ABC and 123

Happy Birthday Mozart

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Arts Alive has put together a resource packet for teachers to use when exploring the life and music of Mozart.

Bright Hub Education has a Kindergarten lesson plan for introducing students to Wolfgang Mozart. The lesson objective states:

The objective of this Mozart lesson plan for kindergarten is to provide students with an introduction to this classical composer through discussion and hands-on activities. At the end of this lesson, children will have an understanding of what classical music is and know who Mozart (among other composers) was.

Making Music Fun has a home school lesson plan to be used in teaching students about Mozart. You will find a printable word search and multiplication practice sheet at the link.

Make a special treat in honor of his birthday - a Mozart cake.

Read excerpts from The Official Weblog of W.A. Mozart.

The Music Kit has posted a list of children's books about Mozart.

Older students might like to try Mozart's Musical Dice Game for composing a minuet.

Share a familiar song with your children. They may be surprised to learn that Mozart was the composer.

Learning About Australia in Honor of Australia Day

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Mama Smiles is the host for a wonderful post written by another one of our favorite contributors, Elise. The post is about exploring Australian geography and is a fantastic resource.

Counting Coconuts put together a Continent Bag full of activities for learning about Australia.

Inspiration Surrounds, Creativity Abounds shared some examples of activities she will do with her own children on Australia Day to teach them about their home.

Storytime Source Page shares a great list of book titles, flannel board activities, and songs about Australian Animals.

Check out the official Australia Day website for more information if you are interested.

Bilingual Wednesdays - Brr..it is cold outside! part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Ana) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Brr..it is cold outside- Part 2

Here we are working with snowmen. We love snowmen! Maybe because it never snows where we live, so we enjoy just playing with them in our games.

Snowhite was patterning here. Visual discrimination is an important skill. We learned about

same / different - igual / diferente

and here she was sorting snowmen by size

big/ small - grande/ pequeño

and her favourite games, puzzles!

you can download the second part here

Show and Tell #85

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

As part of their Little Mathematician series of posts, Raising the Cameran Clan rolled a giant die and graphed Trains.

Meremade is going to be practicing basic computation using a wooden math block. The tutorial for making your own math block is included in the post.

Waddle-ah-chaa explains a Make Ten Math Game that uses a deck of playing cards.

It's your turn!

If you are new to Show & Tell or need a quick recap, here are the rules:

~Post your favorite lessons, crafts, traditions, kid friendly recipes, field trip recap, learning games, experiments, DIY organizational projects, holiday related activities, or Ah-Ha moments.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or include our link button in your post or sidebar.
~Please try to visit and comment on at least three links. This adds to the positive collaboration that makes our learning cooperative a success!
~Each week we will feature three links from the previous week's party. Some weeks these are chosen at random, sometimes by theme, and other times according to linky tools stats.

Movement and Music: Heart Healthy for Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jedda) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:12:00 +0000

Each year around Valentine's Day I like to take some time to teach about how to help our hearts be healthy. Everything seems to be centered around hearts at this time of year so it's great timing for some movement and music learning that's focused on making sure we have happy and healthy hearts.

Staying active is one of the best ways to help our hearts be healthy. So today's music links are about active music-making, with some heart science and games at the end!

This one is, appropriately, "HEART and Soul." Wouldn't it be fun to have a big piano to dance on like this? Turn on some music and pretend your feet are making the tune like they do!

heart and soul

I think this "Stomp Song" is lots of fun. Trying stomping your feet to the music. You could use this song or any song that is fun to march around the room to make your own "stomp song."
Stomp Song

This is a famous "love song" that is great for kids to be able to recognize and name. It is said that Beethoven loved Elise and wrote this song for her. What kind of movements or dance does this song inspire in you?
"Fur Elise" (For Elise)
Learning is even more fun when your heart is involved and for some kids, the movement makes the learning happen even more efficiently. So get ready to jump out of your chairs to learn!
These Heart-Heatlthy Games gets you moving around while you spell, learn the sounds of letters, and some Valentine Words--LINK to the games.

