Paper Plate Hat: Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss)

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Squarehead Teachers

Happy Read Across America Week! (What would we do without Dr. Seuss?! Such creativity from one person!) My kids needed a quick Cat in the Hat costume for school and I didn’t have much time. I came up with this simple paper plate hat and it took me about 3 minutes. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. It would be easy to have my class make them!

Supplies:

White paper plate (I used uncoated, but I’m guessing the coated would work as well. I would not use Styrofoam.)
Red marker
Scissors
Tape (I used packing tape, but Scotch tape would work too.)

Steps:

Cut the paper plate as shown below. Consider cutting a small hole to get each kid started (or if you teach younger kids, cut them out ahead of time and just let them color the stripes.)

2. Color 3 red stripes as shown below.

3. Turn the paper plate over and reinforce the fold with a small piece of tape. Without the tape, my son’s hat started to tear when he pulled it down on his head too hard. After we put the tape, it was just fine.

4. Fold the center piece up gently.

Note: you may need to cut more off (making the brim more narrow) if you’ve got larger heads you’re making this craft for. But overall, it was so simple and it turned out great. Enjoy!

Build A Jack-o-Lantern Race (Low Prep Halloween Math Facts Game)

Posted on October 28, 2024 by Squarehead Teachers

This game can be used to practice any kind of math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) or really any content where the kids have to provide a specific answer (teacher asks a question, students provide a short responds). I don’t recommend this will spelling though, because it will be hard to hear 3 kids spelling the same word all at the same time and know who got it right. Here’s the game:

Prep:

Cut out paper pieces for each team: orange pumpkin shape, 2 eyes, a mouth, a nose
Need glue to assemble the team pumpkin
Tell your students a day or two beforehand that they will do a game using multiplication facts

Goal

Be the first team to build your jack-o-lantern by answering multiplication facts correctly the fastest!

Play

Divide the class into two or 3 teams (more teams means each kid practices more facts).
(Round 1) Each team sends a representative up to the front to compete against each other to answer multiplication facts for the first round. Teams may not help. Hold up a flash card, whoever answers the fact correctly first a point in the round (keep track of how many each team answered). Do 5 facts for the round, and do a tie breaker if needed.
Whichever team has the most points at the end of the round, chooses a piece for their jack-o-lantern. Only 1 team will get a piece each round.
(Round 2) different representatives compete to earn another pumpkin piece for their team. You can do the same or different math facts, because it will be different kids answering. Again, teams may not help.
Whichever team has the most points at the end of the round, chooses a piece for their pumpkin.
Continue having rounds of multiplication facts until one team wins.

Adaptation for last-minute play:

Instead of doing pumpkin pieces and building a jack-o-lantern, write Halloween themed word, like “ghost” or “witch” on the board once for each team (or, if you want the game to be long, write “Halloween”). Circle letters in the word every time you would have given a pumpkin piece to the team that won the round. This cuts out the prep for the teacher, but I don’t think it’s as fun for the kids. They seem to like getting to walk back to their seat with a piece for their team.

What other low prep Halloween activities have you tried that incorporate math facts?

Make a Summer Writing Kit with the Leftover School Supplies

Posted on September 17, 2024 by Squarehead Teachers

Clever idea submitted by a reader (Diane, 2nd grade teacher):

I teach at a Title 1 school where students don’t have writing supplies available in their homes. I decided this year to divvy up all the used crayons, pencils, and erasers into used pencil boxes I had. I am also going to give them a spiral notebook so that they can have a summer writing kit. I am putting on the pencil box and a journal a label that says “Summer Writing Kit, Love, Mrs. W.” I’ve told the kids that if they come to our school next year, I’d love to see their writing from the summer. The kids are very excited about this, and it will hopefully promote summer writing! Worst case scenario, they’ll have a few more crayons at home to use over the summer.

Click here for the editable Word doc:

Summer Writing Kit labels Download

September 2024 Note: As you may have noticed, I took a break from this blog for a while. I’m trying to get back into it. Thanks for your patience as I relearn how to do it all! – Mindy

Beginner Handwriting Dot Trick

Posted on September 8, 2023 by Squarehead Teachers

Many kindergartners have a hard time knowing where to put their pencil when tracing letters or numbers. It’s hard for them to remember the stroke order of each one and often they make up their own stroke order. Then they practice the stroke order wrong over and over before a teacher catches it and can reteach it. I’ve found a little trick that seems to help!

I take a highlighter or colored marker and put a dot where they should start their pencil.

I’ve also put it in the spot they should put their pencil when they’re supposed to write their own letter (not tracing).

What other tricks have you learned that help your students when they’re first learning to write letters?

