Other Christmas Fun Ideas

Math
2d vs 3d shapes
Shapes and teen numbers (could even do a pattern with this)
2d Shape tree (I use as part of my Christmas Around the World unit too)
Santa numbers beard (color the correct # a certain color)

Writing
Brainstorm Writing Needs and Wants
Writing letter to Santa (I've been good. I want...)


Reading
Reindeer, Reindeer What Do You See? book

Christmas Around the World

Traveling Around the World

America
Italy
France
Germany
Sweden
England
Israel

Before or Extra Preparation (requires some work) - great for parent volunteers:
Get brown paper bags from the store
Stocking holes (once the kids cut out their stockings) or have someone cut out stockings prior
Once shoes are colored - shoes need to be folded, cut out and stapled
Cut out holly leaves and crown strips (for St. Lucia hats)
St. Lucia frames cut and ready
Star of David Ornament (glue together)
Gingerbread Houses (glue together)
Pre-cut paper ornaments

Halloween Songs

Pumpkin Poster:

Student picks a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. We sing/read that song or rhyme.


Free Printable Who Do You See? Halloween reading

Skeleton Dance Video

Thriller Dance Video

Thanksgiving Writing

My Book of Thanks
1/2 pages Students write their sentence I am thankful for... sentence.
Print as many pages as you want for the book!

Full pages Students write their sentence I am thankful for... sentence.
Print as many pages as you want for the book!
Can be done as a Class Book too!

Thanksgiving Senses/Fall Senses Book

Thanksgiving Postcards

Fall Leaves

Leaves Writing Book
      Start by reading books and learning about why leaves change colors. Fill out an organizer with what we learned about why leaves change. Color their leaves and add to a class book. I make an expandable book.

Number Sequencing

Color Patterns

Counting Leaves

Falling Leaves Games

Sorting and Graphing color leaves  (students bring in leaves or use construction ones)

Fall Leaf Art Ideas

School Year Themes

This is the order I teach my themes:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear (Kindergartner, Kindergartner)     (August/September)
Colors    (August/September)
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom   (September)
Apples - Johnny Appleseed and Ten Apples Up On Top  (September/October)
Halloween   (October)
Fall Leaves  (October/November)
Thanksgiving   (November)
Christmas Around the World  (December)
Christmas Fun   (December)
Snowmen (January)
Gingerbread Man  (January)
Valentine's and Sweet Treats  (February)
Dr. Seuss Birthday  (March 2nd)
St. Patrick's Day - Leprechaun Fun  (March)
Insects, Flowers, Plant Parts (April)
Animals (May/June)

Thanksgiving Fun

 Thanksgiving Place Mats

Patterns - colors
Writing List
Drawing

Students need to make their place mats early because the total process takes a LONG TIME. They color the leaves in an AB or other assigned pattern in the colors of their choice. They also use our class list to write what they are thankful for and draw a picture. The place mat is laminated and used for our Thanksgiving Feast and then are taken home to use for their Thanksgiving Feast.




Turkey Feathers Game
Students spin for a color and then add that color feather on their turkey!



Pilgrim Visit - a dressed up pilgrim comes and tells the class what it was like at the first Thanksgiving.


Thanksgiving Beginning Sounds Match 

Favorite Part of Thanksgiving Graph 

Stamped Turkey Art








How to Cook a Turkey

Thanksgiving Parent Help

Parent Preparation Help:

Cut out turkey bodies
Cut out turkey feathers (in multi colors)
Trace and cut out cooked turkey (how to cook a turkey) (smaller than the sample)
Write students' "How to cook a turkey" on turkey templates
How to cook a turkey" picture sequencing book  - add blank pages for picture coloring

Halloween Parent Help

Parent Prep Help:

A parent to make a spider web on the ground with tape (easily removed tape).

Halloween Math

Bat Positioning
Listen to instructions to color the bats. Then listen to where to place the bats on the picture.








Counting Candy Corns (placing next to the number)

Candy Corn Number Chart
     Students add candy corns (according to the candy corn card) they put that many candy corns on their chart starting at 1 and going up. If they pull the witches card, they loose all their candy corns!

Sight Word Counting Book
     Students glue Halloween pictures on each page and fill in the sight word sentence with the number and name of the picture.

