Halloween Activities

It’s starting to look like Fall around here even though Florida’s weather still is in the high 80s with absolutely no forecast of cooler weather. Even though it is blazing hot with humidity outside, our classroom is feeling more fall! Take a look at all the fun art activities and independent activities we have put together for the month of October. To start things off, we had a creative art lesson plan for Jack-O-Lanterns. We handed out pre-cut orange pumpkins. Then each child cut different shapes from black tissue paper to make two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. After cutting the black tissue paper, they used glue bottles to glue their face to the orange pumpkin. The final step was to add teeth. Every student cut out teeth (we encouraged them to try to cut triangles) and whole punched white circles for the eyes.

This activity encouraged the student to build fine motor skills by using glue bottles, scissors, and hole punches.  Our next art activity was to stamp different shapes to make orange pumpkins on a vine. We had previously read The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by: Joe Troiano. We pre-mixed different shades of orange and found foam shapes to use as stamps. We let the children stamp as many pumpkins on their vine as they could, varying in shapes and shades. For another enhancement activity check out our Spookley the Square Pumpkin Matching Game at TPT.For small groups, we came up with a few games that could be played at the table. Our first half of the year, we really try to focus on building fine motor skills so we needed an activity to express this as well as something creative for the kids to do individually. We set up four table trays. Each tray was equipped with play dough ( we used four colors for Halloween…black, green, orange, and purple), Halloween and shape cookie cutters, a rolling pin and Mr. Potato head parts. We included the shape cookie cutters to build shape recognition and reinforcement and the Mr. Potato head parts for fine motor to allow them to create their own silly monsters. Our second small group activity was a sensory bin with colored rice. We dyed the rice orange for Halloween (you can also use this for fall/Thanksgiving) We placed colored pom-poms and matching colored Halloween cups (found in the Target dollar section) to allow a sorting game. As we moved into our math/science stations, the kids were more excited to be hands on. We also extended the fine motor skills as well as the Halloween theme throughout our learning centers. For math, we included numbered clothespins and a small pinwheels with fall pictures on it for counting practiced. This activity allowed for number recognition, number matching and counting. In our science center, we experimented with our light table. A parent (who happened to be a veterinarian) brought in animal skeletons for use to view and look at. The kids had a blast trying to guess which animal each x-ray was and loved seeing all the different sized bones. For our outside activity, we took mini chalkboards outside to increase the understanding of x-rays. Each student created their own spooky x-ray picture. After completing our drawings outside, we headed inside to read Skeleton Hiccups by: Margery Culer. For our Halloween party, we took photos of all the kids in our DIY Photo Booth. WE simply put up an orange table cloth on our classroom door. I hung some black foam bats and a garland of orange pumpkins. Everyone got to pick their own photo booth props for some silly photos.

Our last game of the month was a pumpkin shape matching game. We included two-dimensional and three-dimensional shaped pumpkins. The kids really loved this game because of all the different pumpkin faces, but it really worked on shape recognition and was a great introductory tool for 3-D shapes.

Exercise Activities with Ultimate Play

Did you know that 3 out of 4 children ages 5 to 10 get less than one hour of physical activity daily? (Source) Our school offers an indoor physical activity program for students called UPLAY: Ultimate Play Sports and Movement. Each week, our school coach arranges games and activities within a theme including sports like lacrosse, soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, football, and more! This sports program helps a child’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical abilities. Take a look at some of the activities we did this week. . .

For this activity, the children got to pretend to be fly catchers. Each child was given two plastic cones and as the coach blew the bubbles (which are flies) the children had to “swat” or pop them. They had a blast pretending to squish the bugs!For this activity, the kids got to learn about the game of lacrosse. Each child learned to cradle the ball in the net and run back and forth between two stars. Some of the kids got really good at the game and were all smiles when they finished the game without dropping the ball. For this activity, the coach held out a tether ball from a pole for each child to practice bouncing the ball off of their head. The children learned how soccer players have to jump up and hit the ball outward in a game. It was interesting to watch the kids grasp the concept of jumping to the ball rather than letting the ball bounce to them.

For more information about Ultimate Play, check out their website below by clicking on their logo. All thoughts and opinions are solely my own and do not reflect upon the Ultimate Play program.

