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Student of the Week

Preschool - 1st Grade

This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 1st grade / 3 - 6 years Spotlight the individuality of your students by giving each child a week to shine! Try a few of these creative ideas to make your Student of the Week feel extra special. Create a bulletin-board display featuring the Student of the Week. Send home this parent letter and Star of the Week reproducible. Invite the student to fill out the form and bring it to class along with a few favorite photos. Showcase the items on the board so everyone can learn about her unique interests and hobbies! Encourage the students in your class to identify characteristics they admire about the Student of the Week. Assemble written notes in a folder that the student can take home to share with his family at the end of the week. Or have students write their sentiments on star templates and display the stars on the Student of the Week bulletin board. Tip: Have younger children dictate a few kind adjectives or a brief compliment for you to write on the star template. (For example, “She shares toys with me,” or “He is nice.”) Be sure to include the student’s name so that the recipient will know who said the kind words. Throughout the week, offer the Student of the Week fun privileges, such as serving as line leader, running special errands, or selecting music or games for free time. Send home a letter at the beginning of the week and invite parents to share things about their child that make them proud. At the end of the week, read the comments aloud to the class and watch the student beam with pride! Select a day for a Student of the Week lunch. As a special treat, invite the honored student and two classmates of her choosing to join you for lunch in the classroom. Encourage your Student of the Week to select a favorite storybook to share with the class. One afternoon during the week, you or the student can read the story aloud. Invite your Student of the Week to create a Special Sharing Sack! Ask him to bring three items from home that tell about people, interests or activities that are important to him. Throughout the week, invite him to reveal each item to the class and share one or two sentences about it.

Party in the Park

Kindergarten - 5th Grade

This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 5th grade / 5 - 10 years Have an end-of-the-year party in the park—and try out some of these fun outdoor games! Sponge Race: Divide students into 2 teams and have each team stand in a line. Place a bucket of water and a sponge at the front of each line. The student in front dips the sponge into the bucket. The sponge is then passed to the back of the line, with students alternating passing it over their heads and between their legs. When it reaches the back of the line, that student runs to the front and the race continues. The first team to have their original student in front again wins! Towel Toss: This game is played by two teams of two students. Give each team a beach towel, and have each student hold one end of the towel. Then place a beach ball on one of the towels. Students try to pass the ball back and forth by using their towels to “toss” it. If a team doesn’t catch the ball, the other team gets a point. The first team to score three points wins! Sand Relay: Divide students into 2 teams and have each team stand in a line. Place a container full of sand at the front of each line, and a small bucket at the end of each line. When the race starts, the first student in line grabs a handful of sand and passes it to the student behind him. The team passes the sand from hand to hand, until the last student in line dumps it into the bucket. The first team to fill up their bucket wins!

Preschool - Kindergarten

This activity is appropriate for: preschool - kindergarten / 3 - 5 years Encourage students to use their holiday gift boxes for a few hands-on math activities: Large to Small—Gather a few boxes of varying sizes and have students arrange them in order, from largest to smallest or smallest to largest. Mix & Match—Take some boxes of different sizes and shapes and separate them from their lids. Then challenge students to match each lid to its correct container—as fast as they can! Quantity Count—Tape a blank note card to the inside bottom of several boxes. Label each note card with a different numeral. Then have students place corresponding numbers of classroom objects or small toys inside the different boxes. Cash & Carry—Have students cut out pictures of toys from a favorite catalog and place them in a box along with the price of each item. Then set up a “store” and have them select a few items that they would like to buy. Have students take turns being the cashier and the customer. Give them some fake coins and bills with which to practice purchasing and counting out change.