Witches' Brew
     Sort, count and graph the items in Witches' Brew

Halloween: Reading/Literacy Fun

Large Spider Web Collection

Read the entire sentence Halloween video    Mummy Scare

Halloween Toss (cans)

Halloween Writing

Halloween Costume Book  (Class Book)

Students use a template to write a sentence about what they are for Halloween. I used the template from ABCTEACH called bats and pumpkins.

I am a ... (witch)
I am ... (spiderman)


The students write their sentence on a pumpkin (that is only half a page) and in the book is their writing next to a picture of them in their costume!

Halloween Colors Book (Student Book)















Halloween Sight Word Counting Book (Student Book)

My Favorite Part of Halloween (individual page)

My Favorite spider activity (counting/adding/subtracting spiders on the web or reading spiders on the big web)

They also made their own spider for an art activity - identify the 2 shapes used (circle/oval and rectangles)
Students could paint a circle plate instead of cutting one.

Spelling Envelopes

Spelling Envelopes
Students decorate their own envelope. A label that says "Spelling Sort Envelopes" is placed on the envelope. Then laminate and place some velcro on the lid to close the envelope. (Envelope and velcro keeps the sorts' words together.

Halloween Party Centers

Halloween bowling with pins

Skeleton Man with Pasta (dried)

       Halloween Fun
            Centers

**  Orange play-dough with Halloween cookie cutters

** Halloween Bingo

Race: Who can pick up the most
paper spiders and get them in
their can the fastest!



Witches Broom Limbo

Sensory - Reach inside and feel
what is labeled on the outside!
This year - make cute outside labels.

Halloween Learning Centers

Counting Halloween Seeds *

Pumpkin Alphabet Match *

Pumpkin Measuring *

I am a (costume). Writing then made into
a class book. Writing was glued next to their
picture.

* These are in a free download on TPT.

Ten Apples on Top (apple activities)

I like to jump into this after celebrating Johnny Appleseed's birthday because it connects with apples which is perfect for fall.

Read the book Ten Apples on Top by Dr. Seuss.

Student picture (or they can draw their face) and add apples on top of their head.  I used tiny di-cuts, but the apples could be drawn too.
   (I have students draw a number and that is the number of apples they get on top of their head)

Five Apples on Top Emergent Reader

Di-cut large apples, hole punch holes around the edge - kids sew around the apple with yarn (fine motor skill)  (Could laminate these and have as a permanent center activity.)

Apple Tree Number Matching (print, laminate and cut)

Apples: Sink or Float?  (science)

Color by Number

Apples on my tree art

Opinion writing and art
Favorite color apple

I have ___apples up on top!

Writing and math activity

Johnny Appleseed and Apples Unit

Johnny Appleseed's Birthday Celebration  My APPLES UNIT for $3
                Celebrate his birthday with a day dedicated to Johnny Chapman!

Celebration Ideas:
Read a book about Johnny Appleseed
Watch a video about Johnny Appleseed  (9 minutes)
Johnny Chapman visits (wearing cut off jeans and plaid shirt and a pot on his head)
     He tells what it was like out planting seeds. Sometimes I get lucky enough where I get a man who
     knows how to play the guitar which the kids love!

Apple Centers (Open centers - students choose which to go to and in what order they want)
    1. Applesauce Scensory Table
    2. Apple Tasting and Graphing
    3. "I like (color) apples." sentence writing and then paint their apple
    4. Apple Patterns
    5. Apple Number Sequencing
    6. Apple Sorting and Graphing
    7. Apple Stamping (suggestion: cut out wedges on the tops of the stamp so they are easier to pull out)
    8. Johnny Appleseed picture (next to a tree with a pot on their head and apple)


Apple Sauce Sensory Fun

    9. Apple tree hand and foot art (then they get to count out and put some apples on their tree with a
    sentence that reads "I see _____ apples on my tree."
10. Scrap paper apple fill art

Apple Tasting and Graphing

Favorite Apple writing and painting.

I put these out on the table for the students to
copy their favorite color in the sentence.

Apple Stamping

Johnny Appleseed pictures

            

I printed the apple labels to show students
which center was what number for their mark
off sheet.

