Craft Freebie: Arrowhead

So many of my colleagues, students, and their families are sports fans, while I, frankly, am not. The upcoming Super Bowl, however, is providing me an opportunity to incorporate another fun fine-motor activity into the mix of my Kansas classroom this week: my version of an arrowhead Kansas City Chiefs logo!

Though we're also preparing for Kansas Day (January 29) by making Jayhawks and sunflowers, my Stars have been talking a lot about football, with many associating (understandably so) the Kansas City Chiefs with the state of Kansas simply because of their name, even though "they're really in Missouri, Mrs. Sommerville.  Isn't that weird?  How come they aren't the Missouri City Chiefs?"

Oh, sweet friend, I don't understand it either.

As kindergarteners are all about ~sharing~, they've laid claim to the Chiefs, and because this kindergarten teacher is all about sharing (instead of sports) too, I'll link you to the arrowhead freebie here.  It's a simple template of an arrowhead shape with instructions on how to have students tear paper in a contrasting color.  I used our school's die-cut machine to make the red Ks and Cs, but they're not necessary if you're using the craft for another activity.

TOUCHDOWN! 

(Right?)

Summer Check-In and Free Clip Art Image

Like many teachers, part of my summer "off" includes resting, reading, and creating!

My under-eye circles are fading, thanks to the start of sleeping in until 7:00 a.m.  For someone who wakes at 5:15 each morning during the school year, this is BIG.

My eldest has been supplying me with non-work related books since February, and I'm caught up with The Expanse sci-fi series, anxiously awaiting the next installment:




I've been crocheting, working ahead on a baby afghan stockpile.  Most of my new colleagues are young, newly-marrieds, and are beginning to start their own families.  As I'm old enough to be some of their mothers, and handmade baby items are becoming more and more of a rarity in this world of gift cards and internet shopping, I hope the thought, time, and effort put into each blanket are appreciated as much as the gift itself.



I'm taking two online classes in anticipation of renewing my teaching license this winter, and am planning ahead to the upcoming school year.  In the midst of creating a TPT ELA Journal pack for pre-k, kindergarten, intervention, and home school activities, I realized I wanted an iPad clip art image.  Unable to find one that I liked available for free, I quickly made my own.





It'll come in handy when I reprint my "iPad Rules" anchor chart and other activity pages too!

You can grab it by clicking here.

How have you been spending your time away from school?

Purple Crayon Craft and Freebie

We wrapped up our first week of kindergarten (half-day transition schedule) yesterday with one of my favorite storybook characters, Harold:

For the first week of school, I assign a color to each day, encouraging my students to wear and/or bring an object from home that matches.  Friday was PURPLE Day.  

On Tuesday, RED Day, I observed how my Stars held their crayons and pencils, and noted if they were righties, lefties, or were still in the process of developing hand dominance.  I took notes on who applied appropriate pressure when coloring, and who knew how to write their names.

On BLUE Day I introduced scissor skills and glue stick usage, and observed who was familiar with cutting and gluing.  Several students exclaimed that they loved school because "Mom never lets me have scissors at home!"  I also made a mental note: next Thursday is School Picture Day. NO CUTTING ACTIVITY ON WEDNESDAY.  Veteran teachers will know why.

YELLOW Day saw a repeat of our scissor and glue stick skills lesson.  Each student made sure his or her thumb was in the smaller hole of the scissor handles, and that the small hole was held above the larger.  Three rectangles were cut out and then glued to a page. The rectangles were smallish.

For PURPLE Day, I thought we'd use larger pieces of paper to help students determine how much glue would be needed, and to help them slide their glue stick around the edges of each component.  It was also time to introduce a slight curve for cutting:

I created a large oval with the word "purple" in dashed font for tracing.  It's a freebie for you over in my TPT store. 

