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

I was excited to see that the Polly Wants A Letter Cracker packet was a very popular download this week. 

I had several teachers that liked Pirate Polly so much, that Karyn from Florida, and Elaina from California, asked if I could make some crackers with numbers on them, so I designed crackers with numbers from 0-130.

"Feeding" Polly is a fun and less tedious way to practice counting that high.  The mini cracker cards, are also the perfect size for for sequencing. 

Make extra sets and have students lie on their tummies and string 20-30 crackers in the appropriate order.

Use them to play a game of  "I Have; Who Has?"  Toss whatever cracker numbers your kiddos need practice on, into a container and have students choose several. 

I've included "Kaboom!" bomb crackers, to make things even more fun + a tip list of what else you can do with these number cards.  

Have students sort the number crackers on the odd and even sorting mat, or make equations with the math symbol crackers, and then solve the addition and subtraction problems, or show greater and less than. 

I've also included a variety of trace and write the number worksheets in the packet, as well as "What's Missing?" skip count worksheets, plus a certificate of praise. 

Click on the link to view/download the Polly Wants A Number Cracker packet.

While I was expanding Polly's appetite for learning, I thought it would be fun to make shape crackers too. 

Brook sent me an e-mail that's she's always looking for more 3D shape activities, so along with 2D shapes, I included  3D shapes, and even threw in the pattern block shapes.

The crackers are still square, but the "cheese" on them is shaped.  Of course "Polly" loves these treats.  So that you can also play a Memory Match game, as well as reinforce vocabulary, I also made crackers with shape words on them.   I hope your little pirates will enjoy "feeding" Polly yummy shapes and word crackers.

As with the other Polly Packets, I've also included some extras.   Students can "get in shape" by playing a variety of "I Spy" a shape worksheet games, as well as several  "Shipshape" porthole dice games. 

Click on the link to view/download the Polly Wants A Shape Cracker packet. 

Finally, I also made a Polly Slider for a bit of hands-on fun. 

This "craftivity" includes "sliders" for upper and lowercase letters, numbers 1-30, counting backwards from 10 to 0 as well as 20 to 0, plus skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's, and of course a shape slider featuring 2D shapes, pattern block shapes and 3D shapes. 

Run off Polly on white construction paper and have students color her, or run the bird off on green construction paper; students trim and add a black pirate hat (there are two to choose from) as well as a 3D yellow beak. 

Run off whatever "slider" you want your students to practice.  They trace the letters and numbers, or color the shapes, and then insert their strip into the slits, so that the various objects will appear in a "window" as they slide the long piece of paper up and down. 

I pre-cut the slits with an Exacto knife, as this sort of cutting was a bit too difficult for my Y5's to do on their own. Sliders are a quick and easy way to review and whole group assess. 

Call out a shape, letter, or number and have students slide 'til it appears in the window.  When they've found the correct answer, they hold up their parrot.  You can see at a glance who is having difficulty.

Add a bit more pizzazz by attaching a wiggle eye with a glue dot.  Click on the link to view/download the Pirate Polly Slider packet. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  (Create, Teach, Share! )

"Beware of no man more than yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us." -G.K. Chesterton

1-2-3 Come Do A Few More St. Patty's Day Activities With Me

I had a few special requests this week, and thought I'd combine them all in today's blog article.  I hope you enjoy them.

Kyanne, from Wisconsin, wanted a simple St. Patrick's Day word search for her young five students.  Even though there are a lot of word search generators out there, they mostly have uppercase letters. 

Further difficulties arrise,  because they share letters, show the words going backwards, as well as diagonally and vertically, so I usually make up my own.  I like to include a shape to add interest as well.

Word searches are a great way to practice spelling and build vocabulary, so that's why I think they should be in lowercase letters.  I also like them relatively easy (showing the words in forward-horizontal fashion) so that my kiddos don't get frustrated. 

If you want to do these easy ones with older elementary students, simply give them 1-minute to find as many as they can.  Speed games, help prepare children for timed tests in a non-stressful way.   Besides using them as a game, they are a nice plug-in for your Daily 5 word work activities too.  Click on the link to view/download the 2 St. Patrick's Day word searches.

