1-2-3 Come Do Some Winter Clothing Activities With Me  

This “getting dressed for winter” - themed packet, is jam-packed with all sorts of quick, easy & fun activities, which practice a variety of standards.

There are easy-peasy activities for PK, as well as more challenging "Print & Go" ones for K-1st, which makes it simpe to mix & match to fit the various levels in your class.

The packet includes:

* Label the winter wear “color me” worksheets, with matching full-color posters for the teacher. 

* Picture cards to practice sequencing, ordinal numbers and the correct order to put things on. Can be used as a poster, center or game. Has matching BW bookmark.

* "Color Me" ordinal number, fill-in-the-blank (boy & girl) worksheets, with full-color posters for the teacher.  I've also included an ordinal number, whole-group assessment. 

* Picture & word cards for an ordinal number game.
* A graphing extension.

* 3 Emergent Reader Booklets:

1. ”Let’s Go! Let’s Play In The Snow!”  is packed with lots of Dolch sight words. Practices ordinal numbers.
There’s a full color teacher’s edition plus 2, BW options for students: a “color me” one, plus a “color, cut & glue” version.

2. “Wintry Colors” With lots more Dolch sight words. Students read the simple sentences; add end punctuation, trace, write & color the color words, then color the picture.

3. “My Winter Clothes” is my personal favorite, as it makes a sweet keepsake.  Students complete the sentences by filling in the blanks with the color of their clothing, then coloring the pictures to match.

I've included a matching “Let’s Go!” label-me poster worksheet option.

As your kiddos get ready to go out for recess, snap their picture and then print them off, so that they can trim & glue to their worksheet and label it. 

As you can see by my samples, these turn out absolutely adorable, which makes for a sweet bulletin board.  There's also . . .

* A variety of worksheets which practice: contractions, plurals, alphabetical order, word recognition, compound words that begin with snow, ordinal numbers & color words.

* 2 sets of pocket chart-size, picture-word cards for winter clothing. Use on your word wall, as flashcards, or cut in half to make puzzles.


* Word games:
word scramble worksheet, winter clothing word search, “How many words can you make using the letters in jacket?” game, with a colorful 15-word answer key.

* 8, colorful “Dress the Child” cards, with a variety of outfits. There are 4 boy & 4 girl options which cover various ethnicities. 

My Y5s absolutely LOVE this independent center.
Use the matching BW options as a color, cut & glue worksheet.

* A set of colorful clothing cards for sequencing, patterning, & Memory Match or “I Have; Who Has?” games.

* 8, color-me “In the winter I wear…” writing prompt bookmarks
* 12, clothing word cards to use for more games, with a “Write a Sentence” worksheet.

* Colorful “Winter-Summer Clothing Sort” center game, with matching BW worksheets.
* 10 sets of colorful clothing cards (red, orange, yellow, etc.) with matching word cards and sorting mats.

Use for sorting, patterning, and a variety of games.  Mix & match with the “Colorful Mittens” and “Colorful Hats” for more card options.

* A set of “trace, write & place” Elkonin box cards for an independent center; with 2 matching worksheets.

* 21, “Dressed for Winter” number puzzles, which practice counting forwards (1-20), backwards, plus skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, & 10s. One set comes in BW so children can color, cut and make their own; the other set is different and in full-color so you can use them for an independent center activity.

I’ve also included some tips, tricks and posters to help motivate your students to want to get dressed as quickly as possible, saving your sanity and precious teaching time. 

There are also 3 snowman posters to use in your bulletin board displays of student work. 

Woo hoo! There are two featured FREEBIES today, which are both from the jumbo "Winter Clothing Activities" packet.  

The first one is a set of boy & girl "Color-me" number posters which will help reinforce sequencing numbers and counting from 1-20.

The other FREEBIE is the "This is how we get ready!"  poster.  Reviewing these steps with my Y5s was a HUGE help in getting them independent.

You may know that you don't put your boots on before your snow pants; or not to put your mittens on first or you won't be able to zip your jacket, but the "Littles" do not!