And for more about the science behind how our hearts work, check out this game and this site.
Try these fun ways to get your heart involved with your math:Math "exercises" are really exercises when you get up off your chair!

Greater/less than number recognition game: use a deck of cards to play "war." The number that is higher wins and kids take turns doing that many jumping jacks (or sit ups, etc.)
Exercise your Answer: When you find the answer to your addition, subtraction, or multiplication problem you can "exercise" the answer. Take that many seconds to skip, jump, or dance. Or do like above, and the answer to your math problem tells you how many jumping jacks or sit-ups to do.
For more fun Valentine's and movement ideas stop by This Little Project for the Music @ my House series.
Have fun taking music and movement to heart!

Muffin Tin Playing, Learning, and Skill Reviewing Activities

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Thanks to Michelle from Muffin Tin Mom, families all over the blog world are using tins for serving more than just muffins.

More than just for eating, muffin tins are a great tool for organizing materials and teaching basic skills in new and creative centers.

When starting a Lego project with her son, Muffin Tin Mom sorts the small pieces into muffin tins to make the project more manageable.

Making Learning Fun explains two early childhood games that use muffin tins to teach basic skills.
Using tins, picture cards, and pom poms preschoolers can practice visual discrimination.
The second game using tins, dice, and pom poms effectively practices counting and color recognition.

At Happy Brown House muffin tins and colorful foam stickers are the materials needed to practice sorting skills.

Growing Book by Book explains 4 great games for practicing literacy skills with elementary students: Toss and Answer, Match-a-Roo, Three in a Row, and Sort-a-Roo.

The Wonder Years encouraged collaging by providing interesting materials in a muffin tin.

Meaningful Mama uses coins, cards, and muffin tins for a skill review activity than can be adapted to whatever skill you are teaching.

Pre-K Pages used a muffin tin to create a magnet exploration station.

Here's to never having too many muffin tins in your collection!

Valentine's Day Math Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

I wanted to give you some fun ideas for Valentine's Day that had to do with math. I already posted about them on my blog last year, but why reinvent the wheel, right? Here's some fun games you can play in your classroom or at home! :)

{Click the picture for the download ALL of the math activities-Free ;)}

Here is the same Candy Heart graph that is in packet, but this one has the color blue instead of white (it just depends on what brand you buy, usually the boxes have white and the bags have blue)

Clipart and/or fonts copyright DJ Inkers and used with permission. www.djinkers.com

For more math ideas, check out my "It All Adds Up" posts {here}.

Show and Tell #84

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Happy Tuesday! Winter has finally found it's way to our part of the world. My children are LOVING the snow. I guess that means it is a good time to get winter-y with our learning.

Fun Frugal Mommy shared a winter themed preschool math unit.

I love the snowman lunch created by Kitchen Fun with my Three Sons.

Math with marshmallows. Mmmmmm! Thanks for sharing Bubble Gum Tree.

Since I am really enjoying all the great winter themed math activities, here is one more idea rich post from Mom's Heart.

It's your turn!

If you are new to Show & Tell or need a quick recap, here are the rules:

~Post your favorite lessons, crafts, traditions, kid friendly recipes, field trip recap, learning games, experiments, DIY organizational projects, holiday related activities, or Ah-Ha moments.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or include our link button in your post or sidebar.
~Please try to visit and comment on at least three links. This adds to the positive collaboration that makes our learning cooperative a success!

~Each week we will feature three links from the previous week's party. Some weeks these are chosen at random, sometimes by theme, and other times according to linky tools stats.

Teaching with Ticia: New York and North Carolina

noreply@blogger.com (Ticia) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

NEW YORK

I have to admit I'm a sucker for New York City because I visited there as a young girl and very much enjoyed seeing Ellis Island and seeing my first Broadway Musical. So, I really enjoyed looking for some fun ideas for it.

What's in the lapbook, as you can see it took a few pages to glue it into.

Norman Rockwell is from New York, and this was a fun writing activity. Write a story about the picture you got. I did a google search for the images and got more than I could use.

