Search results matching tag 'free'

Free Sequencing and Color Matching Cards for Pre K, K, and Grade 1

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 05:00:00 GMT

It's the 14th of the month again, time certainly flies! This is the freebie of the month from the Wise Owl Factory by Carolyn Wilhelm. I've just taken a class about how to make nice photo pins for Pinterest, and these are NOT examples of what I have learned. I wanted you to be sure to see what you are getting in the free printables today. It is such a quandary, and changes at Pinterest are causing me to rethink my pictures. I may need several classes. I've read some Pinterest books and can recognize a great pin, I am just not making them . . . yet.

First, I made some free sequencing cards which are important for learning how to retell stories. As a first grade teacher, I took many a running reading record on children. These assessments included the child having to retell the passage or little book used in the session. Children need practice in retelling the pertinent germane points of a story, in order, also as a life skill. We all know people who go on and don't get to the point!

Practice with sequencing will help meet this common core standard (CCSS) for Kindergarten:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.3 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

My picture should look something more like this, but I don't have the hang of beautiful pins at this point in time.

Next, I have some free color matching cards to help children notice color. This activity also helps with find motor skills. I used Montessori Tongs (as suggested by Living Montessori Now), in the picture.

Third, I have some free Little Bear writing prompts and rubrics for you, but this freebie is in the Early Education Emporium for the Pre K and K Sharing Blog. Did you realize we also have an online store? There are free and priced items in the store.

Fourth and finally, and ONLY available in the Early Education Emporium and no where else online at all, the COLOR PALETTE POWER game, a FREE 19 page printable. Children collect super kids point cards as they match the colors in this game. Or, the children could spell the name of the colors out loud as they learn color words. Pre K - early Grade 1

Thank you for reading, see you next month on the 14th!

Carolyn Wilhelm, Wise Owl Factory

MS Gifted Education, MA Curriculum and Instruction, and National Board Certified Teacher

Butterflies for the Littles!

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:13:00 GMT

What's more fun to do in the spring than butterflies? Nothing of course! It's so engaging and so full of opportunities for reading and writing that it really makes for a favorite unit amongst teachers and students!

If you have never done butterflies before than this is the post for you because I am going to share my experiences with our butterfly garden this year and at the very end there is a really fun giveaway!

Let's start by them arriving. If you use Insect Lore they will arrive in a white envelop and be wrapped in bubble wrap. We checked the mail for DAYS and when they finally came we were so excited! They looked dead when they arrived, but they were actually just dormant (which they go in and out of apparently.)

They come in a cup. Within the cup is everything they need and so there is no need to touch or open the cup. On the bottom is the food and on the lid is a piece of white paper. This white paper is where they will attach to when they become chrysalises. It's very nice that it's on paper because it makes transferring them to your garden super easy!

That's pretty much it. So we wait for 7-10 days. With us it took the full 10 this year! A caterpillar's job is to eat. He will eat, and eat, and eat just like the book says (except it eats caterpillar food.) Here is a picture of about 6 days. You can see just from the picture above they are getting fatter and fatter!

Once they are super fat they will make their way to the top of the cup. This is where they will become chrysalises. They will hang here for about 7-10 days again. This one was about 8 days for us this year. At this point you will want to take them off the lid of the cup and transfer them to the butterfly garden. You just take that white piece of paper and attach it to the lid of the garden. I like to use velcro with the sticky backs because I am afraid that tape won't hold the weight but Insect Lore suggests tape.

One might think watching chrysalises is boring but it can actually be very exciting. One of their defense mechanisms is to shake. Here is a little video I took of our chrysalises!

So 7-10 days later your butterflies hatch! It's very exciting! It can be a little messy though, don't be alarmed if there is blood that appears on your net as they open their wings. (You can see it on some of the floral print.) To care for your butterflies you can put in water and I like to put a piece of fruit or flowers. I like to put a plate at the bottom or a lit to put the water in. Something shallow for them be able to reach.

That's pretty much it! Literally anyone can do it because there is not a whole lot of touching things involved. (Last year I ordered the frog kit... read that you had to give them live crickets after the purchase. Needless to say I was happy they came dead (but a little sad for them and my own kinder who was looking forward to it.)

I made this Butterfly Lifecycle Interactive Learning Journal to go along with it. It takes the kids through the process with activities and then has a journal at the end to record what exactly is happening day by day. Click here to check it out.

I also made a fun freebie to go along with it for you. So download the preview for your Parts of a Butterfly activity!

And now for the Giveaway! I am going to giveaway one Insect Lore Butterfly Garden so you can do this with your little learners!