Another way to work on words, is by giving students a themed-word and challenging them to create other words, using only the letters that appear in that word.  With that in mind, I created How Many Words Can You Find in Leprechaun, and another one for the word shamrock. 

Surprisingly, I made 97 words from the letters in shamrock, and found 161 words using the letters in leprechaun.  The packet includes recording sheets, as well as my answer keys.  Click on the link to view/download the How Many Can You Find St. Patrick's Day activity. 

Betty, from Texas, wrote that she's collected most of the number puzzles for center activites, for her PK students.  She wondered if I had any puzzles for St. Patrick's Day.  I didn't, but do now. 

I made 16, which includes some in color, as well as 5 in black and white, so that students can color their own. 

The puzzles help students practice counting to 10, counting backwards from 10 to 1, as well as skip counting by 10's to 100.  Click on the link to view/download the St. Patty's Day Puzzle Packet.

Gloria, from Wisconsin, collects my alphabet cards, and wanted some with shamrocks and kites, two big theme weeks for her kinders. 

I had already made shamrock alphabet ones, and am now working on the ABC kite cards, to add to our growing collection. 

All of the alphabet packets, include a tip list of what to do with the cards, including games like Kaboom, plus a separate set of upper as well as lowercase letters, so that you can play Memory Match and "I Have; Who Has?"  games.   Click on the link to view/download the shamrock alphabet cards.  The kite cards will be done and posted by Monday.

Finally, Sara from Maine, likes to change her 10 frame math center each month.  She was looking for some with shamrocks.  I spent quite a bit of time making 10 frame templates, so it's pretty easy for me to plug in appropriate clip art to make them for any theme you do. 

If you have a special request, simply shoot me an e-mail, and I'll see what I can do.  diane@teachwithme.com  Click on the link to view/download the Shamrock 10 Frames packet.  

Just a reminder, that all of the 10 frame packets, have matching 1-2-3 Count With Me 10 Frame-Based easy readers to match. Click on the link to view/download the 123 Count Shamrocks With Me.

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away.

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow beloings to the people who prepare for it today." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Money-Related 100-Day Activities With Me

Because Presidents' Day is in February, and presidents are often featured on our currency, I taught a themed-unit on money at this time.   Identifying coins and knowing their values, was a Y5 report card standard. 

Our 100-Day also fell in February, so I liked to give my students some 100-Day coin ativities, to practice and reinforce the monetary concepts I was trying to teach them.

With that in mind, I just completed a "Making Cents On 100 Day" packet. (Play on the word sense intended.)  There's a fun variety of different activities included.

I revamped my Y5's personal favorite, which was "earning" 100 dollar bills with their picture on them. 

As a motivational incentive, I showed them the play money I had run off on light green paper.  I've included a template in the Making Cents packet, so you can make some for your kiddo's too.  Trust me, they will get very excited over this!

My Y5's earned bills through out the day for completing tasks, winning/participating in timed-tasks etc.  At the end of the day, students could trade one of their bills for one of their friends. 

Hopefully they had earned enough of their own, to collect one from each classmate.  I never had a child who hadn't earned enough, as my Y5's really enjoyed our 100-Day activities. Everyone stayed focused and on-task. 

I also scattered a class set, on our 100-Day bulletin board that said: You Can Bank On Mrs. Henderson's Y5's Being 100 Days Smarter!  I made some bills with my own photograph as well.  Children could add a cover and staple their bills into a little booklet if they wanted to.  Some preferred to take them home loose.

They could also earn a 100 Dollar Bill bookmark.  Challenge students to earn 10 different stickers throughout the day, that they can put on the back of their "Ben Bill" and then count by 10's to 100. 

Besides these items, the packet also includes a variety of interesting worksheets, where students trace and write the coin words, tell their values, and figure out an assortment of  "how many?" problems. 

Children get some scissor fine-motor practice in, by cutting and gluing the matching pictures to the appropriate pages. 

There are also several worksheets for skip counting the coins, as well as measuring stacks and lines of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

Finally, there's a 100-Day writing prompt included in the packet as well.

