I give credit for using reinforcement holes to construct a snowman to my fellow teacher Anita.  Mrs. Kosack's has lots of cute ideas for her kindergartners.  I've used reinforcement holes in the past for the various shapes, but this is just too cute. I revamped her concept with this idea just in time for 100 Day!

• Run off the 5x7 circle template on blue construction paper, or if you want your picture’s background bigger like mine, make circle templates from a file folder and students can trace larger banner-size backgrounds, or a room helper can have these traced for younger students.  Make sure to remind students if they are tracing that they need to leave a gap in between the circles.

• Students or a room helper can punch the mini dots or you can use micro sticker dots for this part.

• If you opt to use the hole punched dots, put a dollop of glue on a paper plate.  Using a toothpick, students put tiny dots of glue on their picture.  Using a different toothpick, they put the smallest dot of glue on the tip, to pick up their mini dots on the edge of the circle, and then press them on the little glue specks.

• You can keep things simple for younger students and have them just follow the circle outlines and make only a reinforcement hole snowman. They can then add details with colored chalk.

• You can also stop with the micro dots as shown in the photo, or turn this into a 100-Day activity, and have students dip the end of their pencil into a tiny amount of white paint. Press the eraser on the blue background to make 26 snowflakes. 
• If you’ve followed the amount of dots and reinforcement holes used on my picture they will equal 74.  74 + 26 snowflakes will give students 100 dots to spot!

• These look nice hung on an aluminum foil background on your bulletin board, or punch a hole in either corner, add a yarn tie and hang back-to-back from the ceiling or in a row along the top wall in your hallway.  Brrr-illiant!

Click on the link to view/print the 100 Day Reinforcement Hole snowman patterns, pix and directions from this article.  Would love a comment if you print or download my freebies.  I truly enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com

Be sure and pop back tomorrow for another 100 Day idea!   Click on the link to view other 100-Day Freebies!

I am joining up with Mrs. Wills from  Mrs. Wills' Kindergarten to donate something to the teachers in Joplin.  Mrs. Wills received this email below:

I teach in Joplin, which made worldwide news last May when our town was cut in half by an F5 tornado.  Many of our elementary schools were destroyed or damaged, and as teachers, we have had a roller coaster year.  I came from a meeting yesterday where many are struggling with the weight of all we are dealing with.  My request is this:  would you be willing to donate a created pack of your choosing to give away at a drawing at our upcoming district Kindergarten grade level meeting?  The meeting is Monday and I am sorry for the short notice but I did not realize until the meeting how down everyone is feeling.

If you're a teacher that has a website that offers items on TPT or Teacher's Notebook, or you have a website like mine, won't you consider donating something to send. How wonderful to just overload them with units/activities and really show them the love of fellow teachers.   Click on the link to head over to Mrs. Wills' to link up and join this WONDERFUL idea!!

I had no idea what unit to send so I thought why not let them have the opportunity to be able to choose what they’d like, so I'm donating 3 subscriptions to TeachWithMe.com Those teachers can download everything from the shopping cart for an entire year. I hope this in some small way helps put a smile on someone's face, I can't even imagine the tremendous loss the people of Joplin must feel.

Punched 100 Day Banners

I wanted to give you plenty of time to dash off to the store to get some cool metal punches or track down the teacher or scrapbook queen who has a great collection, so that you can borrow them for 100 Day, so I’m posting this 100 Day idea a bit early for some of you, others may be celebrating in January all-to-soon!

This quick and easy center makes an awesome bulletin board, or punch a hole in the top corners, slide a piece of yarn through and you’ve got lovely banners to hang back-to-back from the ceiling or as a border along the top wall of your hallway.

Simply set up a table with a variety of punches, this could also be done with stamps or stickers.  Add a student's picture in the top corner and you've made a nice keepsake.

Inform your students that the things they cut out or stamp will take the place of zeros, and that they will also need to make a 1 to go in front.

Since my punches are large, I cut construction paper banners that were 5 ½ x 11 ½.  Make yours smaller if you’re using stamps or stickers.   These will make cute bookmarks.

To expedite things and make the banners pop, I made up labels.  You could also have your students practice their writing skills and have them write at the top and bottom of their banners.

