HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABE!

Who doesn't love Abraham Lincoln? His birthday is February 12 so here are some ideas to remember this famous man.

Abraham Lincoln
(Tune: “Pop Goes the Weasel”)
Abraham Lincoln, past President, (Point to a picture of Lincoln.)
Loved and honored by many.
To help us remember this famous man,
We put his face on a penny.

Hold a penny in your hand (Hold up a penny.)
And his face you’ll see.
He always tried to tell the truth.
He’s Honest Abe to me.

*Talk about what it means to be honest. Why did they call him Honest Abe?


Put Your Face on a Penny
Give children a sheet of paper cut in a circle. Draw what you would you look like if your face were on a coin?




Log Cabin Snack
This is an "engineering" activity that's good enough to eat! Give children pretzel twist sticks and a spoonful of peanut butter or cream cheese. Children try to build a log cabin by stacking the pretzels with the peanut butter.

Penny Inspection
Let children look at pennies with a magnifying glass.

Rubbings
Make rubbings of pennies.

Penny, Penny
Three children leave the classroom. The other children cup their hands as if holding a penny. The teacher hides the penny in one child’s hand. When the three children return to the room, they walk around the room and open their friends’ hands. The first one to find the penny gets to choose 3 new friends to leave the room and she gets to hide the penny.


Did you know? If you look closely at pennies minted from 1959 to 2008 you can see Lincoln's statue in the Memorial.

FOUND A PENNY!

Here's a new video that Alex May (webmaster) created for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PREh_yWHnZo

FEBRUARY HAPPIES

February is a great time to focus on kindness and friendship! You'll find ideas for morning meeting, transitions, math, reading, science, and social studies in FEBRUARY HAPPIES. 

Here's your link for a FREE download:

06-February 

https://bit.ly/drJFreeFeb

NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH

February is National Children's Dental Health month. There’s a great website with lots of free activity sheets in English and Spanish to get you started. The daily calendar is my favorite.

https://www.ada.org/en/public-programs/national-childrens-dental-health-month

Here are some other websites with free lesson plans:

https://www.dentalcare.com/en-us/patient-education/childrens-dental-health/lesson-plans



https://www.dentalcare.com/en-us/patient-education/childrens-dental-health/lesson-plans

Vocabulary

What is a dentist? What is a hygienist? What is plaque? What is decay? What is a filling?

Brainstorm
Why do we need teeth? What do we use our mouths for?

Guest Speaker
Call your personal dentist and ask her if she’d like to visit your class to discuss good oral health. You might be surprised that she’d be thrilled to be invited and will bring each of your students a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Tooth Puppet
Let children make a “happy tooth puppet” and talk about nutritious foods. What foods cause decay?



T-Chart
Have children make a t-chart of foods that are good for teeth and foods that harm teeth.

Dental Health (Stephanie Velasquez)
Glue the cut out of a white tooth on a colored sheet of paper and place in a clear sheet protector. Let the children color the tooth with a dry erase marker to represent the “germs" on the tooth after they eat. Children use a toothbrush to erase the germs.




This Is the Way We Brush Our Teeth
(Tune: “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”)

This is the way we brush our teeth,
Brush our teeth, brush our teeth.
This is the way we brush our teeth
Every morning and evening.

First the fronts and then the sides.
Don’t forget the tops and inside.
First the fronts and then the sides.
Don’t forget the tops and inside.

This is the way we brush our teeth,
Brush our teeth, brush our teeth.
This is the way we brush our teeth
Two minutes twice a day.

Now we have happy teeth,

Happy teeth, happy teeth.
Now we have happy teeth
Give a great big smile!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. LINCOLN!

One of America's most beloved presidents was born on February 12th. Here are some ideas to help children make connections with this famous man.

Abraham Lincoln
(Tune: “Pop Goes the Weasel”)
Abraham Lincoln, past President, (Point to a picture of Lincoln.)
Loved and honored by many.
To help us remember this famous man,
We put his face on a penny.