On the one-hundred dollar bill worksheet, students complete the prompt: "If I had 100, one-hundred dollar bills, I would have  _______________ dollars!  If I had that much money I would . . ." and ends with: How many one-hundred dollar bills would you need to make 100,000 dollars?

Click on the link to view/download the Making Cents On 100 Day packet. Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away. 

"We've all been counting one-by-one; Hurrah! Hurrah!  We've all been counting, oh what fun;  Hurray! Hurrah!
We've all been counting one-by-one,  and now 100 days are done, so we all go marching up, and down, and all around. 
Boom, boom, boom."

1-2-3 Come Do Some More  "Fun-tastic" 100 Day Activities With Me

Terri teaches 3-year-old preschool in Oklahoma, and asked if I could make a 100 Day coloring page for her kiddo's.  I put two on a page to conserve paper.  Older students could fill up the numbers with groups of 5 or 10 things to add up to 100. (Dots, X's, stickers, etc.) Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day coloring page.

Carleen, in Illinois, requested an easy 100 Day crown for her kinders. If you didn't see the 100 Day crown that incorporated 100 shapes (click on the link to grab it.) In the 100-Day Crown packet, I've included 3 simpler crowns.

Since quite a few people celebrate 100 Day in February, I designed a heart-shaped crown.  Run off on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim.  Using 10 different colored markers, children make 10 groups of 10 dots, inside the 100 number; trim and glue to the center of the heart. 

Staple the heart to a sentence strip or bulletin board boarder to make an easy 100 Day crown. If your kiddo's are in PK, you can skip the counting by 10's to 100 dot portion, and simply have them color the number. 

100 Rocks! is another easy crown to make.  Since it has 5 balls on the top of the points, have students make twenty groups of 5 dots inside the crown, and then skip count to 100 by 5's.  I grouped my dots to look like the 5 on a dice pattern.  Run off on construction paper, trim and glue or staple to a paper headband.

My personal favorite, is the "circle-jeweled" crown.  There are 104 circles on the crown. I purposely did not make 100, as I discovered that no matter what "guessing" activity I gave my Y5's, they were always guessing the number 100, simply because it was 100 Day. 

I've included a guess-timation page, where students write down how many circles they think are on the crown and then compare their answer to the correct one.  This is a nice review of the math terms greater than, less than and equal to. 

Buy a pack of 475 Avery mini-colored dot-stickers for less than $2, and have your kiddo's get some fine motor practice in, while they peel and press the dots on the circles of their crown.  Flat-backed rhinestones are also fun, and add that finishing touch.  Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day Crown packet.

Since the back-to-school banners were so popular this fall, I decided to dream up 2 for your 100 Day celebration.  One of the "craftivities" that my Y5's really enjoyed doing, was drawing a picture of how they would look if they lived to be 100. 

Before hand, we discussed how a person ages, and things that were typical of the aging process.  i.e. hair turning gray and white, wrinkles, sagging skin, the need to wear glasses etc. I reminded them of what "granny" had looked like the day before.

On the 99th Day of school, my 100-year-old granny came to school and read them a few 100 Day books. 

This was really me dressed up to the hilt to look like an old woman for story time.  Click on the link to check out the details of this fun activity.  

After our aging discussion, I gave my kiddo's a construction paper oval and they drew in their details. When they were done, they ran their portrait through the "cruncher muncher."

This is a roller tool that crinkles paper to look like corrugated cardboard.  The result was a nice "wrinkled" appearance which you can see in the sample photo.  The completed pictures made an adorable 100 Day bulletin board. 

This year I thought it would be fun to make the self-portraits smaller and have students draw themselves inside an oval.  When they are done, they choose a colored pennant and glue their photo in place. 

Punch holes on either side of the pennants and tie together with yarn.  Hang as a border on a hallway wall, or suspend from your ceiling. 

I've included templates for the first and last pennants, as well as one for the boys, plus one for the girls.   Make sure to make one of yourself. Click on the link to view/download the Oldies One Hundred Day Banner.

