Here are some fun activities I’ve seen recently that deal with states of matter (solid, liquid, gas):
Great visual and foldable for states of matter (source)
Life cycle of a snowman (source)
Encourage kids to write journals about experiments with states of matter. This one involved observing butter and chocolate left outside in the sun (source)
Bouncing bubbles activity (source)
Here’s a practice page for reviewing/identifying parts of geometric shapes (angles, sides, vertices, parallel lines, etc). Click here for the free printable PDF: Shapes Rock
I recently read a blog post on all the fun ways you can modify tic-tac-toe to make it more educational. This idea was my favorite: Cut up an egg carton (or make your own board out of paper) and create pieces of two different colors. On each piece, write a high-frequency sight word you would like your child or class to practice. Then have the kids play the standard game with these rules:
I would make a bunch of sets for my classroom using a variety of sight words so kids can play when they finish an assignment. If you use paper (pieces and boards), laminate them so they’ll last longer. Also, to keep sets together, I’d make a blue set (using light and dark blue pieces) so the kids know all the blue pieces go together.
This game can also be played with letter names and sounds if you’re working with younger kids (preschool, kindergarten, first grade).
For some reason, the word “antonyms” or way harder for kids to remember than “opposites.” So to teach them, I’ve made a practice game for 2 students to play. It’s like Connect Four, but kids have to supply an antonym to claim the square. Click here for the free printable worksheets:
antonyms battle
antonyms battle 2
One second grade teacher submitted this cute idea for introducing magnets and electricity:
“This is really a great way to start a unit on atoms etc. Atoms are the basics for understanding magnets and electricity. Magnets and electricity is what all our technology is based on. I’m not a scientist, but understanding that made me want to talk about atoms before we dove into magnets and electricity so that science would make sense and not just be a bunch of fun experiments, with nothing tying it all together.
This is a link for a PowerPoint story on atoms and then the song on atoms if you want to use it. The PowerPoint has the song lyrics, and then gets more detailed. I don’t use the whole thing, just parts of it.”
Here’s a super cute idea one elementary school librarian did to help encourage kids to use the library’s resources. It’s name is Zoinks the Answer Alien.
Every week, Zoinks asks a question that encourages kids to do research in the library. For example, the question might be “what year was Charlotte’s Web published?” or “what country is directly north of Moldova?” When the kids find the answer, they write it down with their source and “feed it” to Zoinks. If they’re correct, they’re entered into a weekly prize drawing. Such a cool idea! (Go to the Source for more info).
Since the Common Core requires students to know various ways to write the same number, I made another practice page. This one is for 2 students to play and deals with writing expanded forms of a number written in standard form. For example, if the page says “245,” the student should write “200 + 40 + 5.” Click here for the free printable PDFs:
Another break away from school means kids have a lot to tell you and their friends! Help them share their fun news with this free Winter Break report printable. It’s a quick, easy way to capture memories of their holidays while doing some writing! Win-win!
Click here for the free PDF: Winter Break Write Up
Squarehead Teachers 