Apple Number Sequencing
plus counting apples

Scrap Paper Apple Fill Art

Johnny Appleseed pictures

Johnny Appleseed Visits!

Discussions:
Why is it so important that Johnny Appleseed help plant appleseeds all over the country?
Why did Johnny Appleseed wear a pot around on his head?
What would be hard about traveling around planting seeds?
What would be fun about traveling around planting seeds?
What was your favorite activity of the day?
Have you ever been apple picking?

Shared Writing: (students help write the words with teacher help)
Describe an apple using scenses on any organizer
Class writing a sentences (We like apples because ___, ___, and ___)
Class writing a paragraph about apples (older than beginning Kindergarten)

Additional Items in my Johnny Appleseed-Apples Unit
*  Apple Opinion (goes along with tasting, graphing, writing and art from above centers.
*  "I see # of apples on my tree."  Apple Tree (hands and feet) art (includes sentence strips)
*  3 various counting apples reader (focusing on the word "have") plus numbers in 5 frames (1-10)
*  1/2 sheet homework or classwork math concept pages (patterns, counting numbers, identifying  
     numbers, number sequencing and writing, adding apples
* Apple Sorting and graphing half pages (also practices tally marks) - need to cut out or di-cut or
   have apples on hand for sorting.
* Apples: Sink or Float Experiment (teacher and parent instructions only)
* "I have # apples on my head" portrait and sentence

Cycle of Apple Tree Life video

Apple Tree Game


The students have 5 seconds to come up and pick an apple off the tree and read the apple. If they read it in 5 seconds they get to keep their apple. My apples had upper and lowercase letters (uppercase on 1 side, lowercase on other side) - some were showing uppercase while some were lowercase. The students got to pick the apple of their choice, so they felt good about knowing the letter on the apple.

Could use this same concept with math or sight words. 

Seasons

What season is it? Game
     Look at pictures and guess the season.

Christmas

Christmas Tree - Color ornaments color game  (Spin for colors)

Math Games:
Silver Bells - match numbers with dots (written on the bottom of kisses)
Sort ornament designs on tree mats
Reindeer Chow - Sort and Graph  (M & Ms, marshmallows, pretzels, chex ect.) in circles
Stockings - count stocking items, mark on page

Animal Report

Student Animal Reports:  
Assignment:  Students create poster, mobile, diagram, book or something else to teach about an animal.

Research: Students pick an animal book from the school library to check out and take home to read. They write down some notes on their brainstorm paper.  They are encouraged to use more research options.

Presentation: 
After the students complete their project they share their animal report with the class and teach about their animal.

Important Dates (celebrations)

Dates and celebrations for my Kindergarten Years

September 8 - Grandparent's Day

September 26 - Johnny Appleseed's Birthday

October 31 - Halloween Fun

November - Thanksgiving Feast (3rd Thursday)

December - Christmas Around the World (Germany last for our party)

January - Martin Luther King Jr. (3rd Monday)

February 2 - Groundhog's Day
February 14- Valentine's Day
February        President's Day (3rd Monday)

March 2 - Dr. Seuss's Birthday
March 17 - St. Patrick's Day

April 22 - Earth Day

May - Mother's Day (2nd Sunday)

June - Father's Day (3rd Sunday)


Activity ideas are under Holidays and Celebrations

Monthly Self-Portrait

My students do a monthly self-portrait because it is fun to see their progress in their drawing and how they view themselves. It is neat to see how more exact the kids become and how they pay more attention to the fact that they don't have purple hair like in the first month.

I added a writing piece this year to show their progress throughout the year with writing to keep as part of this book.

Seasons Porfolio

Throughout the year, my students do a Seasons Portfolio to show their growth physically and academically (writing). Plus they get to do some art!

At the end of the year, their pages are compiled and they've made a memory book from their Kindergarten year.