Although many valiantly try, only to waste more time taking things off and retrieving a stuck boot in a pant leg.  Some just stand there totally befuddled.  I hope you find the poster useful and have as much success as I've had with it. 

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.

The only good thing about the rainy weather today, is that it will hopefully wash away all the dirty, ugly snow blobs left here and there.  I am so looking forward to spring and some much-needed, and energizing sunshine! Wishing you a fun-filled day.

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn." -Hal Borland

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1-2-3 come Do Some Winter Word Work With Me

Are you working on silent, or “magic” e word work with your kiddos? If so, I think they’ll really enjoy this Magic e Mitten packet.

Simply run the mitten pattern 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 an independent center, or use for a “Magic e” Mitten Matching Game.  You could also use these for an “I Have; Who Has?” game too.

The packet also includes a Magic e Word Work journal. Students trace the word, add a “magic e” to the end (using a different color) and then write the new word that’s made.

Encourage students to look up words that they don't know and define them on the “new-word-to-me” definition worksheet, which can also go in their journal.

* There are also Mitten Math worksheets, where the word + an e ='s a new word,
* A magic e rules poster,
* Long & short vowel sorting mat, with matching worksheet,
* An alphabetical list of 86 magic e words, plus
* A pattern to make a magic e, mitten wand.

These make easy-peasy activities for your Daily 5 word work too. 

Another winter word work activity is the UG family of words.

There's nothing like a nice mug of hot chocolate when the wind is whipping up a winter chill, and since I like to have some sort of theme, when we work on a word family,  I thought it would be a fun to use a mug of cocoa.

This not only grabs my students’ attention, but makes the activities a bit more fun, and my kiddos seem to catch on more quickly, retaining the information better because of the graphic.

Since most mugs are also a 3D cylinder shape, I’ve incorporated this into the lesson, so that you can add a bit of math with literacy.
The packet includes:

* 2 Craftivities
* 5 worksheets
* A set of 6, pocket-chart sentence cards
* 3 Posters, plus
* 9, three-piece UG puzzles

Use the activities as a whole group activity, independent center, games, or something for early finishers, homework or your sub folder. 

When my kiddos have completed their lessons, they've earned a special treat for snack time, a cup of hot chocolate.  Mmmmm mmmmm good, especially after a chilly recess. 

Finally, I know a lot of teachers read The Mitten  by Jan Brett, so I designed a cute winter word work packet "Our Mittens" that reinforces verbs based on that story.

The packet includes two class-made books. Making a class book, is a quick and easy way to practice a variety of standards; contributing a page for a class book, is super-fun for your kiddos, and will grab their attention from the get go.

In the first book, Our Mitten, the teacher loses a mitten. As children find it, they tuck something inside. 

Here, I wanted my kiddos to take size into consideration, and think of something that could realistically fit inside a mitten.

On their page, students state their name and tell what they put inside their teacher’s mitten and why, adding an illustration.

The Animals In Our Mitten, is the next book. The cover and pages, are in the shape of a large mitten.  Children fill in the blank with an adjective, animal and action verb. i.e. “A slow, green turtle shuffled into our class mitten.”

I feel that even PK kiddos can come up with a descriptive word and action for their animal, and believe it’s not too early to have children practice writing a vivid and complete sentence, however, there’s also a simpler page, where they just name an animal and draw a picture.

I’ve tied the packet into Brett’s folktale,The Mitten, by including an alphabetical list of 39 of the action verbs in her story, along with a worksheet.

There’s also a verb-definition poster, plus 39 action verb cards, and 11 character cards, which you can use for several games and activities.      

I've also made a similar, classroom management packet that's a quick, interesting and fun way to build students' vocabularies, practice verbs, and reinforce synonyms, while improving dictionary & alphabetizing skills as well.

My students absolutely LOVE playing these games, and I’ve noticed nice improvement in their writing, as well as their verbal vocabulary.
 
The other portion of the packet, Ready! Set! Action! I use as a simple, yet highly effective classroom management tool, that reinforces verbs, while helping students “get the wiggles out” or transition to another activity.

Children enjoy the action of the activity, while you reinforce the grammar concept, at the same time easily & successfully managing classroom behavior.

