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

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!

1-2-3 Blast Off Into Summer With Me!

I discovered rather quickly that my Y5's, K's and even my 1st graders, had no real concept of time.  After all, the calendar involves many new vocabulary words that most of them were not familiar with. 

When introducing a new month I'd ask them what the name was.  For October they'd often say "It's pumpkin month." 

Likewise, their passage of time was limited.  Their focus was mainly on the present, or something special that was going to happen and they were completely clueless of how many days were in a month or left before that special day arrived. 

Consequently, I was inundated with daily questions of "How many days before.....?"  With that in mind, I designed some countdown activities that alleviated the problem.   Are you tired of being asked: "How many days 'til summer vacation?" or..."How many more days of school do we have left?"

A quick, easy and fun way to solve that problem and get some math skills in, is by hanging up this cute countdown paper chain.

Make the chains into a specific color pattern (ABAB or ABCABC, were the ones I used most)  and review patterns and colors. Have students say the color words in English and Spanish.  Review the days of the week to see what weekday their last day will be.

You can also cover a variety of number skills as well. Count in English and Spanish; blast off from 20 to 0 or 10 to 0 when you have 20/10 links left; skip count by 2's and 3's; review greater and less than; count how many chains are left and then count from that number or ask students some addition and subtraction questions like, "What's 1 or 10 more; 1 or 10 less."

Wow! There are so many things you can do with a paper chain!  If you think of more please leave a comment below.

You can simply make one for your class and suspend it from the ceiling close to your calendar, making this part of your calendar routine, or have each child make one to take home and keep track of the days there too.

Click on the link to view/download the Summer Countdown Paper Chain  If you like this idea and want to plan ahead and incorporate it next year, as one of your daily routines, click on the link for the How Many Days Left In The Month packet. 

As you can see, this is a quick, easy and fun way to cover all sorts of concepts in a few minutes, and was especially helpful when students were looking forward to something special like a fieldtrip, Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's day or 100 Day celebration.  

I used Velcro dots to change the picture on the blackboard hanger each month.  i.e. The apple was for September; I had a pumpkin for October etc. 

To make extra special days standout, I put stickers on the various paper links.  Before counting, I'd have students glance at the chain and guess-timate how many days they thought we had left that month.  

To build vocabulary, I'd also ask them if our chain was getting longer or shorter and if the chain was bigger yesterday or today.  You can throw in some measurement by guess-timating how long they think the chain is and then use a yardstick to measure it.  Click on the link to view/download the How Many Days Left In The Month packet.

Finally, another "keeping track of the days" option, is the Monthly Special Date Wheels.  The packet includes a generic schoolhouse you can use all year, or a special one for each month. 

You can change the event that students are looking forward to, by turning the wheel.  Students can also see the numbers. 

Click on the link to take a look or download those for free as well. 

Thank you for visiting.  I hope you have fun counting down the days.   The last month of school always went by really fast for me.  

Feel free to PIN anything from the site.  My "Pin it" button is at the top.

"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Emerson

1-2-3 Come Fill A Pail Of Fun With Me

Double-Duty! Writing Prompts and Bulletin Boards

I love this time of year.  Standards have been taught, assessments are pretty much done, and I'm looking for some fun pre-summer things to plug in.  

Students are anxiously waiting for summer vacation so why not cash in on that enthusiasm and use it as a writing prompt?

I like to incorporate writing with a bit of art to turn these lessons into "craftivities". 

Students seem to enjoy them more, creating awesome results and I have an instant bulletin board or hallway decoration when things are starting to look a little sparce.

Make A Bucket List!

I'm happy to report I've achieved just about everything I've wanted to accomplish in a college notebook "bucket list" and that's a wonderful feeling.  I now have mini-bucket "to-do" lists on a daily basis which triggered this idea.

These colorful sand pail buckets make an adorable bulletin board or hallway display, or can simply be sent home with your students.  If you're homeschooling they are perfect for a summer scrapbook page.

Run off my masters on a variety of brightly colored construction paper and give students a choice of colors.  Make sure children choose a DIFFERENT color for their pail and shovel as it makes a nicer contrast and more colorful bulletin board.