My Ideal Park- Teddy Roosevelt is from New York, my library did not have a good book about him, but it had a truly delightful book about his daughter with wonderful illustrations, and fabulous vocabulary. If you can find a copy of "What to Do about Alice?" I'd highly recommend it. Afterward we discussed Teddy Roosevelt founding the National Park system, and designed our ideal park (link to printable).

Under New York- This is a charming story about what there is under the city and the many layers. It was a great way to think about what is going on that you can't see. Inside the Under New York printable they drew what was going on under NYC.

Tenth Avenue Cowboy- A boy moves to NYC and dreams of growing up to be a cowboy, his dream comes true but not the way he planned. This was a great way to talk about dreams coming true in ways that aren't expected.

Statue of Liberty- I found a list of how tall different parts of the statue's body were. We went outside and measured it out. In my experience you can tell a kid how big something is, but until they've actually seen it measured out in real life they don't understand it.

Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt flapbooks- for these I used a picture I'd googled and had them write one sentence about each of the presidents. As I mentioned my library did not have any great books about either Roosevelt or their wives.

Building Manhattan- I used a photocopy of the final page of the book to create a timeline of what happened.

New York State Symbols

NORTH CAROLINA

Back when I was in junior high I had to do a state study about North Carolina. I thought I was oh so clever and called it "Have you ever heard of the Tar Heel state?" My history teacher was not as amused and my grade was rather bland, probably a low B.

North Carolina is rather printable light......... That's being kind. The books for the state straggled in over the course of 2 months and I just was not able to cover them all.

Design your own plane- Obviously a very popular idea. Afterwards they really enjoyed flying them outside.

Best way to waterproof paper- North Carolina is known for exporting tar (hence the name Tar Heel state), so we enjoyed trying different ways of waterproofing paper.

North Carolina state symbols-I continued to be amused at what states pick for the state animals, surprisingly enough squirrel is not too common.

OTHER ACTIVITIES not in the book

Greensboro sit ins- my kids really enjoyed designing protest signs. I did not enjoy as much their deciding to protest later while circling and yelling loudly.

Blackbeard's Last Fight- Several states claim him, and since he plundered up and down the Southern United States it is valid, but he died in North Carolina, and so I put him here. The kids very much enjoyed making a puppet of him sinking.

I know there is a lot more I could do for New York, but we had spent three weeks on it, and I could tell the kids were getting antsy about it. For those of you who have visited there or live there what is your favorite thing in New York?

Bilingual Wednesdays - Brr..it is cold outside!

noreply@blogger.com (Ana) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Winter arrived in the North Hemisphere. As I live in South America I am having my summer holidays but I gathered some of my winter resources to share with you.

Here we go..Snowhite is working with some concepts such as numbers and shapes recognition, matching colours and beginning sounds in Spanish.

Do you remember them?

1 / uno 2/ dos 3/ tres 4/ cuatro 5/ cinco 6 /seis 7 / siete 8 /ocho 9 /nueve 10/diez

What about the colors?

read/ rojo yellow / amarillo blue/ azul green/ verde orange/ naranja purple/ violeta

Shapes are easy!

triangle / triángulo square / cuadrado circle / círculo oval / óvalo rectangle/ rectángulo

you can download the free pack here

Show and Tell #83

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

The Book Ambulance shared by Growing Book by Book is a clever idea for teaching children to take good care of their books.

The Spice Painting suggestion from Play Create Explore looks like a unique way to introduce the 5 senses.

This soapy experiment from Making Memories is on my list of things to try with my kids this week.

It's your turn!

If you are new to Show & Tell or need a quick recap, here are the rules:

~Post your favorite lessons, crafts, traditions, kid friendly recipes, field trip recap, learning games, experiments, DIY organizational projects, holiday related activities, or Ah-Ha moments.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or include our link button in your post or sidebar.
~Please try to visit and comment on at least three links. This adds to the positive collaboration that makes our learning cooperative a success!

~Each week we will feature three links from the previous week's party. Some weeks these are chosen at random, sometimes by theme, and other times according to linky tools stats.

