Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, Look How Far That You Have Come!

Whenever I got a chance, I plugged in nursery rhymes into my Y5’s day; I felt it was important to cover all sorts of genres.

Surprisingly, the longer I taught, the less little ones I found who knew nursery rhymes by heart!

I guess that sort of went the way of “I love to color!” and enjoying a coloring book.

I used to have an entire unit on nursery rhymes, but the school year zipped by so fast, that there was never enough time in May to get to everything I wanted to.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star can be plugged in anywhere during the year, as most teachers have a Star Student board, and as teachers, we are endeavoring to help those little ones, twinkle and shine their brightest.

This 12-page packet is a fun way to reinforce a variety of Common Core State Standards: L.K.2a, L.1.2b, RF.1.1a, RF.K3c, RF.K.2a, RF.K.1a, RF.K.1c, K.G.1

The packet includes:

• The Twinkle Twinkle easy reader booklet. Students read the rhyme, trace and write the noun, color the star and color word the appropriate color.  The last page provides several writing prompts.
• Skill sheet on similes
• Skill sheet on spatial directions
• Color word matching skill sheet
• 3 rhyming skill sheets (sky and star)
• Word cards to cut and put together to make the poem (Punctuation and capital letter 1st words included.) +
• A certificate of praise.

When everyone is done, read the booklet as a whole group to reinforce and review concepts of print.

So that you are also covering more standards, point out spaces, capital letters, end punctuation etc.

Any of these items, make nice activities for your Daily 5 or word work.

Click on the link to view/download the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star activity packet.

Do you have a nursery rhyme idea you could share with us?  I’d enjoy hearing from you: diane@teachwithme.com or post a comment here.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others might find worthwhile.

“May all of your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions!” –Joey Adams

What Key Will Unlock The Secret Shaped Lock? What Will You Find When You Do?

Announce the booklet activity with that question, and I'm sure you'll have your students' attention.  They LOVE a mystery.

When I owned an old Victorian house and renovated it to be the Hastings House gift shop, one of my best sellers in the “Kids’ Collection” were little metal locks.

I always let my own children “shop” the catalogs with me, to see what they’d want.

They were a great gage as to what other children would want too.

I never would have ordered the locks, because I had no idea what a child would do with them.

They came with a set of 2 little keys.  Well, a zillion other kids liked those pretty-colored locks too; I used to order them by the gross every few months.

It was that memory, that inspired this little booklet, which I dedicate to my awesome adult “kids”.

It’s a fun way to review the various 2D shapes, including the pentagon, hexagon and octagon, as well as the Common Core State Standards: RF.K.3a, RF.K.1c, RF.K.3d, RF.K.3c, L.K.2a, L.K.2b, L.1.2b, RF.1.1a, K.G.2

Students read the simple sentences, helped by picture clues.

They trace and write the shape word, circle the capital letters and add the end punctuation, as well as cut and glue the key, to the matching numbered box in their booklet.

The last page offers some additional writing practice.

When everyone has completed their booklet, read it aloud as a whole group, to reinforce concepts of print, as well as reminding them that there are spaces between words, they read from left to right and from the top down.

Click on the link to view/download The Secret Shaped Locks easy reader booklet.

Do you have a shape lesson you could share with us?  I’d enjoy hearing from you: diane@teachwithme.com or post a comment here.

Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN anything that you think others might find helpful.

“Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.” – Will Rogers

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

I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that today is February 1st.  Is your life flying by you like mine?  Groundhog Day falls on a Sunday this year, so I'm hopefully not too last-minute to help you find some things to add to your lessons on Monday. 

Groundhog Day was one of my Y5's favorite units, so I have an assortment of FREEBIES on the shopping cart for you. Click on the link to view the groundhog offerings.

Since so many visitors have requested the pentagon, hexagon and octagon shapes, I’ve included them in all of the new shape books that I design, and am in the process of adding those pages to the oldies when time permits.  I just finished revamping The Shape of My Shadow.  It’s a complete re-do as I now have a dotted-trace-the-letter font!

I just wish I had time to re-do everything, as the quality is so much better now,  but since I design 2-3 new things a day, write a blog and cram so much other "stuff" in, re-doing things is beyond being on the back burner.

One thing you can do to incorporate the new shapes when they aren’t in the older booklets, is to ask your students what shapes are missing, and have them design their own page(s).

To cover more standands with the easy readers, I now have students circle the capital letters and write in the end punctuation. 

I also include at least one graphing activity, to hit a few more standards.  This booklet has two.

To cover even more standards, when everyone has completed their booklet, read it aloud as a whole group, so you can review concepts of print, proper spacing, reading from left to right etc.  Click on the link to view/download The Shapes Of My Shadow.

