Handwriting has never been easy to teach to kindergartners, but it is in the Common Core Standards that they learn how to print letters correctly. Each year I have tried through the traditional ways of working on fine motor skills the first half and then formal handwriting sheets the second half of the year. It never worked so this year I tried something new... An inquiry about lines! I asked the kids what kind of lines they knew of. At first they drew straight lines, but then started to expand the types of lines they made! We read some books and watched some videos on YouTube that showed us different lines and also gave them names. I put out provocations for them to explore lines in many different ways and see what they noticed and what connections they made. I put out invitations for them to use lines to make letters, shapes, designs, pictures and numbers: They explored! They are doing activities to build strong finger muscles to help with handwriting and explore lines at the same time! Our clay is quite hard and they have to work it to soften it up. Plus, manipulating the pipe cleaners helps work those fine motor skills! Through this simple inquiry, the kids are much more aware of the different types of lines and how to make them. They are recognizing them in letters, shapes, numbers and pictures. So far, I am seeing an improvement compared to previous years in their names as they try to form the letters the correct way. More are pulling down vertical lines rather than pulling up when making letters but for some this is a hard habit to break! We will keep working on it in developmentally appropriate ways and we will see as the year goes on if this knowledge of lines will help them with the common core standard of writing letters correctly! Here are some other things the kids have been doing in our room during this inquiry! Dots! We celebrated International Dot Day and celebrated creativity! Ken Robinson said that creativity is as important as literacy and I cannot stress enough how true that is! Employers want creative and critical thinkers so these skills need to be emphasized! Here are some pictures of some invitations to be creative and our final display of creativity! In Literacy, we have been focusing on letters and letter sounds. They have been using their names and the names of their friends to help them to recognize letters and their sounds. The invitations at the beginning of the year focused mostly on exploring letters and names. Working lavender into this play-dough also made this a great sensory experience as they used it to explore letters and try to spell their name and friends names. They have been working on the concepts of print as they learn letters and sounds through letter books. They have been practicing starting in the right place, pointing to the words and going in the right direction when they read. When they partner read, one is the reader, the other is the helper so they have to listen and watch closely, then they switch roles. In math we have been exploring numbers counting objects and matching them to the number. We also have been exploring measurement. In math we are also exploring shapes and their properties. In science, they have been working on looking closer, wondering and documenting what they notice. I set out invitations for them to explore and practice these skills. It has been a very full first month! It is amazing how far the kids have come! Stay tuned to find out what the kids are creating for our math area!
Free International Dot Day Activity (Creativity Challenges) Teachers, are you looking for some free resources for International Dot Day? Dot Day takes place on September 15th. The inspiration for the day comes from the book, The Dot , by Peter H. Reynolds. In the story, the main charac
Today’s free printable: An elephant and baby dot drawing! You can download the PDF here: Elephant dot drawing
To help young learners understand number and quantity, utilize this homemade set of dot plates to teach basic facts and number sense.
Free, printable Princess Dot Marker Pages are perfect for your little one that loves princesses and to use as a birthday party activity!
International Dot Day Center Ideas with STEM and Art (STEAM) Have you heard of International Dot Day? Dot Day takes place on September 15th. The inspiration for the day comes from the book, The Dot , by Peter H. Reynolds. In the story, the main character, Vashti, doesn’t believe she can draw.
A-Z Printable Dot-Dot Marker cards. Easy to print, laminate, or use on smart board, to let students have hands on activities to practice their letters. * Added adaptation card for the letter C.
50 Dot To Dot Activity Book! Dot-to-dots, also called connect-the-dots or join-the-dots, are a fun, engaging activity for kids, involving a sequence of numbered dots that are connected one by one by drawing a line, revealing a fun picture. Perfect for Birthday Parties, Play Dates and all Special Events. Hours of fun for children of all ages. Your children are going to love it! These are digital Dot to Dot Pages for Kids - You just download, print and let your kids enjoy drawing and colouring these 50 adorable sketches. ► PRINTABLE PDF - You can print as many copies as you need ► INSTANT DOWNLOAD - Get it right away Download once, and you can print as many copies as you would like on 8.5 x 11 in. paper! Or, take it to your local printer to print for you (FedEx, Walmart, etc.). Regular weight, plain white copy paper is all you need. Or, use a heavier cardstock and laminate it! Use a dry marker for multiple uses. >>PLEASE READ - IMPORTANT<< -------------------------------------------- 1. This listing is a digital PDF file only. No physical item(s) will be shipped to you. 2. This file is NOT an editable PDF. We cannot offer customization on text. 3. This file is for personal use only and cannot be sold commercially. 4. Please use a computer to download your file, not your phone. 5. Monitors may display colours differently. Your printed copy may not match exactly what you see on screen. >>HOW TO DOWNLOAD<< ------------------------------------ 1. You will receive an email from Etsy with the link to the download, or you can find the download link in your Etsy Orders section. 2. Open the PDF in Acrobat Reader (download Acrobat Reader for free: www.get.adobe.com/reader). 3. Print at highest quality on your home printer or at a copy shop. Are you needing some peace and quite for a few hours? Are you looking for a project that will keep your kids entertained while you do whatever it is that you want to do? Do you enjoy the thought of your children quietly colouring in the other room? If you said yes to any of these then this is probably the product that you want and deserve! It won't solve all of your problems but at least you will have a little bit more time during the day when you need it the most. Easy to download and print! Save it to your computer so all you have to do is press print on those days that you just need a few moments of bliss.
