Sunday, July 15, 2007

Friendship Theme Lesson Plans and Activities

Listed below are ideas that newsletter subscribers have submitted of activities they use in relation to the Friendship theme unit.

1. For the friendship unit, you could include a game called Musical Hugs (or musical high fives). It's like musical chairs except when the music stops, you have to give someone a hug (or a high five). No one gets "out" in this game. Nicole Wassil

2. We have staggered entry in kindergarten, so once the whole class is together we read The Kissing Hand. After the reading, we help the students trace their hand on different color construction paper. They cut them out & then choose a foam heart to glue in the middle. I then display them on the wall together in the shape of a heart and leave them up for the year. When the students get them back at the end of school we reflect on student growth and friendships since we made them. Stephanie Moss

3. In the beginning of the year I give each child a puzzle shaped piece that has a specific design on it. They are asked to find their match in the group and sit beside their new friend. We then play a couple of games that require a buddy. Kathy Griffith

4. create a buddy system with a higher grade in your school for things like reading, art and field trips. The older kids get the experience of peer teaching your class and your class get the experience of building a new friendship. Sherri Fisk

More Kindergarten and Preschool Friendship and First Day Activities

Friday, July 13, 2007

Kindergarten and Preschool Science Activity

Below you will find a Science related activity that was submitted by one of the newsletter subscribers:
I like to do the "wet coin" activity when I can apply it to the particular unit I'm teaching. It's a great science activity which can be corelated to math. I'm sure that other teachers in their creativity can devise fantastic lessons. On the last day of this unit I get the students to write about it. With my kinder classes it can be even more fun when on that last day I get my kids to draw what has happened with the penny or the dime. Each student has a penny, an eye dropper and a small container with water. Slowly each student drops one drop at a time and keeps a log so late on they can fill out their graph. We get to talk about the properties of a drop of water adhering on to the other. We talk about the morning dew and how the drops start sticking together in every blade of grass by the playground and on the rose petals.
Alberto Meza

2. When we were studying the river theme, very important as we live near these, we used old socks without matches that were donated my parents, had the children fill them from the sand that we had in sensory table, and the teacher used rubber bands to tie them closed. The children used markers to decorate them as they liked. We put 3 hula hoops on the big blue rug and this was the water. The socks became flying fish and landed in the circles of water as the children tossed them from the far end of the rug. We later used them in the science area to learn about weights and length measurements and which size flies the farthest and fastest. Hope you can use this idea. Silk

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Preschool and Kindergarten Math

Listed below are math ideas subscribers have sent me:

1. Just the ladybug craft and turning it into a math activity where the kids are using black spots on each wing and creating sentences such as 2 and 3 make 5 or 6 and 4 make 10. It could be done just as an adding activity as well. Liz

2. To teach time I make a clock on the floor and use dots for the minutes and numbers for the hour and then I have the children walk the clock and after that we have the time and then they make it with the hands on the floor. The kids love it! Michelle Armstrong

3. fishing game to help with numbers. Use a pretzel and some fish crackers. Dip the pretzel in some cheese whiz to help pick up the fish and have the children fish for a certain number of fish...they can eat what they catch. Karen

More Math Center Ideas

More Math Center Ideas

Friday, July 6, 2007

Alphabet and Literacy Activities

Alphabet Activities
Suggestions below are activities that were submitted my website from subscribers.
Thank you for your great ideas.

1. My students enjoy playing hangman. One of our language centres is using our word wall words to play a magnetic funny face hangman. All the pieces are made for the funny face and the students simply use the magnetic pieces on a cookie sheet or magnetic board. The magnetic letters are displayed as well and the children choose letters to guess what the unknown word wall word is. If they guess a correct letter the magnetic letter is moved into the word. If they guess an incorrect letter, the letter is moved into another column and a piece of the face is put on. If the face is finished before guessing the word, then the person goes again. If the word is guessed before the face is completed then the other player has a turn. Rosemary Lamanna

2. Literacy Center Idea: Letter Recognition Activity---Cut a round circle from cardstock paper and write the letters of the alphabet on the circle. Write the alphabet letters on clothes pins. The student will clip the correct letter to the circle in the on the letter. pamela poole

3. Something I enjoy doing with my JK students is to call out colours, shapes, letters, and numbers, and they can go anywhere in the room to find these things. It's a very quick, yet interactive "game" that they love. Start out with everyone at the carpet (or in the same part of the room), then call out one of the above listed items, and just watch them go! I also change the sound level of my voice to make sure they're paying attention. It's a little bit of exercise and it gets their brains working. Tina Carr

5. I teach young children and I know that they like to dig. They also like any learning that is hands on. So on dinosaur days we dig for letters in sand. Colleen

6. make sand paper alphabets in the class with the children as a classroom activity. print out large sized alphabets in bold fonts and let the children spread glue and let the children put sand on it.leave to dry and you have your very own sandpaper letters ready for alphabet recognition. little older children can also do this activity with the spelliing of their names. samreen

More Alphabet and Literacy Center Ideas
More Alphabet and Literacy Center Ideas

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Craft Activities

Craft Activities from Newsletter Subscribers

Below you will find craft ideas submitted by newsletter subscribers.

1. A simple sunshape, either painted, coloured or covered in magazine/paper cuttings of your choice. Put a photo in the middle and get the children to make a hat to go with it. Teach the children the song "The sun has got it's hat on" Zosia Sinclair

2. A great, fun and easy to do art project that can be adapted to just about any theme is the Crayon Resist Technique. You colour with wax crayons, pressing as hard as you can, and then paint over your picture, and watch the paint bead off the wax, but stay on the white parts of the paper. For an extra neat effect, crumple the pages (alot) right after you have done the wax crayon picture. Straighten the paper out and paint over with watery paint. Rinse under water and your piece of art looks aniqued - wrinkly with paint darker in the cracks. A really nice effect
Lili Szakony

3. For our beach theme, we are making sea shell critter as a craft project. we are painting shell with washable paint mixed with liquid glue. Let them dry and then glue on eyes, feathers, pom-poms etc. to make a creature. Rhonda Schneider

More Kindergarten and Preschool Activities