1-2-3 Come Flip Over Opposites With Me!

It’s that time of year when students start wearing flip-flops!

I was looking at clip art and thinking “What can I do with flip flops?” I thought of “opposites”.

One sandal is the flip word and the opposite word is the flop; hence they flip flop.

I spent lots of time whipping together a 155-page packet so you wouldn’t have to!

I think your kiddo's will really enjoy this great vocabulary builder; it’s easy to implement and fun to do.

I know that school’s almost out, but hopefully this will get you excited for next year.

Hang up the flip-flop poster.

Choose a "flip" word for the day. i.e. "big".

Students have to guess the "flop" word "little" which they write in their flip- flop recording journal.

If you're also studying synonyms and/or antonyms, have the journal do double duty and challenge students to think up a synonym/antonym for the flip and flop words as well.

This only takes a minute, but will provide tremendous vocabulary building opportunities, an easy way for students to understand opposites as well as strengthen their understanding of synonym and antonyms.

The better their vocabularies, the better their writing skills.  By writing the words, and doing the trace & write activities their spelling will also improve!

Flip-Flops make a great addition to your "Word Work" for Daily 5 activities too!

The packet includes:

• 550 traceable opposite word cards
• Covers to turn them into Itty Bitty booklets +
• Directions of what else you can do with the cards including a variety of games like Kaboom.
• Kaboom bomb cards
• 275 traceable pocket cards, (These can also be made into a flip booklet.)
• You can also turn these pocket cards into puzzle cards.  Sample puzzle included.
• Blank set of cards to program your own opposite words, or worksheets. i.e., Write in one word and have students fill in the matching opposite word.
• A list of 550 words that make up 275 pairs of opposites.
• 3 different types of opposite recording sheets + 5 different journal covers so that students can make a Flip Flop Op Journal to record the daily Flip word activity in.
• Flip Word Of The Day Poster
• Flip Flop Word Wizard Tracking Chart-Poster +
• A certificate of praise

Click on the link to view/download Flip Flop Opposites

 I hope your students absolutely flip over these fun activities as they build their vocabularies!

Feel free to PIN anything you think might be helpful to others.

"Anyone who has not made a mistake, has not tried anything new." -Einstein

Even though we were not in school for Father’s Day, I did not want to leave dads out of my Y5’s keepsake things that they did, so the last week of school I always plugged in some sort of “craftivity” that they could easily do in a short amount of time.

I save cans that chicken came in all year long, (tuna cans, or cat food cans) also work well.

I have a Magic Chef tool that you run along the edge of an opened can and it flattens the sharp edge down so that it is smooth. I then don’t have to worry about little fingers getting cut.

My students rip and tear masking tape and slap it on the cans.  When they’re done they don a pair of rubber gloves and rub brown shoe polish over the tape.

The cans have the look of leather and make a wonderful coin/key holder for daddy.

I write their name on the bottom, and they set them in the sun to “dry” for a day.

I’ve also designed some “paper love” as well.  These make great activities for your writing center or Daily 5 time.

There’s nothing like a special coupon to give dad.

My students enjoy using their imaginations to dream up their own, as well as trace and sign the pre-made ones, stapling them into a coupon booklet and then tucking them into the I love you card.

These items can be found in  Fun Stuff To Do For Summer  Click on the link to view/download it.   Also included in this packet is a cute writing prompt about dads that makes a sweet class book.

Comparing themselves to their dad is an interesting and fun activity.  Have students do it with a Venn diagram, which can be found in Summer Fun Writing.

Click on the link to view/download it.

Finally, since the easy reader My Mom booklet, that reinforced adjectives and verbs, was so popular for Mother’s Day, I revamped it for Father’s Day.

Click on the link to view/download the My Dad easy reader booklet.

I hope you find time to remember the daddies in your students’ lives and plug in some of these fun activities.

May the rest of your time with your students be filled with sweet summer sunshine and smiles!  

PIN to your heart's content if you see anything that you feel will be useful to others!

Hope you can breeze on by tomorrow for more fun activities to help you fly through the end of the year.

Summer Sunshine And Sunflowers

When I think of summer, I think of sunflowers.

When my children were little we always left sunflower seeds out for the birds.  They were a favorite of cardinals, one of my favorite birds.

The problem with the bird feeders tho’ is the squirrels made a virtual mess of them, so I had sunflowers popping up all over the place.

They are easy to grow and will sprout in just a few weeks, so I decided to see if we could grow some and make a sunflower “hideout” in the back 40.

It was a wonderful jungle and they loved playing in it.

I got the idea from Eve Bunting’s book, Sunflower House.  That book and Backyard Giant, are my two favorite sunflower books.

They are terrific read aloud’s for your kiddo’s.  Afterwards, compare and contrast the books and do a graphing extension.

I’ve included a graph in my Sunflower Packet, along with all sorts of other fun activities.