I’m posting the label templates in DOC format so that you can simply type in something else if you want.

Highlight my name and type in your students’ names.  Put Avery labels in your printer (my printer has them face-down) and click print.  I do ONE sheet at a time. Click on the links to view/print the 100 Day, name label #1 and 100 days smarter label #2 

Put your labels at your table top center.  Students find their name, peel and stick!  Click on the link to view/print the article's directions & pix, 100-Day Banner idea.   Click on the link to zoom to my other 100-Day FREEBIES.

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

"It is a happy talent to know how to play." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

100 Words For 100 Day!

I know it's a bit early, but for some of you who started school in August, 100 Day will soon be here.  I wanted to whip this 100 Day idea off so that it's in plenty of time for you to make these 100 Day booklets so you can start this activity 10 days BEFORE you celebrate 100 Day or 9 days if you want to write the last 10 words to = 100 words on 100 Day!

Challenge your students to try and learn 10 new words each day before the big day and by 100 Day they will have learned 100 new words!  Wow.

Or...  you could choose to review 10 words each day that you’ve been working on since whenever.  This is great for word wall words, CVC words, or spelling words.

Run off my cover, or have students create their own “My Word Book” covers by stamping letters with your letter stamps or cutting out letters from magazines, like a ransome note and then spelling out the title on their favorite half sheet of colored construction paper.

Staple their cover along with 10 sheets of writing paper and the other ½ of their construction paper for a back, and you’ve got a nifty word book in a jiffy!

When your students have completed their 100 words for 100 Day booklets, reward their worderful word work with a special 100 Day Whiz Kid Word certificate.  I have 2 to choose from. They can glue it as the last page of their booklet. 

Click on the link to view/print the 100 Day word certificates.

Click on the link to view/print the article's directions, pix, cover & certificates. 100 Day Word Booklet. Read Michael Frith’s I’ll Teach My Dog 100 Words as the perfect introduction to this activity. 

I LOVE this book.  It’s a Cat in the Hat “Bright and Early” reader for the “youngest of the young.”

These stories are “brief and funny” the words are “few and easy” and have a “happy catchy rhythm”.  This one rhymes.  The pictures are colorful and perfect clues for your emergent readers!

Happy soon-to-be 100 Day!  For more fun activities to celebrate this great day check out my FREE 100 Day bulletin board ideas and my FREE 85-page 100 Day Unit.

Thanks for visiting. Feel free to PIN anything you think others might ejoy.

"There are 3 choices in life: give up, give in, or give it all you've got!"

A Colorful Martin Luther King Bulletin Board

Happy Martin Luther King Day to those of you who will be celebrating his birthday this coming Monday.  My apologies for not getting this article published a few days ago as planned.

I saw making snowflakes out of strips of paper on Pinterest. (Wow can that be addicting!) Click on the link to check out my pin boards. You can find the original cute idea at Mrs. Carroll's Blog Spot Parade.  She made them on powder blue paper with pattern blocks.

Snowflakes are unique like people.  They are the same, but different, so I thought they’d be a great segue into Martin Luther King Activities.

Because people are beautiful and special no matter what color they are, I thought a beautiful blizzard of colorful flakes would make an interesting bulletin board.

Sesame Street’s We Are Different; We Are The Same is a great story to read & discuss to go with this activity, as the snowflake’s template is the same, but all of the flakes are also different in some way.  Older students could list ways they are different and ways that they are the same as their classmates on the back strips of their snowflakes.

Involve math by having students create a pattern on one strip.  I used a snowflake and heart paper punch.  These can be pre-cut by a room helper, or let students strengthen their hand muscles by punching 3 of each shape.

By making copies of students’ school photos, you can add charm to your board as well as make this a real keepsake project for parents, while creating an ABCABC pattern.

Another pattern is made when students choose 2 different color markers to write their name in an ABAB pattern on the 2^nd strip.