I used a 6 X 18 piece of dark purple paper, a 6 X 14 piece of light purple paper, and a 4 1/2 inch wide piece of dark purple paper cut to resemble a crayon tip.  My Super Stars traced each letter on the printable, and then cut out the oval and added it to the assembled crayon.

Once dry, the Stars enjoyed walking through the classroom, pretending to draw pictures like Harold:

Aligned with curriculum?  Check.  Developmentally appropriate?  Check.  Skill building?  Check.  Fun?  CHECK!

*****

What are your favorite first-week-of-kindergarten activities? We'll continue with scissor and gluing practice next week when we begin our literacy unit, Colors All Around (Houghton Mifflin Reading), focusing on letters Ss, Mm, and Rr.  You can find initial sound, trace, cut and glue pages in the HM reading series order in my TPT store here.  They're perfect for beginning cutters, students who need OT intervention, initial sound phonics practice, and ELA journal activities.

~Michaele~

Freebie: Summer Bingo Cards for Teachers

I've been having fun with PowerPoint and clip art lately, and have certainly been enjoying the start to my summer.  Want to play along?  Here's a freebie Summer Bingo Card  TWO Bingo cards, just for teachers:

How many boxes will  you fill by the end of the first week of summer vacation?

What Can Mistakes Tell You?

Today as my Super Stars were reviewing facts about plane shapes (circle, square, rectangle, triangle and hexagon), I was listening, watching, asking, and supervising as I walked through the room helping each student with his or her math journal.  Joining a friend at a spot on the carpet, I took a peek at her page:

She gladly read and pointed her way through each column:

"Circle (shape), circle (not the word she glued down), and it has zero sides and zero corners."

"Square (shape), square (not the word she glued down), and it has four sides and four corners."

"Rectangle (shape) rectangle (CORRECT word), and it also has four sides and four corners, but two of the sides are long, and two of the sides are short."

She continued on through triangle and hexagon.

Asking her to look again at the circle and square columns, I asked her to find the word for each and read them to me.  She misread "square" for "circle" and "circle" for "square." I then asked her what sound she heard at the end of "circle."  She said "l," so we looked at both words again, to see if "l" appeared near the end of either.  Asking her what sound she heard at the end of "square," she said "r." She quickly looked at the words, and then realized her mistake, laughing "Oh!  I just looked at the beginning sounds.  "S" and "C" can both make the same sound (snake, cereal).  Next time I'll look at all the letters."

Mistake explained, I got another glimmer of insight as to how my friend first looks at words: by initial letter/sound.  

With some gentle pulling, she was able to apply more glue and give the words "square" and "circle" the old switcharoo.

*****

I've uploaded the PDF printable journal page for you.  The images on the PDF display correctly when printed, so don't worry about the square that appears to be missing its bottom!  The page would also be easy to print out and then enlarge if your students need bigger pieces with which to work.

Freebie: Plane and Solid Shapes Screening Pages

Here are links to my latest freebie and I'll warn you, they're no-frills!

Plane and solid shape assessment page 1:

Plane and solid shape assessment page 2:

I plan to use the screening pages as baseline, quick-check, and end-of-the-year tracking documentation.  Our secretary has copied them front-to-back.  I tried to design the first page so that it could be folded in half so as not to overwhelm students who preferred to see the paper instead of using manipulatives. 

Hope this helps as you create your documentation/assessment binders.

~Michaele~

Old Teacher, New Tricks: Freebie!

Here's a link to a mini-reader that my Stars asked to create, using some of our sight words and some fun words we've learned for the month:

They reminded me that they always like to 1) color a page and 2) illustrate the ending of the story, so you'll notice those pages don't include color clip art.  The first page of shamrocks leaves room below each one so that students can write numbers 1, 2, and 3.


Here's a link for a quick re-teach page for students that can be used at a word-work center.  It would also be easy to make enough copies for every student, then cut the strips apart, and use them daily as a quick cut/glue/read activity in their literacy journals.

Let me know what you think as it's my first *try* at sharing on Google Docs.

:)

Michaele