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Showing posts with label back to school activity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label back to school activity. Show all posts

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Sneak into a New School Year!

It's about time, teachers, to go back to school. Sneak into a New School Year by having a Sneaker Day! Invite your students to wear sneakers, then fill the day with math, writing, art, and get acquainted activities. You'll have a sole-ful day and your new school year will start on the right foot!


Activities in this FREE product include:
  • Get acquainted sneaker identification
  • Math 
    • Estimation
    • Graphs 
    • Venn diagrams
    • Measurement 
    • Sorting 
  • Writing
  • Arts & crafts
    • Crayon rubbings
    • Symmetric prints
    • Original designs
  • Behavior expectations 
    • Hallway etiquette
    • Brag tags (color and gray scale)


This unit is CCSS aligned.

Sneak into a New School Year is FREE this weekend.  Then it will become priced as I add a literacy center to it. So if you download it now, you will get the expanded unit for free, as well. You'll just have to remember to go back and download the new version.

After Sneaker Day, you can extend the learning and fun with Step Right Up! Thematic Unit.



As always, I greatly appreciate your feedback on TPT.


There's only 1 thing more precious than our time and that's who we spend it with.
                                                             --Leo Christopher 

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Back to School Poetry Possibilities

If you follow me at all, you know that I'm passionate about poetry.
I want my students to share that passion, so I start teaching with poetry on day 1.  

All of those new school supplies are quite exciting!  So, we write concrete poetry about them.  For example:
Ask your students to choose one of their supplies or an object related to school.  Then instruct them to draw the object.  To make a concrete poem, they should write their thoughts about the subject around the shape or fill it with words and phrases pertaining to it.  If you work with young children, provide simple pictures of school related objects like these:

My concrete poem example with the glue bottle rhymes.  Depending on the ages and abilities of your students, you can decide whether or not to require rhymes.

This idea comes from 






Cheers to the new school year!



You may be interested in joining my collaborative board, 

If you'd like to join, follow the board, then leave your pinterest ID in a comment.  I'd love to add you!

Saturday, August 6, 2016

First Day of School Jitters


It's about time, teachers, for the 1st day of school.  
Many of your students may have concerns. By sharing the following poem, you may assuage some of the anxiety.  At the very least, it may evoke some giggles.









Don't stop with sharing the poem!  Try one or more of the following possibilities:



If you would like more poems for starting the new school year and possibilities for using them in your classroom, check out:





You may also like:

Friday, August 24, 2012

Calendar Activities

It's about time, teachers, -- calendar time!  


Recently, I posted about introducing patterning and predicting to your calendar activities. (See blog post here.)  Calendar icons for Sept. & Oct. are available FREE at Tpt and at TNThe response was enthusiastic and overwhelming.  Naturally, that spurred me to create calendar icons for the entire year.  

Each month's icons increase the complexity of the pattern.  Simple patterns based on color transition into color, shape, and direction properties.  



The simplest pattern begins in July, in deference to those of you who teach in year-round schools.  The calendar icons come in sets of 31, allowing you to use them in any month you choose.  I have also included some icons for special days, such as Father's Day or the first day of spring. 


I like to place the special day icons on the calendar on the first day of the month.  Then as we do our calendar activities, we can count the days until Father's Day, for example. We can also predict what the icon for that day will be, ultimately replacing the special day icon with the patterned one.  The hardest part for me is not affirming my students' predictions until we reach the actual day.  It's just so rewarding to hear the kiddos squeal, "I was right!" when that icon is placed on the calendar.  

Also included are title strips for each month.  The title strips are designed for 8 1/2" x 14" paper.  


All of the traditional calendar activities continue.  Naturally, we name the day, tell what day came before, and which day will come next.  We still bundle sticks into groups of 5 to tally our days in school.  Counting the days until the weekend or a special day carries on, etc.

By using patterned icons, you can simply add another dimension to your calendar activities.  In naming the pattern and predicting the next icon, you are exercising your students' critical thinking skills, challenging their visual discrimination abilities, addressing the CCSS, maximizing your teaching time, and engaging your students in a fun and valuable activity.  It's about time, teachers!

