Snowman and Sock Monkey Crafts

 

IF YOU ARE HERE LOOKING FOR PENGUIN RESOURCES, THE POST HAS BEEN MOVED HERE!!!! Click on the link or the picture to take you to the Penguin Unit Post.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR POLAR BEAR RESOURCES, THE POST HAS BEEN MOVED HERE!!! Click on the link or the picture to take you to the Polar Bear Unit Post.

SOCK MONKEY AND SNOWMAN CRAFT PACKS:

My sock monkey craft pack is a cute little pack with directions and craft templates to make a sock monkey. You can make him using whatever colors you want, making this pack a great little craft to get out all throughout the year, not just during Christmas time.

My snowman craft and activities pack is structured much like my other unit packs. It includes craft directions and templates to make this cutie pie snowman.

It also includes activity pages to have to students talk and describe things about snowmen including a How To writing activity, KWL and Can/Have/Are charts, label charts and labeling activities, and a couple other writing activities.

Polar Bear Unit

During these freezing cold and snowy months of winter teachers find themselves teaching about some of the coldest climates on Earth. Polar Bears are so much fun to learn about. I have a stand alone Polar Bear unit, as well as a complete Arctic Animal Unit that features 9 different Arctic Animals. You can find the Arctic Animals unit in my store HERE or read more about it HERE.

For now, here is a closer look at the Polar Bear Unit.

Polar bear themed graphic organizers

Polar bear writing prompt

Reading comprehension passage with three comprehension questions

Polar bear labeling activity with a color and black and white poster as well as three differentiated labeling activities to allow for differentiation within the classroom

Colored Classroom “Big Book” and student little reader that reads exactly as the big book does so students can follow along with the teacher.

For a complete description of what is includes please see my listing in my store. Each of the pictures in this post link to my pack as well.

Thanksgiving Thematic Unit

Here is a peek inside my Thanksgiving Thematic Unit and Craft Pack.

Let’s Celebrate Thanksgiving is full of 89 pages of supplemental materials that can be used to help teach your students about Thanksgiving. The activities in this pack are to accompany your instruction, thus you will need to make sure you have researched everything you want to teach your little turkey's.

My favorite part of this entire pack is the adorable turkey craft.

 

Miscellaneous Writing Prompts, graphic organizers, graphs and more are included in this pack as well as the materials you will need to create classroom graphs, organizers etc. There are graphic organizers for turkeys, Wampanoags, and Pilgrims.

 

 

 

There is a labeling section in this pack with colored and black and white posters as well as three differentiated student labeling activity sheets for turkeys, Wampanoags, and Pilgrims.

 

This pack also includes a classroom “big” book that tells the story of the First Thanksgiving. The pictures are in color for the big book, but an additional black and white student reader is available for students to follow along.

A Thanksgiving Senses interactive student book is also included.

 

This additional sheet is also included and has students draw what they plan to see on their Thanksgiving plates. You can’t see them real well in this picture, but there will be a pile of potatoes on mine too :)

 

A complimentary The First Thanksgiving flip book can be purchased separately to go along with your Thanksgiving Studies. This book features two different versions to best fit the needs of your students in your classroom.

 

 

As you can see this pack is jammed full of tons of materials to help supplement your Thanksgiving chit-chat in your classroom. I would love to hear what you think and would love for you to check it out by clicking on any of the pictures above or by clicking HERE to find it in my TPT store.

Fire Safety Month

Fire Safety is a very important topic to teach students and during October we come together as teachers to help spread awareness of fire safety.

My Fire Safety Unit is packed full of materials to help supplement your Fire Safety classroom instruction. Please note that these materials can be used in addition to the research and materials/information you have already gathered. I have just included materials to help your students interact with their learning.

 

 

You can catch a glimpse at some of these pages below. (At any time you can find the unit by clicking on any of the pictures in this unit or any of the words linked.)

 

 

   

This pack will pair well with my existing Fire Safety Math and Literacy Centers Pack. 

I hope you are able to find something that you can use with your students. :) 

My thematic units include all of the same kinds of activities with obvious change in information. Additional activities may also be included depending on the particular topic. You can check out all of my thematic units HERE.

Kindergarten Skills Assessments

Last year I started out in a Title I classroom where I spent all of my morning working with the kindergarteners in reading. One of the things that I knew I had to do was to see where each of the student’s were at in regards to knowing their basic skills. I created an assessment in order to test all of the students in the 3 kindergarten classrooms to help determine who may or may not qualify for Title I services and to also give the classroom teachers a basis for instruction and grouping for their little ones. The assessments were then used throughout the year to see how the students were progressing. 

I worked at the beginning of the summer to get this ready to share with all of you and it has been out for about a month, but I am just now getting around to sharing it with you so here it is. (I am enjoying the freedom that summer brings just a bit too much…although I am itching to get back to the classroom.) 