Fun with Bubbles

Preschool - 1st Grade

This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 1st grade / 3 - 6 years Use bubbles to explore shapes, counting and colors! Below are some activities you can do with store-bought bubbles or a homemade solution made from dishwashing soap and water. (If you do these activities indoors, be sure to lay down newspapers or towels to prevent a slippery floor.) Encourage scientific observation skills! As children blow bubbles, ask: “What happens if you blow hard? If you blow softly? If you touch a bubble? How long do bubbles last? What color are bubbles? Are all bubbles the same shape? The same size?” Record children’s observations on chart paper labeled “Observations About Bubbles.” Add some liquid tempera to the bubble mixture, and hang poster paper on an easel. Have children blow bubbles onto the paper and see what designs form when they pop. Encourage active play! Go outside. Choose three children to be the bubble blowers. Set a time limit and have them blow as many bubbles as they can while the other kids race to pop the bubbles. Build counting skills with bubbles! Encourage the children to blow a set of bubbles that you specify. (For example, if you say “three,” children would try to blow three bubbles.)

End-Of-The-Year Olympic Games

Kindergarten - 5th Grade

This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 5th grade / 5 - 10 years Celebrate the end of another great year by staging your own classroom Olympic Games! Divide the class into a few groups, and let them choose a name and make a flag for their group. Start the games with an opening ceremony, letting kids march around the playground or classroom, waving their group flags. Next, have the teams compete in a series of events. Below are some possible events you might stage. Balloon Race: Kids put a balloon between their knees and run or hop to the finish line. Children can compete as individuals or as relay teams. (Note: Don’t inflate the balloon all the way. Leave some room so that the balloons can be held comfortably between kids’ knees.) Balloon Hug Relay: Place a balloon between two kids’ bellies. Have the kids move sideways to the finish line without dropping the balloon. The first team across the finish line wins! Drinking Straw Race: Have each child hold a drinking straw, balanced on her upper lip. Show kids how to curl their lips to hold the straw in place. Then have a race to see who can run to the finish line without letting their straw slip. Feather-In-My-Toes Race: Have racers take off one shoe and sock, and fit a feather in between two toes. They then race, trying to cross the finish line without losing their feathers. (If they do, they have to go back to the start.) Egg-On-A-Spoon Race: Have children try to balance a plastic egg on a spoon while walking to the finish line. This can also be done as a team relay race. In a relay, children have to transfer the eggs from their spoons to the next child’s spoon before the race continues. Backwards Race: Have children walk backwards to the finish line. Make sure that kids don’t try to run—they are likely to fall if they try to go too fast! After the games are over, have a closing ceremony. Let everyone march around with their teams and flags again. You may want to encourage kids to sing songs or chants to help make things festive! Healthy snacks can also be served at the closing ceremony.

Kindergarten - 3rd Grade

This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 3rd grade / 5 - 8 years This popular game helps familiarize students with the names of their classmates. Have students sit in a circle. Ask each of the students to think of an adjective that describes them. The adjective must start with the same letter as their name (for example, Happy Holly, Fun Felix, Silly Sarah, etc.). Brainstorm adjectives for each letter, if needed. Have the student sitting to your left begin. Ask her to say the word she chose along with her name (Happy Holly). The student sitting to the left of Holly goes next. He will begin with Holly’s descriptive word and name, and then follow with his own (Happy Holly, Fun Felix). Keep going until you get back to Holly—now she has to name the entire group! If students get stuck along the way, others can offer to help. If Felix or some of the other students who followed him want to try to name the entire group, let them give it a try!

