Green Wilma Frog in Space storybook art idea

Learning about outer space is always a hot topic for kids of all ages.  There are many great story books available, including the story “Green Wilma Frog in Space” by Ted Arnold.   In this story Wilma goes on an adventure when she is mistaken for an alien child, and goes for a ride in a spaceship.   Wilma’s humorous adventure will have any child smiling in delight.

Today I wanted to share a fun and simple drawing lesson that can be completed after reading Green Wilma Frog in Space.  After reading the story, show the kids how to draw a spaceship and draw Wilma looking through the window.  It’s a great way to re-visit the story and review Wilma’s adventure.

Materials needed:

• Paper 
• Pencil and/or black sharpie 
• Pencil crayons or markers

How to draw a spaceship:

• First have the kids draw a large curved line and then draw a second curved line underneath it, creating an eye shape.  This is the body of the space ship. 
• Next have them draw a curved line in the middle of the spaceship, separating it into two parts and then draw in some circles for windows. 
• Then have the kids draw a half oval (or hill) on the top of the ship and then draw a second half oval inside the first.  Then we add two more half ovals for eyes and include a mouth.  And there you have it Wilma is complete! 
• Next have them draw curved lines for the feet of the spaceship (or landing gear as you will) and add another small half oval for the bottom of the feet. 
• Then have them draw a half of a square for the bottom of the spaceship (engine thrusters). 
• Next have the kids decorate the spaceship by drawing more buttons and bolts by adding more shapes and lines to the ship.
• Lastly add color to your spaceship.

Once the spaceship is drawn and colored you can add one more step and cut out the ship and then have your kids complete a re-telling of the story using their spaceship as a prop.  Now you could keep it as a cut-out or glue the spaceship onto a Popsicle stick so it is more like a puppet.  Encourage kids to be as animated as they can while re-telling.  Adding lots of bops and beeps and va-rooms always helps! 

Re-telling stories is a great way to practice recognizing what is important in the story without telling too much. Retelling also helps readers recall what is happening in the story, develop a sense of story structure, and become more accurate in monitoring their understanding.

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Christmas Printables for Kindergarten Math and Literacy centers

Today I wanted to show off my latest set of printables, Christmas math and literacy centers for kindergarten.  It is available at Teachers Pay Teachers, and covers a variety of common core curriculum.

This package contains 8 literacy centers and 9 math centers as well as pocket chart cards in a Christmas theme. All of the activities are in black & white and I have provided some in color as well. These centers are great for Pre-k and kindergarten students and work on those core curriculum learning goals. These centers would also be fun for grade 1 students who need a little extra practice. 


Some of the outcomes covered in these centers include:

• alphabet sequencing
• identifying beginning letter sounds
• counting syllables
• letter identification 
• matching upper and lowercase letters
• sight words
• number sequencing
• extending patterns
• measurement skills
• and more...

Here are some pictures of the centers included in the package:

Help Santa sort his bag by coloring by letter sound.

Decorate the gingerbread man by coloring by sight word.

Match the buttons to the snowman.

Practice printing by picking letters from a cloth sack. 

 

Cut and paste and finish the pattern.

You can get these centers at my TPT store.

Need more Christmas resources?  
(Click on the pictures to take you to the post)

Make your own Christmas ornaments out of recycled Keurig pods.

Add your family photos to fun photo cards, just in time for Christmas.

Bear family Christmas photo card Vertical
by littlemunchkins

Ladybug interactive short vowel center activity for kids

Today I wanted to share one of my interactive centers that I just put up for sale on TPT.  My Ladybug Short Vowel center activity  is a fun center that is great phonics practice for students learning about short vowels.  I usually use this center when I am working one on one or with a small group. 

I have students take turns and choose a pictured circle.  I then have them say what is drawn on the circle (eg. sun) and then place it on the ladybug that has the corresponding short vowel sound (eg. U).

You can purchase this center from my store.  It is very simple to prep, just print out the pages (you can choose color or black and white) and cut out the circles and then if you want you can laminate both the ladybug pages and the circles.  You can also add velcro to the circles if you'd like.

I hope you enjoy them.

