1. Describe a place you always wanted to visit.
2. Describe the most beautiful scene in nature that you can imagine.
3. Describe a kitchen that you have seen or would love to see.
4. Describe the ocean. Think about what it looks like on and below the surface.
5. Describe a storm. This could be a thunder storm, a snow storm, a hurricane, a tornado, a hail storm, a rain storm, or any type of storm.
6. Describe a place where you feel safe and protected.
7. Describe a toy you love(d). Think of all its good points.
8. Describe your ideal playground.
9. Describe the perfect shopping mall.
10. Describe a place where people congregate (like a zoo, a church, a circus, etc.)
11. Describe your bedroom the way you want it to be.
12. Describe your favorite dessert (or food).
13. Describe a beach (a desert, a mountain, a city, or a plain).
14. Think of your favorite animal and describe that animal.
15. Describe your best friend so that the reader can picture him or her.
16. Think of your favorite place. What do you like about this place? What do you do there? How does it look, smell, and feel? Now write an essay describing your favorite place so that your reader will be able to picture it.
17. Some people prefer dogs as pets, some like cats, and others prefer birds, snakes, fish, rabbits, pigs, horses, and other animals. What is your perfect pet? What does it look like? Is it soft or hard? Does it make any sounds? Now describe your idea of a perfect pet so that your reader can picture it.
18. Different teachers decorate their classes in different manners. Think of your idea of the perfect classroom. Is it colorful? Does it have desks or tables? What does it look like? How does it smell? Are there any sounds in it? Write an essay describing your idea of the perfect classroom.
19. Each season of the year is beautiful in some way. Think of which season is your favorite: winter, summer, spring or fall. Think of what your town looks like during that season. What does it feel like? Is there a smell or taste to it? Now write an essay describing an outdoor scene during your favorite season of the year.
20. Everyone has a favorite object that they treasure. Think of some object in your room that you really like. It could be a toy, or a doll, a game, a stuffed animal, or a book, but whatever it is, it is special to you. What does it look, feel, smell, and sound like? Now, describe this object to your reader so that he or she will be able to picture it clearly.
21. Every person has a favorite place to play. Think of your favorite place to play. It may be your backyard, or a playground, or a nearby woods, or an open field. What does this place look like? What are the sounds you hear there? What does it feel and smell like? Describe your favorite place to play so that your reader can see it without being there.
22. Almost all houses have kitchens. Some are big and some are tiny. Think of the kitchen at your home. Think of how you might change it to make it even better. What is in it? What does it smell like? Now, describe this perfect kitchen to your reader so that he or she can see it clearly.
23. There are trees everywhere, even in the middle of big cities. Think of a tree you have seen. What does it look, feel, and sound like? Describe that tree so that your reader can picture it too.
24. People gather at places like malls, fairgrounds, schools, gymnasiums, sports fields and swimming pools. Think of a place in your town where there are lots of people. How does it look, sound, smell, and feel to be there? Now, describe that crowded place so that your reader can feel as if he or she is there.
25. Every child enjoys playing on a playground. Think of the playgrounds you have played in. Think of what makes them better. Maybe you’ve already seen it, but think of what makes the perfect playground. Think of how it looks, sounds, feels, and smells. Now, describe your idea of a perfect playground so that your reader can see it clearly.
26. Even in the desert it rains sometimes. Think of what the world looks like outside your window when it rains. Think about how it looks, smells, and feels. What sounds do you hear? What does rain taste like? Describe what the world looks like outside a window when it rains.
27. Flowers always make a yard or a room look very pretty. Think of a garden or a bunch of flowers you have seen. Make it even better and prettier in your mind. What does it look and feel like? Does it smell? Describe the garden or a bunch of flowers so that your reader can see it and smell it in his or her mind.
28.Cities and towns have lots of things going on in them, lots of stores, traffic, people, churches, schools, parks, and maybe even a zoo. Think of your city or a city you have visited. As you walk down the sidewalk in the middle of that city, what do you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel? Describe that city for your reader and what it is like to be there.
29. Even in big cities, there are parks where there are woods (or forest). There are woods everywhere in this big country of ours. Think of a forest you have been in or played in. What does it look like? Now describe this forest so that the reader can see it.
30. Alice visits Wonderland in Alice in Wonderland. Wonderland is the land of her dreams. What is the ideal place for you? What place do you dream about? What does it look like? Does it have a smell? How does it feel? Do you hear sounds there? Describe the ideal place of your dreams in such a way that the reader can picture it, too.
31. We all eat to stay alive, but everyone has a favorite food. What is your favorite food in the world? What does it look like? How does it smell and taste in your mouth? Describe your favorite food so that your reader can see it and almost taste it as well.
32. Many people love the beach and others love the mountains for a vacation. Which do you like better; the beach or the mountains? Even if you have never been to either, you have seen pictures. Choose one— either a beach or the mountains. What does the place look like? Does the place have a feel to it? What smells are there? What sounds do you hear? Describe your beach or mountains so that your reader can picture the scene you see in your mind.
33. Everyone has a favorite game, dominoes, checkers, cards, Clue, Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly, and so on. What is your favorite game? What does it look like when you play? What sounds do you hear as you play? Describe your favorite game so that the reader can see it and hear the action as you play.
34. Everyone has to shop for food or clothes sometime. Think of a store to which you like to go. What does it look like inside the store? Are there sounds? What do things feel like there? Does the store have a smell? Write a description of a store you like to visit so that your reader can feel as if he or she were there.