What's Hot/What's Not in Literacy Education: A Very Informal "Research Project"

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

The International Reading Association puts together a yearly survey, to be completed by top literacy researchers and scholars, to suggest the hottest topics in literacy education. From year to year theses hot topics evolve and as most educators agree even after they appear to be "gone" they will likely come back around eventually. When I was a college student the raging debate was phonics vs. whole language - no longer even a topic of discussion. So, what are we talking about in our literacy conversations today? Digital Literacy? Comprehension? Early Literacy?

Are you curious what the hot topics have been in the past? Here is the 2011 Results and Discussion. The 2012 survey results have also already been published {no peeking until you've played along though}.

In the spirit of kicking off 2012, we'd love a little informal research project of our own. Below is a list of the literacy subjects included on the 2012 survey. With your teacher hat on, how would you rate each item on the list?

Hot

Somewhat Hot

Not Hot

Should be Hot

We would love if you would take a few minutes to run through the list and rate them for yourself. Share your thoughts in a comment or post your list on your blog and link back in the linky below. If you would also include the age/grade level of the students you are teaching that would be great! Let's see what we come up with in our professional opinions ;).

~Adolescent literacy

~Adult literacy

~Comprehension

~Core learning/literacy standards

~Critical reading and

~Curriculum-based

~Disciplinary/content area literacy

~Early intervention

~English as a second language/English language learners

~Fluency

~High-stakes assessment

~Informational/nonfiction

~Intertextuality/reading multiple texts

~Literacy coaches/reading coaches

~Motivation/engagement

~New literacies/digital literacies

~Phonemic awareness

~Phonics

~Political/policy influences on literacy

~Preschool literacy instruction/experiences

~Professional development (inservice

~Response to Intervention

~Scientific evidence-based reading research and

~Struggling/striving readers (grade 4 & above) (–)

~Teacher education for reading (preservice)

~Vocabulary/word meaning

~Writing

Are there any topics not on this list that you think should be included?

Looking forward to reading your "What's Hot" lists and compiling our cooperative results!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 04:47:00 +0000

In December we shared with you a group of books filled with great reference facts and an enjoyable refresher course for upper elementary students - adults! While perusing through the Top 100 downloads on my Kindle today I was excited to see that a 4th book in the set from Reader's Digest, I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot from School, is available as a free download!

It will be offered from now until January 9. If you are a Kindle reader (it is also available for the Nook from Barnes and Noble) you will want to grab this while it is free. Enjoy!

Math Center Activities for Early Elementary Age Students

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Plugging away at some of my New Year goals, I have been busy organizing submitted ideas back into the folders where they belong in my email account. It is enjoyable because I have run across many interesting tips and ideas from our dear readers. So, today's list of math center suggestions comes to you courtesy of an organized "Math Submissions" folder!

A Crafty Escape turned basic math concepts into a playful learning experience by setting up a grocery store game.

Keri, from the Home Teacher, created Number-a-Day pages for her daughter and was so kind to share the free printables with us as well.

Keri also put together a Mission Addition math adventure activity aimed at familiarizing young children with the basic concepts of addition.

Teaching Two used pattern blocks to put together an engaging math center.

Making Merry Memories talked about patterns while making a special felt quilt square.

More Amused with the Packaging

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Every holiday that involves packages, ribbons, and bows elicits a comment from one of the bystanders about how the littlest children are always more amused by the packaging than the toy inside. This year was no exception for our family, with a 15 month old we found that the crinkly paper noises and the shiny bows were certainly highlights. It got me thinking, how might I entertain the rest of my crew with leftover packaging.

1. Ribbons

We cut ribbons into various lengths and added them to an independent work box for the kids to measure and order by size.

2. Wire Twist Ties

This year I saved these from all of the crazy, parent-proof, toy packaging. In today's quiet time box my 5 year old found a pile of twist ties that she creatively used to make 3D sculptures and bent into letters to make simple words.

3. Wrapping Paper

After smoothing out a very large piece of used gift wrap, my oldest two children spent some of their afternoon drawing a backdrop for the nativity play they acted out for us.

4. Boxes

The many shapes and sizes of boxes made for a great day of imaginative play as they turned in to rockets, trains, race cars, and pillow pet habitats.

