Narrow by Grade
Grade
30 results for "handwriting without tears"
ITEMS:
Shopping for Sounds
Kindergarten - 1st Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 1st grade / 5 - 6 years Reinforce beginning letter sounds with this fun-to-play shopping game! Copy a page in a catalog or a store sale flyer and distribute a copy to each student. Choose an item pictured on that page without revealing your choice to the students. If you chose a “hat,” say, “I want to buy an item that starts with ‘h’!” Then invite students to search the page and guess which item you’re thinking of. When they guess correctly, write the name of the item on the board, so students can visualize the word. Tip: To eliminate confusion, go over the pictures on the page together, so that you agree on the names of the items (e.g., “hat” instead of “cap” or “box” instead of “carton,” etc.).
View activity
Spin and Write
1st Grade - 6th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: 1st - 6th grade / 6 - 11 years Spark your students’ interest in writing by creating handy Writing Idea Spinners. To make the spinners, simply print out and follow the instructions. Then ask a student volunteer to spin the spinner and—whatever topic the spinner lands on—encourage the class to write about it!
View activity
Tree of Thanks Writing Project
Pre-K - 3rd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 3rd grade / 4 - 8 years Have your students carefully trace and cut out the printable leaf patterns onto colored sheets of construction paper. Encourage students to write something for which they are thankful on the leaves. Attach the finished leaves to a bulletin board atop a butcher paper tree trunk to make a colorful, seasonal display.
View activity
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.
View activity
Teamwork Web
Preschool - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 2nd grade / 3 - 7 years This activity gives students a great visual representation of teamwork. Begin by gathering your class around you in a circle on the floor. Hold a ball of string or yarn. Tell students something about yourself. When you’re done, grab onto the end of the string or yarn and roll the ball to another student. This student will then tell the group something about himself before he rolls the ball to another student. The cycle continues with each student holding onto part of the string or yarn until everyone has spoken. Ask everyone to carefully stand up without letting go. Look at the web you have created! This is a great time to talk about what teamwork means because everyone is working together to keep the web from falling apart. To illustrate this point, ask one student to let go—students will see how the web weakens when they stop working together.
View activity
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.
View activity
Book of Class Records
Pre-K - 5th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 5th grade / 4 - 10 years Create your own classroom book of records! Make a list of records that students in your class might set. Some possible records might be: Most words read in one minute Most jumps on a jump rope in one minute Fastest times tables Highest stack of blocks Farthest (or highest) jump Try to have a wide range of records so that every student has a chance to set a record in something. Over the course of a few days, have kids compete to see who can set the various records. Write down the results, and then make a classroom book with the records listed. (If you have a digital camera, you can take photos of the winning kids to include on the pages.) Let students decorate the pages, and then bind them together into a book. Keep the book in your classroom library for next year’s kids to read—then let them try to break the records and set new ones!
View activity
Beanbag Blend Game
Kindergarten - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 2nd grade / 5 - 7 years Reinforce beginning sound blends and digraphs with a fun-to-play reading activity! Use a marker to label the outside of six large plastic cups with a different blend or digraph (e.g., bl–, cl–, pr–, sh–, cr–, tw–, or any other combination you would like your students to practice). Then tape the cups securely to the floor or onto the surface of a table. Next, divide the class into two teams. One player at a time, the teams take turns tossing a beanbag into the cups. When the beanbag lands in a cup, the player supplies a word with the same beginning blend or digraph. For example, if the beanbag lands in the “cl” cup, he might supply the word “clock” or “clip.” His team then has one minute to continue to come up with as many words as they can think of that begin with this blend. As they call out words, write them on chart paper or on the blackboard. Continue playing until each team has a chance to supply words for three blends. At the end of the game, have students read each word as you point to it on the chart or board. For additional practice, mix it up by writing these variations on the cups: Ending blends or digraphs (e.g., –ck, –lt, –ch, and so on) Word families (e.g., –ow, –ate, –ug, and so on) Vowel sounds (e.g., “short a,” “long o,” “short e,” “long u,” and so on)
View activity
Alphabet Hopscotch
Pre-K - 1st Grade
This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 1st grade / 4 - 6 years Use sidewalk chalk to draw a hopscotch court with 26 spaces. Beginning with the space nearest to the starting point, write one letter of the alphabet—from A to Z—in each space. Have students take turns rolling a small rock or pebble onto the court and hopping to the space on which the rock has landed. Once a student has hopped to the space, encourage her to name three words that begin with the letter that is written in the space. Variation: As a challenge for older students, have them name words that end with the letter written in the space.