Valentine Learning Centers

Kindergarten - 2nd Grade

This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 2nd grade / 5 - 7 years Make Valentine’s Day extra special with these fun and easy-to-use learning center ideas! Read Your Heart Out Reading Center Fill your classroom library with a dozen or so age-appropriate Valentine-themed books. Invite students to choose a story and curl up on some floor pillows for reading time! Some suggestions include: The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond Happy Valentine’s Day, Little Critter! by Mercer Mayer Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat Amelia Bedelia’s First Valentine by Herman Parish Arthur’s Great Big Valentine by Lillian Hoban The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll The Night Before Valentine’s Day by Natasha Wing How Many Hearts? Math Center Students will love solving simple addition problems with this hands-on Valentine math center! To prepare the center, you will need a die, a few small heart-shaped stampers and a red ink pad, as well as several copies of the How Many Hearts? downloadable page. Cut the copies in half along the dotted line. Have each student take a How Many Hearts? sheet and roll the die. Encourage them to write down the number of dots shown and stamp the corresponding number of hearts above the number in the space provided. Repeat the process for the second number in the addition problem. Then, have students count the total number of stamps to find the correct answer. Variation: Instead of stamps, you can use colorful heart stickers! Can You Hear Your Heartbeat? Science Center This easy-to-create science center will introduce young children to the basic concept of scientific observation! Simply provide a stethoscope at the table for students to use. One at a time, have students use the stethoscope to listen to their heartbeats. Then, have them stand up and do ten jumping jacks and listen to their heartbeats again. Ask them what happened! (Note: You may want to have a parent or other adult volunteer stationed at this center to facilitate questions and clean the stethoscope earpieces with alcohol swabs or disinfecting pads between uses.) Valentine Verses Writing Center Set up a center with heart-themed writing paper and fun Valentine pens or pencils. Invite students to write a poem about people or things in their lives that they love. You may want to help them get started by displaying this poem on posterboard in your learning center. Prompt students to copy the lines of the poem and fill in the blanks with thoughts of their own! Roses are red, Violets are blue, I love my _______________ And ________________, too! Or, have students make up their own verses and write them on the downloadable heart-shaped writing template. After the poem is written, mount it onto red or pink construction paper. Display the poems on a bulletin board in your classroom for Valentine’s Day! Valentine Words Language Center Write the word “VALENTINE” in capital letters across a sentence strip and place it in a center. Provide students with paper and pencils and challenge them to make a list of as many words as they can spell using only the letters in that word! For variation, try the same activity with other Valentine’s Day words, such as sweetheart, candy, cupid, flowers, chocolate and so on.

Summertime Graphing

Preschool - 2nd Grade

This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 2nd grade / 3 - 7 years Create fun graphs of students’ summertime favorites! (It’s a great way to show kids how much they have in common.) Make blank bar graphs using butcher paper or tagboard. Give sticky notes to the students, and have them write their name on each note. As you ask each question, have children place their sticky note in the correct graph column. Some possible questions might be: Do you like hot weather? (yes/no) Have you ever been to the beach? (yes/no) Do you like to play outside or inside when it is sunny? (outside/inside) Do you miss school during the summer? (yes/no) What is your favorite summer activity? (swimming/camping/picnics) What is your favorite ice cream flavor? (chocolate/strawberry/vanilla) What is your favorite book? (Give 3-4 choices of books you’ve read to the children.) What is your favorite game to play outside? (hide and seek/tag/hopscotch) What do you wear to protect yourself when you are outside? (sunscreen/hat/sunglasses/nothing) After each question is graphed, ask questions such as: Which choice had the most picks? Which choice had the fewest picks? How many more children picked _______ over _______?

Letter to Next Year’s Class

Kindergarten - 6th Grade

This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 6th grade / 5 - 11 years Have your students write letters with advice for the kids who’ll follow in their footsteps next year! It’s a great way for children to review what they did during the course of the year. Encourage students to emphasize positive, fun things about their school year—they’re trying to help next year’s class get excited about the year, not be anxious about it! Things they might write about include advice on how to get good grades, things to do and not to do, favorite themes or field trips, etc. Store the letters over the summer, and then take them out on the first day of school next year. You can then post them in your room, read parts of the letters aloud or hand them out for students to read on their own. Instead of writing letters, you could have students create a poster for next year’s class. Children can work together to brainstorm what tips they would like to include, and then they can write, draw and color the poster. Students could also create a “Classroom Handbook” full of helpful tips, suggestions and favorite memories. Bind students’ pages together into a booklet, and place it in your classroom library for students to look over next year.

Printing Practice: Thank-You Notes

Preschool - 5th Grade

This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 5th grade / 3 - 10 years No doubt students will receive a few gifts over the holiday season. What better way to reinforce the concept of gratitude—and practice handwriting and language skills—than to have them write thank-you notes! Distribute some fun and decorative stationery along with a whimsical holiday pen or pencil that students will look forward to using. Encourage them to write notes of appreciation as they receive gifts from friends or relatives. Note: For younger students, you may want to have parents write the majority of the note as their child dictates it to them, and then have the child print his name at the bottom of the note. As they get more practice, you can have them write more, such as the recipient’s name or the name of the gift item for which he is writing the thank-you note.

