Your GREEN PAGES: 50 Skill-Building Activities You Can Use Right Now!

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

PRIMARY

Sort-a-Thon

1 MATH Give each child a bag of small items such as coins, erasers, buttons, paper clips, crayons, etc. Call out a category ("Things you use at school," etc.) and set a timer for two minutes, during which the children will take appropriate items out of the bag. Put the items back into the bag and play again.

Sledding Safety

2 READING/ART/HEALTH Teach the children the following rhyme, then have them draw a sledding adventure. What kind of safety helmet and sledding boots will they design? Talk about their pictures and the safety rules for sledding.

Sledding

Oh, a-sledding I will go,

A-sledding I will go.

I'll wear a helmet on my head,

And cozy boots below.

by Jacqueline Schiff

Winter Wellness

3 PHYSICAL EDUCATION Teach the following rhymes and motions to your class. Repeat them during the winter.

Jack and Jill's Winter Exercise

Jack and Jill hiked up the hill, (pantomime hiking up hill)

And brought with them Miss Muffet.

A winter walk is healthier (pantomime walking, swing arms and smile)

Than sitting (sit)

on your tuffet. (shake head "no")

by Jacqueline Schiff

Four Fit Pigs

This little pig went to ice-skate, (left pinkie)

This little pig went to ski, (right pinkie)

This little pig went sledding, (left thumb)

And this little pig did all three. (right thumb)

These little pigs built a snowman, (raise pinkies and thumbs, make a fist with each hand. on the word "snowman," put one fist on top of the other)

These little pigs didn't sit. (separate fists, raise pinkies and thumbs)

These little pigs all played snow tag. (make pinkies touch, make thumbs touch, make each pinkie touch a thumb)

These pigs are happy and fit. (wiggle pinkies and thumbs)

by Jacqueline Schiff

Squiggle Glue Pictures

4 ART Give each child a piece of colored paper and a container of glue. Squirt a pattern of glue onto the paper and let it dry overnight. The next day, paint over the glue with watercolor. The glue squiggles will stand out.

Sort by Numbers

5 MATH Mark three paper cups with the numbers 1, 2 and 4. Supply a bag of buttons and let the children sort the buttons into the cups by counting the holes in the centers of the buttons.

Building Fact Families

6 MATH Put the "Digits of the Day" (perhaps 3, 4 and 7) on a table, and challenge the children to use materials to prove the relationships between these numbers. They may glue cereal pieces to a poster board, build an addition sentence with buttons, etc. Change the digits a few days later for a new experience.

Better Butter

7 SCIENCE Pour equal amounts of 2% milk, whole milk and heavy cream into separate jars. How are these products alike? different? Tightly secure lids. Divide the class into three groups and have each group shake their jars vigorously. Which liquid turns into butter? Why? Compare the three samples in the jars to butter bought at the grocery store. How is it similar? Different?

New Snow

8 READING/ART As you read this poem, ask the children to think about what kind of "ice cream" covers the speaker's yard.

Winter White

My yard's vanilla ice cream.

So cold and smooth and white.

But I can't eat it in a cone -

It's snow that came last night!

by Jacqueline Schiff

Brainstorm a list of things that snow is like. Invite the class to make snow scenes using cotton and construction paper.

Show and Tell

9 WRITING/ART Give each child a piece of drawing paper with six blank face shapes on it. Under each face, write one sentence such as, "I can't find my bike" or "I heard a noise behind the door." Have the children draw the expression that best represents the emotions.

Create a Bird

10 SCIENCE/ART/LANGUAGE ARTS When working with a unit on birds, invite students to create a new bird. Their bird must have a beak, wings, two feet and a body. After completing their bird, students write about their bird including its name, eggs, call, interesting habits and what it likes to eat.

Seeds of Friendship

11 SCIENCE Find somewhere around your school building where students can leave gifts of seeds for the birds during this National Birdfeeding Month. Try to find a spot near a window, so students can observe visiting birds and record their visits.

The Shrinking Machine

12 WRITING Decorate the outside of a large box to look like a machine. Have children crawl through the box into an area decorated to make it look like they have shrunk. The area could contain a huge tree, a large chair, a blade of grass as large as a bush, etc. Have students write a story about what happens to them now that they have been shrunk.

Parents Activity

13 MATH Reinforce important classification and grouping skills at home while developing your child's independence by having your child sort dirty laundry. Then put your child in charge of delivering and putting away the family's clean laundry.

Secret Admiration

14 READING/ART Read the book Little Bear's Valentine by Else Minarik (HarperCollins, 2003), which is about a secret admirer. Talk about what it feels like to have and to be a secret admirer. Do the following art project for someone special, sign it, "Your secret admirer" and watch a smile appear on his or her face! Step 1: Prepare cardboard box sides for the children. Cut slits about one inch long on all sides. Step 2: Students paint the cardboard a Valentine color; red, pink, purple, etc. Step 3: When the paint is dry, glue on paper hearts and the name of the person receiving this Valentine. Step 4: Students string colored yarn into the slits and add a yarn handle.