Please head on over to enter to win your very own Butterfly Garden! Click here!

Fill Your Baskets with Freebies from Freebielicious Authors

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:00:00 GMT

All my Freebielicious friends/authors are sharing some spring-y freebies with you today! Hop along our bunny trail and fill your baskets with lots of PK-1 fun for your students for this upcoming week.

I am not generally a fan of kids even talking about "bopping" anything on the head, but I love me some Little Bunny Foo Foo. So...I use Easter as an excuse to pull it out and have some fun with my kindergarten students. Here is how our Friday Fun morning went with my BFFs students and mine:

First, Mrs. S and I performed our very best rendition of Little Bunny Foo Foo. The children were in awe as Mrs. S stole the show with her stellar performance as the Good Fairy. Dressed in her very best Good Fairy garb, she wasn't going to let the little bunny get away with anything! When she turned me (the naughty bunny--he he!) into a "goon", one of our sweeties said, "Okay, now turn him back into a bunny." I love how they get so into us pretending, that they actually forget we are pretending.
I switched out the bunny for a duck (our best goon stand in) as we moved into our reading of one of my all-time favorite spring read alouds Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

Is it a duck or a rabbit? Depends on how you look at it. This book is filled with humor as well as a subtle lesson for kids who don't know when to let go of an argument. So, in our everyday kindergarten-teacher fashion, Mrs. S and I "argued" (read the book) our parts. I say it's a duck, she says its a rabbit, and, in the end, we agree to disagree. It is such a fun book, written from a very unique perspective.

After our reading, we made the bunny/duck puppets with our students. They find this project magical in a sense because one side is a duck and the other is a rabbit and both have a cute, rhyming poem that tells the reader to turn it over to see the other animal. It is a perfect complementary activity with this book:

I am sharing with you, my readers, a miniature version of this puppet for your students (found further down this blog post) to enjoy along with the Duck! Rabbit! story and then, of course, we did some follow up writing. The students had to "argue" whether they thought it was a duck or a rabbit by writing a descriptive writing piece and attaching the corresponding animal to the top of their writing. Of course, many waivered back and forth (because it truly depends on how you look at it!) throughout the entire process. One even had his all written about a rabbit and then erased it all and changed his writing piece to be about a duck. It is really funny listening to them as they process through the "arguments". Here are a couple of examples:

Here is the free miniature version of the duck/rabbit "reversible" puppet with poems imprinted on the animals. Just have students color, cut and glue the 2 animals together and while gluing a popsicle stick between them.

Are you nervous about targeting the 3 types of writing required to be taught by Common Core Standards? This book is perfect to target any of the 3 areas. Use this book to encourage students to write their "argument" as to why it is a duck or why it is a rabbit.

Click on this picture for more info about my ready to go kit for implementation tomorrow.

Now head over to my fellow Freebielicious author Michelle's blog, Apples and ABCs and check out her incredible FREEBIE! Have fun hoppin' and fillin' up your baskets!

Be sure to follow Mrs. Miner's Kindergarten Monkey Business or LIKE it on Facebook (both available in left sidebar) so you never miss another FREEBIE or informative article.

The Incredible Shrinking Hats and a St. Patrick's Day FREE Directed Drawing Freebie

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 02:21:00 GMT

I love St. Patrick's Day! I can't even tell you exactly what the entire premise of the holiday is (is that bad?), but I love the whole tricky leprechaun theme (and all things rainbow and gold, of course). I've done all of the fun activities that you hear everyone talking about like messing up the room, putting green food coloring in the toilet and making traps. But, I don't do those things anymore- I haven't done any of it since I came acrossed the shrinking hat activity and now THAT is how we celebrate the leprechauns in kindergarten! It is such a fun and memorable activity, that is truly all you need to have a little fun with your itty bitties (or children of any age for that matter). It is one of those activities that I am just so excited to share with my students, as well as my own children, year after year. It never seems to lose its magical appeal.

Of course, before we begin, I really talk up the "legend" (I totally make it up year after year--but it so makes the project all that more fun!). You, too, can make it up or I do have it available in my Lucky Leprechaun Activity Kit (with all of the materials you need for this project along with activities to follow up with the next day).

Here are the directions so you can celebrate the holiday and rev up your student's imagination without making a disaster of your classroom:
Materials:
*styrofoam hot/cold beverage cups
*permanent markers (I prefer to just give "Irish"-like colors- yellow, black, green and orange)

When you bring the tiny little hats back to school, I recommend putting gold coins and other "booty" in and around each child's hat. Leave a letter (written by you from Lucky or printed from my kit) for the children. Be sure to use an Irish dialect in the letter since it is from a wee leprechaun!