Click on the link to view/download the Sunflower Packet.

Where Is The Sunflower is an easy reader that works on spatial directions.  Students cut out the sunflowers and glue them to the appropriate places on the page.

Click on the link to view/download the Where Is The Sunflower easy reader booklet.

The Seeds On My Sunflower is another easy reader where students get practice counting to 10, reading, tracing, writing, cutting and gluing, as they match the appropriate numbered seeds to their sunflower.

I’ve included word-wall word flashcards, a math skill sheet, a graphing extension, and certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/download the easy reader booklet The Seeds On My Sunflower.

Finally, 123 Count Sunflowers With Me, is the newest addition in the Count With Me collection of easy readers.

As with all the Count With Me booklets, this packet includes: a graphing extension, 40 word-wall word and number traceable cards, covers for the flashcards so you can make Itty Bitty booklets, a plus 1 more math worksheet and a certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/download 123 Count Sunflowers With Me.

I hope your remaining days are filled with sunshine as warm and lovely as these yellow sunflowers.

Do you have a sunflower idea you’d like to share?  I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to post a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas!  Thanks in advance for making the time to do that; you’ll make my day.  I enjoy hearing from visitors.

PIN away if you think others might find anything on our site that is interesting or useful.

I hope you can skip on over tomorrow for more teaching tips that add fun to learning. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sweet Summer Dreamin' Pillowcases

Another fun project I like to do with my students at the end of the year I call "Sweet Summer Dreamin' Pillowcases."

Just about every month we have practiced the art of stamping something with a foam stamp. 

I have collected them through out the years to use for our science units.  They make fun art projects and are great for math extensions as well. 

My Y5's self-esteem is also built, because the process is quite easy and the results are simply smashing.  They pat paint on a foam stamp and then press it onto paper and a lovely print of something is left. 

They make beautiful collages, paintings and patterns and are quiet proud of their projects. They have become quite skilled at this technique. 

Instead of doing an autograph book, I thought it would be fun for my students to autograph a pillowcase that they have stamped with all of the various foam stamps, depicting everything they have studied throughout the year.  This  makes a wonderful keepsake for them. 

I send a letter home to parents asking them to send in a plain, light-colored pillowcase and ask if they would be able to volunteer to help. 

I've found that having 4 helpers makes the process go faster and stay organized, but I've done it with only one daddy as well. 

One year I asked several 5th graders if they could come and help during their study hour when I was short on parents and they worked well with the little ones too. 

They all had been my Y5 students so that made it extra fun as they even remembered doing the project when they were little! 

I do this project on the floor in our entry hall atrium so that the children can spread out.  Lay plastic down in case of spills.  There are very few, but The Dollar Store plastic tablecloths make clean up a breeze.  I put 5 children in a row and make a large square. 

Insert a piece of tag board (I recycle them each year) inside of their pillow case so that the paint does not bleed through.  I write their name in large print on the edge of their pillowcase. 

I buy primary and pastel colors of the acrylic permanent paints that are only .59 cents at a hobby/craft store and spill a dollop of one color on a paper plate.

That paper plate, a foam brush and a stamp is given to a helper who pats the paint on the stamp and hands it to a child, they press that stamp anywhere on their pillowcase and then wait for the next stamp. 

We rotate all of the stamps in this assembly line fashion until everyone has done every stamp and every color. 

This takes about 45 minutes if I have help.  Afterwards, the children go wash up and they go outside for recess. 

When they come back in the paint is dry.  We flip the pillowcases over and everyone is given a permanent marker. 

I have 10 different colors. I remind them that they cannot rest the markers on the pillowcase as they will start to bleed into the material and run. 

I also tell them that it is hard to write on fabric so that they need to hold the fabric taught.  I demonstrate this as I "autograph" a pillowcase. 

Everyone signs their own pillowcase first, then they stand up when they are done so that I can see when everyone is finished; when everyone is standing, they move to the next pillowcase and sign their name; when they are done, they stand up again. 

We do this until they are back to their own pillowcase and have signed everyone's.  Make sure you remind them that they are writing THEIR name and "autographing" eachother's pillowcases. 

I had one little guy who was trying to write each person's name on the pillowcases instead of his own! 

In the beginning I had the children sign the fronts of the pillowcases where the stamps were, then a mom thought it would look nicer, since the children wrote so big, to sign the backs!  I've done it that way ever since. 

I don't paint the backs of the pillowcases, because the paint is scratchy when it dries. 

I type up a little note about washing directions which reads: When your child brings their pillowcase home, turn it inside out and toss in the dryer on high .  This will set the paint.  Wash in cold water on gentle cycle for years of wear.  Sleep on the side that is not painted.  I hope you enjoy your sweet summer dreamin' pillowcase and that it helps you to remember all of the fun we had learning and making these wonderful friends!

I've gotten lots of positive feedback about this project, and my students absolutely love making these pillowcases.