5. Bows

Leftover bows are an attractive manipulative for counting and sorting - or in our case for selling in a play store.

6. Wrapping Paper Tubes

Although this isn't a mom endorsed idea, we have seen many tube swords yielded in our house lately in an effort to save their fair Rapunzel!

{our Rapunzel hair how-to}

7. Greeting Cards

We dug into last year's cards to find a few that would make fun puzzles. The kids took turns cutting them in to pieces and trading with each other to try to put them back together.

I am sure there are MANY other creative suggestions for giving new life to the leftover holiday packaging. Do you have any ideas to share?

Show and Tell #82

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Welcome 2012! I don't know about you, but I love a ~~clean slate~~ fresh whiteboard! There is something refreshing about the just sharpened pencil and the new pack of markers. Most of all I love the blank planner waiting to be filled with new activities, lessons, appointments, and goals.While I have personal goals I am interested in tackling in 2012 I also have a few dreams and wishes for this place we collectively enjoy!

In the next months we are looking forward to...
~Tweaking our header design, while keeping our signature look.
~Finding members of our ABC& 123 community who would like to write a guest post, feature themselves in a Feature Yourself Friday post, or pitch us an idea for a bi-weekly or monthly feature.
~Keeping up with our ABC & 123 facebook community
~Sorting through the wonderful submissions you have sent to us to feature
~A fresh batch of featured key contributors*
~Connecting with new companies, momprenuers, and etsy shop owners who are interested in supporting our site by sponsoring posts and features.

{*We really appreciate your willingness to share your great ideas by submitting them for us to post. As we look ahead we recognize that we certainly won't be able to keep up the pace without your continued submissions.

You have probably noticed the left sidebar gives a month-by-month heads up on the themes we will be working toward in our activity gathering. However, you may send in anything and we will try to fit them in where appropriate.

We have a Key Contributors list at the bottom of our page. This is where we will thank you for cooperating! If we've used your ideas & links 3 or more times in the current year, or if you are a feature writer, you will have a link on our front page as our Thanks to You!}

What are your goals for 2012? If one of your resolutions is to get your pictures under control we would love to direct you to the scrapbook for hire service that one of our friends and readers, Liz, offers on her site. You can get busy on your other 2012 goals while she organizes your pictures and puts them into beautiful pages for you. Sounds pretty efficient to me!

For now, let's get the new year started with a Show and Tell! We would love for you to link up this week with some of your favorite New Year's traditions, pictures of your family's holiday celebrations, organization projects for 2012, your first crafts and lessons of the year, or a snapshot into what you have planned for January. We would also love for you to share your resolutions for your family, yourself, and your classroom.

If you are new to Show & Tell or need a quick recap, here our the rules:

~Post your favorite lessons, crafts, traditions, kid friendly recipes, field trip recap, learning games, experiments, DIY organizational projects, holiday related activities, or Ah-Ha moments.
~Direct link to your post, not your home page.
~Include a link back to us or include our link button in your post or sidebar.
~Please try to visit and comment on at least three links. This adds to the positive collaboration that makes our learning cooperative a success!
~Each week we will feature three links from the previous week's party. Some weeks these are chosen at random, sometimes by theme, and other times according to linky tools stats.

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:49:00 +0000

{from Katie at A List Maker's Life}

{from Katie at Katie's Nesting Spot}

{from Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom}

{from Ana at Ingles360}

Have a wonderful week of celebrating! We will look forward to hearing all about your holiday activities when we return from our own winter break on Jaunary 3, 2012!

Elfing Around: Elf Crafts, Snacks & Lessons

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

There are Christmas elves burning up the internet this year. Every time I log in to Facebook a friend is sharing pictures of the crazy tricks their house elves are up to. Inspired by the silly little Santa's helpers I did my own search for fun elf ideas to share with you today.

Gourmet Mom put together a clever snack, sure to fire up your child's imagination - Elf Tinker Toys.

Crazy for Crust mixed up a batch of Elf Munch and shares the printable with you for gift giving.