Hold a penny in your hand (Hold up a penny.)
And his face you’ll see.
He always tried to tell the truth.
He’s Honest Abe to me.

You can download this book on my website.

*Talk about what it means to be honest. Why did they call him Honest Abe?


Put Your Face on a Penny
Give children a sheet of paper cut in a circle. Draw what you would you look like if your face were on a coin?



Log Cabin Snack
This is an "engineering" activity that's good enough to eat! Give children pretzel twist sticks and a spoonful of peanut butter or cream cheese. Children try to build a log cabin by stacking the pretzels with the peanut butter.

Penny Inspection
Let children look at pennies with a magnifying glass.

Rubbings
Make rubbings of pennies.

Penny, Penny
Three children leave the classroom. The other children cup their hands as if holding a penny. The teacher hides the penny in one child’s hand. When the three children return to the room, they walk around the room and open their friends’ hands. The first one to find the penny gets to choose 3 new friends to leave the room and she gets to hide the penny.

Time Line
Give children a sentence strip. At the left write the year they were born. Write each additional year up until the present. Children take the time line home and try to find a penny with each year’s date.

Hint! Explain that’s it’s O.K. if they don’t find all of them.

Did you know? If you look closely at pennies minted from 1959 to 2008 you can see Lincoln's statue in the Memorial.

In 2009 they introduced four new designs celebrating the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth year.

Birth in Kentucky Formative Years in Indiana




Professional Life in Illinois Presidency in DC


In 2010 the shield design was coined.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABRAHAM LINCOLN

One of America's most beloved presidents was born on February 12th.  Here are some ideas to help children make connections with this famous man.

Abraham Lincoln
(Tune: “Pop Goes the Weasel”)
Abraham Lincoln, past President, (Point to a picture of Lincoln.)
Loved and honored by many.
To help us remember this famous man,
We put his face on a penny.

Hold a penny in your hand (Hold up a penny.)
And his face you’ll see.
He always tried to tell the truth.
He’s Honest Abe to me.

You can download this book on my website.

*Talk about what it means to be honest. Why did they call him Honest Abe?


Put Your Face on a Penny
Give children a sheet of paper cut in a circle. Draw what you would you look like if your face were on a coin?




Log Cabin Snack
This is an "engineering" activity that's good enough to eat! Give children pretzel twist sticks and a spoonful of peanut butter or cream cheese. Children try to build a log cabin by stacking the pretzels with the peanut butter.

Penny Inspection
Let children look at pennies with a magnifying glass.

Rubbings
Make rubbings of pennies.

Penny, Penny
Three children leave the classroom. The other children cup their hands as if holding a penny. The teacher hides the penny in one child’s hand. When the three children return to the room, they walk around the room and open their friends’ hands. The first one to find the penny gets to choose 3 new friends to leave the room and she gets to hide the penny.

Time Line
Give children a sentence strip. At the left write the year they were born. Write each additional year up until the present. Children take the time line home and try to find a penny with each year’s date.

Hint! Explain that’s it’s O.K. if they don’t find all of them.

Did you know? If you look closely at pennies minted from 1959 to 2008 you can see Lincoln's statue in the Memorial.



In 2009 they introduced four new designs celebrating the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth year.

Birth in Kentucky Formative Years in Indiana




Professional Life in Illinois Presidency in DC


In 2010 the shield design was coined.

WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE?

Share the LOVE this month with these songs. You can download the books on drjean.org.

Will You Be My Valentine?
(Tune: “Do You Know the Muffin Man?”)
Will you be my Valentine, (Point to various friends.)
Valentine, Valentine?
Will you be my Valentine?
I’ll be yours if you’ll be mine! (Point to self and then a friend.)

Some are red, some are blue, (Hold up fingers.)
Some have lace and ribbons, too.
Some are funny, some are not. (Smile and then shake head “no.”)
I like the candy ones a lot.
*Download this book at drjean.org.
   