Chevron Classroom Reveal 2015

It’s a brand new school year and we are busting at the seams with lamination sheets, die cut letters, and new pocket charts! This year, I decided to go with a patterned/color scheme. I absolutely LOVE chevron---so that was a must and I incorporated poppy red, granny smith green, and turquoise into everything throughout the room. I tried not to go overboard with the chevron, but just add in accents of the colors with labels, ribbon, and hanging lanterns.Left Photo: Our Classroom door welcoming in the 16 new students I will have as Butterflies! I printed each of their photos into a colored mason jar and typed their names on the bottom.

Right Photo: This is one of our dictation walls that we are required to have for A.P.P.L.E. Each child has their own butterfly clip that is attached to the wall. When we complete a dictation piece, usually based on the theme, we hang them up as a writing/language display. We often switch this area out once a month. Left Photo: I found some wonderful turquoise chevron lanterns on Oriental Trading for $8 (6pk) so I had to grab them up. I also found mini red and green ones in the Target dollar bin for only a dollar---who could resist?

Right Photo: This is a mini bulletin board that we made into our Classroom Job Helpers. We only use a few job helpers and just rotate the students out so everyone gets to be each job at least once throughout the year. Our class jobs include: Line Leader, Door Holder, Chair Stackers (a boy and a girl), Light Switcher, Teacher Helper, Lunch Helper, Book Picker, Calendar Helper, and Caboose.Left Photo: I didn’t want to take up an entire wall just for birthdays, so I decided to use a small wall next to our door to include all of the birthdays under each month. I took a photo of each student and will place it under the month in which they were born.

Center Photo: I searched everywhere for center labels that included the specific skills we are working on in that center and could never find cute ones that I wanted to display---so, I had to make them. I included the center name and then four or five skills specific to that center.

Right Photo: Our student folder pocket chart is located in our parent communication center. These are file folders with each child’s name, where their artwork will be placed to take home.

Did you know that our Children Center Labels are available on Teachers Pay Teachers?

Left Photo: This is our location board (located next to our door outside) We change it whenever we leave the classroom to help parents locate us in case of early pick-up or late drop-offs.

Right Photo: We use these table caddies for small group art activities and morning work that requires cutting or pasting.

I found this adorable sign in Target and I LOVED the colors so I had to get it for my teacher inspiration board.

Summer Science for the Primary Classroom

What you Need: Foam Letters, Construction Paper, Glue

The kids loved making these slimy name globs with glue bottles! We prepped the colored blobs from construction paper, gave each child foam letters of their name and a glue bottle. They glued one letter to each blob and then put the letters in order to spell our their names.

What You Need: Spray Bottle with water, Kool-Aid (we used green apple) and Baking Soda

We took our science experiment outside with this Kool-Aid fun! We prepped each Styrofoam bowl with a scoop of baking soda and Kool-Aid. Then we handed them a small squirt bottle and watched the bowl turn from white to green as the “potion” got wet. The kids were amazed at the color change and massive amounts of bubbles.

What is your favorite science experiment to do in your classroom?

Carnival Snow Cones

It’s day three into our carnival week and we just had to have a special visitor to the school. The Kona Ice truck was a hit for a summer treat! Each child got to make their own snow cone and pick their favorite flavors. It was a blast and we (the teachers got to make one too) It was super hot so this was the perfect idea to tie into our carnival theme.Plus, …who doesn’t like sticky fingers???

The Kona Ice Truck is great for school events, birthday parties, and corporate events. For more information about a Kona Ice Truck near you click below

Carnival Activities for Primary Classroom

What You Need: Brown Paper Bags, Red Markers, Yellow Construction Paper, White and Yellow Tissue Paper, Glue Bottles, and Scissors.

Teacher Prep: Cut Strips of White and Yellow tissue paper, cut out popcorn shapes from yellow construction paper.

How to Make It: Each child used a red marker to make stripes of their brown paper bag first. Then, they crinkled up the white and yellow tissue paper into small balls and glued them onto their yellow “popcorn” shaped piece of construction paper. After the tissue paper dried, we then decided to glue the popcorn part to the top of the brown paper bag. each child also wrote their names on the back with a pencil. What You Need: Blue, White, and Red Paint, Paintbrushes, white and tan construction paper, glue sticks and shaving cream.

