February 2020

Happy February everyone!

Is it just me, or did January feel like the longest month ever!!!

With Valentine's Day around the corner, here are a few activities and centres set up in my class!

MAIL SORT

I cut up different sizes of "mail" for students to sort - small, medium, large.

VALENTINE'S DAY BOOKS

I photocopied the red title page heart and blank white hearts for students to make their own Valentine's Day books (and they can refer to the chart if they wish!)

COUNT THE ROOM

I have a lot of Write the Room packs that I use in my classroom weekly, so I wanted to try something new. I made this "Count the Room" pack with differentiated recording sheets.

VALENTINE'S DAY PATTERN CROWN

My students love anything to do with crowns so I tied in a patterning activity with the Valentine theme!

FINE MOTOR CARDS

Many of my students need to work on fine motor practice and they do so well using a dry erase marker. I created these themed cards with various lines for them to trace.

CANDY HEART BINGO

This is a sight word bingo game! Choose a card, say the sight word and cover it up on your card if you have it!

ROLL AND COVER

This game is simple to set up and play! I actually leave it out on the table top for students to work on independently (or in small groups) while I work with other students at the 'teacher table'.

You roll the die, find the number and cover it!

MONSTER MATCH

My students love games - and I love setting them up - especially if they can run themselves!

Here's another fun game - monster match. Find 2 monsters that match! But look closely!!! Some are very similar!

You can find all of these activities and more in my new "Let's Play! Valentine's Day" pack on TpT.

POST OFFICE

Each year around Valentine's Day I set up a Post Office in our Dramatic Center.

I added some new cards to the pack.

These are card greetings students can write on the blank cards included.

I just stuck them together on a ring but you could also post them nearby.

You can find everything you need to turn your Dramatic Centre into a Post Office HERE.

VALENTINE'S DAY SENSORY BIN

I filled the sensory bin with shredded red and pink construction paper (I just ran them through the shredding machine at school) and added jewels, small heart containers, and tweezers (all from Dollarama).

VALENTINE'S DAY CARD

I saw this adorable card on Make and Takes Pinterest page and loved it!

I had pre-cut hearts ready to go for my students as I thought cutting them all would be a little too challenging.

We showed them different lines they could draw onto their hearts.

Here are the templates that I used.

I photocopied them onto red, pink and purple construction paper.

Click below to download the heart templates for FREE.

VALENTINE RHYMING GAME

My students could always use extra practice with rhyming so I quickly made up this game.

I glued a picture on one half of the heart and the rhyming picture on the other. Every student gets half a heart and they have to walk around and find the matching picture!

You can download this game for FREE by clicking the picture below.

5 PRETTY VALENTINES

I have been singing this song for years around Valentine's Day. I wanted to make it a more interactive (and pretty!) and have students come up and choose a Valentine while we sang the song. You can download the poem and hearts to try in your class too!

CREATE A MATH GAME

I set out different math manipulatives (dice, cubes, numerals, etc.) and tins (muffin tins, wooden tray) and asked students to think of their own game to make up and play!

BOTTLE CAP SIGHT WORDS

I had so many bottle caps that I decided to write letters on them and have students read and build sight words and write them on the white boards as practice.

ARCTIC ANIMALS EXPLORATION

My students have really been interested in learning about Arctic Animals (you can read all about that inquiry HERE) so I set up this sensory bin activity.

PEG BOARDS

I love using peg boards in the classroom. I put this provocation out several times throughout the school year.

NUMERAL PRINTING

We have been focusing on printing numerals for the past few weeks so I prepped this quick numeral printing book.

You can find my Number Printing Book on TpT if you are interested.

ESTIMATION GAME

I set out this game last year and it was such a hit that we ended up playing it daily for a few weeks!

The children were excited when I brought it out again!

I set up a small jar with loose parts inside (erasers, jewels, coins, etc.) and this recording sheet. I also set up a 100's chart to help students find and write the number.

This was trickier than it looks! Can you guess how many?

You can download the estimation recording sheet by clicking the picture below.

PANCAKE TUESDAY POEM & GAME

I blogged about this a few years ago but I keep using this poem year after year on Pancake Tuesday (which is coming up this week!). As we say the poem, students are partnered up and they toss a beanbag (which we pretend is a pancake) to each other, trying to catch it.

You can download this poem {HERE}.

DECORATE A PANCAKE

I left out a bunch of loose parts and these pancake templates at the light table for students to explore making and decorating their own pancake! This was such a fun activity to celebrate Pancake Tuesday!

*I made the pancakes in 2 sizes and in both colour and black & white*

You can download this activity for FREE by clicking the picture below.

FLIP A PANCAKE

I made this game to help students identify and write sight words.

Using a spatula (because hey, that's the best part, right?) they flip over a pancake, read and write the word they found!

You can find the "Flip a Pancake" activity in my TpT store.

FILL THE BOARD

I've set out this activity before and it's always a hit! These Tetris-like pieces you see are called Pentominoes (these are from Learning Resources and I got them using my bonus points through Scholastic). Students are encouraged to fill the board (or baking sheet in this case) without leaving any spaces. It's a lot harder than it looks!