If you're a tech type of person, you may want to download an aging app.  After over an hour of research, I found that the 2 best apps that will age a photo, are Oldify and Aging Booth.  Both have been given 4 to 5 stars depending on the review page you're on; and both cost .99 cents.

Since there were more positive reviews about Oldify, I downloaded that.  It has the added bonus of being able to record your voice.  The eyes blink, the mouth moves and your photo appears a bit "real".  

Make sure you "play" around with whatever you decide, as I didn't find Oldify all that easy to figure out.  You can always Google the app on YouTube, as I did find several tutorials over there. 

There are quite a few free "age me" apps, but "you get what you pay for" seems to ring pretty true here.  Instead of, or in addition to, having students draw themselves at the ripe old age of 100, you can take a head shot of each of your students, age them with the app and then print them off. 

I'm sure they'll find this loads of fun.  If you have a Smart Board, you could demonstrate the process and then have students create their own. These would look awesome on the Oldies Banner.

A simpler banner, involves reinforcement holes. Since they are pretty inexpensive, (you can buy a pack of 924 for less than $2) I liked to use them quite a bit with my Y5's.  Peeling and pressing them on something, was great fine motor skill practice. 

With that in mind, I designed the "reinforce 100" with a 100 Day's Smarter banner, as well as the 100-Day Snowman craftivity.  Click on the links to check them out. 

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away.  My "Pin it!" button is on the menu bar.

"We'll start our day with a great big grin; because our 100 Day celebration, is about to begin!"

1-2-3 Come Put Together Some 100-Day Puzzles With Me

It's been a busy day, so I only had time to design a special request.  Audra, from Pennsylvania, as well as Kimberly from Arizona, asked if I could make some 10-piece number puzzles to help their Y5's and K's celebrate 100-Day. Both teachers plan to use them as a whole-group activity.

These puzzles help students learn to count backwards from 10 to 0,  forwards from 1-10, or skip count by 10's to 100. 

Since these are for a 100 Day celebration, I decided to make 7 of the 9 puzzles with numbers that skip count to 100 by 10's. 

You can laminate and use the puzzles as an independent 100-Day center or run off copies for each child to take one home for more practice.

They also make an interesting piece of art when the pieces are glued to a sheet of construction paper with a little space between each piece. 

Students can make a 100-Day puzzle flip book by stapling the mixed up pieces to the top of the numbered grid. Children flip through 'til they find the puzzle they are working on, and continue flipping until they have found all of the pieces necessary to complete the picture.

The packet includes 3 pictureless templates to help younger children complete a puzzle, or to use to make the flip books.  Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day Puzzle Packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

"We've been together for 100 days,
Learning and growing in so many ways,
We've come together to sing and say,
Happy, Happy, Hundredth Day!" 

-Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do A Few More 100 Day Activities With Me.

Are you looking for some 100 Charts?  You've come to the right place.  I have two packets available.  There's a dozen fill-in-the-missing number 100 charts packet, + a packet with fill-in-all-of-the-missing even or odd numbers 100 charts, an empty 100 grid chart, so your students can fill it in, a traceable number 100 chart for younger kiddo's, as well as a filled-in 100 chart, that you can use to play games with. 

Click on the links for the Missing Number 100 Charts and/or the 100 Charts For 100 Day packet. Now for some activities to do with the 100 charts:

Make the filled-in 100 chart into puzzles.  to be fair, make sure that all of the puzzles have the same amount of pieces. I suggest 6-10 depending on your students' ability.

If you want to use these each year, laminate a class set.  Normally, we didn't have more than 25 in Y5's and K, so I always laminated things in groups of 30, that way if one got damaged or pieces got lost, it was nice to have extra's.

Challenge your students to be the first one to put their puzzle together.  To easily organize and find the proper pieces for the appropriate puzzle, print the 100 chart on 30 different colors of paper. (To get 30 colors, I used a variety of shades of standard colors: lime green, turquoise, hunter, emerald, etc. ) Laminate and trim into a variety of different shaped puzzle pieces. 

Keep each puzzle in its own Baggy.  To make putting their puzzle together a bit easier, print off the filled-in 100-grid on white card stock and laminate.  If you want to make the puzzle making a bit harder for older students, give them a blank 100-chart. Students place their puzzle pieces on the grid.

