Non-Fiction Chart

A reference chart for kids when reading a non-fiction text.  As you are reading text with the kids (such as a Time for Kids or Scholastic News, or a photocopied text), identify examples of each of the features on the checklist.  Cut out, or copy and cut out the examples and paste them on the chart.  Then hang the chart to use as a reference.  If the children have helped create it, they are more likely to remember and refer to it.  Sometimes we have one for each reading group. 

Magnetic Boards for Learning

Any magnetic board is a fun way to practice multiplication facts, spelling words, writing letters, answering teacher questions.  One year I found several at the dollar store and was able to use them in small groups at reading and math time.  You can be as creative as the kids with the uses.  Also a great center activity!

                                                       
                                                     Early letter formation work

Vegetable Tray Letters

To work on more tactile letter formation and pencil pressure, vegetable packaging trays are a great resource.

Using a pencil, I model a letter and then have the child or student try to write the same letter.  They can trace over the modeled letter with their finger, then their pencil, and then try to write it.  A good reason to save a stack of trays!

Tactile Letter Formation

Another fun way to form letters (straight line letters), is with objects such as toothpicks or popsicle sticks.  I do this with my three year old son.  Sometimes he just likes to create designs or play with the toothpicks, setting them side-by-side.  Either way, it's a great way to develop fine motor skills.  Popsicle sticks are a lot easier to manipulate and don't roll, but toothpicks work well also.

Bio Poems

This is a great "get-to-know you" activity with a group of students.  I have used it at all levels and adapted it to the students.  There are a variety of templates available for bio poems, available on the web and in teaching resources.  I have provided a couple here.  I usually create a model with the students, especially to model it for elementary school students.  Kids can also illustrate them and I always have them share (or at least the parts they are comfortable sharing).  Fun to put up for open house or parent conferences also!  You can create your own based on a template also.

First name

Three traits to describe yourself 

Son or daughter or relative of...

Who feels...

Who fears...

Who needs...

Who gives...

Who would like to see...

Last Name 

or

First name

Three adjectives describing yourself

Who feels

Who wears

Who wonders about

Who loves

Who fears

Who wants

Who will achieve

Last name

Dirt Cake

I used to make this when my fourth graders read How to Eat Fried Worms.  Recently my son made it, it's so easy to make and fun to eat!  You can also tie it into studying plants, life cycles, measurement, etc.

Ingredients:  Instant chocolate pudding, milk, Oreos, gummy worms

(If you can find a flower pot that a bowl fits into, it's a fun way to serve it, as above).

1.)  Make the pudding according to directions and based on how many servings you want, in the corresponding serving container.  I have made this in individual portions in clear cups when doing it for the students at school and in a bowl for parties.  

2.)  Crush chocolate sandwich cookies and sprinkle them on top.  

3.)  Refrigerate.

4.)  Put gummy worms on and in mixture.  (you can do this before step 3, but they get a little hard in the fridge and are more chewy for little kids to eat).  

Word Sites

Two really great sites that I showed my ESL class last night, are:


Wordsift 
www.wordsift.com
Wordsift will take entered (or cut and pasted) text and sort the words in order of frequency, which, for an ESL student (or any student), may help highlight the main idea.  If nothing else, it's fun to play with!  One example they give on the site is Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream Speech."  Here it is below.  The larger words indicate the higher usage, and vice versa for smaller words.  The words can be sorted from here, in alphabetical order, by subject area, etc.
able america american cannot check child city come daydream faith free freedom go god great hill hope hundred injustice join justice land later let life long made man mississippi mountain nation negro new person place right ring rise satisfied sing stand state time together valley walk white word year

and

Wordle
www.wordle.net

Wordle creates word "art" with the words or text that you enter.  It's also fun to play with and useful for presentations.

Multiplication facts strips

One way to remember multiplication facts, for the auditory and visual learner is to get a long strip of paper, like adding machine or cash register tape.
On the strip write the answers to the multiplication facts that are currently being worked on, and hang them somewhere visible and accessible.  Each day before class, run down the strip pointing out each answer as the class choral reads it.

For instance, the 3's:

0
3
6
9
12
15
18
21
24
27 and so on.

By learning just the products, or skip counting, children have another access point if they cannot quickly recall the fact.  You can faze out the visual after a week and continue chanting, or leave the visual to refer back to.

