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Teaching Pre K-8, Jan 2004 by Swartz, Elizabeth

Ideas for Pre-K through Grade 8

Skill-Building Activities You Can Use Right Now!

PRIMARY GRADES

Calendar Collage

1 WSATH Supply each child with a piece of poster board and several pages from an old calendar. Invite the children to create a collage of numbers using numbers cut from the calendar pages. Have some of the students make collages of odd numbers, others can do even numbers, greater than or less than, etc.

Oh No! Not Glasses!

2 Read aloud junie B., First Grader At Last by Barbara Park (Rani dom House, 2001). Make eyeglasses out of construction paper and declare an "Eyeglasses Day" where everyone wears their paper eyeglasses if they don't have regular glasses.

Winter Field Trips

3 You can take your students to a museum without ever leaving your school! Visit the Capital Children's Museum at www.ccm.org and also check out the Association of Children's Museums at www.childrensmu seums.org for links to other museums your class can visit online.

A New Year

4 Make paper plate clocks without numbers and invite students to make "calendar clocks" featuring fall leaves, snowflakes, spring flowers and the summer sun.

Children can also make "daily action" clocks and draw people eating or getting ready for bed, etc., in the appropriate areas of the clock.

Then read the following poem to your class and have them move the hands of their clocks at the appropriate times.

Clocks and Calendars

Time for breakfast, lunch, dinner;

Time to shave and shower.

A day is made of bits of time

seconds, minutes, hours.

Time for Spring, Summer, Fall;

Time for Winter cheer.

Days and weeks and months add up

A brand new year is here!

Happy New Year!

by Heidi Roemer

ESL Buddies

Set up recess buddies for your ESL students by pairing them with English-speaking students who share their interests. Lots of English can be learned over blocks, stickers, toy cars and collector dolls.

Magic Muck

6 Put 1/3 cup of water and five drops of food coloring into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Slowly add 3/4 cup of corn starch, but don't stir it. Let the mixture stand for three minutes. Pick up a handful of the mixture and squeeze it until it forms a hard ball. Now open your hand and you'll see that the mixture becomes a liquid again. This can be repeated over and over.

Do You Believe in Magic?

7LANGUAGE Cover a bulletin board with bright blue paper and title it, "Do You Believe in Magic?" in silver letters. Cut stars out of gold paper and have students write or draw on the stars what kind of magic they believe in. Read "Cinderella" and other fairy tales. Invite a magician to your class to mystify your students with a few tricks.

Compliments Unlimited

8 WRITING January 24 is National Compliment Day. Have each student choose five people to compliment. It's nice to compliment friends, but don't forget parents, grandparents, siblings, even school staff members. The students can make cards in which the students write compliments. Deliver the cards on the 24th.

Cold and Flu Season

9 SCIENCE/HEALTH To demonstrate how sneezes spread germs, sprinkle a little talcum powder or cornstarch on a dark-colored sheet of paper. Show it to the class. Pretend to sneeze on the paper, then show it to the class again. How has the paper changed? Where did the powder go? Discuss with the students how this demonstration relates to our sneezes and coughs when we have a cold. Discuss ways we can prevent the spread of germs.

Scavenger Shapes

10 MATH Supply a large square box, a large rectangular box and a large odd-shaped box. Send the children around the room to collect items to put in the appropriately-shaped boxes.

seedless Wonders

11 SCIENCE Give the class seedless grapes and discuss seedless watermelons. How can more of the plants grow without seeds? Bring in a plant that regenerates, such as an ivy or a geranium. Break off short sprigs, place them in water in the sun and watch the roots grow!

Ordinary Oats

12 SCIENCE/HEALTH January is Oatmeal Month. You can show the children where oatmeal comes from by providing pictures of the grain being planted and harvested. Then provide small dishes for holding oat grains (ask for oat "berries" at a health food store), oatmeal and oat flour. Discuss how the various forms of oats are produced and what they're used for. Do oats grow in your region? If so, invite a farmer to give a presentation. If not, invite a person from a health food store to demonstrate how the grains or berries are ground into flour. Make some good.old-fashioned oatmeal cookies with your class!

Winter Wonders

13SCIENCE/ART Share the following poem with the class:

jack Frost

he turns most windows icy cold,

he freezes locks on doors,

he reddens cheeks, makes icicles,

Sends chills through wooden floors,

And though he is not ever seen,

His deeds are known to all,

For Winter wouldn't be Winter lest,

Jack Frost did come to call.

by Martin Shaw

After enjoying the poem, make a paper window frame and place it over a black sheet of paper. With white chalk, make frost patterns on the black paper. Students can research frost patterns by observing windows at home and school.