Rainbow Fish – Friendship Activity

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Rainbow Fish- Friendship STICKER The children’s book, Rainbow Fish, has been the subject of a few posts recently (click here and here for the previous posts). Rainbow Fish has so many good applications to character development. In the book, Rainbow Fish learns that he has more friends when he shares. Here’s one more activity you can use to develop this theme of what real friendship looks like. To complete the activity, students are directed to only color in the fish that have characteristics of real friendship.

Click here for the free printable PDF: Rainbow Fish Learns Friendship

Rocks & Soil Page

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Rock soil STICKER My friend teaches first grade. Their class is just wrapping up their unit on rocks and soil (Common Core science standards for 1st grade). I made this graphic organizer for her to give as a fast-finisher after the test or as a review activity . She hasn’t decided which she’ll use it for yet. It asks students to draw places they might find/use soil and rocks.

Click here for the free printable PDF: Rocks and Soil PDF

Rainbow Fish Activities (2)

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

A few days ago, I wrote about the Children’s book, Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. Click here for the original post. I found a few more fun activities that can help you continue your focus on social skills and high morals.

Retell the story and act it out using decorated clothespins as scales (source).

Glue pieces of tissue paper and googly eyes onto paper plates (source unknown).

Decorate old CD’s with sequins and glitter (source unknown).

St. Patrick’s Day Grammatical Poetry

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

So many of my readers enjoyed my previous posts about grammatical poetry, that I decided to make some more. So here’s another one. It’s a fun language arts activity that will help your kids review grammar while composing their own poem about St. Patrick’s Day. Click here for the free printable PDF: Grammatical Poetry- St. Patrick’s Day

Here’s what the page looks like:

Grammatical Poetry- St Patricks

Click here for more grammatical poetry!

St. Patrick’s Day Persuasive Writing

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

St Patrick's Day Persuasive Writing STICKER I love leprechauns! Those pesky little guys spark so much creativity in my students! Here’s a fun writing activity for you to try. The persuasive writing prompt is this: Convince a leprechaun to tell you where his pot of gold is. Kids come up with the funniest reasons! I usually take some time to review what makes a good persuasive writing piece. In addition, I let the kids read their piece to two friends before they turn it in. This also makes a great bulletin board if you’ve got one where people can stand and read what’s on it.

Click here for the free printable PDF: St. Patrick’s Day Persuasive Writing

Rainbow Fish Activities (1)

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

The Children’s book, Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister, has always had a special spot in my heart. From the time it was published in 1992, I have loved the illustrations, and especially the morals (sharing and humility brings happiness). The author has since published many more books that teach about character and social skills (click here for more information). I think these books are perfect for classrooms, especially since schools are being given more and more responsibility for teaching children basic character and social skills. So here are a few activities to do after reading the book. Use each activity as an opportunity to discuss these character traits and social skills with your class.

Trace hands and make fancy fish (source).

Create a class wall piece showing the qualities of a friend (source).

Paint bubble wrap and then press it onto paper like it’s a stamp (source).

Counting on Fingers (Number Sense Activity)

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I love this math activity. It’s genius on so many levels! This would help students with addition and subtraction, but also to teach “the 9’s trick” with multiplication! It would be a great introductory/review activity at the beginning of the year, especially to have each student trace their own hands and make one of these themselves. (source)

I know many parents (and some teachers) don’t like it when kids use their fingers to count or do math. Many see it as a sign of weakness of lack of understanding. However, each time you allow a child to use their fingers (or a hundreds chart or multiplication chart, for that matter) to get the right answer, you’re providing them an opportunity to discover and work for the CORRECT answer. Eventually kids will learn their facts from repetition or they’ll get tired of being the only one without them memorized and they’ll fix the problem. After all, speed isn’t what’s important in math. YES, it definitely helps and it has clear advantages, but it’s not the end-all, be-all. There, I’m done with my soap box; I’ll put it away now. 🙂

Inquiry Lesson: Sieve of Eratosthenes (Prime Numbers)

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

A friend of mine uses this lesson to teach her students about prime numbers, and prime factorization. (Note the lesson plan’s author is also named Mindy!). I’ve tried it with 6th graders and it’s pretty clear cut. Each student gets to work with a different number, creating a good learning experience for all. Here’s the lesson: Math Inquiry Lesson

If you’re not familiar with the Sieve of Eratosthenes, here’s the Wikipedia article.