Preschool - 1st Grade

This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 1st grade / 3 - 6 years This fun family tie-in helps students take what they know—and graph it! Conduct a quick student survey on any of the following topics, tally the responses, and then make a class graph to show the results: Siblings – Encourage students to share how many brothers or sisters they have. Label the columns of your graph with the following: “Only child,” “1 sibling,” “2 siblings,” “3 siblings” and “4 or more siblings,” and then tally and graph the results. Pets – Invite students to share what kind of pets they have at home. Label the columns of your graph with the following: “No pets,” “Dog,” “Cat,” “Bird” and “Other,” and then tally and graph the results. At-Home Head Count – Ask students to share how many people live in their home. Label the columns of your graph with the following: “2–3 people,” “4–5 people,” “6-7 people” and “More than 7 people,” and then tally and graph the results.

Remember the Day in Photos

Pre-K - 3rd Grade

This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 3rd grade / 4 - 8 years Assign students the fun task of documenting their family Thanksgiving celebration through photographs. Encourage them to take posed pictures of family members as well as a few candid shots of the day’s festivities. Then have them share the photos with the entire class and talk about their favorite memories of the day. Display the photos on a Thanksgiving bulletin board, or glue the photos onto construction paper and staple the pages together to create a class Thanksgiving photo album.

Alphabet Activity Game

Pre-K - 1st Grade

This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 1st grade / 4 - 6 years Pair this versatile Alphabet Activity Game Board with these handy ideas for tons of alphabet fun. Send students on an “Alphabet Hunt.” For each letter on the game board, have them find small items around the classroom that begin with that letter and place the items on the mat. Have students take turns flipping a coin onto the game board. They must name a word that begins or ends with the letter the coin lands on. Print out a copy of the game board for each student. Give them a pencil and have them trace each letter on the game board for added letter-writing practice.

Manipulating Money

Pre-K - 1st Grade

This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 1st grade / 4 - 6 years In honor of Presidents’ Day, take the opportunity to point out to your students that most U.S. coins feature pictures of past American presidents. Then, let your students explore the coins hands-on with these fun activities! Coin Rubbing—Divide the class into groups of three or four, and provide each group with several different coins to share. Then, give each student a sheet of paper and some crayons. Have students place the paper on top of a coin and gently color over the paper with the side of a crayon to make a coin rubbing. Encourage them to repeat the process with both sides of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. The result will be colorful imprints of a variety of coins! Penny Probability—Place three pennies and a dime into a paper bag. Ask students to predict which of the two types of coins they are likely to pull out of the bag at random. Test their predictions by drawing a coin out of the bag and recording which coin was selected. Replace the coin and repeat this process 10 times. Allow different student volunteers to take turns removing and replacing the coins. At the conclusion of the demonstration, guide students in discovering that the probability of selecting the penny out of the bag is 3 out of 4, while the probability of selecting the dime is only 1 out of 4. Simple Sorting—Reinforce categorizing and sorting skills by having students work in pairs to sort jars of coins into piles by coin type. Then, have them arrange the different piles in order by size or by value. Penny Predictions—Hold up a penny and ask students to guess how many drops of water they think will fit on the penny. As they guess, ask them to explain why they think their guesses are reasonable. Then have each student work with a partner and give each pair a penny, an eyedropper, and a small cup of water. Encourage the pair to designate one person to count while the other carefully places drops of water onto the penny—one drop at a time until the water “overflows” and drips off of the surface of the penny. Then have them switch roles to try it again. Invite the class to compare their results and discuss whether or not they were consistent. (You might want to provide a simple explanation for how the water drops cling to the penny’s surface and create a “net” called surface tension until the force of gravity becomes stronger than the water and causes the “net” to break.)

