Assembly Item: Grandparents Day

 

Assembly Item for Grandparents Day 

This is the cutest song! My little Kindy kids sang this for our Grandparents Day assembly item. 

It's easy to learn and put actions to, and melted the hearts of the audience.

See below for lyrics:

 

Maths: Magic Numbers Trick

 

 My student's love this! It works everytime!

HSIE: Pets

 

Pet Bingo

Kindergarten used these Pet Bingo boards I made as part of our Human Society and its Environment unit on 'Pets' (Living Things). I chose an animal and called out its characteristics, and by their powers of deduction, students were able to guess which animal I had selected.

Some questions included:

• I am covered in fur
• I can swim
• I have four legs
• I am cold-blooded
• I lay eggs

Maths: 3D Shapes in our Environment

 

3D Shapes in our Environment 

After discussing different shapes of objects in our environment, I have my students sort and classify them using this worksheet as an assessment task.

Students cut out the shapes and sort them according to their properties. It's helpful in allowing me to gauge their understanding of 3D shapes in a way that is meaningful to them.

Literacy: CVC's

 

CVC's

After learning all our single sounds, I introduced CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words when teaching Kindergarten.

These are some of the homework sheets I made for my students to consolidate their in-class learning.

Literacy: Paws Children's Book

 

My beautiful friend and colleague, Kathy Finikakos (AKA Mrs Mini Tacos!) has recently published her first children's novel: Paws! 

'Paws' is a wonderful story about a circus bear who is looking for his place in the world and finds that what he has been looking for, has always been in front of him. It has a beautiful message of belonging, family and love.

You can buy Kathy's book here. 

Buy it. Read it. You'll thank me.

Multiple Intelligences: Brain Breaks

These brain breaks cover a range of multiple intelligences and are so helpful in giving students some time-out from their students and an opportunity to re-focus.

When I notice my student's concentration on their work begin to waver, I select a quiet work to come and draw a stick from our 'Brain Breaks Bin', and the whole class is participates in a quick activity to help motivate them with their studies. 

The following are some ideas I have used, and below that is an elaboration of what each brain break activity entails:

1. Macarena: Students dance the Macarena for one minute.
2. O's and X's: we play noughts and crosses on the board using a grid to consolidate 'position' concepts.
3. 3x Table Star Jumps: Chant the 3x tables while jumping
4. 4x tables clapping: clap a beat whilst chanting the 4x tables.
5. Scissors, Paper, Rock: play with your neighbour.
6. Stretches: complete some stretching exercises led by teacher.
7. Shake the Sillies Out: dance to the Wiggles song "Shake Your Sillies Out".
8. Simon Says: play a game as directed by teacher or peer.
9. Star Jumps: jump as many times as you can in a minute.
10. 10x Tables Marching: march on the spot whilst chanting the 10x tables.
11. 5x Tables: chant 5x tables as a whole class.
12. Shuffle: Everybody shuffle to 'Party Rock Anthem'.
13. Follow The Leader: follow the leader around the classroom.
14. Stare Off: stare at your neighbour and see who cracks a smile first!
15. Mirrors: Facing your neighbour, copy each other's exact moves as if you are each other's reflection.
16. Charades: play a game of charades (see previous activity found here).
17. Hang Man: play a game of Hang Man on the board using a weekly spelling word.
18. Joke: have a student share their favourite joke with the class.
19. I'm Thinking of a Number: think of a number and have students guess by saying "higher" or "lower".
20. Silent Ball: throw a soft ball around between students silently.
21. Brain Gym: massage ears, march on the spot, and cross over centre of gravity.
22. Jogging on the Spot: jog as fast as you can while being timed.
23. Chicken Dance: dance for one minute to the Chicken Dance.
24. Deep Breathing: inhale and exhale deeply.
25. Tap Dance: students tap dance for a minute.
26. Paper Pick Up: quickly clean up the room!
27. Buzz: x Tables round-robin game. The student who incorrectly says the next multiple buzzes out.
28. Mexican Wave: perform the Mexican Wave from one end of the room to the other.
29. Dance Party: dance to a song request from a student.
30. High Five: high five five friends from around the room.
31. Grouping: teacher calls out a characteristic and students have to group accordingly. ie hair or eye colour
32. Animal Acting: students act like an animal as called out by their teacher.
33. Line Up: line up in height or age order.
34. Human Knot: all students hold the hand of someone else in a huddle and then have to untangle themselves.
35. Jump Skip Counting: skip count whilst jumping or swaying.
36. Freeze! students dance and then freeze on the spot when the music stops.

Thinking Skills: Scattegories

Everybody loves a challenging thinking game; here is a Scattegories game I made as a quick Brain Break to help strengthen students thinking skills. 

Each child is given a worksheet (above) and I flip an alphabet card to decide the letter focus. 

I use an hourglass to time the students. 

My students love this activity and it's able to be used across a range of grades. 

Science: Properties of Water

In our recent unit of work of water, we looked at the various forms of water: liquid, solid and gas.

To excite my students about the unit, we made coloured ice and iceblocks. 

To make the coloured ice, I added drops of food colouring to ice molds. I found making ice from cordial had a better effect. Adding the ice to water and watching it melt and make the water colourful was just as interesting for my little Year 2's.

Maths: Flower Patterns

 

How about this cute cupcake flower patterns as an integrated maths/visual arts activity? 

My Kindy kids made these when we were looking at repeating patterns. 

We used white glue and coloured paddlepop sticks for the stem pattern, and coloured patty-cake pans for the second pattern.

Charades

 

Charades

These charades activity cards can be printed off, laminated and used for small group dramatic activities or in literacy groups.

Display: Musical Backdrop

Stained Glass Window

This is a stained glass window backdrop I made for our school's musical production, Beauty and the Beast. 

To make, I photocopied a pattern onto an overhead projector which I then used to trace the image onto four large pieces of cardboard. Using a stanly knife, I cut out the background and then stuck coloured cellophane behind to create the stained glass look. 

It was very time consuming, but rewarding and effective. 

English: Sound Hunt

Sound Hunt

I make varying renditions of this 'Sound Hunt' as a Literacy Group activity. It's helpful for students in identifying phonograms within words.

Students search for the sounds in their book after reading it. I also change the grammar or spelling rule activity at the bottom to revise the week's focus.

Maths: Clock Arms

Here are some clock arms you can print off and laminate. They were made using Word. I used 'prefill' for the background rainbow colour.

I used sticky-back magnets to display them on my whiteboard. It's a bright, colourful reference that's proved very helpful in my class when we learn about clocks.

Drama: Puppets

Meet Kim, Tim and baby Jim. These are my puppets.We use them for story-telling and dramatic performances in class and for assembly items.

Puppets are an exciting and unique way to teach a lesson and students love using them as well. 

These puppets have also been helpful in giving shy students to confidence to present in front of an audience. I bought them in the States but I've seen them at Christian bookstores in Oz.