TREATS FROM HERBIE AND SLUGGERRR!

Herbie is winning football games and his Husker fans had some winning ideas to share with me this week in Omaha. I was also in Kansas City, and they were pretty pumped about Sluggerrr!  The Royals might not have won the World Series, but they won the hearts of their fans this season.

   

CANDY WRAPPER HOMEWORK

For homework this weekend ask your students to save all their candy wrappers and bring them to school Monday. Here are some learning activities that will taste “yummy” to your class!

Counting - Count the wrappers. Tally how many in the whole class.

OLD LADIES

How many old ladies do you know besides me? I know the “Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” She also swallowed a pie and a bat and a chick and numbers… She must be getting pretty full! The Old Lady is entertaining, but she also helps children with recall, sequence, phonological awareness, and oral language. 

Here are a few visuals and craft activities that can be adapted to any version of the Old Lady. You can find free images online for the different stories or let children make their own illustrations.

LINES AND CURVES

It’s time for a little geometry today, but these ideas will also reinforce small motor skills, letters, and creativity. 

What’s a line? What’s a curve? 

Start by finding out what children know about lines and curves. Let them take turns drawing lines and curves on the board. Can they walk around the room and touch a line?  Can they touch a curve? As you walk down the hall have them silently point to lines and curves. Can they find lines and curves in nature on the playground?

WACKY WORDS

I have so much fun coming up with new ideas for my blog every day. Actually, these ideas are old as I am, but it’s fun to adapt them to the season or skills you might need to reinforce. I thought it might be interesting to brainstorm a few ways to integrate vocabulary and spelling words with Halloween. (Even though you might not do holidays in your school, you can make these work for “autumn” or another theme.) 

Mixed Up Words - Take vocabulary words, Halloween words, or spelling words and mix up the letters. Challenge children to figure out the words and try to write them correctly on their paper.

WHERE ARE YOU DR. JEAN?

I'm going to Kansas City, and Omaha here I come.
I'm going to Kansas City, and Omaha here I come.
They've got some awesome teachers there,
And I'm going sing with some!
I really am on my way to Omaha and Kansas City this week. I'll be doing my swan song of "Rock, Rhyme, Write, and Read" as you can see from my schedule below. I'm super excited about my new two-day training I'll be starting later in the spring. Hope I'll see you at one of these events!

I CAN READ!

Read at Home Book
Cut 9” x 12” sheets of construction paper in half. Let each child choose 4 or 5 different colors and staple them together to make a book. Write “I Can Read” on the front and let the children decorate with their name and picture. Send the book home with a note to the parents about helping their child recognize different logos, signs, and words on products and in the home and as they drive down the road. Encourage parents to help their child cut out words they can read from boxes, magazines, and advertisements. Ask children to bring their books back to school to “read” with classmates.