Find literacy activities and printables you can use to explore the topic ‘My Special Name’ with your children based on the book 'Chrysanthemum' by K.Henkes.
These free dinosaur do a dot printables are a no-prep and fun activity for toddlers and preschoolers who love dinosaurs.
Patterns for preschoolers worksheets and free printables. Perfect for teaching patterns to preschoolers.
Our kids love to paint! While we love messy painting, there are times, especially when they were toddlers that I needed a safe, mess free painting activity for them. These Halloween Dot Painting worksheets are
Happy International Dot Day! We had a blast celebrating today in our classroom. Read on to find out about all the different things we did to celebrate. I had sent home a note asking the children to come dressed in dots and they did not disappoint. This group of girls were covered in dots. How cute is this little sweeties hair? Her mom used M&M barrettes and used cupcake liners to make dots around her buns. It was just too cute. One of my little boys came with orange dots all over his face. It was great to see them get into the spirit of the day. We started our day listening to Peter Reynolds The Dot on the Smartboard. I have shared the link on my Facebook page but you can also find it here for future reference. This is a great animated version. We spent a bit of time afterwards talking about the message in the story which I think is to persevere and don't give up. This is a great lesson for first graders who are prone to the "I can'ts". We discussed how Vashti kept trying and discovered that she really was a good artist. We talked about how that works for learning to do anything in the classroom too. I will continue to revisit this valuable lesson over and over again. Next, we listened to the Dot Song. You can find it {HERE} or {HERE} with actions. It is a catchy little song that the kids enjoyed singing. Next up it was time for dot fun. Our first activity was a dot scavenger hunt. Everyone looked for dots and then I took pictures of the dots they spotted. They had not problems finding them in our classroom. Here is a collage of a few of the dots we found. In the past I have had the students draw the objects but I decided on the pictures this year. After a short break for recess we were ready for some dot art! I set up 5 stations with items the students could use to make a dot art piece. I did provide some direction but left it somewhat open ended as well. These were the stations: 1. Trace a circle - Students traced and coloured circles to create a dot picture. 2. Dot pictures - using circle counters (bingo chips and two sided counters) make a picture on a piece of paper. They were able to draw a background or add detail and then I would take a picture of their creation. This one was the most difficult. None of my students were able to really make anything here. 3. Kadinsky circles - I precut with my circle punches 3 different sizes of circles and showed them some Kadinsky circles. Many replicated his work while others made totally different and beautiful dot art with these circles. 4. Paint a dot - We used little plastic shot glasses from the dollar store and water bottle lids glued on to corks to make circles on our paper. The children could create any design they could imagine. 5. Marker dots - Draw a dot with markers At the same time I worked with a few at a time to make a page for our 10 Black Dots book. I never took any pictures of the pages but will do so tomorrow and update the blog. Here are a few of the masterpieces they created. We also celebrated Dot Day in Math. Part of that time was the 10 Black Dots book page and the other was graphing with Smarties. At the end of the day we went outside and played with bubbles since they are round and look like a dot too. The kids enjoyed blowing bubbles to end the day. Dot Day was a huge success. Here is a look at our Bulletin Board to celebrate and showcase our Art. Did you celebrate Dot Day? I would love to hear about your day. Link up your blog below and include the image at the start of my blog in your post and link back to this post so that others can read all about your Dot Day. Thanks for stopping by! An InLinkz Link-up
Enjoy this free Zebra Dot Marker Printable for kids! Find more free dot marker printables and coloring pages for the family at LittleBeeFamily.com.
Learn shapes & practice fine motor skills with do a dot printables! Free dot marker worksheets use bingo daubers for a FUN shape activity!
