BIRTHDAY HAT
Let the children make birthday hats from sentence strips and wear them as you sing “Happy Birthday Letters.” (Our old stick pony is modeling the birthday hat for you.)
WHERE'S BEAR?
You'll need bathroom cups, a marker, and a small toy bear to play this game. Write words, letters, numbers, or any skill you want to reinforce on the cups. Have children close their eyes as you hide the bear under a cup. Call on different children to say what is on the cup and then look under the cup to see if they can find the bear. If they find the bear they get to hide it next time.
STICKER GAME
Here's a similar game Heather Diaz turned into a classroom favorite. She writes words, letters, etc. on index cards and places them on the floor. Heather also uses a seasonal sticker to hide under the cards. Her students “hide their eyes” while she hides the sticker under one of the flashcards. Then she chooses one child to take a pointer and guess where the sticker is. After identifying the word, that child turns the card over. If there is no sticker, then another child gets a turn. The game continues until a child finds the sticker. Then that child gets to hide the sticker for the next game.
I SPY LETTERS
You’ll need a large plastic jar, salt, letter beads, and a grid with alphabet letters for this activity that children can do independently or with a friend in a center. Fill the jar half full with salt and then insert the letters. Shake. Children roll the jar around and then color in the letters on the grid as they find them.
FOUR SEASONS
This is a song Lisa Powers shared to the tune of “Frere Jacques.”
Four seasons,
Four seasons
Here we go.
Here we go.
Winter, spring, summer, fall.
Winter, spring, summer, fall.
Seasons come.
Seasons go.
PLEASE AND THANK YOU
Wish I could take credit for this additional verse to the “Rules Rap.”
Say please, thank you, excuse me, and may I.
Say please, thank you, excuse me, and may I.
The rules, the rules, the rules of the classroom.
The rules, the rules, the rules of the classroom.
SHEET PROTECTOR POEMS
Each week give children a poem to put in a sheet protector. On Monday they can use erasable markers to highlight words that rhyme. Tuesday they can use a different colored marker and highlight word wall words. Wednesday they can highlight punctuation, and so forth.
CLASS PHONE BOOK
Write each child’s phone number on a different page. (You will need to get parental permission for this or just make up a phone number if you don’t have permission.) Let children draw their picture and then use stickers or dots to make sets under each numeral as shown.
DAILY CD
Make a CD for each day of the week with a different good morning song, calendar song, phonics song, movement song, and good-bye song.
15 MINUTES OF WALKING/EXERCISING
Try building 15 minutes of walking each day as you count, sing letter songs, say days of the week, months, and review other information.