Students can also have their own strips at their seats, stapled inside a folder, to track with a clip or their rulers as you are reciting the products.

3 feet = 1 yard Visual

I haven't done this activity for a few years, but I was pulling it out as we are leading in to measurement now.  Of course the examples I have from past years really aren't perfect, but I figure they are at least models.

Steps:

Teacher prep:
Materials:  construction paper 11 x 18, gride paper, cardstock, glue, scissors, paper cutter

- Trace templates of a foot onto cardstock that measure exactly 1 foot each.
- Copy grid paper that has one inch squares and cut into strips

After the lesson:
Students
- Students choose a piece of large construction paper for the background and three smaller pieces to trace their "feet" onto.
- They glue the three footsteps down toe to heel with no overlapping or spaces.
- They cut 2 twelve square grid paper strips, gluing one into each foot.  It's easier to do one foot at a time so that they recognize one foot equals twelve inches, and three feet equal one yard.
- Label 12 inches= 1  foot & 3 feet = 1 yard
I let them decorate a border after they title their papers.

What Happens Next?

I've done this with almost every level of student that I have taught.  It's similar to the game telephone, in  which you start a story and pass it along, although this story is written down.  I write a story starter the first time we do the activity on the top of a piece of paper, one for each student in the class.  (Or you can write one for a center activity and leave it there throughout the week).  Each student writes a sentence or paragraph and passes the story along, until everyone has added to it.  Then the stories are shared aloud at the end.  This works really well with upper elementary and high school level students.  I use it a lot with ESL students and reading aloud at the end is fun for everyone and helps them work on pronunciation.  Kids are also not shy about sharing because the writing belongs to the group and is not solely theirs.

After you have done the activity once or twice, the kids like to start the stories themselves.

This activity can take a lot of time, if you are passing the writing around the whole class.  To shorten the amount of time, you can limit it to small groups, chart paper in which kids add when they have time, or as mentioned above, leave it at a center.

Egg Container Caterpillars

Not the most original activity, but easy and fun.  Cut a cardboard egg container into strips and paint or glue tissue paper on it (the tissue paper is more "Eric Carle" related), and draw a face.  This activity can be related to spring, to the butterfly life cycle, to moods (my son likes to draw a happy face on one end and a sad face on the other), counting, etc.  It can be made as simple or detailed as you like.

Sometimes we read caterpillar books:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar- Eric Carle

Oh My a Butterfly

Butterflies- nonfiction

Magnifying Letters

Here is an idea that a colleague passed on, which is inexpensive and tactile for students.  To isolate letters, vowels, or highlight a small text or item, the glass rocks/beads that we use for bulbs or decoration are a great tool.  Kids slide them over the letters or area of text and it highlights and magnifies the portion that is covered.  They are often sold at Dollar Stores, or in the Northeast, the Christmas Tree Shops.

Raised Letters

For letter recognition for the early and tactile learner, raised letters are one method of teaching students. I have used various methods, one method that is easy and cheap is using puffy paint or glitter glue on index cards or squares of card stock (available at many dollar stores).  You simply write the letters and when they dry have the child trace over it with their finger and say the letter and the sound.  If you are teaching vowels, the vowels can be one color and consonants another color.

Yoga

I've used yoga for years, personally, in the classroom, and now with my toddler.  We're very lucky that one of his preschool teachers is actually a toddler/preschool yoga instructor, so knows how to bring it down to his level.

                                                                        cobra

                       

                                    downdog when we were waiting at an appointment

I have used it in the classroom when I taught second and third grade and had some very energetic (hyper) children in my classroom.  The whole class would do yoga for five minutes after our morning meeting and we had a "yoga corner" for kids who needed a break during working time.  This corner had a set of yoga cards, but sometimes the kids just stretched and came back to their seats.  Here is are a few shots of toddler/preschool yoga.  Now we do it when our son needs to unwind or quiet down after a big activity.

                                    Actual field trip during summer school to a kids' yoga studio.

Dream Bedrooms

To review area and perimeter a fun activity is creating a "Dream Bedroom" on a piece of grid paper.  The kids draw linear items, bed, entertainment center, bookcases, and get very creative, adding in fish tanks, cotton candy machines, etc.  They then have to calculate the area and perimeter of each object or piece of furniture before outlining them in marker and coloring them in.  You can create a bulletin board or class book to flip through and they love to share their rooms with their classmates and friends.  The students also can work on other rooms in a house.