March Activities!

Despite the snow piling up outside, I'm convinced that spring is around the corner. At least I hope so!

This week, I learned the hard way that a laptop and a large cup of coffee are a disaster waiting to happen. If anyone has had a laptop that has met the same fate, all you can hope for is that you can recover your files and your hard work won't be lost forever.  I encourage everyone to back up all your files! 

Now, let's get onto the fun spring and St. Patrick's Day activities.

March is a great time of year.  They say it comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.  With my kinders, we wanted to show it!  The kids loved the lion/lamb paper plate activity.

First, we painted the lion plate since

the lamb plate is made from just a plain white plate. 

Then, we added the eyes and ears.

You can grab the templates here.

Lion

 Lamb

Let's hope for some lamb weather soon!

This year, I created a NO PREP St. Patrick's Themed Language Arts and Math Printables. It includes a family project (all letters are included), writing activities, and lots of  great math printables that are aligned with the common core  for grades 1-3. 

The family project came out great!  I decided to print mine out on green tag board.

Here, we practiced adding together multiple addends with our Over the Rainbow Game (that's what one of my kids called it!)

 Here are some more of the activities:

Check it out by clicking here.

In the past, for St. Patrick's Day, we made these Wish Upon Rocks.  

First, we painted them green (just don't use washable paint, it'll just wash off)

  The reality is that after painting 10 or so rocks, your table really looks like this!

When they were dried, we added glue and gave them a little shimmer by adding green or gold sparkles.  

 All done!

For Dr. Seuss's birthday, we created Dr. Seuss hats. Who knew that red gummy savers would be in such high demand? So, we settled for some rainbow hats!

We also love to make leprechauns.

Stay tuned for some more March activities!

Pintastic Ideas for March

I'm joining Pawsitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner for This Month's Top 3 Pinterest Picks Linky!

Hope you find some great ideas here or from the other great teachers that have linked up!

I love this idea for St. Patrick's Day using Fruit Loops! It's also great practice for the little ones and their fine motor skills. The finished product is even cuter! Check it out!

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Click here for original pin

Even though there's a lot of snow outside, I'm thinking spring and I'm excited to get our chicks in the near future!  

Click here for original link

Last but not least, how can we forget about Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 2nd?  I used to make the hats in the picture below, but how much cuter are these?!  I will definitely be trying them out!

 Click here for original link

No more Nilla cookies for me!  Oreos, here we come!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out some of these great ideas.

Venn Diagrams

Kids love to talk/write about themselves AND they love to create Venn diagrams in language arts.   

So, I decided to combine them and create this FREE activity. You can grab the Comparing Friends activity for free here.  Afterwards, children can write about the information on their Venn diagram using some of the compare/contrast words below.

This activity inspired me to create some Venn Diagrams for you to use in the classroom.  They come in lined, unlined, and colored versions for students who need a bit more visual support.   Check out the Venn diagrams by clicking HERE! 

I used the comparing people Venn Diagram to compare friends. 

 Then, we did some writing using the compare and contrast words from below.  Here's an example:

Put it all together and you have a fun display in your classroom. Plus, the kids learn a lot about each other!

Compare and contrast keywords

Feel free to share some of the favorite people, places, or things your kids like to compare/contrast.

More February Fun!

I figured I'd start another post with some more February ideas.  Scroll down to see some additional ideas and activities for Groundhog's Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day and Dental Health Month.   Below, you will find some easy crafts to do for Chinese New Year.  I always find a great parent or two that celebrate and want to come in and share a little about their heritage.  Parents are such a great resource to use, especially to share holiday traditions.

For Chinese New Year, the kids made a very easy lantern as seen below: 

Here's how:

Fold a large sheet of construction paper in half (lengthwise) and draw about 6 or so lines (equally spaced) on one side touching the fold.  

I have my kids open it back up and decorate it. When they are done decorating, they fold it back in half and cut on the lines (careful not to cut through to the other side).  Then, roll it up and give a staple to the top and bottom.  Add a handle (just a strip of paper) with a staple and you're done! 

