Pets Information Report

Kindergarten students love learning about pets! It is a fun and engaging theme that is perfect for the first year at school - connecting home to school learning or possibly class community with a class pet! Students can learn about needs and wants through discovering how we take care of pets.

We have a growing collection of pet resources in our store and here on the blog.

Here is a worksheet,  perfect for helping kindergarten students attempt independent writing with a pets theme: My Pet Writing Page

You can use it to introduce report writing.

• read some pet books
• talk about pets
• ask students to join with you in collaborative report writing of a pet
• choose a pet with your students
• brainstorm some information
• show them the scaffold
• model how to retrieve information from your brainstorm and complete the sentences
• point and read several times
• use the collaborative text over the coming days for modelled and shared reading
• encourage students to write their own

If you like the support these writing template pages offer, you may like to see other packs in our store:

Have fun with our pet writing page! 

More Mother's Day

I would love to share some of our favorite read-alouds for Mother's Day with you. What Mother's Day books do you read in your classroom? Does your school celebrate with the mothers?

Selecting a book that is appropriate for you class and the family dynamics of your community should be a consideration.

Here are some Amazon links (we are an affiliate so may receive a small commission from Amazon if you click on these) for our favorite reads:

1. The Mommy Book 
2. Love Your Forever
3. Five Minutes Peace
4. Koala Lou
5. Clifford's Mother's Day
6. My Grandma is Wonderful

I've made a sweet project for your little learners to make for their mothers this Mother's Day. They will draw some flowers to complete the picture and sign their name before presenting it to their special person on Mother's Day.

It is easily accessed over in our Coloring Club if you would like to join. Find out more about joining HERE

Marvellous Mother's Day

It is marvellous being a mum! I have the sweetest little baby boy to spend my days with at the moment. He is just about 8 weeks old, and I am constantly amazed at how well he is doing. He looked up at me at 3am the other day, mid feed, and said "ga...goo" - such a moment! Today he was hanging out on his little soft mat, took a big sigh, and then closed his eyes....he is still fast asleep. It truly is a blessing to be a mum. My little girl, who is now 5, is also amazing - she has been helping me out, and being "mum #2" to our bub. I am one lucky girl!

I purchased a copy of "My Marvellous Mum" by Susannah McFarlane yesterday, to read to my little lovelies as we near Mother's Day. It is part of the "Little Mates" series by Scholastic. Each title features an Australian animal and focuses on a different letter of the alphabet.

My Marvellous Mum has lots of "m" words. Great for my daughter, who is constantly asking me how to write 'm' at the moment - when she is sounding out words - 'is it two jumps or one jump, mum?' she always asks. A week or two of working on lots of 'm' activities and writing should help! My Marvellous Mum has Matilda and Max, a koala and possum who are at the beach. They talk about all the reasons why their mums are marvellous. Then they decide to make something 'memorable' for their mums for Mother's Day - a mouth watering mud cake and a modern masterpiece (a painting). The illustrations by Lachlan Creagh are just divine!

I have spent today playing with my two little lovelies, and also working on this packet of resources to accompany work in the classroom for Mother's Day. You could use the activities on their own, or team them up with a reading of My Marvellous Mum or other stories about koalas, such as Mem Fox's Koala Lou.

click HERE to find my resources on TeachersPayTeachers

Here is how the writing and craftivity looks when finished. I have included spellings for both 'Mum' and 'Mom'.

My Australian friends might want to purcahse a copy of this wonderful book - I got my copy yesterday at KMart for $12. It is much bigger than the little ones that are sold through the Scholastic School Book Clubs.

Little Houses

I was experimenting with shapes and effects in my graphics programs today and created some little houses in the process. I put them together on a Sound Street to help learn alphabetical order.

Print these activity cards and laminate them - students can then use whiteboard (dry erase) markers to trace - a resource that you can use again and again!

Little learners can fill in the missing letters on each card.

Each card has 7 houses with a single letter in each. A variety of starting postions are included, so students learn alphabetical order from various starting positions. A set of streets with full letters are included to provide for student self-checking if needed or use as a display.

Included:

• lower case cards
• upper case cards
• blank cards plain (+ editable slide version - type your own letters)
• blank cards with guidelines (+ editable slide version - type your own letters)

On the blank card you can have students copy a street of letters!

Find these printable cards over in our store today!

