Thank You, Creative Teaching Press!

In February, I received an email from Creative Teaching Press inviting readers to share their Valentine's Day craft activities.  

I don't know about you, but I am usually full of ideas, but short on time!  Since that thought is usually the norm, I simply glance at those emails and think "Oh, that would be really great."  "I wish I had the time to send a few photos."  

Well, since I absolutely LOVE the products from Creative Teaching Press, I found five minutes and replied with two photos.  A few days later I received an email that my entry had been chosen as a winner!

Look at the fun products I received from the great people at 

Creative Teaching Press!

It was "Christmas Day" (only in March) when the Creative Teaching Box arrived at my front door!

I am excited to share the fun my pre-k students are having this week using these products.

The Shamrock 10" Jumbo Designer Cut-Outs were the inspiration for my favorite project of the week. 

 Here's What To Do:

Turn the Jumbo Shamrock upside down to make the body, add a semi-circle for the face, trace and cut out the hat, and glue the pieces together.  

Glue orange construction paper strips to the face and roll the ends of the strips to make a beard.

Accordion fold green construction paper strips and glue these strips to the jumbo shamrock to add the arms and the legs.

Add some boots, hands, and a buckle on the hat and you're almost done!

For the final touches, use a black marker to draw the face and add some "lucky" shamrock two-color calendar cut-outs to the Leprechaun's hat and hand.

I have many more fun ideas to share!  I'll post more pictures soon!

Happy Teaching and Learning!

St. Patrick's Day Fun From The Archives

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

Here are a few former posts just in time for 

St. Patrick's Day!

Make These Cute Leprechauns!

Click here for the archived post.

 

  Review and practice -ing and -ed word endings.

Click here for the archived post.

 Grab a hat and practice sight words.

  Click here for the archived post.

  Use the letters in the word "leprechauns".

How many words can you spell?

Click here for the archived post.

So little time, so much fun!

Happy March!

V is for Vase and Valentine's Day

 V is for Vase 

and 

Valentine's Day Fun

 Coffee Filter Art

Start with a coffee filter and washable markers. 

(Cover the table with newsprint and/or paper towels to make clean up quick and simple.)

 

Use the washable markers to draw and color on the coffee filter.  

Use an eyedropper to drip water onto the coffee filter.  

Since coffee filters are porous, the ink will spread and blend with the colors next to it.

 (If you do not have an eyedropper, use a water bottle and lightly spray the filter.) 

  

Allow the colorful filters to dry.

 

While the coffee filters dry, assemble the vase.  We used a cut-out letter v for the vase, added the green flower stems and leaves, and the (blended coffee filter) flowers.

Add heart stickers throughout the design for extra Valentine's Day fun! 

 Extra heart stickers make great books too!

My Heart Counting Book

 

Here's a counting book made by my preschoolers.

It was quick and easy to make these cute napkin covered books.

  I used a holiday napkin, stapled blank paper inside, and added the counting phrases.   

The Pre-Ker's added the stickers and practiced their counting skills.

 K-2 students could easily write math word problems and use heart stickers to illustrate their math thinking!

Happy Teaching!

Past February Activities

 

February Activities From The Archives

Valentine Kids

 Loose Tooth Writing Project

 Love Bugs

 Robert Munsch Author Study

Torn Paper Hearts

Addition and Subtraction

Finish Your Planning.

Enjoy the Weekend!

It's Almost Groundhog Day!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Fun Art Project

 Download the Writing Paper And a Poetry Page Below.

Happy <ALMOST> February!

Animal Groups and Animal Characteristics

My students love animals!  

So, to keep a sense of routine during these last few weeks of school, our morning have been filled with reading and writing activities for Animal Groups.  My students worked in small groups and with partners to read, write, and share all about animals and animal characteristics!

We started with this fabulous resource from Scholastic!

Students used graphic organizers and post-it notes to record their learning.  Then they worked with partners to write reports.

Here's a look at our reports.

"Facts About Mammals" featured a student designed cut and paste of their favorite mammal.

"Learning About Birds" featured a paper plate bird art project.

"Reptiles" featured an alligator or turtle shaped writing book with student generated facts.

Here's a look at an alligator shaped book.

Fun With Fish

 Students used a teacher prepared writing booklet to write on the topics of characteristics of fish, fish habitats, fish food, fish babies, and interesting fish facts.  (The student work in unedited in all of these photos.)

Here's a look at a few of the fish designed paper plate projects.

We read, studied, and wrote about Insects!  Here's a look at a report!

We also covered amphibians, but I guess I did not take a photo of those projects!  It's been a busy week!

We finish school on June 21!

Hope you are having a great month!