Roll 100 is another activity that you can do with a 100 chart.  Run off a filled-in 100 chart for each student.   Children choose a partner or play in groups of 3-4. Students roll 3-5 dice (depending on how much time you have) and add them up.  They X off that many squares on their 100 chart. The first one to X-off their entire grid, is the winner.

100 Chart Speed! Run off the empty 100 chart.  Say, "Ready; set; write to 100!" Students fill in their empty 100 chart as quickly as possible.  The first one done is the winner.  Can they do it in less than 100 seconds?

Give students a filled-in 100 chart and have them design a picture by coloring in numbered boxes. They can then make a number code for students to follow, so that they can color in the mystery picture. 

I've made one for a heart, (It's in the 100 Day With Ants packet.) as well as one that reveals the number 100. Click on the link for the Mystery Picture For 100 Day.

Using a traceable number 100 chart, have students trace the skip counted numbers in a different color, so that they can easily see how to skip count to 100 by 2's, 5's, or 10's.  Click on the link to view/download the 100 Chart Activity Packet For 100-Day.

I have an older traceable 100 day chart packet, that I did years ago, before I had all of the software programs and fonts that I use today.  I think your kiddo's might enjoy making the Gabby Apple "craftivity."  Gabby will help your students count to 100 as they trace the numbers.  Add some wiggle eyes for that finishing touch.

Do you need a 100-Day crown for your kiddo's to make, but would like it to involve some sort of standard?  How about shapes and graphing?  Students choose 8 crayons to color the various 2D shapes on their 100 number. 

Children use the same color for the same shape.  ie all of the squares are yellow.  They also color the shapes on their graph those matching colors. Students count each type of shape on their 100 number and then X-off that many squares on their graph. 

Have students write the total number of each shape on the left of their graph, and then add the numbers, for a grand total of how many shapes were part of the 100 picture. 

Did they count the number 1 rectangle and the 4 ovals that made up the zeros? Which shape had the most?  Which had the least?  

When they have completed this activity, students cut out their 100 number, being careful to keep it in one piece.  It's a good idea to demonstrate this, and then give children a reminder as you're cutting out your sample.  Students choose their favorite color of construction paper and glue their number to it. 

They trim once more and glue their 100 to the front of a paper headband, or bulletin board boarder.  Wrap around child's head and then staple. My Y5's LOVED crowns.  We'd get in a line and march around the room to get the wiggles out, while singing "Happy 100 Day To Us" to the tune of Happy Birthday. (Happy 100 day to us.  Happy 100 Day to us.  Happy 100, Happy 100, Happy 100 Day to us!"   Click on the link to view/download the 100-Day, shape graphing activity packet. 

Tally marks are also another fun way to have students count to 100,  and then afterwards, skip count by 5's to 100.  I made two "Tally Ho!"  worksheets that students can choose from.  Click on the link for the 100 Tally Ho Tally Mark packet.

Finally, besides all of the math activities associated with 100-Day, I thought it would be interesting for you kiddo's to do some word activities as well. 

Using the letters in one hundred, challenge your students to make a list of as many words as they can think of before the timer rings in 100 seconds. 

I've included my alphabetical list of 105 words.  You can share them with your students and encourage your kiddo's to look up any words that they don't know.  This is a wonderful Daily 5 activity. 

I did some research to see what are the longest recorded words, and included my discoveries in this packet.   Did you know there's a word with 100 letters in it?  Surprisingly, that's not even the longest one!    Click on the link to view/download the 100-Day Word Challenge.

Thanks for visiting. Feel free to PIN away.  

"100 days, 100 days, 100 days of school today; so clap and sway, and say, hurray! 100 days of school today." -Jack Hartmann

1-2-3 Come Do Some More 100 Day Activities With Me!

Yesterday's blog article was getting a bit long, so I didn't get to finish sharing my other 100-Day themed packets with you, so here's the rest.