View activity
Adjective Add-On
1st Grade - 5th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: 1st - 5th grade / 6 - 10 years This creative activity gets kids thinking and writing descriptively! Choose a relatively simple sentence to write on the board and have students copy the sentence onto their own sheets of paper. Then challenge students to add adjectives to the sentence to make it more descriptive. (For example, “The girl walked along the street” might become “The careless girl walked along the busy street” or “The little girl walked along the long, quiet street.”) Call on volunteers to share their revised sentences aloud, or have them draw pictures to go with their sentences. Then compare them to see what a difference a few descriptive words can make! Here are a few sentences to get you started: My dog has fleas. My brother ate his vegetables. Look at that painting! That goat ate all the corn in the field. The car raced down the road. The zookeeper fed the animals in the zoo. She sang a song and danced in the rain. My dad works in a building. The boy pulled out his wand and cast a spell. Variation: For older students, encourage them to continue building a story around the sentence to create a whole paragraph. Invite them to compare their stories to illustrate how some editing and a few revisions can enhance the context and meaning of what we write.
View activity
Family Member Interview
Kindergarten - 5th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 5th grade / 5 - 10 years Students will enjoy working together with a loved one to complete this “get-to-know-you” activity! Simply provide students with a copy of the Family Member Interview printable and encourage them to take it home. Have students interview a family member to fill in the blanks. Then, set aside time for oral presentations so students can share fascinating facts or interesting stories that they learned about their family members! For older students, you may want to assign a written report so that they can share what they learned in writing!
View activity
Pocket Chart Word Match
Kindergarten - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 2nd grade / 5 - 7 years Write a nursery rhyme or short poem on sentence strips. Place the sentence strips in a pocket chart. Then have students read the nursery rhyme or poem aloud with you as a shared reading. Invite students to take turns using a pointer to point to the individual words as you read the passage again and again. After a considerable amount of whole-class practice, place the pocket chart in a learning center. Make a second copy of the reading selection on sentence strips and cut out each individual word to make word cards. Challenge students to work together at the center to read each word card and match it to the corresponding word in the pocket chart. Instruct students to place the word cards on top of the words on the sentence strip as they find the match. When they have finished matching, encourage students to read the nursery rhyme or poem together again to check their work.
View activity
Getting to Know You Scavenger Hunt
2nd Grade - 6th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: 2nd - 6th grade / 7 - 11 years Children can learn a lot about their new classmates with this fast-paced activity for 2nd–5th grade classrooms. Start by printing a copy of the Getting to Know You Scavenger Hunt list for each student. Pass out the lists, and let students know that they will have fifteen to twenty minutes to approach each other in hopes of filling in the entire list. Some of the items on the list are physical traits such as finding the tallest person in the class, but others will require that students ask each other questions. For example, students must find “someone who went camping this summer.” When students find a match, they fill that person’s name in the blank. The first student to fill in all the blanks “wins,” but you may want to continue the game until many students have completed their scavenger hunt lists. For preschool and kindergarten classrooms, write these questions on butcher paper or chart paper. Meet together on the rug and fill in the scavenger hunt together as a whole class.
View activity
Ice Cube Color Mixing
Preschool - 1st Grade
This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 1st grade / 3 - 6 years Using colored ice cubes and lemonade, have your students mix different colors and watch the result! Make blue ice cubes using food coloring. Give each child a cup of yellow lemonade. Ask the class to predict what color the yellow and blue will create when mixed. Have the students put the blue ice cubes into the lemonade and watch as the colors mix and turn green. Take children outside and give them 2 different colored ice cubes (you choose the colors, depending on available food coloring). The children will watch as the ice cubes melt and mix into a different color. Have students draw a picture of what happened and, if they are able, write a few sentences.
