Classroom procedures are super important, but I am not sure any can make you more batty than disappearing pencils. Pencil organization makes the difference.
Super Bowl inspired football activities for the classroom including reading comprehension, math games, writing, snack, crafts, and more.
Find 3 fun Olympic Activities for preschool aged kids to enjoy! These fun and easy activities are great to do at home or in the classroom.
Classroom procedures are super important, but I am not sure any can make you more batty than disappearing pencils. Pencil organization makes the difference.
Dear Zoo is such a fun book! Check out these Dear Zoo activities for preschool & kindergarten. Includes a FREE printable game, snack, & craft.
Friendship in a Cup is a fun and tasty back to school activity to help your students embrace friendship in the classroom.
The end of the year is within reach (2 more weeks) and we finally got to let loose a little bit now that testing is over. Can I get an amen?! Last week we learned all about camping and I can't wait to share our fun with you. Please know, this post does contain affiliate links which means that I earn a small amount when you make purchases from some of the links shared on this page. However, my promise to you is that I am only sharing my honest opinions and I will never promote something I do not believe in or love. We started by brainstorming background knowledge. I split my kids into groups and each had a different topic to discuss. We made an anchor chart and added to it each day as we learned something new. Although I am not an expert camper by any means, I was surprised to learn that the majority of my students had little to no experience with the great outdoors. We also read lots of camping and summer camp themed books. Here are few of my favorites. You can click each book image to be taken right to the book on Amazon. Their favorite part was when they got to bring in towels (aka "sleeping bags") and flashlights to read with. Seriously, they would have read all day long if I let them! On the last day I set up a tent and campfire and the kids took turns reading around the fire and inside the tent. Sidenote, the "campfire" was pretty much like a never ending STEM challenge. I must have built and rebuilt that darn thing 20 times. I used rolled brown paper bags for the logs (and a lot of tape!), construction paper flames, mini glass gems as rocks and to weigh it down, and a shallow pan to put it in. When I create it again next year I am going to try to cover the logs in wood grain contact paper. I also had to tape some of the logs and flames in place so it didn't tip over (can we say real life Jenga?). We made special snacks two of the days. The first day we made campfires using mini marshmallows as rocks, small and large pretzel sticks as the logs/twigs, and gummy peach candies as the flames of the fire. I also saw online where people used candy corn flames and potato stick twigs but I couldn't find those so we worked with what we had. I gave the same ingredients to each child and let them use their imagination to build their campfires. I love how different they each came out! One little one even had marshmallows roasting over her fire. We also practiced How To Writing and made s'mores. We wrote down our ingredients and the steps to make their treats. They then followed their directions and enjoyed the snacks. Instead of regular marshmallows, I gave each child a spoonful of marshmallow fluff to spread. While it was a little messy (one kid got fluff on his head, don't ask hah), it worked well since we don't have a microwave in the classroom to melt regular ones. To tie in art we made Handprint Campfires. First they ripped brown construction paper into logs for their fire. Then, I painted their hands with yellow, orange, and red paint and they stuck it to their paper. You should have heard the giggles from the ticklish paintbrush :) While it all looks like fun and games, I swear we did real work too! Students each picked their own animals to research and used classroom books and online sites like Pebble Go to find facts. After they wrote a paragraph, they created talking animals using the ChatterPix Kids app on our iPads. If you have never used this app before it is AMAZING! Kids took pictures of their animal (or screenshots from an online search), added a mouth, and read their paragraph aloud. The iPad app then makes it look like the animal is talking saying their story. They are also able to save their clip and upload it to our class Seesaw site. Here is one of my little ones' stories. In writing, I found adorable camping themed napkins from Oriental Trading and stapled blank paper inside. The napkin becomes the book cover. My kids used the napkin books as inspiration for their camping themed stories. So cute! In math we used mini marshmallows as manipulatives for addition practice and solved camping themed word problems which can be found here. For added decorations (and a movement activity), I printed pictures of woodland animals from online. I laminated them and hung them around the room. My kids went on a "Nature Walk" to see how many wild animals they could find. They loved it! They recorded everything they found on a clipboard and blank lined paper. Well, that about sums up our week! We had so much fun and I am glad I could share some new ideas with you. If you are looking for more ideas, I have an entire Pinterest board for camping themed classroom ideas. Enjoy! Have you had a camping themed unit in your classroom before? To save these ideas for later, be sure to use the pin below :)
Five different ways to teach your students the names for the items commonly found during a Catholic Mass. Great for whole group, small groups, centers and more to reach all of your learners in a religious education, Catholic classroom or homeschool setting.