The ever-popular 10-frame counting booklets have also been up-dated. Click on the link to view/download the one for groundhogs. 1-2-3 Count Groundhogs With Me

1. Students read, trace and write the number and number word. 
2. They see a number of groundhogs in a sentence and say it. 
3. They spy the number in a sequence and circle it.
4. They X-out that many boxes or use a bingo dot marker or stamp in the 10 frame. ( I encourage my students to make a color pattern.)
5. Plus cut and glue the set/group to the matching numbered box.

The packet includes:

• 53 number and word wall word flashcards, including number cards that count to 20.
• Covers for the flashcards to make Itty Bitty Books
• A + one more math skill sheet
• 1 graphing extension &  a certificate of praise.

I Spy A Number is another groundhog math booklet. It's a great way to reinforce counting, numbers and number words. The last page provides some writing extensions.  Students read the simple sentence and include end punctuation.

They trace the number and number words and then write them, as well as circle that number in the sequence, count that many objects and color them if they want to.

This Groundhog packet includes:

• The Easy Reader My I Spy A Number Groundhog booklet.
• Traceable skill sheets for counting to 50, 100 and 120.
• 2 number card sets from 1-20 featuring 2 different groundhogs, so students can sequence and play Memory Match or "Speed" games with a partner + a certificate of praise

Finally, I revamped the easy reader: My Groundhog Day Booklet.   Students trace and write the main idea word, circle the capital letters, add end punctuation and then cut and glue the picture to the matching numbered box in their booklet. 

There are two pages to choose from to include in the "results" portion. 

One is if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, the other is if he did not.  Students then write about how this prediction makes them feel. 

Two graphing extensions are also included. Click on the link to view/download the Groundhog Day Easy Reader packet.

If you missed yesterdays' article, and are looking for a few more Groundhog Day activities, scroll down. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

"Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

Are your students learning the months of the year during calendar time?  Are you working on rhyming words too?  I've combined both in the easy reader: From August To September a Story Poem.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find useful.

98, 99, Hooray! It's 100-Day!

Are you looking for a fun, quick and easy writing prompt for 100 Day?

How about a poster?  Simply run them off and have students fill in their answers. Add a photograph for pizzazz and mount on construction paper. 

What an awesome 100-Day bulletin board these will make. Click on the link to view/download the 100-Day Writing Prompt Poster.

After I had designed the poster, my thoughts some how drifted to making a 100-Day quilt.  I decided to expand the above writing prompts and dreamed up this equally easy quilt-square template.

There are several different things you can do with this 100-Day quilt template. Run off the larger quilt square on a variety of colored construction paper.

Divide 100 by the number of students you have in your class to see how many quilt squares each person gets. 

If this is an odd number you can do the remaining ones, or ask the principal, secretary or another staff member, that the children know, to do 1 too. 

Run the writing prompt quilt squares off on white construction paper.

Cut them apart, toss them in a container and have each child pick out X number of squares to complete.

In order to practice another Common Core State Standard, I purposely left off end punctuation.

 Remind students to add the end punctuation after they have filled in the blanks.

 It would be a good idea to review the period and exclamation point with them.

 When you show students your sample, be sure and explain that their answers can be funny, but that they should make sense.

For example, it’s obvious that you can’t fit 100 dinosaurs in a lunch box, but you wouldn’t even put 1 in a lunch box. They need to think of things that are appropriate, things that they normally would find in a room, locker, yard, etc. 

In the blank spaces, they need to draw, use stickers, pictures from a magazine, a photograph or clip art, to illustrate their square.

 Students choose whatever colored squares they want to glue their writing prompt squares on.

 Assemble the quilt squares on the wall, bulletin board or pieces of tag board and display.

 Assembling the quilt squares is a nice way to practice a color pattern. Another thing you can do is have each student do the entire quilt-block template.

 It only took me 15 minutes to find all of the clip art and do the sample, so this is not a huge homework assignment.

 Parents can interview younger children, and fill in the blanks with their answers.

 You can have each child be responsible for their own background, to glue their answer quilt to, suggesting to parents in a note home, that they choose a large square sheet of fun-colored or patterned piece of scrapbook paper.

 To expedite things, you could also simply buy a nice variety of sheets and let your students choose one.  Along with their writing prompt quilt, give them each a !00 Day header strip for them to glue at the top of their quilt.

 Hole punch each side and string with yarn.  Add student photographs to make their quilts even more of a keepsake and add pizzazz to your display. 

Be sure and make a quilt yourself. So you have an example to share with your students.   If you don’t have the time, I’ve included my completed template for you to fill in and add a backing.  My final quilt is a little fancier.

I cut a 3rd size square template and chose 3 different patterns of scrapbook paper.   After you have glued all of the squares together, students glue them on a large sheet of colored construction paper of their choice. 

Top with the header caption and add a hanger.  You can also add photographs to these larger quilts too. Click on the link to view/download the 100-Day Quilt Poster Writing Prompt

Whatever quilt you decide on, I know your students will enjoy making them, and your display will be awesome!

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.