Story Spinner

This Story Spinner is a great activity to do with your  students. It helps with oral language, listening, telling and creating stories. It is perfect to do when you have a few minutes left at the end of your lesson or in a transition time.

Print the story spinner (on card if possible), laminate it and attach a spinner (or use with pencil and paper clip).

• tell your students they will use the spinner to help tell a story.
• spin the spinner, and start the story for your students using the picture it lands on - e.g. The brown horse was walking down to the pond. 
• A student then takes a turn, and spins the spinner, using the picture it lands on to add to the story. The sun was very hot and so the horse was very thirsty.
• encourage lots of ideas and model how to edit and link ideas as necessary 
• keep the oral story telling short and engaging - keep the momentum and fun going so students become motivated to tell stories

Another good challenge is to ask your students the following day, to recall the story that was told! 

This activity is also great using spinners that contain pictures from familiar fairy tales - be sure to keep a look out in my TpT store - I think I will make some :)

Find this spinner in Google Drive: Sample Story Spinner

2021 Update

We now have a full pack of Story Spinners. Find them in our store:

Rainbow Addition to 100

Do you need a fun but practical way to prep a rigorous addition lesson for your first and second graders? This is it! Just one page, add some dice and you are all set.

Your students will absolutely love playing with dice and adding to they reach 100 in our addition game - Rainbow Race!

• print the color or blackline game board
• play with 6 standard dice
• can be played independently or as an exciting small group game
• play with a pencil or laminate to use with a dry erase marker

Each student starts with 6 dice and the players race one another to be the first to get to 100. They can draw the dots on the dice pictures to help them add. Encourage them to look for pairs of dice that are easy to total first as a strategy for addition. Maybe there are some doubles? Near doubles?

Students will also need to record their cumulative total to try to reach 100!

 We've included a blackline game mat too so you can print and play with ease.

Find this new printable over in our TpT store today!

How does your seed grow?

Do your students love learning about how plants grow? I love to do this little experiment with them using plastic cups, cotton balls and bean seeds.

The clear plastic makes it easy for students to see the progress of their little plant. Growing them on cotton balls makes it easy for your students to examine the roots as they grow. They will enjoy transferring their plant into the school garden once it has grown a bit.

I have just listed this 'Seed to Plant" observation log on TpT to use with a science activity like this. Each day the students will draw and/or write about what they see in their plastic cup!

Click HERE to find it



 

Eggs-actly! Fab Friday Freebie!

This printable game or center will be perfect for your Easter themed activities, but can also be used all through the year. Click HERE to find it at TpT!

It will help your students understand 2 digit numbers, place value, and addition with 2 digit numbers.

To make this activity - you will need to print out the sheet of numbers and attach them to the inside of an egg carton. If you have children will egg allergies in your classroom - find a decorative egg carton at your dollar shop, or a plastic one that has contained chocolate eggs for Easter. The plastic ones can be easily cleaned. When playing the game, your students will put two counters into the egg carton, replace the lid, and shake the carton. The student will use the numbers the counters land on to play their turn.

I have included a worksheet if you would like your students to record the steps they take in the game. This was not in my original resource, as at times it is good to just let your students engage in the activity without having to be concerned about recording their findings. Perhaps you could let them have a few turns of the game without the worksheet and then encourage them to fill it out on their last turn.

Rabbit or Ribbit?

Are you reading some books for spring or Easter that have rabbits and frogs as characters? We have a few on our home library shelf and today I made a word sort and craft that can be used to accompany a shared reading of them - or independently as a stand alone word-work activity.

Two books I have recently read to my daughter here at home are:

• The Easter Ribbit by Bernice Chardiet, and
• Ribbit Rabbit by Candice Ryan

While reading Ribbit, Rabbit encourage your students to notice the short-a and short-i words on each page. Jot them down as you read - on 2 charts or mini whiteboards. After reading you can highlight the short vowels and ask your students to read them with you. Did they notice that frog liked short i words and bunny seemed to prefer short a words? Ask your students to tell you some more and record them on a class chart or board.

We have a practical cut-and-paste craft over in our TpT store to encourage your students to distinguish between the ip and ap word families. They are mostly cvc words with a few blends included for extension. Your little ones can read the words, sort them and glue them on their page before topping it with Ribbit and Rabbit! 

All the pieces are easy-cut for early scissor skills!