What do you do to add some fun to your classroom after the holidays are over? It’s to early to bring Valentines into the picture, so what now? I say continue to use winter themed stuff. Because we can! Here’s my “picture fractions” worksheet for winter. Basically, it teaches kids to focus on what they have (numerator) compared to the whole collection (denominator). Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!
Click here for the free PDF: Winter Picture Fractions
Winter provides an opportunity to see the world in a completely different way than the rest of the year. Help children capture the wonder of winter with winter-themed art projects! Here are some of my favorites:
Snowflake Art Trading Cards: Uses watercolor and salt (source).
Owls in the Night: Uses tempera paint and cardboard (source).
Winter Tree Silhouette: Uses masking tape and watercolor paint (source).
I found a great page that’s got trivia, count-downs, puzzles and printables for kids! There’s always somebody who brings a kid to the New Year’s Eve party and you have nothing for them to do! Or you’re looking for a warm-up page to give your class the first day back to school… either way, this fun website is for you!
One of the standards on the new Common Core is that students will be able to write numbers in various forms. One of these forms is to write out a number in word form. For example, the number 164 is “one hundred sixty four.” Here’s a game/activity for two students to do. They must try to get 4 squares in a row by writing the word form of the number printed in the square. Enjoy!
Click here for the free PDF: Number forms battle
I recently saw this idea and thought it was really cool! At the beginning of the year, students make a poster introducing themselves using numbers! Shoot, you could do this activity at any point in the year, not just the start of the year. For example they might use shoe size, weight, height, number of siblings, birthday, class number, number of pets they’ve owned, etc. Here comes the challenge (for upper grades): then students use sticky tabs to cover the actual numbers (written in standard form) and instead write an equation. See the examples below:
Then display the posters and see if kids can figure out who is who. This is especially fun if kids have completed the poster as a homework assignment (so kids don’t see them making it). Either way, it’s a great way to build number sense and reinforce the idea that a number can be written many, many ways. Enjoy!
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I LOVE the paint section at Lowes! All the colors are just way too fun. Also, there are times when I need students partnered randomly and I need a clever way to do it. So here’s my paint swatch student mixer idea:
Note: this idea requires time to let kids find their partner. I found this was a quick, effective break before introducing the new assignment.
I recently saw this photo on a blog and thought I’d make you a printable to go with it!
Here’s my free printable PDF: Q tip painting letters Use this letters page for your kids to trace with q-tips and paint, crayons or markers. To make things smoother for an entire class doing this activity, have kids write their name on the back before they start. If you’re doing this with a small group or single child, you can also help them practice fine motor skills by having them line up beads along the lines of the letters. After your tracing activity is complete, cut up the letters and place them around the room on objects that start with that letter/sound. Enjoy!
Author/illustrator, Chris Gall, is my neighbor’s brother. Since I first met him and learned about his books, I’ve been impressed.
My favorite book, Dinotrux, has been a huge hit with our second graders. Dinotrux is a 32-page book that takes place in a fictional prehistoric age, when the world was ruled by Dinotrux, creatures that were part trucks, part dinosaurs (with species like the Craneosauraus, Garbageadon and Tyrannosaurus Trux) plowing and bulldozing their way across the terrain. I recently learned that it’s going to be made into a DreamWorks CG movie (potentially as early as 2018)!!
So if you haven’t had a chance to read it to your class, snag it from the library! You can use it to teach the value of writing, i.e. movies, TV shows, songs, and most ideas start out as writing!
Squarehead Teachers 