Podcasts in the classroom are so fun and engaging! Have you jumped on the podcast train yet?! I have a great system for using podcasts in the classroom...
For a Forest or Camping themed classroom: Find activities, crafts, snacks, and more ideas than you can use for your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade class and students. Plus FREE DOWNLOADS!
It's almost Thanksgiving and time to plan your class party! We have tons of easy Thanksgiving Classroom Party Ideas for you to use
The season of insects is upon us, so why not take that excitement and curiosity and add some (shhh... academics) to it. We're sharing 15 insect activities guaranteed to engage your students for days to come. You definitely need to add #14 to your lesson plans next week!
Making applesauce in the classroom is the best! The wonderful smell and the students LOVE it! Get the recipe and details of how to make it with your class this year.
Dear Zoo is such a fun book! Check out these Dear Zoo activities for preschool & kindergarten. Includes a FREE printable game, snack, & craft.
Here is a list of fun healthy snack ideas to send in for snack time that are individually packed and are enjoyed by kids.
Simple DIY Halloween party ideas for the classroom, including Halloween games, Halloween crafts and Halloween food ideas!
Free camping coloring pages are the perfect activity for homeschooling, classrooms, teachers, kids' activities, and educational activities.
Welcome to my 2019-2020 classroom reveal! This year I made a few changes from last year. If you want to see the “before” click here to see last year’s grand reveal. All of the changes that were made were centered around student choice while making my classroom more organized and functional for myself and my […]
Check out these awesome activities for The Gruffalo. Includes math, literacy, fine motor, gross motor, craft, snack, & MORE to bring this book to life!
The Picasso for kids printable resources that I have created are a fun and educational way for children to learn […]
Discover awesome tips on planning a Halloween class party including ideas for organization, Halloween activities and crafts plus freebie downloads.
Free printable space coloring pages, including cute aliens, rockets, astronauts, and the solar system. Download the free PDF sheets below.
Every four years, we experience one of the most amazing and talented athletes of our country performing on the world stage in the Olympics. It is a truly beautiful event. The United States often wi…
We are continuing our Bible studies about Jesus and His miracles. In this lesson, we are looking at Jesus walking on the water. Last week we studied how Jesus fed 5,000 men plus the women and children with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. After Jesus prayed and thanked God for the food, He had the Disciples feed the crowd. After everyone had eaten, they gathered up all the leftover food and there were 12 baskets of food! (Discuss miracles: an instant act of God). This lesson is found in Matthew 14: 22-33, Mark 6:45-51 and John 6:15-21. Immediately after they collected the extra food, Jesus told His Disciples get into the boat. He told them to go to the other side of the sea and sent the people away. After Jesus sent the crowd away, He went up into the mountain by Himself to pray. When night came, Jesus was by Himself. Jesus had found out that John had been killed. Do you remember who John was? John and John were related & the one who baptized Jesus So Jesus is upset and wants some time to be alone and pray. **Let the students have a marble. Have them put the marble in a bowl of water. What happens when you put the marble on the surface of the water? [it will sink] What happens when you go into the water? You either swim or you will sink. We are going to talk about two people that walked on water! (Original idea found here.) They LOVE this! The boat with the Disciples on it was in the middle of the sea. They had rowed the boat about 3 ½ miles. There was a storm, and their boat was being tossed around by the rough waves! It was about 3:00 during the night and Jesus saw them having trouble rowing the boat and so Jesus went to them. Jesus knew they were in trouble and scared and He went to comfort them. Jesus actually walked on the water to them. Verse 25 in Matthew tells us that He walked on the sea! When the Disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were scared and thought Jesus was a ghost! They cried out in terror! But Jesus instantly told them to be happy and don’t be afraid! Peter said to Him: “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus told him to “Come.” When Peter got out of the boat, he walked on the water to Jesus! The Bible doesn’t say swim, Peter walked ON the water! But when Peter saw that the wind was strong, he became afraid and started to sink. He had taken his eyes off of Jesus and let himself be distracted by the waves and the sea. He yelled to Jesus “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him and said to Peter “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they returned to the boat, the wind stopped. The people in the boat came to Jesus and were amazed at what He could do. They worshipped Him and said, “Truly You are the Son of God.” I used this Galilee boat that I purchased for the Disciples lesson. But, there are so many lessons this can be used for! I had the Jell-O 'water' and people cutouts ready for the kids to use and make this Jesus walking on the water this during the lesson. We added plastic fish that I purchase, but you can use Gummy fish. You can see more and print everything here. One of the things to discuss with this lesson is that Jesus is always watching over us. I made this simple boat for the students to decorate to remind them of when Jesus is with them. They can draw their thoughts, or you can let them add stickers. You can print it here in color and black & white. Click here to print. We continue Miracles lapbook today. The students will leave them in class until we finish the miracles lessons, then they take them home. Click on the lapbook to see it. I decided to limit this lapbook to the miracles that Jesus did to prove Himself. We will study Malchus, Resurrection of Jesus and Jesus Returns to Heaven, etc., but I did not include these. If you'd like to add other miracles, you can see more Jesus lapbook printables here. Bible Verse: Matthew 14:33 Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. Click here to download the lesson. Click here to download the visuals. Not all visuals are shown. Click here to download the pictures to color. (These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)
Inside: In need of some healthy packaged snacks for your preschooler? This roundup of 40 healthy store-bought preschool snack ideas is perfect for parents of toddlers and preschoolers who are looking for some easy school snacks to buy. I’ve been a mom for almost 6 years now and 3 kids later, it’s taken me a long time to learn this lesson: Not every meal or
Fun printable activity pack with a Disney snacks theme. Great for kids in pre-k, kindergarten, or early elementary, with 40 pages of activities!
Are you looking for super fun measurement worksheets and activities for kindergarten?? You found them!! Your students will LOVE these hands-on learning activities and fun, extra practice worksheets that teach a variety of kindergarten measurement concepts.
A wordsearch for practicing places in and around a city. Key for the wordsearch is given. - ESL worksheets
Looking for classroom Halloween party ideas? These 8 math and literacy ideas are perfect for your kindergarten or 1st grade Halloween party activities!
Tracing Lines - Worksheets For Little People As your little one learns how to write, tracing lines is a great activity! And there are benefits to it too! Line tracing is one of those activities that develop your child's control of the small muscles in his/ her hands (fine motor skills). Tracing will teach your child to make the precise movements that are necessary for forming letters. Tracing improves hand/eye coordination. Line Tracing By Age Line tracing is predominantly for little ones as they learn how to write. It's therefore perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergartners. Your child's age and
Looking for fun Preschool Zoo Theme Activities for kids? Check out these 16 Hands-On Preschool Zoo inspired Learning Activities and Crafts for Preschool or Kindergarten.
Enrich your Reformation Day party for your family with fun Reformation Day Snacks. Celebrate the beginning of the Protestant Reformation!
Looking for fun Preschool Halloween Activities? This set of fun Hands-on Centers and Printables are the perfect addition to your Preschool Halloween Theme.
