Butterfly Pattern Cards

We are currently learning about the butterfly life cycle and have also been learning about patterns in math.  I threw together a quick center activity to Make a Butterfly Pattern. 

Click on the pictures below to download if you'd like to use it :)

Secret Code Spelling

I've got a little Secret Code Spelling sheet here.  I have the students write each spelling word then draw the picture for each letter next to the word to make a code.  I use this as a Word Work center, but if you need a time filler - or something for your sub plans, this sheet could be put under the document camera and done whole group with the spelling list for the week.  For a variation, you can have the kids mix up their spelling words and write the code only, then give it to a classmate to "break the code".  Not matter how you do it, my students like this one:)  Click on the picture to go to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and download this for FREE.

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Children's Literacy Week - Dr. Seuss

We had a great time celebrating Children's Literacy Week this week!  One of the activities was a door-decorating contest and we were soooo excited to find out yesterday afternoon that we won!!!

For our door, we decided to go with an idea from Dr. Seuss's Book:  There's a Wocket in my Pocket. I printed "There's a ______________ in my pocket and his name is ______________." on blue construction paper (cut the construction paper to 8.5x11 and ran it through the printer in my classroom - works fine).   We looked back at the pictures in the book and got ideas of the kinds of characters we wanted to make to go in our pockets.  After drawing Seuss-like characters, we stuffed them by adding another piece of white paper and cutting around the character (so there would be two pieces cut - one page with the character and one blank page cut the same size).  We stapled all around the edges and stuffed crumbled up newspaper inside.  I put a dowel between the top sheet and bottom sheet - with several inches of the dowel inside to keep it sturdy, and stapled the dowel to the character.

We stapled the pockets together (one top sheet, one back sheet for the pockets) and put the characters inside the pockets so they could slide up and down, in and out of the pocket.  Here's my example (the only close-up photo I took of the pocket):

Next we made a class book called "There's a Frass in my Class".  Each student illustrated a different page that related to something in our classroom or at our school.  We used blends to make up words to rhyme with the items on each page.  For example, There's a Groffice in the office, There's a Spresk on my desk, There's a Slindow by the window, There's a Blod in the pod, There's a Trilchrist by Mrs. Gilchrist, etc...  I have a copy of the page for download below, but I printed each page separately because I changed the wording on the pages (for example "on the", "in the", "by the", etc.).  I used a font called Grinched which is free at http://www.dafont.com/ on the pockets and book.

Inside pages of book.  Click to download.
Note:  The fonts look wonky and out of place on Google Docs but they print out fine.

Inside of back cover.  Click to Download.
Note:  The fonts look wonky and out of place on Google Docs but they print out fine.



Print on blue pockets.  Click to Download.
Note:  The fonts look wonky and out of place on Google Docs but they print out fine.

Graphics are from Lettering Delights.

Absentee Folders

Now that the year is winding to an end, I finally figured out that I needed something to keep papers in for students that were absent - took me a while to figure that out! :)  I made a couple of Absentee Folders to put everything in the day students are absent so I can hand the folder to them the next day instead of hunting for everything they missed.  I printed the folder covers and inside labels, laminated them and ran them through the xyron to stick them on.  Pretty easy!  Click on the pages below to download - both covers and inside labels included.  There are two versions so far:

Graphics/Fonts/Alphabets are from Lettering Delights and Scrappin' Doodles

Read The Room Cards

Catching Bugs with Buggy Read the Room Cards

We use Treasures as our Reading series at school.  I've made "Read the Room" cards to coordinate with Unit 6 (the last unit) in our book.  Even if you don't use Treasures, this will still be useful for a "Read the Room" center.  Click on the pictures below to download each set.  There are about 24 cards (four pages) in each set.  Enjoy!  ***Edited to add:  I had to remove some of my sets of cards due to changes in the terms of use from a clip art site I was using.  I left the remaining sets up.

Unit 6 Week 1 - ow/ou Words - "Bugs"

Unit 6 Week 2 - oo Words - "Space"

Unit 6 Week 3 - oo Words - "Jobs"

Unit 6 Week 4- aw/au Words - "Baby Animals"

Unit 6 Week 5 - oy/oi Words - "Sand Castles"

Graphics/Fonts/Alphabets are from Lettering Delights and Scrappin' Doodles

Happy Teaching!

Scholastic Book Clubs Center

I saw an idea for this online but it was geared toward Intermediate grades.  I loved the idea so I decided to make one for my lovely first graders!  It's a center to use with the monthly Scholastic Book Club fliers.  After I made it, I thought it might to too wordy for my little angels - but I went over it and read each section prior to starting centers and they had absolutely NO PROBLEMS with it in all and they LOVED IT!!!!!  Hope I'll get some orders because I hardly every do :(.

I printed and laminated 5 of these and put them in a basket with the Scholastic Book Club Fliers.  It was fun to watch them have such a good time with this!

Happy Teaching!