Ideas for pre-k through grade 8: Your green pages--69 specific skill-building activities you can use right now!

Teaching Pre K-8, Feb 2001

SHAPE SHADOWS

45. SCIENCE: Display a picture of a groundhog. Ask the children to draw their idea of a groundhog's shape on cardboard and cut it out. Working with partners, the students experiment with placing their groundhogs in various conditions to see if groundhogs' shadows appear. After the experiments, the children report their findings to the class for further discussion. EXTRA: Using the poem, "Is It Spring Yet?" (see Activity 1), help the children relate and further explain their experiments.

3-D HEART

46. ART: In Step A, Styrofoam packing material may be used instead

FOOD KINDS

47. LANGUAGE ARTS: With your child, collect advertisements of foods that are described, e.g., delicious apples, purple grapes, orange juice, etc. Help your child cut out the items. Make a booklet of about five pages. On every page, have him or her paste two of the cutout items. Below each picture, the child pastes the cutout name of the item, e.g., orange juice. During the week, ask your child to show and read the book to the family.

SURPRISE!

48. THINKING: Give copies of this poem to the children:

Do You Ever?

Do you ever say, "I think I can?" Then figure out a really neat plan, Read a book all the way through, Solve math problems all twenty-two, Do you ever say, "I think I can?" Then try another really neat plan, Like finding how the sun can rise. Then, hear people say, "You're very wise!"

by Virginia S. Brown

Read the poem aloud as the children read it silently. Help them brainstorm what they do when they think that they can. Daily, as the children are learning new skills or are improving, individuals call out, "I think I can!"

THOUGHT WORKS

49. THINKING: Give the children copies of a line design. They look at it from different angles, thinking of what the lines represent, belong to, suggest, etc. Then, using paint, colored markers, textures, etc., the child creates a picture of choice involving the line design. Display their labeled "thought works."

PRESIDENT'S ACTION

50. SOCIAL STUDIES: Celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday, February 12. On the chalkboard, write his name and birthday. Give the children copies of "From a Log Cabin" (see Activity 25). After they read the poem, they name the person in the poem and tell what he did that will be remembered always. Present other facts about Lincoln. The children record them on their papers containing the poem and make a sketch of Lincoln.

ON DUTY

51. SOCIAL STUDIES: Make a large daily schedule that shows the following: names of classroom duties, performance time of each duty, and the names of partners to whom the duty is assigned. Display the daily schedule. After partners perform their duties at the given time, they check their names. For good performance, place a star beside the partners' names.

PLANT UP

52. SCIENCE: Display various live plant cuttings, different seeds and leaves, pots, potting soil, large spoons and a pitcher of water. Working in groups, the children choose a plant cutting, seeds and leaves. They plant their items in the pots. Daily or weekly, they record any growth changes in their planted items. At the end of the month, a florist visits. The groups show and present their findings. The florist responds with compliments and ideas for continuing and/or changing their experiments.