View activity
Choose Your Own Ending
Pre-K - 3rd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 3rd grade / 4 - 8 years Begin reading a story aloud to your students. Then just before the end of the story, stop reading and tell them that they are going to create their own ending for the story. Provide an example by adding another sentence to the last one you read. Then invite students to continue telling the story so that it concludes any way they like. You can make this an oral reading activity, or you can write down the sentences as they are dictated to you. For older students, provide them with a pencil and paper and encourage them to write the conclusion themselves.
View activity
Salty Science
Pre-K - 3rd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 3rd grade / 4 - 8 years Try this simple science experiment to find out what happens when salt and water mix. Start by dissolving some salt in a small, disposable cup of water. Did the salt disappear? Ask students where they think it went. Write their answers down. Leave the cup in a sunny place. Show students how to mark the water level on the side of the cup. Encourage them to mark the water at the same time each day. Why do they think the water level is going down? When all the water has evaporated, show students the salt that remains in the bottom of the cup. Explain that the salt never really disappeared; it mixed with the water. Explain that the water evaporated, or turned into gas form, when the sun heated it. Once all the water evaporated, the salt stayed behind—in its original crystal form!
View activity
End-Of-The-Year Celebration
1st Grade - 6th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: 1st - 6th grade / 6 - 11 years As the school year comes to a close, try a few of these culminating activities to get your students reflecting on their progress! Grade-Level Graduation Encourage students to celebrate the end of a successful school year by hosting a graduation party! Purchase inexpensive graduation-themed paper plates and cups from a local party store and order a cake from a supermarket bakery. Then invite students to take turns sharing the accomplishments they are most proud of from the past year. Print out the End-Of-The-Year Diploma and present one to each student. Student Reflections Give a copy of the student memory book to each student, and encourage students to record their favorite memories and proudest moments from the past school year. Then have students take them home as keepsakes to share with their parents! Mixed Math Review Help students recall the many math concepts they learned this year with a fun-filled quiz game they create! Divide the class into small teams and distribute several copies of the Mixed Math Review! cards to each team. Then assign each team a chapter or section of their math textbook, and have them write down a question or problem on the back of each card. (Be sure to have each group create an answer key for their cards.) Simply place the cards in a pocket chart to create a quiz game that’s played just like a TV game show—and let students take turns answering questions for their teams! Tip: No time to create your own game? Check out our ready-made Math Quiz Game Shows for Grades 1-3 and Grades 4-6—each with over 200 level-appropriate question cards covering tons of essential math concepts!
View activity
Gumdrop Graphing
Pre-K - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 2nd grade / 4 - 7 years What better way to practice essential math skills, while celebrating the flavors of the holiday season, than to conduct a graphing activity…with gumdrops! Begin by purchasing several bags of gumdrops from your local supermarket or drugstore. Divide the bags into individual cups of about 15–20 gumdrops each. (You will need one cup of gumdrops for each student in your class, or one cup for every two students if you have them work in pairs.) Download the Gumdrop Graphing chart and make a copy for each student or pair of students. Have students write the names of the gumdrop colors across the bottom of the chart. Give students the cups of gumdrops and have them place their gumdrops in vertical columns by color to fill in the graph on the sheet. Next, guide students in answering questions about their graphs. For example, you might ask: What is the total number of gumdrops on your graph? Do you have more black gumdrops or more red gumdrops? Which column has the least number of gumdrops? The most? Are any of the columns the same height? If so, which ones? And what does this mean? How many more/fewer yellow gumdrops are there than green gumdrops? Once you have used the graphs to make mathematical comparisons, invite students to eat the gumdrops as a special holiday treat!
View activity
Sharing the Dream of Dr. King
Kindergarten - 6th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 6th grade / 5 - 11 years Read or listen to a recording of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. (For younger students with shorter attention spans, you may want to select a small portion instead of the entire speech.) Afterward, discuss some of the ways Dr. King was hoping to accomplish peace among people. Then, engage students in a follow-up activity that allows them to express their own ideas of how we can live in harmony with one another: For Grades K–2: Have students draw a picture of ways they can spread peace to one another (e.g., sharing, making friends, helping each other, etc.). Then have them complete the sentence “I can bring peace by _______________.” For Grades 3–5: Have students write about ways they can get along with others and spread peace. For Grades 6 and up: Ask students to explain what Dr. King meant when he called for people to be “judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” and share some examples of when and how they can do this.