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Fun printing practice for the even the most reluctant writer

My daughter loves to write.  She writes all day long and on EVERYTHING.  My son though is a very reluctant writer and printer and he avoids it whenever he can.  So I am always looking for creative ways to make printing and writing ideas to encourage him to write since we are still working on his pencil grip and fine motor skills.   With the reluctant writers I work with at school I always suggest "tricking" them into writing by giving them activities and assignments that are so fun they don't even realize they are practicing writing.  One of the ways I do this at home is to have my kiddos set the table and write each family members name on a napkin.  At school they can do this in the kitchen center.

The kids love to do this.  Often I get a little message or drawing on my napkin as well.  This activity not only works on printing but name recognition as well.  I find that when kids are given a reason or a purpose to write they are much more willing to engage in these activities as opposed to giving them printing practice worksheets.

Here are some more writing ideas that encourage kids to write and print:

• write thank you cards, birthday cards, I love you cards
• write notes to family members and friends (at school I supply envelopes and paper at the writing center)
• have kids help write the grocery list
• have them write important events on the calendar
• write texts and/or emails to family members
• make lists of books they like or have read (add a clip board to the reading center)
• write out their birthday and Christmas wish list
• help make chore charts
• make books
• have kids pretend they are waiters and have them take your order
• have kids pretend they are doctors and have them write up a report or prescription
• let them be the score keeper on game night
• making writing fun by using a variety of multi-sensory materials such as sand, rice, paint, etc..
• use chalkboards and whiteboards
• use fancy gel pens, markers, and hi-lighters

Got any fun writing ideas?  What do you do to encourage printing and writing?

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My favorite resource for learning to read sight words

This week I wanted to share with you all, my favorite resource for learning to read sight words.  It is a package from Scholastic called Sight word poetry pages.  I love this resource!  I copy each page and compile them into a duo-tang and call them our poetry books (I include other poems as well).  

When I meet with my students in small groups we read the sight word of the day, write the word on the lines, choral read the poem together and then they each read the poem to a partner.  After that we go back and re-read a couple of the poems we have done before. They continue to re-read these poems by reviewing them for home reading work, buddy reading and even independent reading time.  It's a great way to expose kids to sight words.

What is your favorite resource?  



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An InLinkz Link-up

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Get an entire year of easy to use spelling activities for kids

Today I wanted to talk a little about my newest product on TeachersPayTeachers.  It is an entire year of easy to use spelling activities.  So if you are looking for first grade worksheets or kindergarten worksheets that focus on spelling patterns and phonics this is the resource for you.  It is also perfect for home school learning.

Spelling Success Weekly Homework Activities is a 40 week program that presents 10 new spelling words each week and a review week every 5th week to further practice the previously presented words. Each week teachers will send home 1 page double sided for homework.  How easy is that?  Parents can encourage their kids to complete one or two practice activities each day so that over the course of the week they will have a strong grasp of their spelling words. 

Each week 10 new spelling words are given (with a review week every 5th week) that focus on a specific phonetic skill necessary for learning to read and to spell.  Included are:

• consonant blends (cl, fl, br, sn, th, sh, ch, etc..)
• vowels (short a, e, i, o, u, long a, e, i, o, u)
• word families (at, ig, in, ot, ell, ill, etc..)
• vowel diagraphs (ai, ow, oo, ew, etc.)
• frequently used sight words. 

Each double sided page includes a variety of activities including:

• Spelling worksheets which are "pencil and paper" tasks, such as tracing words, printing, filling in bubbles, matching, sorting, completing word searches, filling in blanks, etc..
  

• tasks that need to be done with a parent.  These activities are more hands on learning and incorporate many different fun ways to practice their spelling words.  For example, students might be asked to clap out their words, jump on the letters as they spell, perform jumping jacks, sing the letters as the spell, etc. 

Making words tasks which include either cutting and pasting letters to make words or manipulating letters to make words.

I have tried to make this package very simple for teachers, parents and students.  Focusing on one or two phonetic skill per week allows teachers to plan instruction around those blends and sight words and also gives your students a chance to learn and practice using different blends and words. And check back because I am working on a supplementary package that provides teachers with spelling lessons and activities to complete at school which will complement the homework worksheets.


Recently I have had questions whether these are first grade worksheets or kindergarten worksheets.  In my opinion they could be either depending on your class and your students ability levels.  The worksheets start off with CVC words and then move into 4 and 5 letter words but if your kindergarten class is capable of making 3 letter words than they would be fine starting with this program.

As a bonus I am taking 20% off this weekend only.  Don't miss out on this limited sale!