Students CUT out their pails and write their name on the back of them.  Children also cut out their shovel and write their name on that as well.  If you want to make this even more of a keepsake, add their school picture to the shovel as well.  Cut two, 2-inch strips of complimentary-colored construction paper, and glue them together. Mine are 22 inches long.

Glue the ends to the back of the pail on either side, for a 3-D handle. I looped mine down so that it crossed over the written paper, and then I folded the right end down.

Have children brush on Elmer's school glue to the oval section of their pail and then sprinkle on play sand. Set the pails aside to dry.  You could also simply cut oval shapes using sandpaper.

While the pails are drying, students write their "bucket list" of all the things they want to do during the summer and then glue the list to the bottom of their sand pail.

Mount the pails on the bulletin board or wall with the shovels leaning against them.  Use light brown paper as a background so that it looks like a beach or big sandbox.

Two or three paper seagulls suspended from fish line, flying overhead, complete the picture.  The caption:  Our Summer Bucket List! You could expand this idea and have a "not fun" bucket list for another day of writing.

This would be a list of things students have to get done over the summer that they don't really want to do, like clean their rooms, do yard work, etc.  For these buckets and shovels they would pick colors they don't like. 

Click on the link to view/download Summer Fun Writing Prompts  Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

"People don't notice when it's winter or summer when they are happy." -Anton Checkov

I'm Going To Have A Whate Of A Good Time...

This is along the same lines as the "Bucket List" and "Having A Ball" writing prompts above.  

Make a cute end-of-the year bulletin board with summery flowers that will have your students using all sorts of skills and reinforcing lots of report card standards.  Here's how:

Look How I've Blossomed & Grown!

I weigh and measure my Y5's at the beginning and end of the year, so I can do all sorts of math extensions of how much they've grown. This information used to be on their report cards.

They subtract their beginning and ending height and weight, we add everyone's height and weight for grand totals, we graph who was the tallest and weighed the most, and we compare these to last year's totals.

Children go on a hunt to see if they can find things in the room that are as tall as they are, and we guess-timate a list of things that might weigh as much as they do.

If you have weighed and measured your students too, you can include it on their flower, if not simply have them write how else they have grown.  Discuss with your students what it means to "blossom".

Brainstorm with them ways they have grown since the beginning of the year.  For example, they have not just grown physically, but they are smarter.  What new things can they do now?  Jot these down on the white board.

This could also be a Venn Diagram of how they are the same and how they are different since the beginning of the year as well.

Run off the petal master on red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, and purple construction paper if you're using white paper plates, and on white construction or copy paper if you're using colored paper plates. 

You can have students cut these out, or have some of them pre-cut for younger children.

To add some color to white petals, students can write with a colored marker, or draw some colored lines on the petals. (See photo.)

Each student will need 8 petals, 1 stem, and 1 leaf. (If you want the leaves 3-dimensional then they need 2.)

Have students cut out the petals and write something on each one.  If you've kept track of their height and weight, students can incorporate this information on their petals.

The ruler master should be run off on lime or light green construction paper so that you can read the numbers.  I like to run off the leaves on an emerald green paper so that there is a contrast.

If you want your bulletin board to be 3-dimensional, have students glue their petals to the front of an 8" paper plate.

Write student's name under their photo, along with the date they started and ended school. I also write the grade they were in above their picture.  (See photo.)

Flip the plate over, the flower will then look rounded and the bulletin board will "pop" out at you.  If you are using sturdier, colored paper plates, leave them face up, as they are deeper and the edges pop up. 

Glue the leaves to the back of the ruler- stem.  You can make the leaves 3-D as well by gluing 2 together and folding one half up.

Glue the leaves to the back of the stem and the stem to the back of the plate.  Make sure that when they cut out their stem-ruler, they leave some blank space at the top so they can glue it to the plate and not cover their numbers.

You can leave the center of the flower white or you can add colored construction paper circles. 

To make the flowers even cuter and more of a keepsake, enlarge your students' school pictures on the copier and have them glue the photo to the center of their flower.

Cover the bulletin board with blue paper.  Snip green construction paper and use this as a grass border on the bottom.  Add a yellow circle for the sun in one corner. 

