Here's a handy resource to help you start the new year off right. Scholastic's Daily Starters provide a new language problem, math problem, and fun fact for each day of the week.
Activities for Pre-K through 8th grade are provided.
Here are some sample activities:
3-5 Language
1-2 Math
Each page also includes a Teacher view and Student view option. The teacher view option includes answer reveals for the problems.
Hope your new year is off to a fabulous start!
MeeGenius is an online resource for free and pay children's ebooks.
The ebooks can be read on the web or on a wireless device like an iPad. They offer free apps for several wireless devices.
There are currently seven free ebooks.
Students can choose read to me or read it myself.
I like how the words are highlighted as they are being read. The story can be paused and resumed during reading.
The pay ebooks at MeeGenius range from $1.99 to $5.99.
October is the time of year to think about all things creepy...and to me there is nothing more creepy than spiders!
I thought my first grade students would enjoy a little 8-legged learning this month.
First, we learned about how spiders spin webs at How Stuff Works.
Our media specialist also reminded me we have a subscription to World Book Online and they have a cool spider web video as well. (Thanks, Martha!)
Next, we visited Pebble Go and learned about Black Widow Spiders.
Then, we used Kid Pix Deluxe 3 to create spider webs using the straight line tool. I took this opportunity to teach the value of saving repeatedly during a project.
We used the oval and straight line tools to create a spider on our web.
Finally, we spent a second class period writing facts about black widow spiders.
We finished our exploration by watching Diary of a Spider at Tumble Books Online. You can access Tumble Books for free through a public library like this Virginia link! Thanks to KB Konnected for this tip!
If you don't have Kid Pix try downloading Tux Paint or painting online at Billy Bear 4 Kids.
Making Patterns would be an excellent whole group practice for early childhood students who are learning to make patterns.
PBS Pattern Matcher is another way for students to practice identifying and matching patterns. The game contains 2 levels of play.
Paul Pattern is similar to Level 2 of the PBS game where students find different pictures with the same pattern.
String Bead Patterns is another nice pattern making activty I've blogged about before.
ABCYas Moon Rock Pattern Game will engage students of several grade levels as it progressively gets harder to create the patterns.
Ladybird Groups from Kent ICT is a great tool for modeling addition and subtraction problems.
Start by clicking on the black with the plus sign. A dot will appear on the page. Drag this dot to one of the wings. Students will be able to see not only the dots, but also the numbers and total as well.
Ladybird Groups would be a perfect K-2 group activity with a projector or interactive whiteboard.
My school district recently began using Houghton Mifflin Math Expressions in Kindergarten, first, and second grades. Math Mountains is one of the concepts used with students. My previous post on the Big Wig Sub Shop demonstrates this concept.
Another way for teachers to create Math Mountains on the computer is with PowerPoint SmartArt Graphics. If you've read my blog for a while you know I love these!
Note: You will need PowerPoint 2008 or newer to use/create SmartArt Graphics.
I have included my PowerPoint file. Just download, open, and alter it to meet your needs.
First and second grade students will enjoy practicing addition combinations or "math mountains" at the Big Wig Sub Shop. Students choose a character and begin building sub sandwiches based around a number. For instance, they are given the number, say 8, and they need to make addition problems which equal that number, such as, 8 + 0, 1 + 7, 2 + 6, etc...
My students loved watching their character's "wig" grow and change as they proceeded in the game.
These word searches are perfect for kindergarten and first grade students who are learning sigh words. The puzzles will not overwhelm the students with words and would be a nice source of center time or at home practice.
The Crawford the Cat web site has three other games which would also be perfect for young students.
File Folder Farm is a free web site for you guessed it...file folder activities! There are downloadable activities for Pre-K through 2nd grade. Each activity comes with a matching cover label and direction page.
From the File Folder Farm site: You may: Print unlimited copies for teaching and learning purposes, use for home and classroom.You MAY NOT: Sell the materials found on this site in any form or use for monetary gain of any kind, use for any reason other educational, learning, or teaching purposes.
I love this set of images on the MicroSoft Image Gallery and thought they would be perfect to illustrate verbs. I used PowerPoint to create a set of verb cards. These could be printed and used on a word wall, given to students to spark writing, or made into a game.