Bringing Home a Valentine
(Tune: “Baby Bumblebee”)
I’m bringing home a valentine for you, (Cup hands and move them to
One that says, “I love you.” the beat in front of your body.)
I’m bringing home a valentine for you
With a great big hug, and a (kiss) (kiss), too! (Hug self and then kiss
in the air.)
Softer….hum




The Broken Heart

Here’s a story just right for this month to help children think about how words can hurt. Cut a large heart out of red construction paper and hold it in your lap as you begin to tell the story below:

This is a story about a special friend named (imaginary name). He always came to school with a smile on his face and a big heart full of love for his classmates. (Hold up the big heart.) (Name) listened to his teacher, did his best work, and helped his friends. However, some of his friends weren’t always so kind. Joe made fun of his shoes and broke a little of his heart. (Tear off a piece of the heart and let it drop to the floor.) Ann said, “I’m saving this seat and you can’t sit here” at story time and broke a little more of his heart. Sammy wouldn’t share his crayons (tear off a little of the heart) and Sara called him a mean name. What are some other things that might break his heart? (Let the children name other things that cause hurt feelings as you let the pieces fall to the floor.) By the end of the day his heart was all in pieces and it was so sad.

Who can tell me how to put his heart back together? What are some kind things you can do for your friends? As children name different acts of kindness pick the pieces of the heart off the floor. Glue the pieces together on a poster as a reminder to have a kind heart. Encourage children to write friends’ names on the poster when they are kind and helpful to them!



Run off "Kindness Tickets" and distribute them to your students. Children can thank friends for a kindness shown by writing their name on a ticket.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1SnEagA4jljaHRsT05ZYmxPZlE/view?usp=sharing

"LOVING" SKILLS

Are you working on your February lesson plans this weekend? Here are some "lovely" ways to tie the holiday in with skills and standards.

I LOVE YOU!

How many ways can you say, “I love you”? Teach children sign language for the term, and then challenge them to demonstrate other ways to say “I love you.” (For example, curl in your fingers and then touch your thumbs to make a heart shape. Hug yourself and then point to someone. Explain that people put “X O” at the end of a letter to represent a kiss and a hug.)

*Make a list of all the school helpers that you appreciate and make cards for them using thumbprints or hand print flowers with sign language for “love.”


LOVE IS…
Fold two sheets of paper in half and staple. Ask children to write predictable books starting each page with “Love is…” Younger children could draw pictures and older students could write detailed sentences.

LOVE WEB
Draw a heart in the middle of a sheet of paper and write the word “love” in the middle. Younger students could draw pictures of things they love, while older students could write synonyms for the word.

*This would be a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the use of a thesaurus.

ROOTS OF LOVE
Take the word “love” and use it for teaching tenses, comparisons, prefixes, etc.
“He love me.” What would sound better?
Love – unloved
Love - loving


STICKER POEMS
Put a heart sticker in the middle of a sheet of paper. Challenge children to write a poem about the sticker and around the sticker. They could also write an acrostic poem with the word “valentine” or “heart.”

POSITIONAL WORDS
You can use a paper heart or three-dimensional heart for this activity. Have children close their eyes while you hide the heart somewhere in the room in plain sight. When they open their eyes, they can stick up their thumb when they spy the heart. If they are called on, they have to describe where the heart is using positional words. For example, “The heart is under the clock beside the calendar.” That child then gets a turn to hide the heart.


POINTERS
Make pointers by attaching heart stickers to craft sticks. Children can use these for reading and also for demonstrating positional words. “Put your heart over your head. Put your heart under your chin. Put your heart behind your back…”

WILL I SEE MY SHADOW?

Groundhog Day is this Thursday, but you'll want to give this little guy some attention one day this week.

Groundhog Day – February 2nd 

(Tune: “Say, Say, My Playmate”)
February 2nd, (Hold up 2 fingers.)
Is Groundhog Day.
Gather round his hole (Make circular motion.)
To hear what he’ll say. (Place hand by ear.)
Will spring be early
Or late this year?
Watch and listen
To what you’ll hear.