First off, I need to apologize for not blogging since MAY! It's been a crazy couple of months. I moved TWICE since my last post and managed to start and end one job as a children's director at a Christian camp and begin a new one as a special education teacher. I am currently teaching 10 amazing, sassy, stubborn, and unpredictable 3-5th graders and LOVING it. I have an amazing support system at my school and have been learning so much from my principal, my psychologist, my instructional aides, and from the service providers. With that said, I am exhausted. I'm actually writing this blog post because I am killing time before I can go to sleep (I just won't allow myself to go to sleep before 9pm for some reason). I spend countless hours in my classroom. From what I have heard THIS IS NORMAL for a first year teacher-general ed or special ed. I had no clue the work that goes into being a teacher...the planning, the organizing, the meetings, the phone calls from parents, the notes to write and send home, the IEPs! The list goes on. It's sometimes hard already to remember that the whole reason I am doing all of this is for the 10 precious students that I get to teach each day. It truly is a JOY and a HONOR to be their teacher. Okay enough mushy, emotional stuff and on to the goodies! After 3 weeks of teaching (wow, that went by FAST), I have found some awesome resources and products that I believe to be essential for any moderate to severe special ed teacher just starting off (or even for you seasoned teachers out there). I will be sharing one each week over the next seven weeks! Ready? Okay here I go! NUMBER ONE! Task Boxes & File Folders. Currently, task boxes are one of my rotations i have an aide who works with the students and is reaching them how to do the task boxes. Eventually, my goal is for my students to be able to do them independently. Here is how I have my "Picture Perfect Independent Workers" Blue Table set up. They have a list of task boxes that they have to finish during their time at the blue table. Once they finish, they get to have their picture taken with a variety of props and "glam." The pictures then go up on the board. I got my organizational idea from Melissa Toth Finch. You can check out her blog all about the system here. I tweaked mine a bit to fit my students and their needs. I have made several of my own work boxes. Here are some of the ones my kiddos are currently working through. 1. Sorting and identifying colors 2. Identifying letters, matching letters, and building words 3. One to One Correspondence/Counting I got this product from Teaching Special Thinkers on TPT. You can purchase the product here. It is jammed packed with awesome tools that can be used for task boxes, small group instruction, or independent work. 4. Sorting by Category The students are given a few different cards and pictures and have to sort the pictures by category. You can pick this product up for FREE right here. 5. I got a TON of ideas from Sasha at the Autism Helper. She has a whole work task product that you can purchase here. It is a HUGE time saver and totally worth the 10 bucks! Well, it's almost 9, which means I can get some sleep! Happy blogging and pinteresting you wonderful, dedicated teachers!
Print this adorable Gumball Machine Do-A-Dot Printable for an easy, indoor kid activity.
Camping Dot to Dot Activity Page
We have done a lot of seasonal/holiday dot painting (you can find links to those at the end), but I wanted something that we could pull out and do whenever. These Shapes Dot Painting printables
I've been getting requests for some more free do a dot printables, so I thought some spring-themed do a dots would be fun. (To save or print, click on the image you want. It will take you to the pdf that you can save or print. For personal use only).
Spread the loveAs a mom, I love creating fun and educational activities that mothers can use with their kids. Dot ... Read More
Kids will have fun with these number recognition 1-20 worksheets using bingo dabbers while learning their numbers.
FREE Editable Name MATS perfect to use all over the classroom to help preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten kiddos learn their names.
These free cute animal dot marker pages are so cute! Animal dab it pages in color and black and white.
The joy of making a mark is celebrated every year and in 1st grade, launches us into our first art project. Eight simple steps create a sense of structure for these young students and affords them an opportunity to try to "figure it out". And figure it out, they did. Materials: 6x9 white paper 9x12 yellow construction paper 9x12 black construction paper "crazy" scissors pencil black thin markers (sharpies) watercolor paints brushes glue sticks the Book: The Dot Join the movement today and celebrate your mark making! http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/ xoxo, SMocK you.
Spring is here again! Children love spring because they get to enjoy the warmer weather and longer days. As a parent or teacher, you can take advantage of this fun time by helping kids learn
These free dinosaur do a dot printables are a no-prep and fun activity for toddlers and preschoolers who love dinosaurs.
It's back to school time and these back to school dot marker pages are a great activity to set up for kids.
Have you seen all our dot paint printables? Well, now you can add these digraph dot pages to the list! Our digraph dot pages come in TWO FREE levels of learning. You can find the download at the END of this post. *This post contains affiliate links. What is a digraph? A digraph is two letters ... Read More about Digraph Dot Pages {2 free levels}
Alphabet Worksheets help your kids do just that, learn their alphabet. Practice makes perfect and we have a lot of worksheet practice activities. Finish the alphabet, match letters, alphabet connect the dots and more. Help your child have fun learning to read and write their ABCs. They’re sure to enjoy all of these worksheets. Print […]
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
Kids will have fun practicing making the uppercase and lowercase alphabet letters with these super cute Dot Marker Worksheets.
Amazing things can happen with just one dot.