View activity
Snail’s Pace
Pre-K - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 2nd grade / 4 - 7 years Use sidewalk chalk to draw a large spiral (shaped like a snail’s shell) on the ground. Draw lines in the shell to create hopscotch-style spaces. Make a circle in the center and write “home” inside it. To play, the first student must hop on one foot, landing in each space. When she reaches the home space, she can land with both feet. If the student successfully completes the circle, she gets to write her initials inside any space of her choice. Players then take turns hopping through the course. They cannot land in any space with someone’s initials inside. Play continues until no one can reach the home space. Whoever has their initials inside the most spaces wins!
View activity
End-Of-The-Year Scavenger Hunt
2nd Grade - 6th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: 2nd - 6th grade / 7 - 11 years Plan a scavenger hunt…for information your class learned throughout the year! Create a list of questions whose answers can be found in books the class read during the year. (Make sure copies of the books are available in your classroom library or reading center.) Make a copy of the list for each child in class, and then let them “hunt” for the answers. Have kids write down each answer and where they found it. Give children a time limit in which to find the information. When time is up, collect students' answers. Count up the correct answers and give a prize to the student(s) who found the most! Note: Tell children that they don’t need to answer the questions in order—that way, if the book needed to answer the first question is being used, they can simply answer another question on the list.
View activity
Pen Pal Project
2nd Grade - 5th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: 2nd - 5th grade / 7 - 10 years Set up international pen pals for your students. (A great website that can help get you connected to other students or classrooms around the globe is www.epals.com.) Encourage them to write to their pen pals to ask about which holidays they celebrate and how they are celebrated. Prompt students to include in their letters explanations and descriptions of their own holiday traditions and celebrations. Have students take pictures of holiday decorations to send with their letters. And don’t forget to invite students to share their letters with the class when they receive a response!
View activity
Top 10 List
Preschool - 3rd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 3rd grade / 3 - 8 years Every quarter, make a list of the books or stories the class has read. Then have students vote to determine the class favorites! Write the titles on a posterboard with the heading, “Our Top 10 Favorite Books.” Hang the poster prominently on a wall or from the ceiling and display the books around the poster to provide students with easy access and encourage rereading of the stories!
View activity
Celebrating Earth Day
1st Grade - 5th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: 1st - 5th grade / 6 - 10 years Earth Day is April 22nd! Celebrate our planet with these engaging Earth Day ideas: Read All About It—Set up an Earth Day reading corner with interesting and age-appropriate books, such as Earth Day—Hooray! by Stuart J. Murphy, Let’s Celebrate Earth Day by Connie and Peter Roop, and Earth Book for Kids: Activities to Help Heal the Environment by Linda Schwartz. Invite students to read the books (or you can read them aloud to the class) and discuss ways they can help preserve our planet! Plant a Plant—Provide students with small terra-cotta pots and paints to decorate them. Then help students put soil in the pots and add seeds so they can grow their own plants! Remind students that planting trees and plants helps preserve the natural environment of our planet. Eco-Friendly Lunch Challenge—During the month of April (and throughout the rest of the year as well), encourage students to bring their lunch and snacks in reusable containers instead of disposable plastic or paper bags. Have students help you estimate the number of bags the class is saving by investing in reusable containers! Save-The-Planet Posters—Set up a center with markers, posterboard, construction paper and stickers, and have students make Earth-friendly signs. Encourage them to write slogans such as “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!” and “Keep our planet clean!” Post the signs around the school for the month of April! Pennies for the Planet—Invite your students to join in a nationwide effort to promote conservation efforts by contributing pennies (and other spare change) to Pennies for the Planet. Click here to learn how your class can get involved in this environmental effort by the National Audubon Society.
View activity
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.
View activity
Sharing the Warmth
Kindergarten - 6th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 6th grade / 5 - 11 years The holiday season seems to be the perfect time to focus on giving to others. Invite your students (and their parents) to get into the spirit of giving by donating gently worn (or even brand-new) mittens, gloves, hats, and scarves to be given to less fortunate children in your community. After collecting the items, arrange to drop them off at a local family shelter or church that may reach out to needy children in the
View activity
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!
View activity
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.
View activity
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.
View activity
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 _______?
View activity