"Expecting a kid to learn only from a textbook, is like asking them to look at a travel brochure and calling it a vacation." -Unknown

Puzzled Over What To Do To Assess and Review the ABC's?

Are you looking for some fun ways to assess and reinforce the letters of the alphabet?

Well you’ve come to the right blog spot! It took me 3 days to complete the whopping  67 page Alphabet Puzzle packet . 

It's filled with goodies that will help review
Common Core State Standards: LK.1a, L.1.1a, RF.K.1b, RF.K.3c, RF.K.1d, RF.K.3a, RF.K.3b, RF.1.2a, L.K.2c, L.K.5a

The packet includes:

• 202 alphabet puzzles! (The initial set of 26) + lots of extras for students to mix and match.
• The 202 word cards come from word wall sight words as well as 56 from the Dolch Noun Word List.
• Cover to make a set of cards into an Itty Bitty booklet.

•  25 sorting mats so students can sort pictures, upper and lowercase letters, as well as words into a variety of different categories like seasons, themes, plural/singular, vowel/consonant etc.
• Activity mat for students to put the letters in alphabetical order.
•  Activity mat for students to choose 12 or 20 words and organize them alphabetically

• 3 pages of tips and games for what else to do with the cards besides use them as puzzles.
• Uppercase letter assessment activity + recording sheet.
• Lowercase letter assessment activity + recording sheet.
  

• Letter to word assessment activity and recording sheet.
• Letter home to parents about assessments
• Matching uppercase letters to lowercase letters activity and recording sheet.
  

• Trace and write uppercase skill sheet.
• Trace and white lowercase skill sheet +
• 5 different certificates of praise for students who have completed the above assessments successfully.

Click on the link to view/download the ABC Puzzle packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything on my site, that you think others might find helpful.

“Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect.  It means you’ve decided to see beyond the imperfections.” -Unknown

Teaching Children, Colors My World With Love

The easy reaader, My Penguin Color booklet is  terrific for your penguin theme and a fun way to review colors and color words.

Students read the simple sentences, trace, write and color the color words. They can also color the penguin and the featured object.

There's plenty of room for students to draw the featured noun in the sentence, or write that word as well.

To nail even more standards, have student circle the beginning word capital letter, as well as the ending punctuation.

When everyone has completed their booklet, read it aloud as a whole group, so you can cover concepts of print.

While doing so, remind them that there are spaces between words and that they are reading from left to right and top down.

I've also included a cute certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/download My Penguin Color booklet.

In keeping with the color theme, I also wrote My Winter Colors booklet, which helps review Common Core State Standards: RF.K1a, RF.k1c, RF.K3c

It follows the same format as the penguin booklet does.  The sentences feature winter things that are a specific color, such as white snowflakes.

The last page offers a writing prompt.  Students write what their favorite winter color is and then name something that color and draw a picture of it.

Both of these booklets make nice activities for your winter Daily 5 work.

Click on the link to view/download My Winter Color booklet.

Thank you for visiting today. I hope your winter is filled with happy and colorful moments.

Feel free to PIN anything that you think others may find helpful.

Do you have a color word activity you can share with us? I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or post a comment here.

"Motivation is what gets you started.  Habit is what keeps you going." Jim Rohn

1 Student + 1 Fun Activity = Learning!

I’ve been busy designing all sorts of easy readers that incorporate a variety of standards so you get more bang for your time buck.

I also like to overlap math with language arts so that I can cover even more standards with one activity.

I try to design my booklets so that they have a consistent format.

That way even when it’s a new month with a new theme, the format is the same.

Students feel empowered and their self-esteem is built, because once they have done that first booklet, little or no directions have to be explained for students to get right down to business.

I think this is one of the reasons for the popularity of the 1-2-3 Count With Me series.

Click on the link to view all 25 booklets thus far.

I’m working on 123 Count Valentines With Me this week, and just finished 123 Count Groundhogs With Me. 

Click on the link to view/download it.

My Y5’s never got tired of doing them.

A new series I plan on doing once a month, ‘til all of the months are covered, is the +1 Addition Booklets.

I just completed January’s +1 Snowman Addition Booklet,

as well as the Plus 1 Valentine Addition Booklet  for February.

Click on the links to view/download them.

The booklets help review Common Core State Math Standards: K.CC.3, K.CC.4a, K.CC.4b, K.CC.4c, K.CC.5, K.OA.1, K.OA.5, K.G.1

The easy readers help your students learn the concept of +1 more addition as well as spatial directions.

Students trace and write the numbers and number word and then follow the spatial directions of where to glue that many snowflakes or Valentine hearts. 

They also circle the number in its proper sequence.

All booklets in this series will include a graphing extension and certificate of praise.

Be sure and check back for a kite or shamrock one for March, a butterfly one for April, and one with a frog theme for May!

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think may be of help to others.

“Choices in life: give up, give in, or give it all you’ve got!” -Unknown