Let students know that Martin Luther King had a dream and explain to them what his dream was.  You can listen to his dream speech at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57lotnKGF8  These other You Tube videos are all extremely short and will add interest to your day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=8AyF9Idh_iE I have a dream quote with soothing background music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiF2aAx0kds&feature=related  Cool motion typography. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNAy6Bhij8A Music video picture montage of Martin Luther King http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA7WCHfVRfc As part of the “I Have A Dream Project” people were asked what their dreams were.  I especially liked this one.

No matter how young, most students have a dream to be “something” when they grow up.  Brainstorm ideas with your students and write them on the board so they know how to spell their “dream careers.”

Write the sentence, “My dream is to be a/an ________________.” Children fill in the blank with what they want to be when they “grow up” and write their completed sentence on the 3^rd strip.

If you’re not celebrating Martin Luther King Day, you can always save this idea for next year and have students write a resolution/ goal or promise on the strip.

To expedite this center, and to make sure little ones can make a symmetric snowflake, I’ve made a template.

Students choose a color and put 2 strips on the template.  Have 2” pieces of scotch tape stuck around the table.

Children use 1 piece to adhere the 2 strips together that form the X.  They then place the 3^rd strip down the middle and use the 2^nd piece of tape to stick that strip to the other 2.

You can opt to use glue sticks, but I find that little ones rub glue all over the strip instead of one place, a lot of glue gets on the desk and is wasted and they take so much more time, or they don’t use enough glue and when they bring their snowflake up to be hung it is falling apart.

The snowflakes look awesome on a navy blue or black background.  Your caption could read:  “A Beautiful Blizzard of Brrr-illiant Work!” OR “We’re All Different; We’re All The Same!” OR “We’re Snow Special No Matter What Color Or How Flakey!”

Whenever I have a center where I want to make sure that I have a variety of ALL the colors on my b. board, I cut out only enough strips to make a class set of whatever with a few extra.

I assign a tabletop activity for students to accomplish first and then they transition to the art center when they are done.

The students who get down to business and stay focused get a wider variety of color choices.

My “pokey Joes” choose from the remaining colors. This has proven to be an incentive for some students, and I don’t end up with an all pink and purple b. board.

Click on the link to view/print the template, pix, and directions. Martin Luther King Snowflakes

Are you looking for some more Martin Luther King activities?  Click on the link to see the quickie projects in my Martin Luther King Mini Unit.

Whatever you're doing this coming Monday,  I hope it's simply marvelous!

Melted Snowman Math Concepts

These adorable, quick and easy snowmen are a nice way to review spheres turning into circles. ( You could even melt a snowball and show the solid turning into a liquid.)

Include the 3-D toilet paper tube hat and review the cylinder shape as well.

You can also show the concept of small, medium and large and have your students trace those words as they cut and assemble their snowman.

The eyes and mouth are circles, the nose is a triangle and the twig arm parts are rectangles.  Toss in a buckle on the hat and you’ve also covered the square shape.

Have your students trace the “I’m melting!” sentence and review contractions and the exclamation punctuation mark.

Have students cut and glue the extra blank “conversation” bubble and write another caption on the other side for a quick writing extension.

The mini poem offers a rhyme and reiterates the change in shapes: "My snowman was 3 snowballs, 3 spheres with a hat.  Now he has melted and is 3 circles that are flat!"

Count how many circles your students can spy on their melted man and then because he was made from 3 snowballs, finish off the number exercise by counting by 3’s.

I’ve included 2 traceable “Count by 3’s” skill sheets to help students with that.

Give students an option to put mittens on their snowman and review things that come in "pairs", left & right, and counting by two's!

Wow!  “Snow” much covered with one cute & quick project!

Click on the link to view/print Melted Snowman Math Concepts

Guess-timation Station Jar

To help my Y5’s with number sense as well as groups and sets of objects, I have a Guess-timation Station in my room that consists of a large plastic jar.

Students guess how many coins, cotton balls, Q-tips etc. that are in it each day and write their answer, along with their name, on a guessing slip that they put in the mystery box.

Parents provide the answer on a slip of paper, and during lunch I figure out who has the correct answer or is closest to it.

The jar goes home each night with a different child, along with a laminated note of explanation. Click on the link to view/print the Guess-timation notes home.

At the end of the day, during Share & Tell Time, the student who brought in the jar calls on 3 friends to share their guesses.