Teaching Two shared an elf inspired writing activity - Elf Applications

Northpole.com has several online elf activities and games for your little ones to enjoy.

Cackleberries gives a step by step tutorial on How to Draw an Elf.

Scholastic.com explained the following elf themed game:

Santa & the Elves - One student is “it” and sits with his back to the rest of the group. The teacher chooses one “elf” to hide. Santa turns around and tries to guess which elf is missing.

This Elf Project lesson written for third graders intends to excite young writers.

Mrs. Russell's Class followed up their reading of The Elves and the Shoemaker with a cute elf craft.

The Pike Fam used their adorable little hands to make elf prints.

Snacks That Look Like Santa

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Strong Start made a simple Santa's Hat Snack out of strawberries.

The Weight is Over shares how to make a healthy Santa snack.

Cookies and Cups posted about the ingredients necessary for making a great Santa snack mix.

Dukes and Duchesses has the perfect milk to go with Santa's cookies.

Taste of Home put together cookies that look a bit like Santa.

Show and Tell #81

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:01:00 +0000

Today's Show and Tell will be the last for 2011, wrapping up another year of fantastic links from all of you! Thank you for participating in this weekly celebration of learning. Show and Tell will return the first Tuesday of 2012. Until then keep making, and recording, those special memories we will look forward to reading about them in the new year.

Sweet!

Mommy's Little Helper shaped candy canes into sweet shapes and letters after heating them up a bit.

Living Life Intentionally put together a sweet "Grow your own candy cane" kit.

Raising Memories linked up with a recipe for Candy Cane Cake. Yum!

It's your turn!

Please remember these rules:

~Post an Ah-Ha moment, an experiment, learning game, field trip, whatever you're currently working on, your child's fridge worthy artwork, handmade gifts, or anything holiday related.

~Direct link to your post, not your home page.

~Include a link back to us or our link button in your post.

~If you come back and your link is missing, double check to make sure you've followed the directions!

~Most importantly, please try to visit and comment on at least three links. Spread the comment love and make someone's day!

Teaching with Ticia: Family projects

noreply@blogger.com (Ticia) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:54:00 +0000

This is a post, I'm still thinking through, but is on my mind because my kids just did an oral report for our history co-op. So, I'm going to be checking back off and on all day to see what people's thoughts are.

What is everyone's thoughts on family projects? like them, hate them,

Back when I was teaching we did one family project a month. I tried to find my masters so I could share what we did, but I can't find it anywhere in all of my school stuff. As we used it a family project is something that would be hard for your student to complete completely on their own, and they would need some help. It was a great way for our students to spend some time with their parents and learn more about their family. Here's a few suggestions for family projects:

September

Where I live- Draw a map of your house and memorize your address. The school I taught at many of the students entered not knowing their address and phone number.

October

Fire Safety- We taught them how to call 911, memorized their phone number and how to escape their house.

November

Hide Tom Turkey- At this point we started to require more writing, and so in addition to creating a disguise for the turkey, they were also required to write two sentences about how they hid him.

December

Family traditions- This is the one I really wanted to share the printable with you. There were 4 questions for them to answer, and to the best of my memory it was fairly non-specific to a certain holiday.

January

Any suggestions?

February

Famous person report- Since this month has President's Day, and right before it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Write a report on a famous person, this included when they were born and died, where they were born, what they were famous for, and one other interesting fact. Homeschool Creations has a great famous person report (scroll halfway down the page).

March

Animal report- They had to find information about where the animal they chose lived, what it ate, how long it lived, and one other interesting fact about it.

April

My insect- This is always a fun project, they had to create an insect that follows the rules of insects (so 3 body parts, 6 legs, etc) and come up with its' habitat and where it lives and as many points as possible.

May

When I grow up- This is a fun end of the year report, to see what their thoughts are on this subject.

When I taught we gave this assignment at the beginning of the month and they had at least two weeks to work on it. Not because it really takes that long, but because schedules are busy and we wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to work on these with their parents. When the time was up they presented their report and were graded with a rubric.

So, do you like reports like these? I'd love to hear thoughts from different sides of the equation. What do parents think? What do teachers think?

