Tag Archives : end of the year


Canada Themed No-Prep Printables for Literacy Review (and kids’ thoughts on Canada Day)

Blog Post - Fun, NoPrep Canada Literacy Activities and Canada Day conversations with the little people!

Hello my friends! Here in Ontario, we have one week left of classes. At the end of the school year, I like to take some time to discuss Canada Day with my students. For the age group I teach, their perceptions of Canada Days past can be quite entertaining:


That Fun Reading Teacher's student - funny quote on Fireworks #kids say the #darndest things! That Fun Reading Teacher's student's view of #Canada's beginning

Canada Day is clearly a memorable experience for even our youngest students, whether it be of fireworks, time with family or friends during the day. Whether we are retelling a story that we have read together, creating our own adventure, or discussing a personal experience, there is a logical sequence of events and words that match: first, then, finally (or whichever vocabulary you have decided to use!) (For a post about using the 3 part graphic organizer with young students, and a freebie, click here!)

Here is a fun Canada Day story that started orally with a reading buddy who helped sort out the three basic story parts before the pictures were drawn (and was duly thanked!)

Canada Read and Write and More - Graphic Organizer

These no-prep printables come from Canada Read and Write and More, the first set of what I have started to develop as a series. Here is the Canada themed and Canada Day writing paper:


Canada Day Read and Write and More writing paper sample Canada Read and Write and More Writing Paper sample

My students enjoy ‘fun worksheets’ every so often. The literacy skills practice pages that are included so far are pictured below:


Canada Read and Write and More - syllables Canada Read and Write and More - read and colour

3 Canada Print or Paste

Bonus Terry Fox and hockey colouring fact sheets for those early finishers!


Canada Day Read and Write and More - Terry Fox sample Canada Day Read and Write and More - hockey sample

I will leave you with this freebie and links to money-saving bundles that include Canada Read and Write and More! Best wishes to all of you as you finish the school year, and Happy Canada Day!

2015 TpT Store Prof pic circle


Th1 PP Canada Bundle thumbs Th1 Canada 2pk

P.S. Here’s a little ‘Aha’ moment from a pre-Canada Day conversation in my classroom about 19 years ago…no figurative language in kindergarten!


That Fun Reading Teacher's #AhaMoment on why not to use figurative language with #kindergarten students

Related:


Canada BINGO by That Fun Reading Teacher Canadian Fun ideas for elementary students to learn about and celebrate Canada sq


June Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern



It’s June Teacher Talk time…..many of you are finished with school now and breathing a sigh of relief.  Sit back, relax and read some informative blog posts from our veteran educators. 

Have a well deserved summer vacation.


If you’re interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here….The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names. 

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End of the Year Musings

 I always approach the end of the school year with mixed emotions, though I’m ecstatic to be out for summer vacation, I always feel a little sad saying good-bye. Many of my soon to be 7th graders hug me and leave with tears in their eyes, knowing that our little family will no longer be together. All the trials and tribulations, the challenges, the fun times and sad times will always be with us, but it will never be the same.

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A Portfolio to Remember – Part 2: Creating the Masks

By Retta London of Rainbow City Learning

How to make life cast masks with your students, and how to use the masks to decorate a keepsake writing portfolio.

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Summer Review Going Into Grade 2

Avoid the summer slide with this NO PREP resource. The beachy themed pages include daily math and reading skill practice for children about to enter 2nd grade. Perfect for parents to use and teachers to give!

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But All You Do is Play!

The work of young children is play! Playing is how young children interact with and learn from the world. Building language skills in children does, indeed, involve a lot of play. 

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Get out of Post-it Purgatory

Are you a TpT seller or just someone with a LOT on your to-do list? This free, online tool will change your life!

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More Than Just Art!

Mandalas are much more than just art! This simple geometry lesson not only creates beautiful classroom displays, but reinforces geometric concepts.

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End of the School Year Ideas!

Here are my top end of the school year ideas!

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Math, Monet & Measurement

Inspired by a visit to Monet’s garden in Giverny, a teacher shares her experience and inspires an investigative math project. Students create centimeter, millimeter, and decimeter garden models while learning about Impressionism and Claude Monet. Inspired math!

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10 Ways to Keep Students Learning Over the Summer

 By Deann Marin at The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs

 

Offering for Educators, Comprehensive Teaching Aides. If you’d like to see what else I have to offer please visit my store.

 

Summer is the time for fun, fun, fun! School is out no more hitting the books. The only problem is that much of what was learned during the school year is forgotten, “out of sight, out of mind.” Not so with these ten fun educational activities that will keep the children looking for more and not even realizing that they are learning.

 

1.   Have your child, if he/she is old enough, take pictures of different things that you do over the summer. This will be especially exciting if you travel somewhere. They can put their photographs in a nice scrapbook and write a few  sentences about them. Make sure correct punctuation and grammar are used. What a great memory to look back on. When the school  year begins, this book can be shared in class.

