designed the Q-tip mud craftivity to the right.  Students dab brown paint on the 10 groups of 10 dots on the dirty piggy.  For less mess, children could use a brown crayon to color in the dots.

This unique packet will help you with Common Core State Standards: K.CC.1, K.CC.3, K.CC.4a, K.CC.4b, K.CC.4c, K.CC.5, K.OA.1, K.CC.6, 1.NBT.1  The packet is chock full of all kinds of goodies to help you celebrate 100-Day, or simply use as math centers.

The packet includes:

• 8 Piggy bank pages for pennies, nickels, dimes & quarters.  Students can color and count the filled banks, or color, cut and glue the coins inside an empty bank. 
• Coin to coin word matching worksheet
  
• 1 letter words, to more than 5 letter-words skill sheet
  
• Game sheet: "Race your pig to 100."
  
• Game sheet:  "Spin To Win!" coin counting to 100 + 2 coin spinners.
  
• Tally Ho tally mark worksheet.
• Graphing extension
• More than less than calculations worksheet
  
• How much money? Addition worksheet
  
• 2 Measurement activity worksheets
  
• Counting pigs by 5's to 100 worksheet
  
• Counting pigs by 10's to 100 worksheet
  
• Name Your Pig 100-Grid worksheet
• Round up the pigs by 10's worksheet.
• Pig slider "craftivity" counting by 10's & counting by 5's
  
• Piggy Popsicles "craftivity" counting by 10's.  +
• A blank sheet of pigs for you to program with whatever you want.  Use them for name tags, other numbers, letters etc.
  
• "Craftivity" counting Q-Tip mud spatters to 100 by 1's, 5's and 10's
  
• 3 counting worksheets. Counting by 1's to 100 & 120 and skip counting by 5's and 10's
  
• 2 connect-the-dot worksheets.  Counting by 5's and by 10's to 100.
• 2 Q-Tip Pig in the Mud "Craftivities."
• 2 Happy 100 Day posters. 1 in color, 1 in black and white so children can color.
• 3 different certificates of praise for "Hog Wild" counting + a
• Happy 100-Day bookmark

Click on the link to view/download the 100-Day Piggy Packet.

I hope your students have as much fun doing the lessons, as I had creating them.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything that you think others may find helpful.

"I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end." -Abraham Lincoln

1-2-3 Count Coins With Me!

I always did my coin unit in February.  It made sense to me (no pun intended) because it was Washington and Lincoln’s birthday month and they are on 2 of the coins we had to learn to identify.

I decided to combine coins with penguins, as that’s a popular theme that many study in January, thus Cent-sational Penguins was born.

The Cent-sational Penguin packet will help you with Common Core State Standards: RF.K3c, L.K.2a, L.K.2b, L.1.2b, RF.1.1a, 1.OA.5, RF.K.3a, RI.K.7, RI.K.10

It’s an easy and fun way to review a variety of math and reading standards in a short amount of time.

Students trace and write the coin word and its value. They also circle the capital letters, add end punctuation, as well as color, cut and glue the matching coins.

There are additional writing opportunities, as students think of alliterative nouns and verbs to complete the last sentences.

The packet includes:

• The Easy Reader booklet: Cent-sational Penguins
• 3 worksheets about coins
• A graphing extension +
• A certificate of praise

Click on the link to view/download the Cent-stional Penguins Packet

For more money activities, click on the link to zip over to that section of my FREE shopping cart offerings.

For more FREE penguin activities, click on the link. Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting today.

  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find useful.

“OK, so you are 10-years-old and have a laptop, PC, IPod, Wii and Gameboy.  When I was 10 the only techno thing I had to play with was called OUTSIDE!” -Unknown