After I've heard some feedback and thoughts, I'll make up some forms for doing these different reports to share with ya'll.

Christmas Graphing Activities

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:58:00 +0000

Use the Captain's Christmas Crunch to put together a graphing activity similar to First Grade Fanatic.

Preschool Lesson Plans used marshmallow for graphing.

Mrs. Morrow's Kindergarten has students graphing with M&Ms.

Homeschool Parent shared a coordinate points graphing activity for older children.

Busy Bees put together a colorful holiday themed graph activity and spinner.

Kinder Gals had fun with graphing Gingerbread cookies.

Cooperative Learning 365 offers a printable "Favorite Christmas Song" graphing activity.

Gingerbread Lessons and Activities

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:16:00 +0000

Mrs. I's Class did a How To writing project on How To Eat a Gingerbread Man.

Mathwire offers some gingerbread themed math games. I especially like the Gingerbread Coordinate Graphing Game.

A Teacher's Touch has put together a great collection of gingerbread freebies: songs, rhymes, measurement activity, math game, a sort, and more.

Mrs. Kilburn's Kiddos posted many links to help you plan an exciting gingerbread man unit.

Kindergarten Crayons is offering a collection of literacy activities centered around a gingerbread theme. The packet includes over 100 activities and is available for purchase.

The Preschool Toolbox used gingerbread men to practice number order.

Try Sweet Sugar Belle's recipe for gingerbread play dough.

School Marm Ohio suggests several cute ideas for Gingerbread Baby writing projects.

Kinder Gals put together a persuasive writing project using the familiar Gingerbread Man story.

Mrs. Nelson's Class explains many pieces of their gingerbread themed preschool unit.

Kinder by Kim shared a gingerbread glyph idea that would be fun for kids of many ages.

K2Printables has a glyph kit ready for you to print and use.

Babbling Abby wrote about several pieces of her 1st grade gingerbread unit.

Just for fun you, or your students, can create their own Gingerbread avatar online at Sprint.

Marshmallow subtraction

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

It's that time of year here in Utah....ice cold nights and hot cocoa by the fire!

I first got the inspiration for this from Primary Perspective.

We've been really working on subtraction this week and so I thought I'd incorporate our favorite food and drink into a little problem solving.

Clipart and/or fonts are copyright DJ Inkers and used with permission: www.djinkers.com

Materials:

Baggies
Marshmallow
Recording sheet {I enlarge it to 11X17}
(Mug handle) small rectangles {construction or scrapbook paper}- 2"X2"
(Mug) rectangles {construction or scrapbook paper} - 5"X"4"
(Cocoa) brown rectangle 2"X4"

Procedure:

1. I give each student a bag of marshmallows {anywhere between 10 and 20} and the first thing they do is count their marshmallows and write how many they have on the first line.

2. They can then make their mug. The students just have to cut out a handle {I tell them to cut a "C" out of the small red rectangle}, cut the cocoa {make squiggly lines at the top}, and glue it onto their paper. They'll glue it on the right side.

3. Then, the students decide how many marshmallows they want in their hot cocoa. They take that amount out of the bag and glue onto their cocoa and write the number on the 2nd line.

4. Next, the students will count how many marshmallows are left in their bag. They write the number sentence on the bottom.

5. Last, you'll tape their bag of leftover marshmallows to the left side of the paper.

Click the picture for the download

Hope you can use it in your classroom or home!

For more math ideas, check out my "It All Adds Up" posts {here}.

Happy Holidays!!!!

Show and Tell #80

noreply@blogger.com (Katie from ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Playing with Words 365 has put together a reindeer themed mini book and activity for you to print and enjoy!

The sight word game, BANG, that was shared by Camp Slop is a simple way to play and learn.

Joyfully Weary shared a wonderful collection of Christmas themed activity trays for preschool age children.

I really like the color combination in this premade digital Christmas layout. We have shared several links from our friend Liz at Digital Scrapbooking Albums in the past month. Did you know that if your albums seem impossibly far behind and you know you don't have time to catch them up you can hire Liz to do your albums for you!

It's your turn!