Paint A Pony Craft

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

My I posted my paint a pig craft, many of my readers asked for more crafts like this. Since My Little Pony is so popular these days, I made a Paint a Pony craft. So here it is! First I found a free coloring page of a horse. Here’s one if you don’t have time to hunt for one. Then decorate your pony (feel free to add a horn to make it a unicorn!). Glue it to some construction paper and decorate the scene for your pony. This craft was a huge hit with my kindergarten girls; many of them wanted to do more than one!

Teacher Memes/Cartoons – 14

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Clothes Pin Voting

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

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.

Paint A Pig (Craft Project)

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Paint a pig printable 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.

Teaching Kids Healthy Eating Habits

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

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

Free graphic organizers from Zaner-Bloser

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

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!

End of the Year Round Up

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Squarehead 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 Reading Chart

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

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!