Do you read the book One Hundred Hungry Ants for 100 day?  It's a cute read aloud that my Y5's enjoyed.  Because of the popularity of that book, I decided to make some 100-Day activities with an ant theme to help wish you a "f-ANT-tastic" 100 Day.  Click on the link to view/download Celebrating 100 Day With Ants.

Another favorite of my Y5's was the song The Ants Go Marching.  Click on the link to show the sweet cartoon of this song on YouTube.

Do your students have "ants in their pants?"  For an interesting way to count to 100 by 10's, have them make 10 groups of 10 ant "patches" on their scrapbook-paper blue jeans.

When they have completed their 100-Day work, they'll be real "smartie pants."  As an incentive, have them work towards earning a pack of Smartie candies. 

I designed a 100 Days Smarter Smartie certificate that you'll find in the Hippo packet, if you decide to use Smarties as part of your 100 Day Celebration.

They'll also have fun de-coding an importANT message to reveal a mystery picture that turns out to be a heart. Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day With Ants packet.

Another popular book with elementary children is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  The gist of the story is that the caterpillar eats a variety of goofy things, like an ice cream cone, before he "falls asleep" in his chrysalis. 

I thought it would be fun for your kiddo's to choose ten foods (there are 60+ picture choices) that they wanted their caterpillar to eat, and then glue the food-circles on their construction paper caterpillar.  If the caterpillar eats 10 of each one of those items, he will have eaten 100 things! 

The packet also includes an easy reader that reviews time to the hour. (CCSS: 1.MD.3) Click on the link to view/download The Very Hungry Caterpillar 100 Day Activities. 

Counting to 100 isn't quite so tedious when you count 100 toppings on a pizza. 

Since pizza is a favorite food of children, I decided to create some 100-Day pizza-themed activities. 

The packet includes an easy reader, where students circle the capital letters, and add end punctuation. 

They trace and write the words and numbers and then cut & glue the appropriate picture to their page. 

The booklet also reviews shapes, and includes a pizza "craftivity" (pictured) + graphing extensions. Click on the link to view/download the 100-Day Pizza packet.

Finally, my personal favorite is the Hip-Hippo-Ray It's 100 Day packet. 

I LOVE drawing these pudgy "little" guys and hope your kiddo's will enjoy them too. 

The packet is chock full of all sorts of 100 Day craftivities. 

They can make a hippo paper bag or finger puppet, a 100 Day necklace, and do a variety of other fun 100 Day worksheets, like this Odd Todd hippo number game.    Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day Hippo-themed packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope you can stop by tomorrow when I finish up with 100 Day activities and post a few more FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away. 

If you missed the other 100-Day blog articles, simply scroll down, or click on the link to view my entire collection of 100 Day Activities and Crafts.

"Hi Ho; Hi Ho; 100 Days ago, we came to school, we are so cool. Hi Ho Hi Ho." -Diane Henderson

1-2-3 Come Do Some More 100 Day Activities With Me

Some teachers have told me that they like to carry their all-year-long themes through to 100 Day. i.e. apples, owls, monsters etc.  With that in mind, I designed some 100-Day themed packets that I hope you'll enjoy.

Do you need some number cards that go all the way to 100?

Click on the link for the 100 Apple number cards or the 120 owl number cards.

I've also designed some owl-themed 100-Day bookmarks.  Tuck them in your students' desks, lockers or backpacks. 

Use them as incentives and challenge students to collect all 4.

Keeping with the apple theme, I have a complete 100-Day Apple themed packet. 

The 27-page packet includes all sorts of activities and worksheets specific to 100 Day.  i.e.

Choose to have students count and color a 100 number made up of 100 apples, or a count by ten's to 100 patterning page. 

I thought it would also be fun to introduce the word googol to students.  Most of them will probably associate the word with the Google search engine. 

A Googol is the number 1 with 100 zeros after it. When I thought about the sound of this silly word, it reminded me of aliens or monsters, so I designed a 51-page 100-Day monster-themed packet.

I created 11 googol monsters using the adorable clip art of Laura Strickland and added some wiggle eyes.  The entire googol number is on their tummies. Choose one or make them all to help introduce this humongus number, then give them away as prizes.  

Have fun counting to 100 by 1's, 5's or 10's with a googol monster slider.