Lucky always leaves us a secret message hung all over the room that the children need to decode (also included in the kit) and it is so much fun. It is also fun to take pictures of the kiddos with their hats on and do a writing piece about the experience. The students NEVER forget this activity...it really is quite amazing how cups are turned into an actual miniature hat by those sneaky leprechauns (even though I know it is science, I prefer to continue to view it as magic as I watch cups turn into tiny hats !

How about a directed drawing freebie to teach your students (or learn for yourself) how to draw shamrocks?

Click below for a fun-filled linky party hosted by my friend Mary at Sharing Kindergarten where you'll find many more fun and exciting St. Patrick's Day activities for your class!

Click here to purchase this project kit that has everything
you need to implement this activity in your room
-EASY SCHMEASY for only $5.00!

Operation Peeps!

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:52:00 GMT

Friends~It is Operation Peep Time! Every spring just before Spring Break my kiddos adopt Marshmallow Peeps. We create Peep houses, weigh, measure, read to, play tic tac peep, and so much more. It is a fun filled day of learning that my 2nd graders NEVER forget.

It takes some planning but it is so worth it. I start by asking parents for donations of Marshmallow Peeps, Easter grass and large plastic Easter Eggs. I add a Peep to each egg and put them in a large nest made of bulletin board paper and Easter grass.

The hospital in my home town does something special every time a baby is born. They put a chime sound over the speakers so everyone knows a baby has been born. I do the same thing in class. I pre recorded bell sounds for my students. So every time a bell rings another Peep is Adopted! It is so adorable!

Click the image below to download a FREE poster to use with your adoption!

If you are wanting more check out my It's a Peep Thing unit! It is everything you will need to adopt PEEPS in your classroom!

Be sure to hop over to check out MarshmallowPeeps.com!

Be sure to go to the tour tab and click Factory Tour. The site walks you through the process of making

PEEPS!

Free Calendar Numbers

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 06:35:00 GMT

Free Full Year of Calendar Numbers and Headers

for the 14th of the month freebie for Pre K and K Sharing

from the Wise Owl Factory

It is the 14th of the month again, so here is your freebie from Wise Owl Factory just for the Pre K and K Sharing blog. This month, I was reading the GATHERING: A NORTHWOODS COUNTING BOOK by Betsy Bowen. I decide a whole year of calendar pieces all at once would be a better help for teachers who have downloaded my other calendar pieces a month or two at a time. free-calendar-numbers-entire-year-88-pgs

We are living in Northern Minnesota, Grand Marais to be exact, and winter seems so long here. This book was written by Betsy Bowen who also lives near Grand Marais, and she wrote and illustrated this story that begins in May and ends in December. The page after December mentions counting the days until spring, and we certainly do! The book is full of her warm memories of good times in the woods with family and friends, beginning with the number zero. Zero for a temperature of zero which is frequent during winter. Three is for summer memories collected during the short summer months to help make it through the cold winter.

Nine is for the nine extension cords her family would lay end to end, to reach all the way from the house down the path to the engine heater in the truck. The extension cords would also allow them to hang Christmas lights from the trees along the way, so they knew where to walk during the dark days of winter. Twelve is for twelve inches of snow, and there is at least that much here now with another snow storm approaching tonight.

Discussions of time reach higher level thinking skills with children, who one day realize that looking back at fun things that happened, seems shorter than looking forward to events (such as their own birthdays). Anticipating something good that will happen in a few weeks or months can seem like forever, just like waiting for spring in the northwoods. Calendar activities are very important during the preschool through primary grades as children are beginning to build understanding of the concepts of time.

Common Core standards addressed during calendar time each day can include:
Counting and Cardinality
• Know number names and the count sequence.

2. Count forward beginning from a given number within the known
sequence (instead of having to begin at 1), as we often count "how many more days until . . . "

b. Understand that the last number name said tells the number of
objects counted. We often turn over only the number of days so far elapsed in the month, turning over one more each class day.
Operations and Algebraic Thinking
5. Fluently add and subtract within 5. We are often in school for five day weeks, and children become expert at knowing how many days are left in the week before the weekend starts.

The headers in this printable can be cut and arranged to make a full topper for your calendar display.

I have included the AB, ABC, and ABBC patterns because we are so used to using them, but I realize such patterning is no longer a standard. However, the focus can then be on the shapes or colors included in these calendar pieces. Many math problems can be based on calendar activities, depending on which calendar program the school follows.