We then count the objects out of the jar into a large Baggie and announce the winner, who receives a sticker to put on our Guess-timation Genius poster.

Click on the link to view/print our Guess-timation Genius poster.

The jar goes home with the next student on the list and the Baggie goes home with the student who brought the items.

To encourage participation and promote interest and excitement, the student with the most stickers at the end of the month gets a trip to the treasure box and a certificate.

At the end of the school year, our grand champion, gets a special certificate and prize.  Click on the link to view/print Guess-timation Certificates.

My students really enjoy this activity and I see wonderful improvement in their estimating skills by the time we celebrate 100 Day in February.

I display 25 Baggies of items.  They have to guess which ones contain 100 of something. Most of my students are 90% accurate!

You can buy big plastic jars at The Dollar Store.  It’s a fun and easy activity to set up in your Math Center that I know your students will enjoy.

Click on the link to view/print a Guess-timation Station Center Poster.

If you haven't already done so, be sure and read about my other Guess-timation Station for January by scrolling down.

Guess-timation Station Winter Poster

To help my students understand number sense and groups of things, I have a Guess-timation Station Jar set up in my room.  I also try to have other activities where students look at something and try to guess “how many” or compare--is it more than, less than or equal to this or that?

Another Guess-timation Station that they enjoy, is a large poster that I hang on my white board during January.

Simply cut a piece of tag board in the shape of a snow hill and put a snowman or huge snowflake at the top.

Print or type and glue the words: Guess-timation Station on the hill.

Make a large circle of cotton balls by gluing them on your poster with Elmer’s glue.

Ask students to guess how many cotton balls they think it will take to fill up the snowball.

Jot down their answers on the guess-timation list and hang it next to the poster.

Click on the link to view/print a guess-timation list.

Each day of school choose a student to add a cotton ball to the center of the snowball.

(Just dab a tiny bit of glue on the snowball so that you can easily pull off the center cotton balls and use this poster every year.)

Keep track of how many cotton balls you have already counted using tally marks.  This is a great way to count by 5’s each day.

Click on the link for a Guess-timation Station Tally Mark Sheet

Because my Y5’s lose interest in something rather quickly, I put this poster up for the 1^st day of January and then take it down at the end of the month, but you could keep it up through February as well and be able to count to higher numbers, especially if you live in a colder state where it continues to snow.

To make sure you have the correct number of cotton balls to fill up your snowball and end on the last day of school that you want to count, count that many into a circle and then make your permanent outside circle that big.

Make sure you buy the same size cotton balls each year as they vary from store to store in thickness.

I award a certificate and trip to my treasure box to the winner.

Click on the link for 3 Guess-timation certificates.

Be sure and pop in tomorrow to read about my Guess-timation Station to print those fun FREEBIES!

As always, I’d enjoy hearing from you and your ideas about guess-timation! diane@teachwithme.com

Making a Snowman Glyph is “snow” much fun!

I enjoy making a glyph for my students each month. Glyphs are a pictorial form of data, also known as a pictograph. Since the September Cookie & Bio glyphs were such a huge hit, I thought I'd post a winter glyph.

• They are a really fun way to help reinforce listening and following directions, gather data in a unique way and make a great display for a hallway, as students passing by like guessing who made them.
• The Y5’s enjoy making them + they provide an opportunity to learn more about classmates.

You can also take the snowman glyph pictured on the left, a step farther, and graph various results.

Click on the link to view/print the 4 graphing extensions for the snowman glyph.

Make a game out of the snowman glyphs and give students some time to see how many they can figure out.

• Number the snowman glyphs as you display them in the hallway.
• Have students number their papers.
• Write a list of student names on the board or at the top of a pre-numbered sheet of paper.

•  Give students 5-10 minutes in the hallway to try and figure out the snowman glyph mysteries.
• Then have them sit across from the glyphs and flip the papers up to reveal student names.
• Students self check and add the total they got correct.  How many did you get right?

The pink snowman glyph pictured is my personal sample.  The blue snowman glyph is one I made for my husband.

Click on the link to view/print my snowman glyph.

Be sure and pop back Saturday and see a cute idea for a quick and easy "guess-timation" station poster!