Seasons Tree art project
Student Picture Growth
Writing Sample about their favorite parts of the season

Download My Seasons Portfolio

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Sensory Table: finding letters in the sand/rice

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Letter Book: paint in letters with paint pens

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Class Book: Student pictures and names (counting and letters)

Coconut Tree Cookie Sheet and magnetic letters: Students retell the story or tell the story their own way

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Video from schooltube.com

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom letter match cut and paste

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom File Folder Game

Colors

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Book: Shared Reading 
Kindergartner, Kindergartner What do you see? Color Book - trace and color
Color Days: Students wear the color of the day (I like to dress to my fullest degree of color)
Color Mixing Experiments (primary to secondary)
Crayon Color Graphing (download from TPT)
Color Songs (Heidi Songs) - teaches the spelling of the color words

Brown Bear Activities:
Match Book: words and pictures
Letter Tiles: spell color words
ABC Dot to Dot: shrink and make into little book - students choose 1 picture from pile
Number Dot to Dot: shrink and make into little book - students choose 1 picture from pile
RIDICULOUSLY GOOD - FREE DOWNLOAD: I only used 1/2 and am still quite impressed!

Thanksgiving Feast

I am THANKFUL for... placemat
practices patterns
writing and drawing
lists

             The 1st Thanksgiving Hunting:            Boys were given the opportunity to "hunt" animals for the Thanksgiving dinner. The boys stood back (where the tape was) and they were to throw the bean bag to knock off (kill) their animal. They got to throw 1 beanbag and then it was another boy's turn. They kept doing this for the entire center time trying to "kill" as many animals as they could for the Thanksgiving dinner.        

Many girls were bummed they did not get to hunt the animals like the boys... however, back in the time of the 1st Thanksgiving, girls did not hunt. They instead helped make other types of food. The girls were given selected kitchen items and play food items (not like cans or cereal boxes ect.) and were to "cook and prepare" the other food items for the 1st Thanksgiving dinner.

Proper place setting:
Students learn how to set a place setting properly. They use the posters to help teach them and practice with real items (plastic). As they practice, they can time themselves and then see how accurately they can set the place setting correctly without help! The goal is to learn how to do it all by themselves!

Thanksgiving Feast:
Students bring in their favorite food item (treat, snack ect) to share with the class.
Parents are the servers and go around offering the various foods to the students. They serve the food on the students' left side (just like a formal dinner). Students may say yes or no thank you.

Dress like a pilgrim!

Letters: Feel it, Build it, Write it

Some colleagues and I came up with the Feel it, Build it, Write it idea when we all agreed that we didn't want to do a whole bunch of worksheets! YUCK! We wanted students to enjoy learning how to form and write their letters not dread page after page of practice.

My texture cards on the left are just the ones with the hot glue gun.
I need to make new pom pom and sandpaper ones since I left
them at my last school for the other teacher.

Feel it:  Using the pre-made letter cards, the students run their pointer finger down/around the letter in the correct formation of writing a letter (top to bottom not bottom to up). They get to feel the different textures. Making these cards have taken a long time, but it is really helpful if you have parent volunteers. Use the following to make different textures: pom poms, sandpaper, felt, dried hot glue or any others.

Build it: Students are given supplies (popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners straws, and toothpicks) and are to build their letter. The supplies need to be cut in different sizes to form upper and lowercase letters. Students will soon figure out that pipe cleaners (unless you have other flexible supplies) are the only ones they can use for letters with curves.  Students also LOVE to use playdought to form letters, but expectations need to given and held to.

Write it: Instead of giving a full worksheet right from the beginning, I let my students write on little sentence strips (that have been laminated) with my "special pens." They are very excited to use my special pens to practice, plus they get to wipe off their work with a wet papertowel when they are done. Some sentences strips have the letters written for them to trace while others are left blank. (You will notice that I wrote the first upper and lowercase letter in black and the rest in different highlighter colors for tracing benefits).

Fun Alphabet Flashcards

I was really bored teaching the alphabet to the kids and really needed something interested if not for the kids, but for me! I try to teach using as many connections as possible for the different types of learners. My alphabet cards are hand drawn (uppercase was done by a former 5th grade student). The picture gives a visual of the picture plus it triggers the action which then triggers the sound. This incorporates visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learners.

I personally am not a fan of connecting the letters to pictures of something that starts with the sound because that is hard for students with low vocabulary or students who are ESL. Most kids know animal names, but that still doesn't completely work for ESL students if they can't identify the English name for the animal. With all this in mind, I decided to just listen to the sound and see what comes to my mind. The actions correlate with the sound that triggered in my mind and I tried to use the trigger action/sound that best related to the letter and would be more commonly connected.

