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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

I TRY HARDER!


Sometimes when you give me ideas I mess them up.  I’m sorry!  It’s not always easy to take the notes you give me and translate them.  The good news is that most teachers can take an idea and harvest (aka adapt or steal) it to work for them.  Here are a few more “seeds” you can plant in your classroom this coming year.
ABC Tune  (Bill Bird)
Did you know you could sing the ABC’s to the tune of “The House of the Rising Sun”?  (You young teachers will need to get your parents to hum this one for you!)

Alphabet Clap (Julie Critten)
(Begin a beat by slapping thighs and clapping hands twice.)
The alphabet, the alphabet,
Let’s clap the letters so we don’t forget!
A  (slap, clap, clap)
B  (slap, clap, clap)
C…D…E…F…G…H…I…J…K…
L  (slap, clap)
M (slap, clap)
N  (slap, clap)
O  (slap, clap)
P  (slap, clap, clap)
Q...R…S…T…U…V…W…X…Y…Z
The alphabet, the alphabet,
Now we know the letters of the alphabet!

Cup Math  (Melissa Miller)
Write numerals on cups as shown.  Children put the cups together and identify the number.
Seasonal Lima Bean Math  (Ruth Schmidt)
Spray paint dry lima beans and use them for making sets, patterns, addition and subtraction, etc.
White and orange – ghosts and pumpkins
Green and red – trees and candy canes
White and red – snowflakes and valentines (or cold noses)
Yellow, pink, purple, blue – colored eggs
*Store in yogurt lids or margarine tubs.  Change the label to reflect the new game.

Bottle Lids  (Becky Bengard)
Put garage sale stickers on the top and bottom of plastic bottle lids to make games.  They can be used for upper and lowercase letters, color words, math facts, etc.
*Ask parents to save bottle lids for you.  You can use the plastic ones or metal ones for these games.
ABC Kickboxing  (Julie Critten)
The first time you kick box the alphabet make the sounds.
The second time when you do it backwards use words that start with the letter.

Planet Song  (Angela Kickbush)
M – Mercury  (Chant these)
V - Venus
E - Earth
M - Mars
J - Jupiter
S - Saturn
U - Uranus
N - Neptune
P – Pluto
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars,  (Sing to the tune of “London Bridge.”)
Jupiter, Jupiter (Say twice because it’s the biggest.)
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
And no more Pluto!

Paint Chip Math  (Ashley Lenze)
Get paint chip strips from a hardware store.  Write the sign for greater than, less than, and equal on the paint strips.  Take popsicle sticks and write numbers on each side.  Children put the correct symbol between the numerals. 
Note!  I didn’t have any paint chips, but you get the idea!
*Write numbers on the leftover strips and use to sort odd and even.