Egg-citing Activities for Easter Week

It's Easter week and I am looking for some quick and easy activities to do with my students.  For the little fours I work with I made the simplest activity......matching alphabet eggs.  It's so easy.....write a capital letter on one side of the egg and the lowercase on the other side.  

The boys absolutely loved the activity.  They had so much fun.  

 For my advanced math students I created some story problems with and without grouping.   I cut out the problems and put them in the eggs.  The boys picked out the eggs from the basket and opened the eggs and read the problems and solved them in their math journals. 

You can put any story problems in your eggs.  Or if you want I have my challenge problems available on my TPT store.   

I set up this packet up several ways.  There is a power point in case you want to do the problems as a whole class. 

Then I typed up all the problems on a worksheet so the students could work these out.  Or you can cut them apart and put them in eggs and they can put the answers on the recording sheet.  

It's up to you. 

Happy Easter

Easter Listening Center

Keeping the boys and girls in kindergarten and first grade interested in reading all year long can be challenging.  That is why I have been working so hard this year to find stories the kids will be motivated to listen to.  It is more work than you think.   Creating an engaging listening center is a lot different these days, my students prefer to listen and watch stories on the ipad.  

When I first got my ipad I was able to find lots of story apps for $1 however that has not been the case lately.  In fact many of the stories can be costly or the apps are confusing for young readers to manage on their own.  So I have turned to youtube and the generosity of the wonderful people who are reading the stories and recording them.  

I find links on youtube and filter out the surrounding advertisements and create my own qr codes. My students use this center on their own as part of my weekly reading block and I want to make sure the links are safe for them.  Each week my students are required to listen to one story on the ipad and complete a listening form.  I use all sorts of different forms I have collected over the years on Pinterest and various other sources during the first two quarters. 

However, once third quarter starts I have the students start to complete the forms attached to the unit.  We start with the simple ones and work our way to writing our own letter on lined paper. 

I like to print out the listening cards on card stock and laminate them.  I punch a hole in the corner and gather them together with a ring.  I keep the cards in the ipad basket.  Another teacher at my school hangs the cards up on the students’ lockers.  Another organization idea might be to keep them in a small binder or create a bulletin board with the cards in your reading center. 

Click Here to get The Easter Listening Center for FREE! 

April Challenge Activities

This week is Easter Vacation for me, so like most teachers I am hoping to get lots of things organized at home and for school.  One of the big projects I am working on for school is my April Challenge Folders.  Each month I put together 16 reading and math activities that the students work on independently after they complete their class work.   I try to find a variety of activities some hands on, puzzles, games and partner activities.  If I don't have to make it myself, that's awesome!

This month I found some wonderful free activities on Pinterest that will be perfect:

#1  Hidden Peeps

#2  Odd/Even Peeps

#8 Duck or Rabbit Reading and Writing

#9  Bunny Bump

I looked through some of the units I already purchased and I found a couple of activities that would be great challenge activities:

#3  Stick Bang

From Tunstals Teachings (This is a favorite game in my classroom.)  Sight Word Sticks

#7 Count/Tally/Add

from Renee Dooly, Find, Tally and Graph

#10  What is my Number?

from Doodle Bugs Teaching, Mystery Numbers

#11  True/False 

from Kristen Smith's unit, Spring is all Around

I could not find a good hands on activity for telling tell time so I had to make my own. 

 I created 16 activity cards with graphics from Graphics from the Pond and KPM Doodles and they turned out so cute.

 I made an easy recording sheet for the students to fill out as they work.

If you are interested in my activity check out my store.  

Friday Favorites on Sunday

OK….I am a little late with my Friday Favorites this week.  Sorry.  Friday was devoted to scrubbing down my classroom after four of my students had lice.  YUCK!  This was the first time in 12 years at this school. 

On Saturdays, I am taking a class about the Smartboard.  So that is putting me a bit behind at home as well.

I wanted to share with you two amazing projects from other teachers in my school this week. 

The first project is something my little ones made in art class.  These cardboard animals are so adorable.  I just had to hang them up in the reading center.  They are so bright and colorful and each one is so cute.  The shapes and sizes make them unique.

The second project is from my partner teacher Lynn.  Her class read, The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carle and made these beautiful tissue flowers.  I just love them. 

I added the tissue ladybugs my class made after reading, The Grouchy Ladybug, by Eric Carle.  Both projects make a adorable Spring bulletin board. 

Here's to a brighter week! :)

Ladybugs

i  am completely unfocused lately.  i have so much on my mind.  one of the things going around in my brain is ladybugs.

ladybugs will be my theme for next year.  Swith that said, my first week after break will be dedicated to teaching my little ones about ladybugs. 

i found some cute books in my collection to share with them.

 little ladybug

this one looks interesting from amazon i just may order it.  

does anyone have other suggestions of good ladybug books to share???

Belated May Smartboard Calendar

Elisabeth reminded me a couple weeks back that I have not posted my smartboard calendars for April and May.  I completely forgot!  Sorry!  I am a bit late, however if you would like them for next year, here is the link:  http://schuellerslessons.wikispaces.com/Calendar

I forgot to mention that all the graphics on both calendars are from Thistle Girl Design and KPM Doodles.

Earth Day

I know I am a bit late with this post, however I thought I could at least share my ideas with you for next year.  I love this book.  It is the perfect book for Earth Day.  After I read this book to my class we did two easy art projects.

First I traced the world on the cover of the book and copied it for my little ones.

Then I gave each of my little ones a green, blue and red sharpies and a piece of shrinky dink plastic.

They put the plastic on top of the pattern and colored it in with sharpies.

Then I cut the Earth shape out and punched a hole on the top.

Next we baked the shrinky dink in the toaster oven for 3 minutes and created a necklace.

Our second project started in the morning.   We colored coffee filters blue and green and sprayed them with water.  We let them dry all morning.  

We read the story:

My partner teacher introduced this book to me.  I love it!   It is a must have book for Earth Day!

Then we created our Earth Day Poster!

While we worked on our posters we listened to this song by Jack Johnson.

I love Jack Johnson songs!