If you want to make it more 3-D, twist some yellow crepe paper and staple on some strands as rays.

Add your students' flowers to the grass and you're set.  Caption: Look how  ____________'s Preschool / Kindergarten / 1st grade students have blossomed and grown this year!

Click on the link to view/print the flower bulletin board patterns.

End-Of-The-Year Fun

One of the extra-fun things I like to plan for my students at the end of the year is a pet parade.

I’m allergic to animals so having them bring them in for Show and Tell Time was something I couldn’t do.

However, I realize the importance of a pet in a child’s life and wanted to allow them to share this important family member with their classmates, so I dreamed up the end-of-the-year Pet Parade.

Because the weather is wonderful in Michigan at this time of year, it’s the perfect time for an outdoor event and then the animal’s dander, fur, feathers and fluff don’t  bother me. 

Here's How I Plan My Pet Parade:

• Incase of rain, the parade is moved to the next day and if we’re rained out again, it’s simply cancelled.  It hasn’t happened yet!


• In advance, send a note home to parents telling them about the event and inviting younger siblings and family members.  Click on the link to view/print the Pet Parade Letter Home.


• I also invite the preschool and kindergarten classes to come make a line down the parade route and join the fun.   Click on the link to view/print the Pet Parade invitation.
• It lasts about 7 minutes from start to finish, with time afterwards for children to sit with their pet and have students walk by to pet the animals and ask questions.


• You can videotape or take photographs and then add it to a PowerPoint presentation for your Open House the following fall.
• If a child does not have a pet, or if their pet is unable to attend, I send home a red construction paper heart.


• They can draw or cut pictures out of a pet they would like to have, or glue photographs of their pet that could not come.  Click on the link to view/print the pet hearts.
• They carry the hearts in the parade so no one feels left out.  I alternate the heart-carrying children with the real pets walking in the parade.


• I also keep cats away from dogs etc.  Everyone is reminded to bring things to keep their pets under control and clean up after them.
• In the past we have had wonderful participation and very interesting pets.  Everything from a pony and goat to a goose, mouse, lizard and chicken!


• I plan our parade for the last thing in our day, so that after the parade parents may take their child home.  I’m usually left with only half an hour left in my day and 1 to 4 children.
• Click on the link to view/download the entire Pet Parade Packet.
  


• The children are extremely excited before the parade, so to calm them down, I turn off the lights and show the video Arthur’s Pet Business.  Click on the link to view it on YouTube.
  
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• Arthur's New Puppy  is also on You Tube.  This link has both part one and two on it.  We do other pet-related things that day as well.
  
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• We graph if you have a pet or not, and what kind of pet students have.  Click on the link to view/print the pet graphs.


• I read several stories about pets as well.  My Y5's enjoy the Biscuit and Clifford series.  Biscuit Wants to Play is a great "I Can Read" book that involves this adorable brown puppy making friends with two kittens who'd rather chase a butterfly.  They get caught up a tree and Biscuit rescues them. 
  
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• Clifford's Kitten and Clifford's Family are also great follow up books.  Oh The Pets You Can Get, by Tish Rabe, as well as Caring for Your Pets, by Ann Owen are also nice "pet" reads.  
  


• I also give certificates of participation to everyone.  Click on the link to view/print  the Pet Parade certificates.

Dreams Come True:

As I stated earlier I’ve been allergic to animals all of my life. Wanting a pet has been a life-long desire.

Only recently, did I discover through my daughter Kelli, that I was not allergic to Poodles!  She has a Standard Poodle named Sadie.

We watched Sadie for several weeks while my daughter was on vacation and I just fell in love with her.

My husband felt it was time I became a pet owner at long last, so we now have a sweet little puppy named Chloe.  She's tucked into my daughter's jacket on the right photo. 

In celebration of her, I wrote the easy reader Puppy Love.  As with all of my "easy readers", it includes flashcards and a certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/print it.

I’ve also included a cute little ditty about dogs that someone sent me.  The author is unknown and I revamped it a bit, now that I’m learning all about being the wonderful recipient of “puppy love.”

I wish you many wonderful end-of-the-year “winding-down” moments filled with special times like Pet Parades and of course lots of L-O-V-E!