  

Here are some of the lanterns:

Here they are working on them:

 Parents brought in all of these fun items below to celebrate! There were masks for the kids, small stuffed animals for each of the animal years, and a great dragon head to do the dragon dance!

Click here for some free printable masks and more for Chinese New Year.

The day wouldn't be complete without some red envelopes and chocolate money!

So... I'm also a bit excited about a new center activity called Number Match Up 1-20 for the younger kids to practice various ways of number representation.

Students can match up a number card (two choices of monsters or flowers) with the various ways to represent that number.  

Students can find all the ways to represent a number, match 2-3 cards that show the same number, and use the cards to compare numbers.

There are number cards for numbers 1-20 shown in the following ways:
tally marks, tens frame, pictures, equations, number/word,
and recognition of  the number that comes before and after.   Follow-up printables for the center and comparing numbers are also included.  

Check out Number Match Up 1-20 here.

Here is part of the center in action:

You can also use it to compare numbers

 shown in different ways:

More to come!

February FUN!

FEBRUARY IDEAS 

GROUNDHOG'S DAY!

With the winter we've had, I hope that the little groundhog does not see his shadow so that I can expect spring sooner rather than later! 

I write this as it's still snowing outside my window, but one can hope!  Here's a cute, simple craft to do with kids.

Take a pre-cut piece of construction paper (to fit the height of the toilet paper roll) and have the children draw the eyes (or use googly eyes or eye stickers), nose, and whiskers in the middle of it.  Then, put some glue on the paper, roll the paper around the toilet paper roll, and use a piece of tape to secure it.  Children drew ears on white construction paper with a brown/black marker, cut them out, and glued them to the inside of the roll.  You could also take a flashlight and shine it on the groundhog to discuss shadows.  

Here's another fun Groundhog's Day activity to do with young children.  You can grab it here for FREE at my store!  Hopefully, despite what the groundhog says, spring will come early!

With all the snow we've had, students have been doing a lot of GoNoodle (I've spoken about that site down below), but they also love to create their own Jackson Pollack design on the Smartboard.

I'm hooking up with Lori Ross for Terrific Tech Tuesday to share a fun indoor activity to do on the smartboard. Click on her link to find more tech ideas.

One of our favorite indoor recess activities is to create our own Jackson Pollack. Jackson Pollack was an American painter who became famous for his drip paintings. Click on the website for  Jackson Pollack.  Our art teacher taught my kinders about him, so they loved making their own creation.

  

When you click on the link, there will be a white space to the right.  Just click full-screen and let the fun begin. They can start to draw by touching the Smartboard. The slower they draw, the thicker the line, and the faster they draw, the thinner the line.  Every time they pick up their finger, the color changes.  My kids love it!

Here's an example:

Here is one of my favorite creative writing ideas to do for Dental Health.  We usually read a story (click here for a list of books) about the Tooth Fairy and the kids write what they think she does with their teeth.  From K-2, their ideas and drawing are great!

If you'd like to do this activity, you can click here to grab the tooth template at my store for FREE! 

Just add a picture and some construction paper and you're done!   

Hopefully, you took advantage of Colgate's FREE classroom set of  toothbrushes and books for your classroom.  If not, scroll down below to sign up. Hopefully, it's not too late!

Here's a cute craft we did for Dental Health Month.

We decorated the front, and on the back, we wrote a dental health rule.

Here's how we did it:

PRESIDENT'S DAY

February is a great time to introduce coins and practice counting money.  My kids love to use task cards so I created these and they love them. There is also a reader so that they can learn all about the coins, who is on them, and how much they are worth.  Included are also printables and a money booklet for each child to take home as a culminating activity. Check out this Money Unit here.

Here's a perfect craft to go with President's Day. 

They turned out super cute.  These are not my original idea but I do not know the origin of it- if it's you , let me know! We created these after we learned about the presidents and we use these to check for understanding.  I asked a question about a president and students raise whichever president is the correct answer.  For example, Who was the first president of the United States? Who was a lawyer?

Here is this month's FREE Color by Number.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

You can grab this Free Valentine's Day Picture by clicking here or visit my store. If your kids enjoy it, please let me know.

Stay Tuned and Follow for More Ideas!