The classroom management portion, includes several posters, student name cards, 45 action verb cards, plus a blank set to program with whatever.  

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so there are two featured FREEBIES today because they both involve melted crayons.  

The first one is a melted crayon valentine. 

Completed projects are quite lovely and make a nice window display. 

The other one is using broken crayons to make an inexpensive, valentine gift for your students. 

Here's the link for the valentine crayons  FREEBIE.  

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Wishing you a warm and snuggly kind of day.

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." -Victor Hugo

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

Dr. King used nonviolent protest and the power of words, as a weapon for social justice.

The vocabulary associated with this period in history, involves all sorts of “big words”; without knowing these words, one cannot begin to understand the times or Martin's life.

To break it down for my kiddos, I read a variety of stories, so I designed the "Building Vocabulary and Making Connections With Martin Luther King Stories" packet.

I use Martin’s Big Words, by Doreen Rapport to introduce his life.  Ms Rappaport has taken the words of MLK and woven in her own, creating an easy-to-understand book for youngsters.

My students also enjoy Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches. It’s the perfect illustration of how unfair and ridiculous prejudice is.

What if the Zebra’s Lost Their Stripes is another favorite, as well as The Crayon Box that Talked, and Sesame Street’s We’re Different, We’re the Same. The packet includes a list of 24 other favorites.

Later, we discuss words like discrimination, prejudice, injustice, unfairness, race, diversity etc.
After reading the books, and referring to the stories, my students understand more clearing these difficult concepts. 

Our discussion takes us through connections that we can make with the stories and characters. (Text to Self, Text to Text, and Text to World)
I’ve included worksheets for this that can be done as a whole group, or individual activity.

Encourage students to use some of the “big words” you’ve discussed. I designed this word work packet to reinforce that new vocabulary. Pick and choose what’s appropriate for your kiddos.
The packet also includes: Worksheets, a word search, student-made dictionary, plus 63 trace & write word cards.

From Dr. King’s words, and our word work, we turn to their personal hopes and dreams for the future. They express things in their own words (big and small) through writing prompts and craftivities.  

The "67 Martin Luther King Writing Prompts"   packet is loaded with ideas.  I truly believe that if you provide students with interesting and intriguing prompts, they’ll get excited and want to get right down to the business of writing.

To jump start their thoughts, I’ve included 2 Venn diagrams, which are a quick, easy and fun way to introduce comparison and contrast.
There’s also a set of four, thought-provoking, poster-like worksheets, as well as a list of 60 other writing prompts to choose from.

Because I find quotations very motivational, I often use them to provoke discussion, which leads to writing what the quote means and if you agree or disagree with it and why.
With this in mind, I’ve included a list of my 35 all-time favorite quotations by Dr. King.

Print a copy and pass it around. Students choose one or two to write about. You could also write one each day on the board. Students comment on it in their writing journals. 

Another quick, easy and fun thing you can do for Martin Luther King Day is an MLK number puzzle. 

If you'd like to mix math with literacy, have children color, cut and glue their puzzle to a sheet of construction paper, leaving a small gap in-between each piece to create a cool mosaic effect, then complete a writing prompt on the back. 

Punch a hole at the top and suspend from the ceiling. There are 31 puzzles to choose from.  They come in black and white as well as color, reinforcing sequencing numbers from 1-10, counting backwards from 10 to 1, plus skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, and 10s. 

Today's featured FREEBIE is an MLK crafty pinwheel prompt.

The results are awesome and look complicated, but are very simple.  Just follow my step-by-step picture tutorial.

I used black and white scrapbook paper, but a variety of color options would create vibrant results.  Punch a hole at the top, and suspend from the ceiling. 

If you missed yesterday's blog featuring lots more MLK writing prompt craftivities, simply scroll down.

Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful MLK Day with your students next week. 

As for me, the wind is howling outside my window, whipping the dusty snow cover into swirling twirling patterns.  A good day to snuggle in and craft, a truly rewarding winter "sport".

"In crafting there are no mistakes.  Just unique creations." -Unknown