The kids love practicing to these letters and it helps all types of students. I have never had so many parent compliments about specifically something I teach - but these I am overloaded with in just the last 2 years.  I am amazed how many students still use the actions when be tested on their letter/sounds at the end of the year!

I have two downloads for these. 1. Fun Alphabet Flashcards: A black and white version that still need to be colored   2.  Fun Alphabet Flashcards Colored:  A packet of black and white plus the colored copies

Weeks of Dr. Seuss

Kids love Dr. Seuss -- and I love Dr. Seuss!  So I use several weeks to do Dr. Seuss activities.
I just heard from a friend about Dr. Seuss PE activities that I will be adding to my list next year!

I have a Dr. Seuss Unit filled with ideas and the items needed.


Wocket in my Pocket:
I saw this idea from another blog and loved it. Wocket in my Pocket  (my kids choose their own word with whatever beginning they want instead of wocket)

1 Fish, 2, Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: 

The students filled in their own boxes with 1 something, 2 somethings, red something, blue something. It was fun to see their variety and what they came up with. The two examples are robots and monsters!

Dr Seuss's Birthday Party + plans!

On Dr. Seuss's Birthday (or nearest date) - I plan a day filled with Dr. Seuss books and activities.

The books are placed up front and the parents come up to switch their book with another book and activity. This is really nice if you have multiple copies of one book, but if not just plan an extra activity that they do, so there is always 1 activity there. I give my parents a time cap for an activity that they need to try to stay within to complete all activities. I also had an extra box of Dr. Seuss books that could be read to the students while they waited after finishing all their activities.

We only do 3-4 books for the celebration, then I use the other books throughout the next 2 weeks.

2. Fox in Socks --  I put rhyming cards in random socks and the group works together to match the rhyming words they found inside the socks.
*  Rhyming Socks
*  Socks Math Page   (greater than/less than)

3. 1 Fish 2 Fish -- 2 books available + 2 parent helpers (if possible)
* Students own book cover
* Fish hands
* Goldfish count = tens equation
Sort those goldfish and graph 

4. Lorax
*Lorax mustache
*Lorax treat

5. Green Eggs and Ham
*Green Eggs balance game - balance green eggs in a spoon across the rug
*Eat green eggs and write opinion 
* Fill in the missing words in the paragraph

6. Foot Book 
* Feet numbers (trace around their own feet, cut out, then we write a number on each foot and see how many feet in the classroom. Then we post the feet along one of the walls.)

7. Horton Hears a Who
*  Video
* Draw Self Portrait - A Person's a Person No Matter How Small
* Take student's picture and put in on a Speck!

8. Wocket in my Pocket
*Class makes -ocket words together and then write the sentence on their pocket.
   "There's a _ocket in my Pocket" 
* Create their own _ocket with paper

9. Apples Up On Top
* Apples up on top self portrait
* Apples up on top math paper

Daily 5 activities:
Green Eggs flip game 

Self Portraits! I print a head template because my students give me better portraits when they have a template.  On the back, I printed the following quote from Dr. Seuss:                        A persons a person no matter how small!

My students were asked to wear a red shirt. They all got to wear a THING #.  We had 20+ THINGS in our classroom and it was a lot of fun. Next year, I am going to try for blue hair ...       As the teacher, I got to be THING TEACHER.

Next year, I'm going to ask my Room Mom to set up Dr. Seuss treats -

I think we'll be using Pinterest for some ideas!

Groundhog Day

DAY BEFORE GROUNDHOG DAY ACTIVITIES

The day before Groundhog Day, I tell my class about the holiday. We vote and graph how many students think the groundhog will see his shadow and how many think he won't.

Letter to the groundhog telling the groundhog to see his shadow or not to and why! These were super cute!  I am so proud of their writing! 

GROUNDHOG DAY ACTIVITIES
/EA/ and /EE/ Book: Sneak a Peak. This book has repetitive sentences to help learn and practice the long e sound. The students read the book and then draw the picture.

Popping Out of the Hole Writing: using their 5 senses