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

I love scarecrows; they were one of my favorite things to draw as a child.  Having grown up in Wisconsin, I enjoyed seeing the variety of these farmer-creations that kept watch over the pastoral countryside.

One of the first Art & Activities units that I designed was on scarecrows.  This was prior to all of the software programs, fonts and clip art that I now have at my disposal, but I think you'll still enjoy making some of these cuties from my hand drawn patterns.  Click on the link to view/download the 66-page Scarecrow Art & Activities packet. 

Here are a few samples:

Patrick, the paper chain scarecrow, can help your kiddo's countdown to Thanksgiving break.  Choose 2-colors for the links and review an ABAB pattern, or add a 3rd color to do ABCABC. 

You can simply make one to hang in your classroom, or set this scarecrow up as an independent center and have children work on one of their own. (Assign as many links as are appropriate for your age group.)  To incorporate blends, have students write an sc word on each link.

Carl, the counting scarecrow, will help your students review numbers 1-10, skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's as well as the spatial directions of left and right. 

Five Little Crows in a Cornfield, is a "craftivity" that also includes math practice.

My all-time favorite scarecrow craft I call "Personal Scarecrows."  They are "jointed" so you can pose them in different ways.

Cut out a variety of colored construction paper shapes to use as "patches" for a quick and easy shape review.

I enlarged my students' school photo.  This became the scarecrow's head. The picture appeared very pixilated, which added to the awesome scarecrow looking effect. 

If you don't have the ability to do this, I've also included a scarecrow head template your children can cut and color.

When I was a freelance writer for Mailbox Magazine, my editor asked me to write a scarecrow poem.  The personal scarecrows were my inspiration. 

We received zillions of compliments on our hallway display, and my Y5's really enjoyed making them.  Click on the link to view/print the Personal Scarecrow craftivity.  

On a smaller scale, you could do Sam/Samantha the Shapely Scarecrows.   Give students the option of whether they want to make a boy or girl scarecrow. 

With the personal scarecrow, students got in some great cutting practice, by snipping on the lines of a square to make "hay". They glued these to the ends of the scarecrow's arms and legs. 

For Sam/Samantha, I ran yellow construction paper through my husband's shredder.  Pick up a bunch, crinkle it even more and tape the end to the back of the scarecrow. 

If you don't have a shredder, The Dollar Store sells bags of all sorts of colors.  Look for shredded paper in the gift bag section.  Most school offices have a shredder; you can ask to borrow it. 

To make "stuffing hay" a bit easier for little ones, put a piece of double-sided tape on the back. Children pick up pieces of shred and press them on the tape, when they are done, cover the stickiness with a piece of regular tape.

Remind students ahead of time, that if they throw the shred around and make a mess, that they will not be able to use some on their scarecrow. I think it gave Sam/Samantha that finishing touch. 

A template of additional shapes is included. Students can cut and glue as many "patches" to Sam's/Samantha's clothes as they desire.  I used a piece of yarn to make a dangler.  If you want this to look good on both sides when they spin, each child needs 2 of everything. 

A simpler way to assemble the scarecrow is to have students glue their pieces together.  Punch a hole in the triangle and suspend from the ceiling back-to-back with another child's scarecrow.   Adding a few real buttons adds a bit more pizzazz.  Click on the link to view/download Sam/Samantha The Shapely Scarecrow craftivity.

Finally, my favorite scarecrow easy-reader is My Scarecrow's Nose.  It too reviews shapes, as the scarecrow tries on different shaped noses.  In the end, he gets his favorite, the triangle. Children read, trace, write, color and draw. 

A graphing extension is included, where students vote on their favorite nose for the scarecrow; 2 worksheets continue the shape review.  Click on the link to view/download My Scarecrow's Nose.

I have a nice variety of other scarecrow activities on the site, including scarecrow 10 frames, and a scarecrow glyph.  Click on the link to zip on over to the scarecrow section. 

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"It will not always be summer; build barns." -Hesiod

1-2-3 Come Review The Alphabet With Me.

I like to do "regular routine" stuff with a different theme each month.  Even tho it's the "same old-same old" things are kept fresh and interesting by simply tweeking them for the seasons.  With that in mind, I designed 20 Letter of the Day anchor charts.  There are some for each month as well as a few extra's for popular themes.

If you’d like to use these each year, print, laminate and clip to your white board changing things up each month.  This is also a nice activity to use as a review if you post it on your calendar board.

Another option is to not laminate the pages and have children fill in the information.  When the page is complete, add it to your Letter of the Day binder. (I've included a cover for this. )

When you have done all 26 letters, put this student-made booklet in your classroom library.

Occasionally, you may want to run a page off for your students to work on for Daily 5 Word Work.

It's easy to make this a part of your morning routine, job chart, or calendar time. Using a dry erase marker, write the upper and lowercase letters in the boxes.  You can show correct formation of the letters, or choose a student to do so.

