Your GREEN PAGES: 43 Skill-Building Activities You Can Use Right Now!

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

PRIMARY GRADES

The Colors in Our World

1 VOCABULARY/ART Make a simple clothes-hanger mobile. Print the name of a color on an index card and attach it to the middle of the mobile. Have students find or make pictures of objects of that color and glue the pictures to additional cards. Hang these pictures on the mobile. When a new color word is introduced, make a new mobile.

Seasonal Shirts

2VOCABULARY/ART/READING Send a note home asking that the children come to school dressed in fall colors. When the children arrive, share the book, Autumn by Ruth Thomson (Franklin Watts, 1989). Then have the children arrange their bodies to make a beautiful autumn mosaic. Have each child take turns identifying colors worn by others.

A Myriad of Movements

3 SCIENCE/PHYS. ED. Take a trip to the playground. Explain what kind of movement each piece of equipment requires: pushing, pulling, sliding, spinning, etc. For a related show and tell, have students bring in toys that require different movements (forces) and invite the children to show how to set the various toys in motion.

Bird Behavior

4 POETRY/SCIENCE/PHYS.ED. Show the children pictures of the birds mentioned in the following poem. Tell the children a few facts about each bird. After you read the poem, have the children act out the parts, or play a followthe-leader game with the leader playing a particular bird.

Bird Exercise

I climb like a woodpecker,

High in the tree.

I dive like the eagle,

And you can't catch me!

I race like a pigeon.

I walk like a duck.

I hop like a robin,

And I call, "Tut-tut."

I swim like a mallard.

Like a blackbird I fly.

I flap like the crow

That cries, "Caw!" in the sky.

by Jacqueline Schiff

Bird Treats

5 SCIENCE Use peanut butter as a treat to attract birds. Put a rock out on the window ledge and dab some peanut butter on it. Sprinkle birdseed on the peanut butter and have the class write about and draw what they see.

Birds of a Feather

6 SCIENCE/ART After identifying the birds at your window, make oaktag patterns of a bird shape for students to trace in the correct color for the species of bird. Make a slit in each bird where the wings would be. Accordion-fold sheets of tissue paper and slide through the slit. Attach a string to the bird for hanging.

Sunflower Wreaths

7 ART/SCIENCE Materials: paper plate, 12 yellow paper baking cups, scissors, glue, sunflower seeds. Sfep 1: Cut the center from the paper plate and discard. Sfep 2: For each flower, use two paper baking cups stacked together. Fold the cups three times to form a wedge shape. Cut a V shape in the wedge at the opposite side from the point. Step 3: Open the cups and rotate one slightly so all the petals show. Glue in place. Repeat for five more flowers. Step 4: Glue the flowers to the wreath. Step 5: Spread glue in the center of each flower and sprinkle a small amount of sunflower seeds there. Step 6: Attach a string hanger.

What's So Funny?

8 READING Collect a set of comic strips and cartoons. During circle time, share several of them and ask the students to explain what it is that makes them funny. Are there ordinary things in unexpected places? Is it because a character doesn't know what is going on? Explore the elements of humor. Have students collect comics to bring in for a future discussion.

Water Magic

9 SCIENCE/POETRY Read the following poem to the class and try to do what it says. Put out a couple of shallow bowls with water in them. Try drawing a circle in the water with a pencil. Then drop water from an eye dropper into the dishes and see the circles that are made. Experiment with dropping the water from different heights. What does that do to the circles?

Raindrops

It's hard to make a circle,

On a pond or on a lake,

A pencil or a crayon,

On the water, will not take.

But tiny, little raindrops,

Seldom find it hard at all,

They're always making circles,

On the water when they fall.

by Martin Shaw

Magazines Just for Us

10 READING During October, which is Children's Magazine Month, see your librarian for copies of early-reader magazines. Use them for read-alouds and place them in a learning center for children to look through on their own.

Reading Pals

11 READING Provide an opportunity for two students to go to the library or the classroom bookshelves to select a book that they can partner-read together purely for enjoyment. Provide rugs, pillows and time for the pals to enjoy a book together. Don't forget to choose a pal for the teacher, too!

Too hot?

12 POETRY/HEALTH/SCIENCE After reading the poem below, discuss temperature. What's the temperature range of the human mouth? Do some experiments with ice cream and a lemon ice, a bowl of soup and a cup of coffee. How many degrees are in our safety range? Are "temperature hot" and "spicy hot" the same thing?

Witch's Brew

Bubble, bubble,

Beware of trouble!

Supper is in the pot -

A flame below,

And steam above;

Take care, my child -

It's hot!

by Heidi Roemer

Thanks for Lunch

13 WRITING During National School Lunch Week, October 10-16, take your students on a "field trip" to the cafeteria to meet the workers and see the facility that feeds them every day. Arrange for the district dietitian to be there as well, so he or she can explain why certain foods are served. Find out where the food comes from, who plans the menu, what time the staff arrives, etc. After the trip, have the students write thank-you notes to the cafeteria staff.