                  





 free set                                             





entire year set




Update 2015 :  Now available, a new set of calendar icons in a forest friends theme.



Thursday, August 2, 2012

Sneak into a New School Year -- Pt. 5

It's about time, teachers... to finish up Sneaker Day.

It's never too early to start your class writing stories.  For Sneaker Day, bring in an old, worn out, holey pair of sneakers.  Write a story as a whole class, giving the sneakers a history from the day they were made until today. 



Older and/or more capable students could write a chapter a day, giving you, the teacher, the opportunity to model writing traits and to "think out loud" as you record their ideas. Younger and/or less capable students could write a simple story about who wore the sneakers, where they have traveled, how the sneakers got their holes, etc.  Again, acting as the recorder, the teacher should model her thinking as she write the children's ideas.

Another activity for Sneaker Day is to give each child a blank sneaker outline.


Ask them to design a new sneaker that is especially for school children.  What would they include in their special sneaker?  A calculator?  A ruler?  A computer?  A pencil sharpener? . . .  Extend this activity by having the students write about their sneaker's features.

Hopefully, you can use these Sneaker Day ideas to get your new school year off on the right foot!


If you liked these Sneaker Day activities, you may wish to download a copy of the them for FREE on TpT.
 You may also like:

Monday, July 30, 2012

Sneak into a New School Year -- Pt. 4

It's about time, teachers, ... for some creative expression on Sneaker Day. Following are some ideas for art projects.

Ask your students to make crayon rubbings of the soles of their sneakers. Newsprint works much better than construction paper. If you have left over crayons from last year, give those to your students to make the rubbings. They may be hesitant to peel the paper off their brand new box of crayons! For best results, students should rub in only 1 direction. "Scrubbing" back and forth often causes the paper to rip. For young children, taping the paper to the shoe is often helpful.

After all the students have completed their rubbings, you can use the rubbings to talk about patterns, shapes, texture, design, ... The rubbings could also be used for categorizing according to such things as shapes in the sole or added elements (brand name, logo, or designs).


For more fun, allow the students to swap shoes and make additional rubbings on the same piece of paper. Encourage them to use multiple colors. Let them decide when they have enough soles to make their picture complete.   


Another idea is to use a single rubbing and add details to it to make a picture.  






Notice that the fish artist used multiple colors to make the initial rubbing.  

Your class can make awesome, abstract paintings with shoelaces.  Collect several old shoelaces (even frayed and broken ones). Have the children dip one in tempera paint and then lay the shoelace on a piece of construction paper.


As the picture shows, you can use multiple colors of paint -- each color with its own shoelace.  Just be forewarned that unless you have extremely patient students who are willing to wait until the first color dries, you will eventually have shoelaces that are sporting multiple colors; not necessarily in a pleasing way.

To reduce the messy factor somewhat, tie one end of the shoelace to an old pencil that will span the width of the paint container. Then students can lift the shoelace out of the paint without immersing their fingers.  

There are many variations of this project. Make it a printing project by placing another sheet of paper on top of the shoelace that was placed on the paper as above.  By gently pressing down on the top paper, you will produce a negative print of the bottom paper. My preferred method for doing this is to simply fold a 9" x 12" piece of construction paper in half first.  Then put the paint soaked shoelace on one half; fold the other half over the top of the shoelace.  Unfold and you will have a lovely, symmetric print.

Start with the folded construction paper as described above. Again put the shoelace on just one half of the paper, leaving an inch or so hanging out.  Fold the paper over the top of the shoelace.  Then, applying pressure to the paper with one hand, pull the string out slowly.  This will create a lovely smeared effect.  I especially like to do this project with white paint on black paper or black paint on white paper.  The display is really striking.

Until next time --




Thursday, July 26, 2012

Sneak into a New School Year - Pt. 3 Math Centers

It's about time, teachers, ... to talk about math centers and math activities on Sneaker Day.



No Sneaker Day would be complete without including a graphing activity. Whole class graphs are fun and easy. Line your students' sneakers up in front of the class and ask them to name some attributes they notice.  Use those suggestions or one of these:
  • brand
  • color (all 1 color, 2 colors, 3...)
  • size
  • closure (laces, Velcro, slip-ons, ...)
  • high tops/low tops
  • special features (lights, sequins, pumps, ...)