Spring Learning Centers

Kindergarten - 3rd Grade

This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 3rd grade / 5 - 8 years This month, set up some fun learning centers with these creative ideas for spring! Read & Learn Comprehension Center Encourage children to sharpen their comprehension skills with these engaging, spring-themed reading passages! Print out several copies of the Comprehension Cards and place them in a file folder. Have students read the passages silently or with a partner and answer the questions. Kite Scenes Geometry Center Place light blue construction paper and pattern blocks in a center. (If you don’t have pattern blocks, simply download this pattern blocks template and reproduce it for students to use.) On separate index cards, write the name of each pattern block shape, such as triangle, square, trapezoid, parallelogram, rhombus and hexagon. (Be sure to review the name of each shape before having students work independently!) Invite students to choose two or three cards, find the corresponding pattern blocks, and trace the blocks onto a 9" x 12" sheet of blue construction paper. If using the template, have students cut out the shapes and glue them onto the paper. Encourage them to use colored pencils or crayons to add details to the picture so that the shapes look like kites flying in the sky. They can draw the kites’ tails and strings, grass, flowers, clouds and more. After students have completed their pictures, have them describe the shapes they used in their pictures. Or, for older students, provide copies of the Pattern Block Kites reproducible and have them fill it out to describe their picture. Display the pictures with the students’ descriptions on a spring bulletin board titled “Pattern Block Kites.” Nature Detectives Science Center Take your students on a nature walk around the school grounds, and help them collect plant samples to bring back to the classroom for observation. (Or you can have them bring plants from home.) Provide each student with a magnifier and a Plants & Flowers Observation Sheet. Encourage them to examine their specimens and record their observations. After students are finished, invite them to tape their specimens to the top portion of a sheet of construction paper and attach the observation sheet to the bottom portion. Collect the pages, bind them together in a class book and place them in a science center for students to enjoy! For younger students, collect several specimens from plants common in your area, such as a fern, flower, branch and magnolia leaf. Attach each specimen to an index card and label it for added literacy exposure. Then place the cards at a center with magnifiers. Have students choose a specimen, observe it with the magnifier and draw it on a piece of paper. For additional writing practice, challenge students to label the picture by copying the name of the specimen. Little Ladybugs Counting Center Reproduce the ladybugs template onto red construction paper. Cut out the number tiles and ladybug counters, and place them at a center. (You can also laminate the pieces to make them more durable.) For young students, have them choose a number tile and count out the corresponding number of ladybugs. For older students, create additional tiles with math symbols such as an addition sign, a subtraction sign and an equal sign. Then prompt students to create math problems and use the ladybugs to find the answers! Write About It! Spring Language Center Reproduce these Spring-Themed Writing Prompts and place them at a center with pencils and crayons. Invite students to let their creativity flow as they write and illustrate their own stories!

Classroom Map Hunt

1st Grade - 3rd Grade

This activity is appropriate for: 1st - 3rd grade / 6 - 8 years The sooner students feel comfortable in the classroom, the sooner they can take advantage of all your great classroom resources. Help familiarize students with their new classroom through this fun map hunt. Draw a map of your classroom. Don’t worry about your artistic ability, just make sure to include all the important classroom features, centers, and furniture you want your students to be familiar with. Your map will probably include things like a listening center, library, student tables, teacher’s desk, math center, sink, door, student cubbies, pencil sharpener, turn-in-your-work area, and so on. Consider using grid paper—it makes it easier to get the size relationships right. At the bottom of your map, include a list of directions. The directions should direct students toward the classroom features. Your list of directions might be something like this: Go to the place where you would listen to a book. Go to the place where you would pick up your mail. Find the place where you would turn in your assignment. Find the place where you would sharpen your pencil. Find your seat. Go to the place where you would find a book to read. Go to the place where you could wash your hands. Before you give each student a copy of your map, provide a tour of the classroom. Point out everything on the map, and explain (if necessary) why these features are important to their classroom experience. Then, pass a map out to each student. Give students 15-20 minutes (depending on the length of your list) to find all the places on the list. When they find a place, they should put an x next to it on the list. When the time is up, go through the list with the entire class.

Pre-K - 2nd Grade

This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 2nd grade / 4 - 7 years Review basic math facts with this fun-to-play outdoor racing game. Scatter numbered rings on the playground and have students run to retrieve two rings at a time. As soon as a player returns to the starting point with the rings, encourage him to solve a simple math sentence using the two numbers on the rings.