If he sticks his head out (Make a hole with one hand.)
On a sunny day (Stick the index finger from the other hand
His shadow will frighten him (up through the hole and wiggle.)
And he will say,
“I’ll go back in my hole (Tuck finger in your fist.)
And go back to sleep.
You’ll have winter
For six more weeks.”

If he sticks his head out (Make a hole with fist and stick up finger.)
On a cloudy day
He’s not frightened
So he will say, (Wiggle finger.)
“I think I’ll stay out
And the weather should clear.
Spring will be here
Early this year.”
*You can download the book at drjean.org.

Cup Puppet
Let children draw a groundhog or download one off the internet. Staple to a straw. Punch a hole in the bottom of a paper cup and insert the straw in the cup. Raise and lower the groundhog as appropriate in the song.



Sidewalk Shadows
Go outside on a sunny day and have children stand with their backs to the sun. Let them make silly motions and play “Guess what I am?” Give them chalk and let them trace around each other’s shadows.
*Draw shadows at 10, 12, and 2 and compare.

*Play shadow tag where they try to touch each other's shadows.

Where’s the Groundhog?
Cut twenty 4” squares out of heavy paper. Write high frequency words, math facts, letters, numerals, etc. on the cards. Glue a picture of a groundhog on a 3" circle. Have the children sit on the floor in a circle. Mix up the cards and place them face up on the floor. Identify the numeral (etc.) on each card as you place it down on the floor. Tell the children to turn around. Hide the groundhog under one of the squares. Children turn back around and try and guess where the groundhog is hiding. One at a time children call out a number and then “peek” to see if the groundhog is under it. The first child to find the groundhog gets to have a turn hiding it. The game continues as children hide the groundhog and then try to discover his whereabouts.

Dramatize
Invite children to dramatize the groundhog peeping out of his hole. What if it's sunny? What if it's cloudy?

Note! Visit groundhog.org for more great ideas!

You can watch me demonstrate some of these February activities on a video I did a few years ago.
https://youtu.be/d4om_IAcVmw

NATIONAL UMBRELLA DAY

HAPPY UMBRELLA DAY!

National Umbrella Day is celebrated across the nation each year on February 10th. On this day, we honor one of the world's most useful inventions, the umbrella! Not only does the umbrella help keep us dry from the rain, but it also protects us from the heat of the sun. Umbrellas can also be used as a fashion accessory.

But what do umbrellas have to do with teaching young children?  Wouldn't golf umbrellas create a safe bubble for individual children?  You could also suggest parents do this at home to provide their child with an alternative place to learn virtually.  And, after Covid, wouldn't it be fun to put some special books to create a reading nook?

What else?

Vocabulary
Introduce other names for umbrellas, such as parasol and brolly (British).

Brainstorm
What are some different types of umbrellas? (paper cocktail umbrellas, patio umbrellas)

What are some different uses for umbrellas? (shade on a sunny day, cane, carry things, protection)

Writing
Write 4 facts about umbrellas.

Write how you would feel if you were an umbrella.

Art
Let children use the scrap box to design their own umbrellas.

P.S. Tomorrow is "Don't Cry over Spilled Milk Day." Discuss what that statement means and encourage the children to give examples.

WILL I SEE MY SHADOW?

I know it's still January, but I wanted to give you some LOVELY ideas to include in your lesson plans for the coming weeks. Besides Valentine's Day there's Groundhog Day, Winter Olympics, Abe Lincoln's birthday, and the Super Bowl. It's going to be a busy month!!!!

Groundhog Day

Will spring be early or late this year? I guess we'll have to wait until February 2nd to find out!

Groundhog's Song  
February 2nd, (Hold up 2 fingers.)
Is Groundhog Day.
Gather round his hole (Make circular motion.)
To hear what he’ll say. (Place hand by ear.)
Will spring be early
Or late this year?
Watch and listen
To what you’ll hear.

