Your GREEN PAGES: 58 Skill-Building Activities You Can Use Right Now!

Teaching Pre K-8, Aug/Sep 2005 by Swartz, Elizabeth

PRIMARY GRADES

Secret Shapes

1 MATH Cut various shapes out of sandpaper. Give students turns at wearing a blindfold, tracing the shapes and trying to determine what the shapes are.

Popular Pianos

2 MUSIC Take an indoor field trip to see the pianos in your school. How many are there? Are they all alike? How many children have pianos in their homes? Invite the music teacher or a piano tuner to explain the workings of a piano and allow the children to see the hammers in action. How is an electric keyboard the same and different?

Measuring Up

3 MATH On the back of a door, hang a large piece of paper. Mark each child's height on the first day of school. Remeasure throughout the year, being I sure to date the measurements. Have the children measure the difference. Also, trace hands and feet on the inside of a file folder. Repeat throughout the year, tracing on top of the first pattern and measuring growth. Make graphs that illustrate each child's development.

Day by Day

4 SOCIAL STUDIES/DRAMA Use the following poem to reinforce the order of the days of the week. Teach corresponding motions for each stanza.

Week Daze

Hip-hop hopscotch Sunday,

Hooray for family fun day!

Baseball batting Monday,

See how fast I run day.

Egg-and-spoon race Tuesday,

Someone's win or lose day.

Cool pool Wednesday,

Splashing with my friends day.

Howling, prowling Thursday,

Pet parade and fur day.

Kids fly kites on Friday,

See how high they fly day.

Sidewalk skating Saturday

Clomp, clomp, glide and clatter day.

Rolling, bowling Sunday,

A new week has begun. Hey!

by Heidi Roemer

Wiggly Worms

5 MATH Make several construction-paper apples with a numeral written on each. Encourage your students to put the correct number of gummy, paper or rubber worms on the apples. Laminate the apples for repeat usage.

The Same, But So Different

6 SCIENCE Compare and contrast a raw egg with a hard-boiled egg. Make a simple chart or use a Venn Diagram. Reach beyond the physical differences: Can both types of eggs be colored? Cooked? What form(s) of matter are in each?

Great Grandparents

7 READING/ART Share a picture book about grandparents. What Grandmas Can't Do by Douglas Wood (Simon & Schuster, 2005) highlights a grandmother who can't "make your favorite cookies alone," and "sometimes can't laugh without tears coming out of her eyes." Compare the characters with children's real grandparents. Ask students to draw pictures of the things they do with their grandparents.

Spelling Snakes

8 LANGUAGE For a new "twist" on a spelling lesson, provide packages of colored chenille sticks. Encourage the children to form the letters for their spelling words out of the sticks. Use matching colors for similar word types.

Picture Perfect

9 READING/VISUAL DISCRIMINATION Clip comic strips out of various newspapers and cut them up, mixing the panels of different comics all together in a pile. Put the pile in the middle of the table and have students sort them by the main characters. Use related panels to form a story sequence.

Sticker Pictographs

10 MATH Provide each student with graph paper and a variety of pre-counted stickers. Model a sticker pictograph, then help the students each make his or her own graph.

Handy Bodies

11 LANGUAGE/HEALTH Teach the following poem to your children. Act out parts as they recite it. Add other fitness activities that mesh.

My Handy Dandy Anatomy

My handy head is heading

When I'm in a soccer game.

My handy hands are dribbling

When a basket is my aim.

My handy legs are kicking

When a football is in play.

My body parts are handy

When I exercise each day.

by Jacqueline Schiff

My Name Is...

12 ART/SPELLING Provide your students with blank name tags and a pile of alphabet cereal, noodles or paper letters. Have them arrange the letters to spell their names. Provide the names to match, if necessary. Help the children glue the letters onto and decorate the tags.

Testy Thermometers

13 MATH Hang pictures of three thermometers, one depicting a low temperature, one medium and one high. Provide students with a collection of weather-corresponding pictures kids in swimsuits and ski jackets, colored leaves, snowmen, fireworks - to hang beneath the appropriate thermometer.

Inside Out

14 SCIENCE/WRITING Cut apples in half from top to bottom, keeping the stem attached and split lengthwise, and give each student half of an apple. Next, display a large cross-section of an apple. Label each section: skin, flesh, seeds, stem, core. Have the students write essays describing the parts of an apple.

Pictures of Pals

15 READING/ART Share the book Ruby Paints A Picture by Susan Hill (HarperCollins, 2005). Children can then create paintings of one another in front of a tree or desk. Make the background something that everyone can draw successfully.

Pretty Patterning

16 MATH/HEALTH Practice patterning by putting cubes of cheese, pineapple chunks, red and green grapes and other bite-sized pieces of fruit on kabob sticks. Model a pattern for students to copy, then ask students to create their own patterns. Finish this activity by enjoying a healthy snack!