35. People live in houses, apartments, tents, cabins, trailers, and other buildings. Where do you live? Think of your ideal living place. Perhaps it’s where you live now. What does it look like? Does it have a smell? Describe your ideal living place or the place where you live so that your reader can picture it clearly.
36. Imagine that you were on a ship in the middle of the ocean. What does your ship look like? How does the ocean look? What does the sky look like above you? What do you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste as you look about? Describe your ship in the middle of an ocean of water.
37. Everyone has been in a thunder storm. Think back to when you last experienced a thunder storm. What was it like? What were the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings during the storm? Describe a thunder storm so that your reader can experience and picture it.
38. Imagine that someone gave you a very special ring. What does this ring look like as it sits on your finger? How does it feel? Is it heavy? Is there a taste to it? How does it sound if you rap it on the desk? Does it smell? Describe this ring down to the last detail so that your reader can picture it on your hand.
39. Our country has a flag with fifty stars representing the fifty states and thirteen stripes representing the thirteen colonies. Your state has a flag, too, with things that represent important historical events and items of your state. Imagine that you had a flag which represented you. What would it look like? How does it feel? Does it have a smell? Does it make a sound as it waves in the breeze? Think of some images it would have on it to represent you to the world. Now, describe your personal flag so that your reader can see it clearly.
40. Almost everyone has had an encounter with a spider, has read the book Charlotte’s Web and has seen pictures of spiders in their webs. Think of a spider and web you have seen. It could have been real, in a book, or in your imagination. What do this spider and web look like? Do they make a sound? What do they feel like if you touch them? Do they have a smell? Now, describe your spider and its web so vividly that your reader can see it as if it were right in front of him or her.
Many teachers are required to take a lunch count in the morning. This can be a headache. Here’s an idea that will help save you time and energy. Assign each student a clothes pin (put their name or student number on both sides). Then print off this clothes pin voting board PDF (best on card stock or heavy paper), cut it out and laminate it.
Place this page somewhere in your room where kids can place their vote each day. Since the sheet is laminated, you can use a whiteboard marker to write each day’s options at the top. If choices are repeated often, some teachers may prefer to make a little card for each option and laminate it for re-use. You can attach these little cards to the voting board with a paper clip.
Instruct students to fill the board with clothes pins from the TOP FIRST. This way, it will be very easy for you to use the numbers on the board to get the total for each option.
This board can also be used for a variety of voting/graphing activities.
Here’s a fun, easy craft project that’s simple enough that my kindergarten kids figured it out with hardly any help. Each kid decorated their pig however they wanted. Then they told each other a story about how the pig came to look the way it looked. The stories got pretty wild (which is the fun part). You could even go on to focus on adjectives that describe the pig, nouns the pig likes, write a story about the pig, etc. Have fun!
Click here for the free printable: Paint a Pig – Printable
Here’s a fun song that goes with little piggies:
“Five Dancing Piggies” (“Five Little Monkeys” tune)
Five little piggies dancing in the dirt,
One fell down and he got hurt.
Mama came running from across the farm
And put that piggy inside the barn…
Repeat until no piggies are left.
No more piggies dancing in the dirt,
They all fell down; they all got hurt.
Outside, no piggies can be found.
They’re all indoors, safe and sound.
It’s hard to teach kids healthy eating habits, but teaching kids about health is part of most state standards. In California, for example, nutrition and physical activity is taught starting in kindergarten. But how do you do this while juggling everything else you’ve got to do as a teacher? Here are some helpful resources:
My Pyramid– Make your own individual pyramid based on your age, gender and physical activity level
Super Tracker – Sign up for a free account and track your nutrition, physical activity, set goals and look up nutritional information on all kinds of foods using the Food-Pedia.
Teacher Stuff– curricula and lesson plans on nutrition
Literature– Great list of kids books about food, physical exercise & nutrition
Wow. I’m bummed I just now found this (since it only goes through May): Teacher Appreciation week at Zaner-Bloser! Here’s their free download of 42 graphic organizers! Thanks for all you do, teachers!
The last day of school’s kind of a bust. You can’t really do anything productive since the kids are completely wound up (and you’re probably busy packing up your classroom for the summer). So finding non-crazy (but still fun) things to do is hard. That’s why many teachers do some kind of end of the year review project where kids can capture a snapshot of the year. in a fun way. So without further ado, here’s my “end of the year round up” page:
Summer! The time everyone dreams about all year long. It’s the time for swimming, ice cream cones and forgetting everything you learned in school the year before. Wait!? What!? That’s not how summer should be! Summer should be a time when kids (and adults) continue to learn and explore the world around them. If that’s too tall an order, at least read. That’s bare minimum.
Every summer there are a number of programs with rewards systems set up to help keep kids reading and learning. Two notable summer reading programs are the Scholastic Summer Challenge and Barnes and Noble Summer Reading. Many local libraries have something every summer too.
Here’s my printable summer reading chart to help kids set and track summer reading goals. I chose to track Monday through Saturday. Older kids should read for longer periods of time than younger kids. Ask your child’s teacher what a reasonable daily goal is for your child.
To motivate your child, have them choose an activity to do the following week if they meet their reading goal. The top line is for your child’s name. Use stickers, smiley faces or anything else to mark down each day they accomplish their reading. Happy summer!
Squarehead Teachers 