Counting by 5's to 100 is especially fun when naming your googol monster, making 20 groups of 5 spots on it, and then coloring him. 

Another 50-page 100-Day themed packet is the Hog Wild Over 100 Day one featuring pigs.

Because piggies are often banks, this packet includes lots of coin activities,  like the one pictured where students can count to 100 while coloring pennies, or dabbing on 100 spots of mud to the piggy's head, with a Q-tip.

The piggy packet also has measuring activities and a slider. Choose if you want your kiddo's to count to 100 by 1's, 5's or 10's. 

Students can also count by 10's with traceable piggy paddles.

Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.   Feel free to PIN away.  

I hope you found a few new ideas that will add to the excitement of celebrating your 100th day of school. Be sure and pop in tomorrow for even more fun-themed 100 Day activities.

" One hundred days of learning; one hundred days of fun; one hundred days to work and play, aren't I the lucky one?" -Mrs. McNeill

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

1-2-3 Come Do Some Winter Craftivities And Games With Me!

Did you ever have one of those days where you might as well have stayed in bed?  Well that was yesterday! The reason there was no blog article was that our main server (in Texas) crashed. It seemed everything techno in my world went on the fritz, from my e-mail, to the printer and even my favorite design software was having glitchy hiccups. 

I apologize if you tried to visit us and got an error-connection message.  I'm back to being a happy camper with lots of FREEBIES to share.

Keep review of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and skip counting fresh and interesting, by making these puzzles.  Laminate for an independent center (I've included a blank grid for kiddo's to place the pieces on), or have your students pick one, run them off and then they cut and glue them to a blue or black sheet of construction paper. 

If you're doing the alphabet, have students think of a word that starts with that letter on the puzzle piece, and then write it on the appropriate tree-strip.

Remind students to leave a little gap inbetween the pieces.  You can add a bit of pizzazz by dipping a Q-tip in glue and then dotting on "snowflakes."  For an awesome effect, sprinkle with white or silver glitter.

These make a lovely bulletin board too. Caption: Learning About Letters and Numbers Is "Snow" Much Fun! or "Look At All Of The TREE-mendous Work From Mrs. Henderson's Kinders!"  Click on the link for the Snowman Tummy Puzzles or The 13 Merry-Making Tree Puzzles.

Since the Silly Shaped penguins and Owls Shape Up "craftivities" continue to be in the top 10 downloaded items from my site, I decided to design a Shapely Snowman, as well as a Gingerbread set, with plans to make special shape pals for all of the months. (i.e. pumpkins for October and butterflies for April!) 

You can make the gingerbread heads a game, by running the bow pieces off on red construction paper.
Instead of gluing the shape words inside the bows and then gluing them to the gingerbread head, glue only the bows.  Keep the shape-word circles separate.

Students place the shape word on to the matching shapely gingerbread's bow.  To make a girl gingerbread, glue the bows to the top of the head. Glue it as a bow tie under the chin to make a gingerbread boy. To add a bit of pizzazz, I used white puffy paint for "frosting."  Click on the link for the Shapely Gingerbread packet. 

There are also several things you can do with the Shapely Snowman templates.  Make a laminated set for a bulletin board, or use as puzzles for an independent center activity. 

For a center matching game, do not glue the hats on the snowmen.  Instead make only one hat with interchangeable hat bands.  Students pick a shape word-hat band and place it on the hat, then they look for the matching snowman and place the hat on his head.  Play continues 'til the child has used all of the hat bands and snowmen.  Click on the link to view/download the Shapely Snowman Packet. 

Another popular winter activity is the Snowman Glyph.  Each one turns out a bit different so this too makes an adorable bulletin board.  Click on the link to view/download the Snowman Glyph.

Practice addition and subtraction with Dominic the Snowman Domino-Dice game.  Click on the link to grab it.

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  I hope you can stop by tomorrow for even more FREEBIES.  My brain is on over-drive again, and since the weather outside is "frightful" I might as well have a "delightful" time inside designing away.  Feel free to PIN away!

"Snowmen fall from Heaven unassembled." -Unknown