Ask students, “What sound does the letter make?”  Say the sound several times.  Ask them if they know any words that begin with that sound?  Write the words in the appropriate boxes.  Have students look at your word wall to see if they can find any more to add to the list.  Another question could be,  "Is this letter a vowel or a consonant?"

Make it personal, by also asking, "Do any classmates have a name that starts with that letter?"  You can either write their name on the paper or have the child with that name come up and write it. 

Choose another child to circle the letters in the “Find it” section. This is a good time to point to each letter and say the letter or sing the alphabet song.  Click on the link to view/download the Letter of the Day Packet.

If you're looking for more alphabet activities, click on the link to zip on over to that section of our site to grab some more FREEBIES.

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and blog daily so I hope you can stop by tomorrow to check out the newest FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN anything.  To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS article, click on the green title at the top; it will turn black, now click on the "Pin it" button located on the burgundy menu bar.   If you'd like to take a look at all of the wonderful-educational items, that I spend way too much time pinning, click on the heart button to the right of the blog.  I have an entire board on just alphabet stuff.

"The life you live is the lesson you teach." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Play Some Halloween-Themed Games With Me!

As a child I loved drawing haunted houses and spooky things at Halloween.  The first and only art contest I ever won was a picture of a witch riding her broom past a crescent moon.  I was in 4th grade and thrilled!  One of the things that really pops out at you when you're looking at a haunted house is all of the broken and shuttered windows.

I thought it would be fun to make the windows look like the 6 standard 2D shapes.  To play the Spooky Windows game, print, laminate and trim the haunted houses.  Run off the shapes on a variety of colors of construction paper. 

Keep each set in its own Ziploc Snack Baggie and attach with a paperclip to one of the Spooky Windows haunted house mats. Children place the shape cut outs onto the matching spooky window. 

You can also play this as a game.  Children choose a partner and spin the spooky shape spinner.  Whatever shape they land on, they say the name of the shape and place it on their haunted house.  The 1st one to match all of the shapes on their house, is the winner.

I've also made the Spooky Windows into a dice game.  Here students choose a partner and take turns rolling a dice. Whatever number they roll, they color in 1 matching numbered window and identify the shape.  The 1st child with all of their windows filled in, or the one with the most filled in when the timer rings, is the winner. 

By having students play with the color spinner,  you can also review colors.  Whatever shape they land on, they color the matching shape window that color.  Afterwards, little ones can color their haunted house.  Challenge older students to only color the rectangles.  How many did they color?

Also in this packet is a Spooky Windows shape sorting mat.  I found that after awhile, most of my Y5's readily identified the various shapes, but when I asked them to find that shape in the world around them, many had difficulty. 

i.e. I could show them the shape of a rectangle and they'd say "That's a rectangle."  but when I asked them to name something in the classroom that was a rectangle, some of them had difficulty doing so. 

Because of this, I also like to design shape activities using pictures of things representing the various shapes, so children can sort them.  Print off the shape pictures, trim and keep each set in a separate Snack Baggie.  Children can work independently or against a partner to sort the shapes.  Turn it into a game, and have students spin the spinner in order to be able to place that shape on their mat.  

Another fun way to review shapes with the haunted house, is via a little ghost puppet.  Print and laminate the haunted house, trim and cut out the windows.  Using an Exacto-knife, I cut out the circle and oval windows completely.

I cut the other shape windows, so that one side was left un-cut, to act as a hinge.  You can fold the windows open, or leave them shut, so your students can better see the shape as your ghost puppet pops through it.

Hold the house up in front of you. Manipulate a white ghost (Popsicle stick) through a window or simply have the ghost peek behind the window. 

Students call out the shape of the window the ghost is peeking out of. 

You can also make a ghost finger puppet by cutting off a “finger” of a white glove, and gluing on 2 wiggle eyes.  Use rubber gloves for an eerie transparent look.  I experimented with dotting eyes on with a black marker as well as using puffy paint. 

I personally like how the ghosts with wiggle eyes turned out.   You decide which you like best.  Because these are really quick, easy and inexpensive to make, you could set this up as a center and have your students each make one.

Finally, I've included a card game called "Shapely Haunted Houses".  These are cards with a shape on them that can be matched to the shape, or shape word cards for a Memory Match or "I have; Who has?" game. 

All of these games and "craftivities" are included in the Spooky Windows packet.  Click on the link to view/download it.

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can fly on by for tomorrow's FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away.  To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS article, click on the green title at the top; it will turn black, now click on the "Pin it" button located on the burgundy menu bar.  If you'd like to take a look at all of the awesome educational items that I pin, click on the heart button to the right of the blog.

"Faith is building on what you know is here, so you can reach what you know is there." -Allen Hightower