If he sticks his head out (Make a hole with one hand.)
On a sunny day (Stick the index finger from the other hand
His shadow will frighten him (up through the hole and wiggle.)
And he will say,
“I’ll go back in my hole (Tuck finger in your fist.)
And go back to sleep.
You’ll have winter
For six more weeks.”

If he sticks his head out (Make a hole with fist and stick up finger.)
On a cloudy day
He’s not frightened
So he will say, (Wiggle finger.)
“I think I’ll stay out
And the weather should clear.
Spring will be here
Early this year.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG961Nl1WnY

Cup Puppet

Let children draw a groundhog or download one off the internet. Staple to a straw. Punch a hole in the bottom of a paper cup and insert the straw in the cup. Raise and lower the groundhog as appropriate in the song.



Sidewalk Shadows

Go outside on a sunny day and have children stand with their backs to the sun. Let them make silly motions and play “Guess what I am?” Give them chalk and let them trace around each other’s shadows.
*Draw shadows at 10, 12, and 2 and compare.

*Play shadow tag where they try to touch each other's shadows.

Where’s the Groundhog? 

Cut twenty 4” squares out of heavy paper. Write high frequency words, math facts, letters, numerals, etc. on the cards. Glue a picture of a groundhog on a 3" circle. Have the children sit on the floor in a circle. Mix up the cards and place them face up on the floor. Identify the numeral (etc.) on each card as you place it down on the floor. Tell the children to turn around. Hide the groundhog under one of the squares. Children turn back around and try and guess where the groundhog is hiding. One at a time children call out a number and then “peek” to see if the groundhog is under it. The first child to find the groundhog gets to have a turn hiding it. The game continues as children hide the groundhog and then try to discover his whereabouts.

Dramatize 

Invite children to dramatize the groundhog peeping out of his hole. What if it's sunny? What if it's cloudy?

Note! Visit groundhog.org for more great ideas!

PIZZA DAY

There are so many fun holidays in February and I can't resist doing blogs about them.  

Besides, I think we all need something to smile about these days!  

February 9th was Pizza Day, but I could eat pizza every day! (Seriously!) Here’s a silly song that I used to sing just because the children got a laugh out of it. Now, I tie it into standards because it demonstrates sound substitution and reinforces vowel sounds. Whatever!!!

Pepperoni Pizza
I like to eat, eat, eat, (Extend arms to make a circle like a pizza.)
Pepperoni pizza.
I like to eat, eat, eat,
Pepperoni pizza.

Sing substituting the long “A” sound for each vowel.
A lake tae ate, ate, ate,
Papparaynay pazzay…

Continue substituting with “E,” “I,” “O,” and “U.”

Hint! Make sign language letters for the vowels as you sing.

Word Family Pizza
Chris Baker created this video to demonstrate consonant substitution as children sing the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrpSSXZK9-I&feature=youtu.be


EASY PEASY PIZZA GAME
There are dozens of math skills you can tie in with this easy peasy math manipulative.

Why? sorting; sets; numerals; addition; subtraction, patterns; following directions; writing how to

What? fun foam (red, yellow, green, brown, black, white), pie pan, red felt, index cards, book ring

How? Cut toppings for your pizza from fun foam using this pattern.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1SnEagA4jljX1ZiakdoWjhCT00/view?usp=sharing

Sausage – brown
Peppers – green
Cheese – yellow
Pepperoni – red
Olives – black
Mushrooms – white
(Store the patterns in a zip bag.)

Cover the bottom of the pie pan with red felt.

*Let children sort the toppings.
*Give them numeral cards and ask them to make sets.
*Can they make a pattern with the toppings?
*Give them addition and subtraction facts and ask them to work out the problems with the toppings.
*Make recipe cards similar to the ones shown for the children to follow.
*Can they count how many ingredients in all on their pizza?

How To
Have children write their own recipe cards and directions for making a pizza.

Paper Pizza Collage
Give children a paper plate and some scrap paper, scissors, and crayons and let them create their own paper pizza. When they've finished they can add a few drops of glue and sprinkle with oregano or Italian seasonings to make it SMELL like a real pizza.