Paint It Kids (Guest Post)

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Squarehead Teachers

I am definitely not an artist, so teaching art lessons is not my strength. Add in the complexity of virtual learning, and I was at a total loss. So, I asked my friend (and illustrator), Jessica to explain a little bit about the art studio she works for, in hopes that it might help teachers still bring art into their curriculum amidst the swamp of work caused by COVID-19. Here is what Jessica said…

Paint It! Kids is a small art studio that decided to jump on YouTube and start a channel that has been showing kids cute and fun ways to paint and draw their favorite animals and characters. However, when we realized this school year is something that we have never seen before, Paint it Kids decided that we would upgrade our playlist! Paint It KIDS just released a Elements of Art video series, with more to come. These short animated videos are a great jumping off point in your art lesson. We also have begun production on a new art history series! Our first episode is up on Leonardo da Vinci. We have also begun production for the Principles of Art and Design series. We are releasing new content every week. Feel free to comment on any video for new lessons that you would like to see us create! Links Below:

Full YouTube Channel: Paint It Kids – YouTubewww.youtube.com › channel

Color: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09L6dJS9ZO0

Texture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSQHTx3nOBA

Space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBZun4ZHWNQ

Value: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av8ppwR2w7I

Form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8krIo9GrU-4

Shape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oREYokz93dk

Line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3gRs8Q8elg

Spoken/hand drawn videos are for younger kids:

Lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzt0V7J65mQ

Shapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7EEOlSJIjo

Color mixing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cxhwDahbm0

Self portrait: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucwF-3N2uDQ

Our first art history video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bpwmgdZbJw

If your school does not allow YouTube on campus, we do have all our videos ad free, with workbooks with each video for your students to complete with new content every week. Check us out at Paint It Kidswww.paintitkids.tv

Don’t Eat Pete Game Template

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Squarehead Teachers

Don’t Eat Pete is one of my family’s favorite games. It’s also been a favorite in my classroom! Since so many people have been sheltering-in-place because of the coronavirus, my mom (and former teacher herself) had the genius idea to make Don’t Eat Pete kits to drop off to local families with kids. She made each family a game board (or included stickers so the kids could decorate it themselves) and also included candies to use to play the game. (Click here or here to read my posts on how to play.)

So, here’s the template and you can let your kids decorate their own board! Crayons, stickers, markers, glitter*, paint* or colored pencil, just let your kids get creative!

Click here to download the PDF: Don’t Eat Pete – game template

*If you use craft supplies like these, I suggest putting the board in a page protector sleeve if you’ll be playing with something edible.

Click here to check out my other Don’t Eat Pete boards to download.

Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt – Letters

Posted on April 8, 2020 by Squarehead Teachers

So many of us are stuck at home right now during the COVID-19 pandemic, that I thought I’d make an easy “stay at home activity” (even though you can definitely do this in a classroom too!). Print one copy of this page per kid. Then look for an item that starts with the letter on the egg (little ones may need help from an adult). Once you’ve found something that starts with that letter, color in the shape the letter is in (the rest of the egg can be colored at the end). For older kids, consider having them write down the item name on the back of the page or in the margins. You can also have kids cut out the egg and decorate if further if you want to make this activity more in-depth. Stay healthy, everyone and happy Easter!

Click here to download the PDF: Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt – Letters

Easy Die Cut “Don’t Eat Pete” Board

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Squarehead Teachers

This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

I’ve written about Don’t Eat Pete before (How to play, How to play/easy Valentine’s board and St. Patrick’s Day board), but I just love this game and it’s perfect for any holiday. Seriously, I played it at every single classroom party (as a kid since my mom was often the Room Mom and again as a teacher) because it just continues to be a kid favorite… the there’s hardly ANY prep involved!!

But if you’re that teacher who wants to make something once and never have to worry about it again, here’s a post for you. My mom made this style of Don’t Eat Pete board for each holiday and then all she ever had to do was buy the candy, cereal or snack she was going to use for the game.

Step 1 – choose 9 die cuts from your school’s Halloween collection. If your school doesn’t have die cuts and you don’t want to head down to the district office to do it, just wing it and cut some simple shapes yourself. Cut them out of colored construction paper (Be careful which construction paper pack you get! one I recently purchased from Amazon didn’t include purple! Here’s a small low-priced pack that has all the basic colors!)

Step 2 – Lay them out 3 across in 3 rows on big construction paper (here’s a low-priced pack) and place small strips of construction paper between them to form a grid. If you’re in a pinch, just draw in lines using a sharpie or other permanent marker (here are some awesome metallic ones that work great for writing on black!)

Step 3 – Write numbers on each shape. This just makes it easier to remember which one is “Pete” for that round. You can also silently remind your kids by holding up fingers.

Step 4 – Laminate the entire thing! Now enjoy!