I hope you enjoy the freebie! I highly recommend Betsy Bowen's book, THE GATHERING, for children learning about months of the year and how to count.
Carolyn Wilhelm
Wise Owl Factory

Valentine's Day Freebies-Better Late than Never

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 04:14:00 GMT

Yes, I know Valentine's day is tomorrow, but I also know that some of you are still planning your activities for tomorrow. Here are two that are simple to do. One first is a bunch of random sized hearts with a line drawn across. Students measure the width of the heart using linker cubes and linking chains, the record their answers

The second activitiy is cute being that it is in these little heart boxes, but you could just use an envelope or ziplock baggie. I have some easy to read sight word sentences cut up and the kids take one, build it and then write it on their recording sheet. Click the picture above to download this freebie.

Exchanging Positive Comments with Classmates on Valentine's Day

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:54:00 GMT

I love Valentine's Day!

Along with Valentine's Day comes the exchanging of little "love tokens" ("love tokens" especially in middle school...) between those who "like" each other, have boyfriends/girlfriends, crushes, admirers, etc. But, we also know plenty of people (children, teens, adults too) who like to receive sweet little notes on this fun day! (Cupid does not absolutely have to be involved, right?) Sending a sweet note, positive comment, or smile someone's way is a great idea for the students (teachers too ;) ha!)

That's why I ended up making this resource to encourage my students to exchange little notes with positive comments to each classmate--there's something positive in all of us and those positives should be acknowledged. It's a way to lift spirits, put a smile on a face, or just to let someone know you've "noticed" something good in him/her.

So, why not have your students do the same. It's an inexpensive way to exchange "valentines" or "kind thoughts" on Valentine's Day! Grab the free resource in my TpT store!

I'd love to hear your ideas for encouraging and promoting a positive environment in your classroom--for Valentine's Day as well as any other normal day at school!

We can all use these kinds of tips/ideas to boost the morale and warmth surrounding us each day at school.

Happy Valentine's Day! (early..)

Bubbly Valentines {Freebie!}

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 17:30:00 GMT

Around Christmas time, (or it could have been after - it's all kind of a blur you know) I picked up these cute little bubbles at Michaels. They came in an 18 pack for $2.50 and I knew they would be perfect for some little student gift or another.

Well... I've found the perfect use for them. Valentines! (What 6, okay, maybe 7, year old really needs more candy after Halloween, Christmas, and Valentines all packed into 4 months?)

So I whipped up some bubbly little cards and went about assembling my valentines. I didn't have any cardstock on hand so I glued them to colored paper, but that is certainly not necessary. Feel free to pin or download the template here. (Please follow my blog if you do). You could use them with wedding bubbles (also found at craft stores) little bubble jars (found at the dollar store) or even bubble gum!

I've been so excited to share these, I just had to link up! I've joined Teresa's linky party over at Fun in K/1, DoodleBugs Five for Friday, and Mrs. Lilypad's Little's Valentine Linky Party! Go check them out and link up!

On Friday my kiddos starting making an adorable valentines craft for their parents, but we had to leave it in-the-works, so stop back soon to see it. It's so cute and so easy you don't want to miss it!

(I also recently posted free February scrambled sentences - check out this post if you want to download those.)

What do you do with your kids for Valentines?

Do you have a blog post about Valentines? I want to see it! Leave me a comment and a link to it!

Snap Cube and Lego Centers!

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:08:00 GMT

It's so hard to find good, engaging centers to keep the kids moving and working! So I wanted to share with you some fun centers I created that involve developmentally appropriate practice and the academic rigor your administrators require!

Snap Cube Centers

These are fun centers using those snap cubes that sit in a bin in the corner of your room! You know... those blocks that every time they get brought out get turned into snap cube guns.. I HATE that sound - kids playing guns!

So how it works is the kids get a card with an image on it. They have to count how many blocks it took to make the pieces to those images to recreate it. You are given several recording options for the kids to be held accountable! I have them in all sorts of topics - sight words, letters, numbers, and even a monthly set with themes to make what's going on!

Here is a little freebie for you to try them out!

Lego Centers

Now that we have those snap cubes working let's get the Lego's out! These fun and engaging centers get kids creating sight words with Legos and counting how many it took to make them. They can even record the colors they used if you give them their own print out of the word.

These are done to scale and you have two options to differentiate for the time of year or for students.

These are currently only available in PrePrimer and Primer lists! So not as many options but SUPER fun! I get lots of comments that the boys will love them BUT my entire class really loves going to the Lego center!

What centers do you love? I have found that I put the MOST work into prepping and planning my centers each week! Am I alone here?