2.   Help your child make a summer calendar for June, July, and August. They can use crayons, pencils, paint, rulers to color them in and add special things that they did over the summer. This will help to reinforce number recognition and counting. An effective way to work on addition and subtraction would be to say: “How many days till we go to the beach? or how many days ago did we go to see grandma and grandpa?’ even “How many days till you go back to school?”(of course they may not want to think about that!)

3.   Make  musical instruments from materials that are found around the house. Use towel/toilet paper rolls decorate them with paint, then put small pebbles inside. Close each end with cloth, or paper then glue them on or secure with rubber bands. This can be used as a rattle or rain stick.  Other instruments that they can make are drums, a box guitar, or a maraca, etc. This is a helpful websitd:  http://www.howcast.com/guides/841-how-to-make-musical-instruments-  for-kids/

4.   Cooking and measuring the ingredients help with math skills. They will have to read the recipe and measure the ingredients correctly.These recipes look yummy: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/packages/recipes-for-kids/cooking- with- kids.html

5.  If your child likes the computer or tablet, take advantage of it. Have him/her become a web ranger. They will go on quests and learn about national parks. It will help enhance skills in history and geography because they will be asked to solve mysteries and puzzles, play games and more. Check it out on this website: http://www.nps.gov/webrangers/ 

6.  Start a family garden. Decide what type of garden it will be, flower,vegetable, herbs or a combination. Then read up on it. Learn about the particular plants that will be used, find out where they should be placed, in the sun or shade. What types of soil are best, etc.  They can use some math measuring skills to figure out how far to space each plant. They can also measure plants to estimate the growth.  They might also try a science experiment to see if seeds grow faster in sun or darkness and keep a written record.  You can go to this website for more information. http://www.kidsgardening.org/

7.  When riding in the car have your child read signs, names of cities, towns, parks, or look for license plates from different states and figure out what states are the farthest away from them, or they can count the number of license plates they see from the different states. Another game that is fun when traveling is to start with the letter A and name a city, state, or country that begins with that letter, go through the entire alphabet. A variation of this would be to say a state, city, or country name and the next person has to come up with a name beginning with the last letter of the place just said. Austin/Nebraska, Anchorage/Evansville, and so on. Everyone in the car plays to make it more fun.

8.  For those would be scientists, start a rock or critter collection. See how many different rocks/ critters they can discover and find information about them in a book or on the web. They can make a scrapbook with photographs and information about the rocks or critters that they have collected.This is a great site for rock collecting, your child will have loads of fun while learning. http://www.kidsloverocks.com/html/guide_to_collecting.html This is just right for collecting those critters. http://www.kidactivities.net/category/Science-Kids-Collecting-Insects.aspx

9.  Have a scavenger or treasure hunt. You will have to write out directions as to where to find something and your child will have to read it in order to find the prize. This website has printable check lists, 10 ideas for scavenger hunts as well as tips and tricks.http://www.mykidsadventures.com/scavenger-hunt-ideas/ This pinterest page has loads of ideas on this subject  https://www.pinterest.com/tiffanymoore2/scavenger-hunt-ideas-for-kids/

10.  Plan a family fun day. Have your child write everything down from the menu to the games that will be played.

Here are some ideas that can be written down

  • Describe the activity. What will you do? Will you play games, go for a swim, watch a movie?
  • How will you prepare ahead of time. Will you need tickets, a picnic lunch, or a reservation?
  • What supplies will you require.
  • How much will it cost?
  • Who will be invited?

Make sure that you or your child takes pictures and then he/she can make an online photo album, write a few sentences about each image and email it to all of those who attended.

 11.  You can play word games such as scrabble, to work on spelling skills, board games like Yahtzee to help with math skills, card games like war which will utilize number skills, or word bingo.  I’ve also included some items that you can purchase through my Tpt store to help reinforce math and word skills learned in school.

 

 

End of the Year addit,subt,mult,div board game for grades 2-4  8x8 Cover

Click on image to visit Socrates Lantern’s Tpt Store.

 

 

Click image to visit Socrates Lantern's Tpt Store.

Click image to visit Socrates Lantern’s Tpt Store.

Click on image to visit Socrates Lantern's Tpt Store.

Click on image to visit Socrates Lantern’s Tpt Store.

 

Click on image to visit Socrates Lantern's Tpt Store.

Click on image to visit Socrates Lantern’s Tpt Store.

Click on image to visit Socrates Lantern's Tpt Store.

Click on image to visit Socrates Lantern’s Tpt Store.

Click on image to visit Socrates Lantern's Tpt Store..

Click on image to visit Socrates Lantern’s Tpt Store..

 Check out these blogs for more ideas from some awesome educators

Blog Hop

1. DIY Farmwife-Sharing is Caring- Fight the Sum

2. Carberry Creations- Keeping Students Learning All Summer

 

 

 

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