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.
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.
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.
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.
