Sounding Out Fun Using Spelligator Using Games to Promote Learning When teachers incorporate games into their classrooms, they not JUST teach a skill. They are also teach higher order thinking skills and winning and losing skill. The best part is the fact that your students are merely being children and playing a game. Learning becomes FUN and engaging. Learning is what it is suppose to be in … [Read more...]
If You Give a Dog a Donut Activities and Fun
The letter Dd is a great time to use the book If You Give a Dog a Donut. I know you will love all of these If You Give a Dog a Donut Activities and Fun ideas for the week. Tying learning into literacy and math skills is a great, solid teaching tip to cover multiple standards in an inventive and engaging way. Charting and Write the Room I love to use this chart (shown in the back) on my … [Read more...]
If You Give a Mouse a Brownie Learning Fun
Laura Numeroff released a new book in her "If You Give a..." series called If You Give a Mouse a Brownie. It is a great addition to any library and it is sure to be a hit with little learners. As a teacher, I love to turn a well written and illustrated book into inspiration for learning activities to hook my learners. Learners can easily practicing their skills in fun ways. Let's check out my … [Read more...]
April Fools Day Learning
April Fools Day is coming up this Friday. Although it might be fun to play a harmless prank on your students and play fun of the day, I want to present to you an alternative that is FUN, educational, and also lets the idea of April Fools play out. I suggest using the book April Foolishness by Teresa Bateman and Nadine Bernard Wescott to create fun literacy stations. Here is the book on … [Read more...]
Top O’ the Learning For Little Learners
We know March 17th is coming. And we know our little learners are getting more and more excited about St. Patrick's Day. So let's embrace their excitement... harness it... and use it for the greater good. Let's talk about ways to make Saint Patrick's Day more fun and engaging in your classroom.Get ready... this is a HUGE post full of Ideas... products to enhance learning... and … [Read more...]
Thanksgiving Fun in Kindergarten
Of course I love to use literature to meet more educational needs and ideas. Here is the FUN book, I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. We use this sheet and crayons to complete a listening and following direction activity. I love to record the directions and set the audio file on a CD so this station is independent. It makes my students follow directions the first time and move … [Read more...]
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat {Times Two}
You are never going to believe that that old lady is eating now!Check out this book... There Was an Old Lady Who... you got it... Swallowed a BAT! SEQUENCING ACTIVITIES All our students LOVE the old lady books. And us teachers LOVE using a great book to teach content. Here are the sequencing cards. After we use the sequencing cards to review the book, we use this … [Read more...]
If You Take a Mouse to School
BACK TO SCHOOL IS COMING. Wal-mart is getting stocked... the calendar is counting down... We all know it is coming. One of my best selling products of all times is this unit... If You Take a Mouse to School Unit! which is ideal to use at the start of the year. Let me break this pack down for you... There is a reading comprehension game to play with your students. with tons of … [Read more...]
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell {Times Two}
There Was an Old Lady Who... yeppers... Swallowed a SHELL! Let's face it... Every student I have ever met adores these books. Here is some of the activities my class completed using this book. Here is a labeling activity. This is the word wall we used for many writing activities. This is the Write Me Three Sheets they can use to write independently. Here are the … [Read more...]
David Shannon Author Study {Part 4}
Our David Shannon Author Study moved focus to the importance of illustrations today. I read the book Alice the Fairy to my class. BUT... I didn't let them look at the pictures. I asked them to lay out on the carpet and keep their eyes closed. {Here is what I got... that didn't show student faces!} Then, we draw a picture to show what we IMAGINE Alice looks like using the words … [Read more...]
David Shannon Author Study {Part 3}
Today we talked about Spencer, the main character from Too Many Toys... another FUN and ENGAGING book by David Shannon. Meet sweet {and spoiled} Spencer! He loves to wear his space helmet and he has the classic BIG mouth! We made his hair inside the helmet and then a mixture of both. I am not sure which one I like better. We played our amazing learning game covering this book … [Read more...]
David Shannon Author Study {Part 2}
Do you adore David Shannon as much as I do!?! After using the book No, David! to discuss titles and book covers, we used the sequel David Goes to School to discuss what happens in the beginning of a book. We recall the story story and write what we remember happened in the beginning. We also practiced drawing our illustrations like David Shannon... using LOTS of colors, filling the … [Read more...]