By Gigi on November 11th, 2017
This Thanksgiving turkey craft is a cute, fun art project. But it’s also a wonderful lesson in math, as it is completely made up of 2D and 3D shapes! There are so many learning concepts in this little gobbler.
The hat is made up of squares and a rectangle, the eyes are circles, and the beak is a triangle. We used the Fiskars large heart punch to make the wattle, and the tail is a paper plate cut into a semicircle. Square tissues were used as feathers, and everything was attached to a cardboard tube/cylinder.
As children assemble their turkeys, have them analyze, compare, and identify the shapes based on their attributes; facilitate conversation about the similarities and the differences of the objects. When working with older students (pre-kers and kinders) who are developmentally ready, take this opportunity to introduce the vocabulary words 2D and 3D, and talk about how 2D shapes are flat and 3D are not.
MATERIALS USED:
– Toilet paper roll
– Construction paper
– Fabric
– Tissue paper
– Googly eyes
– Stiff felt
– Paper plate
– Fiskars large heart punch
– Glue
– Scissors
By Gigi on October 17th, 2017
This Halloween sensory bin is made of just a little bit of spooky and a whole lot of fun!
Children learn best by using their senses. Tubs filled with a variety of substances and materials enable young ones to use those senses to explore things that capture their attention. As they manipulate the objects, they are seeing, touching, smelling, and hearing. This allows them to collect information and make discoveries, which leads to the practice of many learning concepts.
Young learners build language, social emotional, and problem solving skills as they work alongside their peers to delve into the bin’s contents. They increase their math skills by counting, sorting, and classifying different elements. Quantity comparisons are also made as they decipher who has more “spiders” or “rocks” in their “cauldrons”. Additionally, scooping, pouring, and picking up different items helps to strengthen fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.
Without a doubt, sensory bins are one of the best hands-on learning tools. So hurry and gather up a container and some spooky goodies!
MATERIALS USED:
– Any suitable container
– Aquarium gravel
– Pom poms
– Halloween buttons/embellishments
– Sequins
– Mini candy cauldrons
– Large googly eyes
– Plastic spiders, bats, snakes, centipedes, skeletons
– Halloween bouncy balls
– Plastic spoons
By Gigi on July 26th, 2017
Let’s dive into all things ocean! This Under the Sea Math and Literacy pack contains 12 worksheets and 4 learning center activities that practice the following skills:
* Classification
* Counting
* One-to-one correspondence
* Number recognition
* Number order
* Number formation
* Set recognition
* Measurement
* Graphing
* Seriation
* Letter formation
* Fine motor
* Beginning sound recognition
* Upper and lowercase letter recognition
* Language/dictation
* Self-expression
* Visual discrimination
* Following directions
* Phonological and phonemic awareness
FISHY ALPHABET MATCH-UP PUZZLES (COLOR 26/B&W 26)
Print these out on cardstock and laminate for heavy use). Cut the cards in half. Prompt your young learners to match the upper and lowercase letters to complete the puzzles.
SEA CREATURE VISUAL DISCRIMINATION TASK CARDS (COLOR 12/B&W 12)
Print cards out on cardstock (laminate for heavy use). Provide children with clothespins or a small manipulative to use as markers.
Learners will study the pictures on the cards and use their visual discrimination skills to determine which pictures are the same as or different from the featured images. Students will clip/mark the cards accordingly.
UNDER THE SEA WORD WALL/VOCABULARY CARDS (COLOR 10/B&W 10)
Print these cards out on cardstock (laminate for heavy use). Place them on your word walls and in your writing centers for easy visibility and access. Encourage children to copy and sound out the words.
UNDER THE SEA SIZE COMPARISON TASK CARDS TASK CARDS (COLOR 8/B&W 8)
Print this activity out on cardstock and laminate for heavy use. Present your learners with a task card and a set of item cards.
Children will display their seriation skills by placing the items in order from smallest to largest. Be sure to discuss other words for large, medium, and small (big, huge, average, midsize, little, tiny, etc.)
FISHY NUMBER SEQUENCING PUZZLES (COLOR 2/B&W 2)
Print these out on cardstock (laminate for heavy use), and cut the puzzles into strips. Students will complete the puzzles by placing the pieces in numerical order.
UNDER THE SEA WORD ROLL & COVER SHEETS (COLOR 4/B&W 4)
Print these sheets out on cardstock (laminate for heavy use). Provide seashells, mini erasers, pom poms, vase gems, or some other small manipulative for students to use as markers. For individual use, have the child roll the die, count the dots or recognize the “set” of dots, and find and cover the matching sets on the sheet. Repeat until all of the spaces are covered. In small group, give each child a sheet and have them take turns rolling the die. The first person to cover all of their sets wins. Trade cards and play again!
WORKSHEETS (B&W 12)
A writing prompt (“If I lived under the sea, I would…”) is included in the worksheet section of this pack. Children will continue the story. Older learners may want to copy and/or write their own words. Have younger learners dictate to you, and repeat each word slowly as they watch you write it out onto the sheet. Encourage all students to draw a picture of their story in the space provided.
Additionally, with these worksheets learners will count jellyfish, measure seahorses, segment syllables, identify beginning sounds of some ocean animals, and so much more!
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THIS UNDER THE SEA MATH AND LITERACY PACK.
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