After you complete 1 or more whole class graphs, you can easily make this activity a math center. Small groups will graph their sneakers, only.



Have each child measure his sneaker using unifix cubes. Ask the children to take their tower of cubes around the room in search of another child with the same number of cubes in his stack.  You have the opportunity to observe and note how children determine if their towers are the same length (counting, comparing side by side, 1-to-1 matching, …). If the activity is going well, extend the assignment to find someone whose sneaker is longer, shorter, 3 cubes longer, 2 cubes shorter, etc. Again, after teaching the task, this activity can be extended by making it a math center activity.

Another math activity for Sneaker Day is patterning. Have your students make crayon rubbings of the soles of their sneakers.  Use the rubbings for creating patterns of footsteps. The rubbings can also be placed in a math center. There, students can sort them according to various attributes you specify. Older or more advanced students could use the rubbings to create categories of their own making.  

Venn Diagrams are another activity that could be modeled to the whole group and subsequently placed in a math center.  


There are more activities for Sneaker Day to come, so sneak back soon.


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Sneak into a New School Year - Pt. 2

It's about time, teachers, ... to continue my thoughts about Sneaker Day.  


Conduct a get acquainted activity by asking each child to remove 1 of his sneakers.  Put all of the shoes in the center of the group and ask the children to look carefully at them. Then pick up one sneaker and ask whose sneaker it is.  When someone feels they can identify the owner, he should raise his hand, wait to be called on, and then allowed to take the shoe to its owner.  Emphasize that the owner of the sneaker should be sneaky and not boast that the shoe is his.  The child who identified the owner may select the next shoe for evaluation.  

Play continues in this way until all of the sneakers have been returned to their owners. For very young children, you will want to limit the number of shoes in the center to a number that is reasonable for their attention span.  The game can be played several times through out the day so that everyone is included.  It could also be repeated for several days, as needed, to ensure that everyone learns all the names.

There are more Sneaker Day activities to come.  Stay tuned!





Monday, July 23, 2012

Sneak into a New School Year

It's about time, teachers, ... 



... to go back to school.  Did that reality sneak up on you? To help you kick off your year on the right foot, I invite you to SNEAK INTO A NEW SCHOOL YEAR.  

Begin by asking your students to wear sneakers on the 2nd day of school.  Call it "Sneaker Day."  Here's a reminder note you can send home with your students:




On Sneaker Day, explain to your students why these shoes are called "sneakers." Sneakers are rubber soled shoes, usually with cloth uppers, that are common in N. America. The rubber sole allows the wearer to walk very quietly, i.e. sneak around.

Each time you line up to leave your classroom, challenge your students to sneak through the halls;  something they are super prepared to do since they are wearing sneakers! Teach your students to sing the following song to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."  Whisper-sing it as you line your students up to leave the classroom.
        Sneak, sneak, sneak around
        In your sneaker wear.
       Quietly, quietly, quietly, quietly
       No one knows you're there.

Enlist school personnel to help instill a sneaky attitude in your class by complimenting them for walking so quietly through the halls.  Secure a large supply of colorful shoelaces to use as reinforcements for the compliments.  Place a shoelace in a plastic jar for each compliment they receive.  Collect compliments for the entire first week.

Label the jar filled with shoelaces and use it to create an Estimation Station math center that will function all year.  Here's a label you could use:

Provide a supply of paper scraps for students to use to record their estimation of how many shoelaces are in the jar. Allow only 1 guess per child per day.  Check the estimates just before dismissal time.  When the correct number is guessed, make the winner responsible for bringing in the next set of items for the jar, along with a super sneaky note that tells you, the teacher, what the correct number is. You can find a sample letter explaining the parameters of the  Estimation Station  items to parents here.

Estimation Station  continues in this way for the remainder of the year, or as long as you like, with virtually no effort on your part!

Come back soon for more posts about Sneaker Day activities or download my FREE product, Sneak Into a New Year.







You may also like a companion unit to this product: