Spring is in the Air

Pastel paper and flower die cut add a springy touch to this seasonal web.  Place in a literacy writing center, or use in a whole group lesson.  Challenge students to write sentences about spring on the back.

Landforms

This is a great visual to show how much water covers the earth compared to land.  Students label bodies of water.  On the land portion students can also add landforms, resources, people, and animals.  I prep the paper plates by folding them into fourths, so the kids have a guide to draw the lines. 

Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day, we brainstormed ideas of how to take care of our earth on a class web.  Then, the kids made one of their own.  I love their ideas!

Rainbow Writing

Just the mention of a rainbow brings a smile to a child. Incorporate a rainbow into the mundane task of teaching sight words, and you've made the teacher smile, too! 

Writing with a crayon and tracing over the word in different colors to make a rainbow, adds a bright spot that students love to this skill practice. This booklet not only allows for repeated spelling practice, but space is provided for the student to write the word in a sentence, which also makes it a great tool to reinforce capitalization, spacing, and punctuation.  Rainbow writing provides repeated spelling practice in a format that kids love. 

Rainbow Writing Booklets
Pre-Primer Dolch List, Color Words, Number Words 0-10, Common Core Words
Primer Dolch List, Common Core Words
Click here to check out more information on these booklets.

Don't want to buy the product?  Reformat the idea to fit the needs of your students.  It is a simple idea that gets big results.  I place the booklet in a literacy center, and the students complete 2 pages each week.  I absolutely love the fact that all of our sight words are in here, so once I get the booklet copied and introduced, this center is ready to go for 12 weeks.

100 Fingers

As a busy mom and teacher I often wish for more hands.  In frustration, I've said many times to my family, "Look at me...how many hands do I have?"  I never knew just how much I used that phrase until our then three year old held up his hands and said to my husband, "Look at me...how many fingers do I have?"  Years later, when things get hectic, we hold up our hands and say with a smile, "How many fingers do I have?"  Each year when I make this 100 Fingers chart, I think about that story, and how much I could get done if I had 100 fingers!

100 Fingers

The 100 Fingers chart is a great visual for counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's.  I paint 1 hand of each student.  Once the paint is dry, we go back and label each finger as we count together.  We then add the labels for counting by 10's, and finally the labels for counting by 5's.  (Your chart can always have a different number of fingers, depending on the size of your class.  If I have an odd number of students, I also paint my hand.)

President's Day

I plan to use this printable to review what we have learned about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama.  Students will identify and label the names of the presidents, as well as write a sentence about each.

Click here to download for free.

Valentine's Day Art

Aluminum Foil Painting

Who can resist shiny paper and hearts, especially for Valentine's Day?  Exchange a piece of white paper with aluminum foil, and you have added instant pizzazz to any painting project.

The prep is easy.  

1.  Tear off a piece of foil and glue it to a 12 x 18 piece of construction paper.

2.  Trim the end off of the construction paper.  

3.  Provide tempera paint and small brushes.

4.  Let the oohs and aahs begin!  

This is one of those projects that we do just for fun during free centers.  However, you could easily put this in a literacy center to reinforce spelling or sight words.  I can already see their eyes light up, because they can't wait to paint those words!