If you would like to preview more sample pages on TPT click here.

If you are ready to purchase click the buy it now button below.

Are you a teacher?  Thinking about making your own products for sale?  Click below to sign up to become a TeachersPayTeachers seller.  It is free and so easy to do!  

I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more information about this please see our disclosure policy

Learn to read with these easy to make magnetic sight words

There are a ton of learning to read resources available but many of them are not very wallet friendly, if you know what mean!  So I decided to make my own magnetic sight words.  They are very easy to make and lend themselves to so many activities. 

First I bought full magnetic sheets (with a self-adhesive back).  You can get these at the dollarstore, walmart or here on amazon.

Then I printed and laminated the sight words I needed. 

These laminating sheets work well and you don't need a machine to laminate.

Then I attached the laminated words to the magnetic sheets and cut each word out. 

My kids really enjoy playing with the magnetic sight words and they will stick them all over the fridge.  At school the kids stick them to the white board or my filing cabinet.  The kids love to move them around as they read them.  I also like to give them challenges to sort the letters and to get them to really look at the letters and how the words are made.

These are some of the ways I challenge them are:

• Have the kids put the words in alphabetical order. 
• Have the kids sort words by words they can read and words they are learning. 
• Have kids sort words by how many letters each word has.  
• Have kids sort by beginning letter sound.  
• Have kids sort by ending letter sound.
• And many more ways!! 

How can you sort them?

These printable sheets can also work.  Simply put the paper into your printer, print out your words, cut and you are done!  Easy Peazy!

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Top 10 Pinterest Boards that focus on learning the ABCs

OOOhhh I am so very excited today.  Today I get to share with you an amazing ABC collection by some fabulous bloggers.  I've collaborated with 31 AWESOME bloggers and participated in 31 Days of Learning the ABCs which is a blog hop organized by All Done Monkey.  Each day in October a blogger has chosen a letter of the alphabet and shared an activity or craft that corresponds to that letter and included a linky so that other bloggers could link up their resources inspired by the chosen letter.  So now there is a complete list of activities for each letter of the alphabet from A-Z!

Now if that wasn't enough, I have come up with a collection of (what I believe to be) the top 10 Pinterest Boards that focus on learning the ABCs.  If you are looking for ideas and inspiration on how to teach your students or child the alphabet you NEED to be following these boards! (Click the images below to see and follow them in pinterest)

1. My first pick is the 31 days of Learning our ABCs blog hop board, of course!

2.  My next pick would have to be Deborah's from Teach Preschool.  Her Alphabet board
is always one of the first places I go to look for ideas.

3. Alphabet Fun by Bernadette (Mom to 2 posh divas) takes my number 3 spot.

4. And number 4 goes to ABC Goodies by Becky@ This Reading Mama.

5. Number 5 goes to A B C Rap (song) board by Debbie Clement with 529 pins and counting.

6. Learn as we go authors my number 6 pick, Alphabet Games and Activities.

7. The Measured mom authors a board full of hands on activities called Alphabet for kids.

8.  With 268 pins Cassie at 3Dinosaurs shares her board ABC Themes for Kids.

9. My 9th pick goes to the KBN Activities for Preschoolers board.  This board is a collaborative board that features pins from the most A-MAZ-ing kid bloggers around the web.  If it has anything to do with preschool it will be found on this board.

10. And last but not least, I couldn't share a pinterest round up without sharing one of my own.  Follow my board Learning our ABCs for lots of fun alphabet learning.

So do you have an Alphabet pinterest board?  Please link up your boards in the linky below.  And be sure to check out the rest of the posts in the 31 Days of ABC’s series by the following bloggers!

This Reading Mama, Nothing if Not Intentional, Sugar Aunts, For the Love of Spanish, Craftulate, Diapers-n-Heels, The Good Long Road, Here come the girls, Toddler Approved, Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes, Princess And The Rock, Kids Yoga Stories, Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails, Little Bins for Little Hands, The Measured Mom, P is for Preschooler, 3 Dinosaurs, Preschool Powol Packets, Crayon Box Chronicles, Juggling With Kids, Toddling in the Fast Lane, Teaching Mama, Still Playing School, Mamas Like Me, Little Hiccups, LalyMom, What to do with the children, Teachers of Good Things, Stir the Wonder, Scribble Doodle and Draw

Still looking for some fun ABC activities? Have a look at the following:



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