President's Day: Crafts and Activities

President's Day is just around the corner. We are getting ready to celebrate in patriotic fashion.  Here are some of the activities we are doing.

George Washington Cut a Sentence Craftivity

This is a fun twist on the traditional step book. Here's how you make it:

• Stair step 3 pieces of paper. Fold in half and staple at the top.
• Round of the edges to make the shoulders.
• We used patterns to make the face and hat.
• For the eyes, we rounded off squares.
• The hair is polyfill.

After making the books, the children added the sentences.

• Cut off one sentence.
• Cut between the words.
• Put the word with the capital letter first and the word with the period last.
• Manipulate the other words until the sentence makes sense.
• Find the picture to match the sentence.

Abe Lincoln's Cabin Craftivity

Sharing Cherries

There is a tale about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree. The kids love this fun activity to learn fair share.

• Roll the dice and count that many cherries.
• Share the cherries between the trees.
• Record the answer on the recording sheet.

President Day Numbers

This is a fun way to remember the numbers associated with president's day while learning to compose and decompose numbers.

• Give the children a number associated with president's day.
• Invite them to build the number on the 10's frames using Abe Lincoln and George Washington heads.
• Color the tens frames to match what they built.
• Write the numerals to represent the number. 

This is a great way to move from the conceptual level (building the tens frames), to the pictorial (coloring the tens frames), to the abstract (writing the numerals.

George Washington and

Abe Lincoln Story Problem

Here is another example of children developing understanding at the conceptual level.

• Reproduce a set of clip art animals.
• Invite the children to manipulate the animals to solve the equation.
• Once children are able to do this and explain the process, then they are ready to move to the pictorial level.
• However, it is okay for children to use numerals and symbols to REPRESENT their answer AFTER solving conceptually.

Making Washington Words

Ever give your children a "big" word and invite them to make little words? What happens? I know in my class one child would understand, and the rest just copied whatever he wrote. I knew there had to be a better way. Here's what I did:

• Give the children the letters in the big word.
• Give them a list of words.
• Invite the children to try and make the words.
• Mark on the recording page if they can make the word or not make the word.

Making President Words

OR... give them the letters to make the big word. Invite them to make words in a word family.

• Find the "e" and "t".
• Then, invite them to place each letter in from of "et". Does it make a new word? If so, write it on the recording page.
• Do this with several word families.

These activities are from the Hooray for President's Day unit.

Teaching Words with the Show and Tell Apron

As teachers we are constantly looking for a way to have engaging activities. The brain learns by pattern but seeks novelty! That means that we have to constantly change what we are doing so that their ever growing brains sit up and pays attention. I *might* just have a new novelty for you to add to your teaching tricks!

Ever met someone who made you smile all.the.time!?  I have...her name is Sandy.  She is the nicest, funniest person, EVER.  I met her in Vegas at the I Teach K conference when she gave me one of her precious Show and Tell Aprons. She also gave me some cards to build sight words in the pockets. I was doing a session on words so this was perfect. I wore the apron during my presentation and modeled making the words. Those teacher didn't walk, they ran, to her booth! They bought her out! She sold every single one!

What ways can you use the apron? Here are a few of my favorite ways.  Make a sight word in your apron. After discussing the word, cover each letter with a blank card. Invite the children to write the word on a dry erase board, in sand or with shaving cream.  Reveal your word one letter at a time. Invite the children to check their word to see if it matches the word in the pocket. IF not, discuss and cover the word again. Now, the children try the word again. Keep repeating the process until the children can write the entire word. This process trains the brain to look all the way through the word and not at just the first letter. 

Little did I know that there was so much you can do with the Show and Tell Apron. How fun at the beginning of the year to use the apron to make their names. Put the name of one of your kids in the pocket. Cover with blank cards. Reveal one card at a time to see if they can guess whose name is in the pocket! OR Mix the letters up. See if they can get them in the right order in the pockets.

Another way to use the Show and Tell Apron is to use the sight words and picture cards to build rebus sentences. Build a sentence like the one above. Invite the children to read the sentence. Now, place another picture card in front of the one in the pocket. Read the sentence again. Repeat, pattern reading builds prosody. Prosody is the natural rhythm that comes with good reading. It is essential for children to develop prosody if they are going to become fluent readers.
Want to read more about these aprons and how you can use them in your classroom? Hop over to my friend Deedee's blog and see how other teachers are using them.
http://mrswillskindergarten.com/learning-with-novelty/