Each of the assessment packs include a 2 page student assessment form that can be copied front to back, a classroom assessment log to record the scores for all the students in regards to their understanding of various beginning skills, as well as various cards that can be used to administer the assessment.

Each student will have their own two sided (or single sided 2 page doc. if you choose) document for you as the teacher to record their results. You can choose how you wish to record the students results. I often only mark the ones that they get wrong by circling them. This way I can count up the ones not circled to come up with a total score for that column. You can choose to only mark the ones they got correct. However you wish to do it is perfectly fine. 

For each section of the assessment there is a card or coordinating activity that is included for you to give to the student. In order to keep all of the assessment tools in one place I printed them out and then used a binder ring to attach them together. For me, I printed out the cards and actually used crayons to color around the edges of the cards to help spruce them up some. Please note that some of the cards will need to be printed in color because the students need to figure out the pattern on the card.

When I finished the assessments, I then went through each students inventory and tallied up the total number correct out of the total number given and recorded it on the class inventory sheet. This will allow for quick reference when you need to know how well a student did and what they need the most practice with.

This pack was a lifesaver last year and I can’t wait to use it this year with the added assessment tools.

You can grab this pack in my store by clicking on the picture below. 

Arctic Animals Unit

Here is a closer look at my Arctic Animals unit which includes information and activities for 9 Arctic animals. The animals included are: Arctic Fox, Harp Seal, Snowy Owl, Polar Bear, Atlantic Puffin, Arctic Hare, Orca (Killer Whale), Walrus, and Caribou.

What is your favorite Arctic Animal?

All my units contain various graphic organizers for you to use to help build schema for your unit. I feel it is necessary to continue supplying these types of organizers to my students in order to help with comprehension of information they are being presented. If we continue to offer these types of resources to our students it will lead to them being able to independently use these skills on their own while reading and learning, which will lead to better comprehension of text and information. There are 4 graphic organizers for each of the 9 Arctic Animals.

An activity I have been adding to all my units is a one page reading comprehension passage. It reads exactly as my “big” books and student readers do and includes 3 comprehension questions on the bottom for students to answer. All answers can be found within the text. You can have students color code the information they found to answer the question with the question in order to encourage students to make sure their answer is correct.

One of my favorite activities I include in my units is a labeling activity. Various options are provided to allow for differentiation within the classroom. A colored and black and white poster is provided to discuss the parts of each of the 9 different Arctic Animals as a whole group and to then display during your unit. 3 differentiated student labeling activities are also provided: one cut-and-paste activity, one fill-it-in using the word bank, and one fill-it-in with no word bank for each animal.

The biggest addition to this unit is the section dedicated to 9 different Arctic Animals. I know not everyone has time to study and learn about all 9. I wanted to include enough information for you to be able to pick and choose which types you wanted to take a closer look at.

For each of the 9 different Arctic Animals, there is a colorful 4 page “booklet” included. You can choose to print out the pages you wish to use or just display the pdf using your technology in your classroom. However you choose to use these colorful pages full of real life pictures is up to you as the classroom teacher. A fact book activity that correlates to the information provided for each animals is also included. Students will learn some fun facts, what the animals eat, how big they are, and where they live.

I also have Arctic Animal flip books that includes pages for each of the 9 different Arctic Animals discussed in my unit. You can check it out by clicking on the picture. It is a separate product.

Looking for more Arctic Animal resources? Check out my Arctic Animal Pinterest Board.

To find my unit in my store, you can click on any of the pictures in the post or you can find it by clicking HERE.

Need just a polar bear unit? Check mine out here or the post about it HERE.

Skating Into a New Year

I hope everyone had a very blessed Hanukkah and Christmas. It has been a spectacular time of the year and I have been so blessed. I continue to be amazed at all that God has blessed with me. :)

I have been enjoying my vacation from school very much and even got into the crafty spirit today and whipped up an activity for my kiddos to do when we come back from break.

We will be "skating” into the New Year in style and will be sporting our ice skates. We just got hit with a crazy snow storm today and it is expected to continue throughout the night with cold temps. Many of  my babies will probably be able to go ice skating over break.

This craft comes with several writing templates to usher in the New Year and also comes with winter writing templates as well. You can choose to do many different things with your skates which is what I love about this craft : )

I am in the mood to give this out to someone and would like to have a little contest. The first three people to guess who hosted the Christmas dinner I attended will get this craftivity for free. Please leave your email address. I do moderate my comments so you will not know what anyone before you has said

Have a fantastic night and good luck :)

WINNERS:  The Real Teachers of Orange County, Amanda Lawson, and Cecelia Bartram :) Congrats ladies. I hope you enjoy the craft. You should have an email waiting for you :)

Thanks to everyone who played along. If you did not win you can grab it in my store by clicking on the pictures above :)