Clothes Pin Color Match Work Task

I was working on another literacy box similar to the ones I made when I developed the pirate hand puppet and the pirate rhyming  and made this activity to go with it.  The box I was working on was focusing on Planes and Trains with a particular focus on color words.  I dug out some of my kids Popsicle sticks (I couldn't find the colored one!  They are buried in a box somewhere.) and used  markers to color one of each.  I then made another stick that had the same color words on them.  I used the small clothespins that I found at A.C. Moore and colored three for each color.

  

I had both my 3 year old and my 6 year old try it out.  The loved it and both were able to complete the task.  This task works on fine motor skills, matching, and reading color words.  You could differentiate a bit more by using larger clothes pins and Popsicle sticks. 

Ladybug craft & Happy Summer!!!

Hi Everyone!!!  I am not lost.... just been a bit crazy around here.  My husband and I decided to buy our first home.  Yay!!! That has been stressful, but exciting at the same time. I also have been continuing to work on my Master's degree.







Then at the end of April some not nice person (I will not use the words I want to use as sensitive eyes may be reading) had the odasity to  drive into our school parking lot in the middle of the afternoon and break out my car window to steal my purse.  This person then when to Walmart and spent close to $1,000 on my debit card.  It took a week to get the window fixed and all of the financial stuff was just a huge hassle.




















   
In spite of the whole window fiasco and other stresses, my students and I ended the year with lots of fun.  We did a unit on bugs and my 2 year old group (Who are now all 3!) made ladybugs out of paper plates.  We took this opportunity to talk about circles (plate, eyes, dots, head), colors (red & black) and work fine motor skills (peeling the stickers to put on the dots, using the hole punch, & adding the legs and antennas).  I just love the way they came out! To make the bugs, we used:

• small red paper plates
•  black circle stickers
•  black pipe cleaners
• google eyes
• circle made out of contruction paper (We used a die cut to make the circle)

I have a lot more to share from this school year that I have not had the opportunity to write about.  Is there anything specific that you would like to hear about from my classroom?

Color Snowflake freebie!!

Hi everyone!! Guess what!?!  I am posting and it is not a linky party or a blog hop.  Just a good old post from me.  It has been busy with the 3 boys for Christmas.  My living room floor is covered in toys and packaging.   Grandpa bought the boys play bow and arrows so I have been dodging arrows being shot through the living room while a transformer runs over my toes.

I have been working on a lot on some of my TPT products and stuff for my classroom.  I found that the color tree file folder game I made recently was a big hit with my students, so I just made another one!  This one has snowflakes and instead of the color word purple it has the color word white.   You can get it by going here.  Please leave a comment on this post if you download it.  I love to know if you find things useful.

My boys and I have also been working on our Random Acts of Kindness.  Anyone else? I was so proud of my middle son on Christmas day.  He opened a present from his aunt that was in a Kohls box, except he never made it past the box.  He thought it was his gift.  He told his Aunt thank you for the box and moved on to the next gift.  We had to tell him to look in the box.  My husband and I were so proud that he was happy with a box and showed appreciation to his aunt for it.

Sorting task

This simple sorting task has been a big hit with two of my students.  We simply have the students sort a collection of counting bears into the  bowl that matches.   We  started with two colors and then worked our way up to 3 colors.  One of my students responds well to verbal praise so each time he put one in the correct  bowl I cheered.  Now when he does it, if I don't cheer he will look at me and say "yay!?".

If you are looking for more tasks I have a pinterest board dedicated to them or check out the others I have posted on the blog by going here!

Q-tip tree

Hi Everyone!! Wow has this year been keeping me busy and away from my blog.   I have lots of things I want to write about, I just need to sit down and do it!
A few weeks ago we did this q-tip fall tree activity that the kids loved.  Enjoy the pictures and I hope it gives you a project idea!


Each student had a plate full of colors to choose from.  We talked about the different colors and why the leaves change in the fall. 

The students had a q-tip for each color (usually I am not this worried about mixing colors, but we were also working on following directions).  They used the q-tip to dip in the paint and make leaves on the tree and on the ground.  For some reason I never took a picture of the final project!  HOpefully next year I will remember!


 


Have you done any neat painting activities lately?

Guest Post from Grade School Giggles: Hands on Academics with Play-dough

Play-dough can take any number of academic lessons from ordinary to extraordinary and it only takes a few minutes to make inexpensive dough. Just combine 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 cup water, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1/3 cup of salt, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, and food coloring in a pot over low heat. Stir for a few minutes until it makes a clump around your spoon. Store it in a sealed container when you're not using it.

Once you've made your dough you are ready to start using it in your lessons. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Spelling- Make letter mats and let the students build them. You could even do the same with cursive letters for older students. It would be a good early finisher activity. Older students can also roll the dough out and use stamps or toothpicks to spell their words or write examples of compound words or contractions.

Math- Make number mats and let the students build them. Have them use the play-dough to model basic addition or subtraction problems. Students can use play-dough to act out word problems. When studying measurement, play-dough can be used to create ropes in different lengths. It's also great for building 2 and 3D shapes.

Science- Younger students can explore color mixing. Older students can use play-dough to build a model of the Earth, make land forms, or build models of animals, plants, or cells.

Social Studies- Play-dough can be used to model using an assembly line and making goods as part of an economics unit. It could also be used to outline continents, states, countries, or rivers on a map. Older students could even use it to create a topographical map.

Have you used play-dough in your room before? How do you use it? Do you have any new ideas?

Please stop by Grade School Giggles and check out more of my classroom ideas. Thanks!

Color Books

     I was introduced to these color book from Lakeshore by a coworker 3 years ago and they quickly became a class favorite. Unfortunately they are only made as big books, but the great part is there is a CD with all of the songs on it. We use these books daily in the classroom as part of our morning circle and sometimes students choose to read them as a reward during the day (sometimes I go to bed still singing the color songs). One of my students loves these books so much that his parents bought him his own set for home.  

 

Every book features a paint bucket and paint brush in a specific color.  Each page has different items about that color (Great to work on vocabulary!!) and there is a catchy tune that is a piggy back song from a familiar song such as This Old Man.   The words for the songs are on each page and also listed inside the front cover.  The only thing I wish they had was the songs on the back of the book.  I often hold the books up while we are singing so I can not see the pages.  I have thought about copying the inside and taping a copy on the back.


        

 

 

When we first started with these we used one book for an entire month. My kids were learning their colors so we would also have various items to talk about that were whichever color we were talking about. For example when learning about the color orange (in October) we used a pumpkin, orange, orange bucket, etc. This year (since we already know all of our colors) the kids use a choice board to pick what color song they would like to hear for the day. They each take turns during the week. I got the board at TinSnips (Click on color songs). I need to redo it for next year so that it includes all of the colors of the books, but for this year it has worked great! The students can all use it(verbal or non verbal) by pointing to "I want" and the the color they choose.