Here's a song we sing at school. I wrote it on sentence strips. Each child gets a turn. They come up and find their name and put it in the line. Then we sing the song to them. They can dance, jump, etc while we sing their name.
This is a great song for name recognition. I chose pigs for the names because we are learning about The Three Little Pigs. It isn't necessary to choose a new die cut for each week; this is just something I did for now. You could change this according to season or you could use the same one for the entire year.
Look Who Came to School Today
tune of Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
Look who came to school today
School today, school today
Look who came to school today
___________ did!
source unknown
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Song: Look Who Came to School Today
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Snowman Votive Craft
Parents and grandparents always enjoy cute handmade gifts from children, especially when they're made from handprints or fingerprints.
This snowman is simply made from a child's finger. Paint white paint on their finger and press lightly onto the votive holder. After the paint dries you can add the arms, buttons, etc with a fine tip brush or permanent marker. You might even want to paint the child's name and date on the side or bottom.
Teacher tip: When making handprint gifts, be sure to have the child look away as you press their hand. When the child is looking, they tend to press their hands themselves or jerk away from you which leaves a blurry mess.
This idea is very similar to the snowman ornament that I shared with you a few years ago.
Do you have any kid-friendly handmade gift ideas to share?
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Easy Gingerbread Man Ornament
Kids really enjoy making ornaments at Christmas time. Here's another easy ornament to try. These gingerbread men cut outs are made from craft foam. They were purchased very inexpensively at the Dollar Tree. Of course, you could use a gingerbread pattern to cut these out yourself.
Be sure to provide your little one with glue, glitter, buttons, sequins, etc to decorate their gingerbread person. Be sure to check out these other Christmas and ornament ideas.
Have fun!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Coming Soon: A New Name!
Little Fun; Little Learning has been around for a few years. While it has been helpful in providing resources for parents and teachers, Revka and I feel that this site could be better with a more user-friendly set-up. LFLL was set up during our early blogging years and it is time for a makeover! I have purchased the new domain for the site. Hopefully after the first of the year, Revka and I can brainstorm on a new design to unveil a more resourceful website. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Thanksgiving People Craft
While walking down the halls at school I spotted these Thanksgiving people that the kindergarten children had made. Aren't they cute?
The body of the people is a Zoopal plate. They painted the plates with skin and hair and attached an acorn for the nose. Next came the smiles, hats or head dressing, fingers, and wiggle eyes.
Other ideas you might like:
Thanksgiving place mat
Thanksgiving turkey craft
Thankful tree
Do you have any cute Thanksgiving crafts to share?
Friday, November 12, 2010
Studying Word Families
Learning word families is a great way for kids to learn how to read. Each week at school, we study a new word family. Here are some of the activities we use to help learn the words.
1. Magnet Board - Each week we practice making words using the magnet board. First we put our current family ending at the top and then we put different consonants and consonant blends in front of the word family. Sometimes we make nonsense words too. As you can see, this week our word family is -it.
2. Printable Booklets - Hubbards Cupboard has free printable booklets that you can print out to read with each word family. This week we are reading Fishing because it focuses on the -it word family.
3. Online Activities-
Word Family Games allows you to click and drag the words to the correct word family. This activity is a bit more difficult than the other activities because the student is sorting word families into different categories. This game would work well for small group or whole class lessons. Small groups could sit around the computer and work together while taking turns. For large groups, you could post this on the Active Board.
Starfall has making word activities. For example: The student is given a picture, such as a can, and he has to click and drag the beginning consonant "c" to the word family -an. After entering the Starfall website, click on Learn to Read. Starfall also has lots of other reading activities.
4. Word Wheels - Scholastic has a book of printable word wheels. I copy and color them and then laminate them for durability. (Upon searching tonight, I found a free printable for a word wheel, but it appears that it is just a sample.)
Free printable word wheels: Wordway also has many word wheels/strips but these do not have pictures with the words. There are over 100 pages so you will need to scroll through and print out only the ones you need. Other sources include Super Teacher Worksheets and Enchanted Learning.
5. Other books - The top two books shown in the picture are part of a literacy kit that we have at the school, but there are other places to find books. The pink books shown in the picture came from a yard sale. I got a small stack of them for 25 cents. Check your local library or do some web surfing for books. You can also work with your child to make your own books. Start with a list of words from your word family to help you brainstorm.
6. Worksheets - Inbetween all of the other activities we reinforce the skills with these worksheets from Wordway. We do not do all of the worksheets on the website. I pick 4-5 of them for each week. Some of these include putting the correct word into the sentence, choosing the correct word for the picture, etc.
(I have found Wordway difficult to navigate so here is how I find the sheets: Go to the Wordway website, scroll past the other website links and offer to purchase, click on the letter for the word family you're looking for. For the word family -it, you would click on "I". Then scroll through the list of word families and click on the one you like.)
7. Spelling words - Each week we have a list of spelling words to go along with our word family and there is homework to reinforce these words. Since our word family this week is -it some of our words are bit, fit, sit, mit, hit, kit, etc. In our spelling list, I also include two sight words that we are studying.
8. File folder games - Recently I was excited to find the website File Folder Fun. On the website, there phonics word family games called Shamrock Phonics and Space Rhymes. You can print the games in color or black and white. If you need different word families than the ones shown, you can simply white out the words and make your own.
I know this is only a few of the ways to teach word families. What are some effective ways that you have found?
Other sources:
Scholastic rhyming words worksheet 1
Rhyming words sheet 2
Rhyming words sheet 3
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Apple Activities
I was doing some cleaning today and found these cute apple activities from kindergarten class. Enjoy!
Apple basket - This is a cute introduction to number sentences and color words.
Apple people - This is simply an apple with black crinkled arms and legs.
Apple trees - Every kid loves to paint. :)
Torn Paper Apples - Tearing paper is good exercise for little fingers. Have students cover an apple you've drawn or copied. Encourage them to make a layered look.
What kinds of fall activities have you enjoyed?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Baby Moses Color by Number
Printables for Kids has a new printable available. It is a color by number picture of Moses floating down the river. This would be great to use for Sunday School, VBS, or a filler item for when you have nursery and church lets out a bit later than normal (it happens!).
Enjoy!
Friday, July 9, 2010
10 Commandments Activities
My friend was needing some craft ideas to use when teaching The 10 Commandments. Since I am doing an online search, I thought I'd share my findings with you.
Parchment Commandments Craft
Moses and the 10 Commandments Paper Craft - template provided
Printable Packet from Calvary's Chapel - This packet has a coloring page, crossword, word find, lesson, and other activities.
Fill-in-the-blank worksheet
Commandments Are A Loving Gift Song
10 Commandments Song
Memory Pegs - Print a color or black and white picture for each commandment.
Bible Story
Verse/Copy Work - I think this was meant to be used for a handwriting homeschooling lesson, but I think you could print out these pages, reduce them on the copier, and make miniature books for a children's Sunday School class or Christian school.
Help Moses Maze
Printable Coloring Page
10 Commandments Games
Crossword Puzzle
Word Search
Word Scramble
Rhyme
Calendar
Do you have any 10 Commandments activities to add to this list?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