Teacher Prep: Mix the white paint in with the blue to make a light blue…do the same with red to make a light pink. Add shaving cream to each color and stir. The consistency should be airy and bubbly. Cut triangles from the tan construction paper.

How to Make It: Have the children glue on their tan triangle to the bottom of their white construction paper to make a cone. Then they can either use blue or pink paint for the cotton candy part on top. Dry completely to make the paint stay puffy and raised on the paper.

In our multi-purpose room, we set up an inside carnival for the kids to participate in. We had several games including a bean bag toss, rubber ducky matching game, ring toss, ball toss, and of course a basketball toss.

After each game, the kids got to count their tickets and have real popcorn for snack. It was a great start to our carnival week!

It’s Back to School with TPT

It’s been a summer full of fun and laughter, but we are ready to get back in the swing of schedules, lesson planning, and printing all those crazy cute labels. As I begin the back to school bustle of activity planning and making common core packets, I had to stop and prep our TPT store for the upcoming Back to School Sale! Everything in our store will be 20% off and we have even added two new FREEBIES of mini poster sets!

<------Click on the image to check out all the products that will be on sale!

Reminder, it all begins tomorrow morning August 3rd, so be sure to check out all of our amazing early learning packets and activity sets---they won’t disappoint.

Check out more during the month of September for Learning Packets with all new themes right here on the blog!

Luau Activities for the Primary Classroom

It’s Tiki Time and we had a week packed full of Luau activities from Musical Limbo to a hoola dancing contest. The kids had a blast with our Hawaiian themed photo booth and even decided to pose like surfers!

Are you wondering how to make your own Hawaiian Photo Booth? Well here is what you need:

• One dark blue plastic tablecloth and one light blue plastic tablecloth
• One grass skirt, Different colored leis, and luau decorations
• Skim Board or Child’s surf board

Tap up the dark blue tablecloth to the wall and push a small table underneath. Cover the table with the light blue tablecloth and place skim board on top. Have children dress up in Hawaiian clothes and pose on the board. Take their picture. You can add the year and “Aloha” in Microsoft PowerPoint!

Luau Art Activity: Making LeisStart by prepping your materials (colored straws cut into pieces, color flowers cut from a lei, yarn cut in the size of necklaces or bracelets, neon colored beads). Let the kids create their own jewelry to wear for your Luau party. This activity helps with fine motor skills and motor control plus the kids love making anything they can wear!

What is your favorite Luau activity to do with your students?

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Father’s Day Fun: Stache Style

Our father’s day celebration was a success! We started off the morning with donuts, orange juice and lemonade to cover the typical “Donuts with Dad” day. I wanted to put a little twist on the day however and make it more of a birthday party for Dad- - - so I went with a Mustache theme (my kids thought it was hilarious)

Snack: Our Father’s Day snack consisted of glazed donuts from Dunkin Donuts, munchkins from Target, and jelly filled crispies from Publix. We also provided Lemonade, Water, Orange juice and even coffee (just for the dads). Of course we had to include cute little mustache straws . . . .and a sweet treat to take home. Gift Ideas: I found these cute pillow boxes at Target for 4 for $1 and printed “Dad’s Stache” labels from my computer. We glued the labels on top and the kids got to fill the boxes with their dad’s favorite candy bars. We had a selection of Milky Way, Snickers, Reese’s Cups, Twix, Hershey Kisses, and Rolos.

Writing & Display Piece: We also made some pretty adorable Dad Interviews! I simply added a mustache to the top of each interview paper and backed them with fun scrapbook paper. I then laminated them so the dad could keep them FOREVER! Seriously, their answers were too funny not to laugh. I have even included a FREEBIE! You can get a copy our our Mustache Daddy Interview right HERE.  All you have to do is download it from our TPT store, print and go!

This packet includes 13 questions to answer, a blank spot for your name and year. We hope you enjoy!

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Summer Sale KickOff

We are kicking off our summer with some HOT deals in our TPT store! Pick up some great materials May 1st through the 3rd (starting tomorrow) with 20% off our entire store. All items will be on sale, including 3 NEW items that we will post on the day of the sale!

Check them out below:

Five Green and Speckled Frogs Learning Pack for Pre-Kinders is a great way to celebrate story time. This language and math kit includes a poem from the book to use on any artwork, to post in class, or put in a file folder game. It includes storyboard cards to use in a pocket chart and a “Which frog goes on this log?” matching game.

