Teaching Students To Love School
School must be so much more than worksheets and assessments, it must be an opportunity for students to flourish and grow in many areas. A place to become empowered to take risks, fail often, and try again.
Education has become a race of sorts. We watch children closely to see who will read first, who will solve the most complicated sum, or who will write the most perfectly punctuated story. But, as we early childhood educators know, it's like assessing children for their first word or their first step. These things happen when the particular child is developmentally ready, and comparing children to each other in their milestones only puts stress on children and the adults who love them. All children have different interests, have different needs, and excel at different things. Children learn at their own pace and develop at their own levels. It is up to us as teachers and parents to provide a rich amount of experiences and opportunities.
Honestly, when the signups come for summer workbooks from the office, I quickly throw them away. I don't want to be part of the worksheet problem. Rather, I spend the year advancing the arts and sciences in my classroom as a tool for exploration and learning. One of my favorite end of the year activities to launch my students into summer is reading Bridget's Beret. This beautiful story encourages creativity and is a great way to encourage children to spend summer free time in creative pursuits, rather than worksheets.
The video below is a great reminder to encourage children to be the highly creative, beautiful, soulful beings they were born to become.
My hope is that all classrooms will be thought of as think-tanks. A place for joyful consideration where everyone is celebrated for their own accomplishments. A place where standardized assessment scores are not the driving force for academic placement. Where academic excellence is obtained by a high level of thematic and cross-curricular teaching.
I have found that by teaching thematically I can allow learners to explore, create, and discover at their own levels. I can integrate across subjects, meeting academic goals for the year in a fun and personalized way for children. If you would like to try teaching thematically, we have a few units to help you get started.
Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Product Description
This thematic unit, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, is strategically linked to academic Core Standards. It is divided into areas of literature, music, art, literacy, math, worksheets, science, creative writing, word wall, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation.
Table of Contents:
Shared Reading Activities
Mother Goose Rhymes: Saying or Singing Nursery Rhymes
Nursery Rhymes: Sequencing Nursery Rhymes
Hey Diddle Diddle Pocket Chart Activity
Literacy Activities
Mother Goose Mix-up: Building Working Memory
Humpty Dumpty Rhymes: Matching Rhymes
Blind Mice Chase: Identifying Letters
Mary Goes To School: Using Preposition Words
Mary's Letters: Tracing Letters A-Z
Little Lost Lambs: Hunting For Alphabet Letters
Math Activities
Little Bo Peep's Sheep: Counting Objects to Match Numbers
Under The Haystack: Identifying Shapes
Nursery Rhyme Patterns: Naming and Creating Patterns
Hey Diddle Diddle Numbers: Identifying Number Names
Nursery Rhyme Puzzles: Developing Spatial Reasoning Skills
Fetch The Pail: Counting & Writing Numbers
Songs/Fingerplays
Humpty Dumpty
Jack Be Nimble
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Little Bo Peep
Little Boy Blue
Jack and Jill
Little Miss Muffet
The Fly and The Bumblebee
Art Projects
Mary's Schoolhouse: Construction Project
Mary's School Portfolio Sample
Humpty Dumpty on a Wall
Writing
Hey Diddle Diddle Prewriting Practice
My Favorite Nursery Rhyme
Science
Insects & Spiders: Making Comparisons
Guided Reading Books
Mother Goose Land
Class Made Books
Mother Goose Rhymes
© Kathy Crane
Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Description
Alphabet Activities Themed Unit Newly Updated.
Back to School with an introduction of the alphabet surrounded with a fair-time theme, is fun and engaging. This Introduction to the alphabet thematic unit is packed with fun and engaging activities that are strategically linked to Core Standards. Please checkout the preview to see the great value this packet awards!
Students show interest in the alphabet and have the innate desire to read! Start your school year off with the theme Alphabet Fair. Just like the traditional county fair where locals show off unique talents and personalities, this thematic event will give the alphabet letters a chance to show off!
Or have a full-fledged Alphabet Fair with your own child or homeschool students!
"Absolutely love the song and chant charts! One of my favorite parts of *all* of the Kindergarten Kiosk resources is the page at the beginning which beautifully outlines the unit, while providing space for individual teacher's additions."
Here is What is Included *All Lessons are Strategically Linked to Standards
Literacy Activities
A Ticket To Ride: Identifying uppercase letters
Monster Madness: Matching uppercase letters
Ferris Wheel Whirl: Identifying uppercase and lowercase letters
Cotton Candy Letters: Matching uppercase letters
Waterpaint the letters from A-Z
Alphabet Train: Trace the Letters A-Z
Find The Duck: Cut, match and glue alphabet letters
Draw a path and name letters while visiting the Animal Barn
Math Activities:
Sorting Letters: Sorting alphabet letters by attributes
Letter Graphing: Graphing alphabet letters
Writing
Writing Prompts (Two Choices)
What I Know About the ABC's
Guided Reading Books
The ABC Song
Art Projects
Letter Collage
Letter Painting
Name Necklace
Song Charts
The Alphabet Fair
The Alphabet Song
Boom Chicka Boom
The Alphabet Chant
© Kindergarten Kiosk
Related Back to School Products
Back to School Themed Writing Activities
Back to School Sight Word Readers
Back to School Student Information Forms FREE
Chrysanthemum Names Thematic Unit
Follow For Updates and Freebies!
Be alerted as products are updated and/or added to. Get Special Freebies.
Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Product Description
This Insect thematic unit is strategically linked to academic core standards. It is divided into areas of literature, media, music, art, literacy activities, math activities, worksheets, science activities, creative writing, word wall words, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation. Studying insects has never been so much fun.
Literacy Activities:
Fly Away Fly: Letter Identification
Fly Away Words: Sight Word Recognition
Buggy Bug Match: Sight Word (or Alphabet) Match
Bug Rhymes: Matching Rhymes
Ladybug Spots: Recognizing Words in Speech.
Letters Buzzing In My Name: Recognizing/Writing Letters In Names
Independent Activities
Trace & Write Letters A-Z
Math Activities:
Catching Insects: Sorting
My Bug Collection: Addition
Bug-a-Boo: Geometric Shapes
Construct a Bug: Exploring Probability.
Bugs Count: Developing Number Sense
Science Activities
Creating an Insect Zoo
Insect Memory: Matching Identical Insects.
Insect Observation: Observing Features
Insect Magnification:Using Scientific Tools
Independent Activities
Insect Body Parts
Songs/Fingerplays
Freddy Flea
The Firefly & Other Insects
The Bees
Guided Reading Books
The Insects- Level A
The Insects- Level C
Little Ladybugs
Writing Prompts/Word Wall
Our Insect Zoo
All About Lady Bugs
Insect Word Wall Words
Art Projects
Ladybug Ladybug
My Insect
Baby Bumblebee
Paint a Bug
