February Games and Activites and a FREE Game!

I like February for so many reasons.  It's the time of year that you really start to see the fruits of your labor--not just academically but also socially. The kids have developed deeper relationships with each other, they have learned to depend on each other, and developed a few friendships that will take them into adulthood. (It's also the time when you are tired of cold weather, flu, and being inside, but trying to stay positive! haha)
Here are some of the fun activities we do during February to celebrate Valentines Day!

Heart Measurement

This is a fun craftivity for teaching measurement! After making the paper doll, the children use various items to measure "how much I  love you."

Want to use fewer pieces? Just make the arms shorter or make the measuring items larger. Instead of using pennies, just quarters!

Segmenting CVC Words

This is a fun activity to bridge from phonemic awareness to phonics. First, I gathered a small group of kids at the table. I gave them each one of the cards with the 3 heart animals and 3 hearts.  To play, I show them a picture. The children segment the phonemes and push one of the hearts onto the game board to represent each phoneme. To move the idea to phonics, give the children a little book. Invite them to glue a picture into the book. As they segment the sounds, the write the letters to represent each sound.

Making CVC Words

This is another fun way to build cvc words. Give the children 3 circles, a dice, the game board, and a recording sheet. Invite the children to roll the dice. Take one of the circles and move it up the first column of letters that many spaces.  Repeat for all three columns. Now, write the 3 letters on the recording sheet. Read the word.

Sorting Stamps

To play this game, I found this fun stamp clip art. You could also use real stamps. Give each child around 15 stamps. Invite them to think of different ways they can sort the stamps.  It is better to give them fewer stamps and encourage them to think of many ways to sort.

Comparing Names

To play this activity, give each child a booklet like the one above. Invite the kids to write their name in the first row of boxes.

Now, they ask another child to write their name in the second row of boxes.  Circle whether the name is longer, shorter, or the same length as your name. They loved being able to walk around the room!

Racing Hearts

To play this game, the kids need 3 heart game pieces, a game board, and a dice. Each child needs their own game, it is not a partner game.  The child rolls the dice. Now, they move the hearts that many squares. They can move one heart all of the moves, or they can split the moves between the hearts.

These ideas are from the Valentines Math and Literacy Activities Unit.

Nonfiction Guided Reading

We love our Nonfiction Guided Readers! The kids are killing it! Notice how we printed in black and white! Photographs are beautiful either way! You can read how to print them as a booklet for easy assembly in this blog post.

Various Levels of Text

To make the book, I created text at 3 different levels.  Each level has the same photographs and uses the same nonfiction features. We use these books for strategy lessons.  This means, we aren't working on decoding, etc. I'm not concerned about a perfect fit. I just don't want it to be too hard! We are teaching our kids how readers use nonfiction features to gain information!

Nonfiction Features

After reading the book, the kids have an opportunity to apply the new nonfiction feature. In this case, the kids are learning how to use a table of contents. They cut the pages to make a little book. Staple. Then, they number the pages and create a table of contents.

Word Work

We also use content from the books to practice some form of word work. Here the kids are taking the letters in valentines to build different word family words. First, they find the letters to make the chunk. Then, they use the remaining letters to see if they make a new word by placing it in front of the chunk.

Writing

We also use writing as a way to practice the nonfiction features. Here the kids are writing text using questions!

Guided Reading Text

Each of our Monthly Guided Reading Units has 5 titles. The February Guided Reading Unit has three books to use around Valentines, a President's Day Book, and a Groundhogs Book.

Who Has More

This is a fun game to use during math centers.  To play, make a deck of cards and a game board. The game board needs a more and less spinner, and a square for more and a square for less. To play, each child turns over a card. They compare for more and less and place the card on the game board.  The child with "less" spins the spinner. If it lands on more, the child with more gets both cards. If it lands on less, the child with less gets both cards.

Measure Me

The kids love playing this game. One child lays down. The other child uses the mail trucks to measure the length of his body.  On the recording page, they record how many it took. Then, they trade places!

Roll Count Compare

The kids love this game! To play you need a game board, unifix cubes, a dice, and a board with a more and less spinner, and boxes for more and less.  The first child rolls the dice and counts out that many unifix cubes (all one color). Then he places the cubes on any squares on the game board.  The second child rolls the dice and counts out that many unifix cubes (a different color than his partner). Put them on the game board. The children continue taking turns until the game board is full. Now they can each collect their own cubes and compare for more and less. Spin to see who wins!

These ideas are from the Valentine's Math Game Pack. 

 

You can grab this fun Roll, Say Keep game as a freebee below! To play, make a game board with 6 squares. Put a dice face in each square.  Make a set of cards. I made 3 sets--numerals, letters, and sight words.  Select a set of cards and place them on the left side of the game board.  Put 6 of the cards on the game board.  Invite the children to roll the dice.  Look at the game board and find the dice face that matches the dice.  The child "reads" the card in the square. If they can read the card, they remove it from the game board and place it on the right side of the board.  Add another card into the blank space. Continue until all of the cards are moved to the right side of the game board.