• Pages in packet: 10 (includes color & black and white)

Class Superlative Awards for Pre-K through 5th is a wonderful End of the Year packet to use with your class. It includes 12 different awards in both color and in black & white. Each award is presented in a boy version and a girl version. The awards include: Best Smile, Best Laugh, Best Reader, Most Improved, Perfect Attendance, Most Caring, Most Athletic, Friendship, Biggest Heart, Little Artist, Little Mister and Little Miss.

• Pages in packet: 24 (includes color & black and white)

The Animal Graphing Charts for Pre-K through 5th is an amazing deal for math centers and easy small group activities. It includes a color and black & white graphs for each of the following categories: Bugs (Beetle, Dragonfly, Grasshopper, and Snail), Desert Animals (Giraffe, Kangaroo, Rhino and Snake), Dinosaurs (T-Rex, Tara Dactyl, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus), Farm Animals (Rooster, Cow, Pig, and Sheep), Forest Animals (Deer, Raccoon, Fox, and Skunk), Jungle Animals (Cheetah, Alligator, Gorilla, and Lizard), Ocean Animals (Jellyfish, Crab, Seahorse, and Octopus), Rain Forest Animals (Toucan, Frog, Monkey, and Panda), Safari Animals (Lion, Hippo, Elephant, and Zebra), and Zoo Animals (Parrot, Koala, Turtle, and Flamingo).

• Pages in packet: 22 (color & black and white)

We hope you enjoy your summer! Be sure to check out site throughout the summer break for new products and our Back to School Sale in August!

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FREE Emergent Readers for Pre-Kinders

Teaching children to read and write is one of the toughest jobs a teacher must pursue and it usually falls in the hands of early childhood educators to accomplish this task. Many parents/guardians may not realize the importance of early reading and writing skills and how they can help build the foundation for a strong academic future. Let’s go over five reasons why students can benefit from early reading skills.

• Educational Reasons:
• Proficiency in reading strategies enables children to comprehend what they are learning about and gives them confidence in reflection of certain subjects.
• Reading allows children to excel in all areas of academics.
• Emergent reader books, in particular, can help pre-kinders learn their first words and most sight words.
• Linguistic Reasons:
• Not only can Emergent Reader books help build reading skills, but it can build vocabulary, improve writing, enhance spelling, and build oral communication.
• Neurological Reasons:
• The first six years in a child’s life is the most vital in strengthening brain connections to learning processes.
• Children pick up on talking, singing, and reading skills at an early age which can increase their love of learning and reading.
• Psychological Reasons:
• Early reading skills can grow a child’s self confidence and independence.
• Reading can spark creativity and a world of imagination.
• Social Reasons:
• At an early age, children are socially aware of their peers and surroundings. This can easily deter their self confidence and respect if they are timid and shy. Reading creates an equal opportunity for students to relate to their peers.
• Reading can even help struggling students with basic letter recognition and phonics.

Our emergent reader books use sight words and themes to help build pre-kinders vocabulary and pre-reading skills. Each of our Pre-Kinders Emergent Reader books are FREE and include directions for each.

Click Here to Download the Emergent Readers on TPT

*Research adapted from: Benefits of Early Reading: Why teach your child to read? Teach Reading Early

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Earth Day in the primary Classroom

Our Earth Day celebration started off with some fun activities involving paint! Of course, we had to make hand prints and incorporate the colors of our Earth! We had a blast painting each hand a different color and talking about what things we can do to keep our Earth clean and safe.

For this literacy project, we simply took a white paper plate, painted out handprints blue (for the water) and green (for the land). Then each child glued on a small poem that I printed out and wrote their names on the bottom with a pencil.

Our poem reads:

“Everyday is Earth Day,

If its cold or wet or hot,

Pitch in to save the planet

It’s the only one we’ve got!”

I also found this wonderful activity (from Kinder Craze) to do for an art activity that included a mosaic looking Earth, which I really loved. However, we adapted it a bit for our classroom. Instead of using water colors, we decided to use crayons since we didn’t have thick sturdy cardstock. The colors did not turn out as bright as the water colors but each child was able to personalize it with some of their favorite colors.

You can click HERE to see Maria’s full activity!

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