Cupcakes make learning Punctuation more fun!!

On these gray, cloudy days of winter I like to add some bright colorful things to my centers or small group activities.  Since Valentine's Day is coming up I thought what looks bright and cheery and screams Valentine's Day.  Cupcakes!!!  Some of my little friends are struggling with remembering what type of punctuation belongs at the end of the sentence.  We are starting simple.  Questions marks and periods. 

I printed out these cupcakes on cardstock and then laminated them.

Next, I cut out the top of the cupcakes from the bottom.  During one of our guided reading lessons, we had a lesson on some of those key words that help us know whether the sentence is a question or period prior to this activity.  Then we went to work to put it into practice. I pulled these bright ,colorful cupcakes and we practiced hearing and seeing what type of sentences we would use a period or question mark. 

A copy is available for you right here:  Click on the picture and head on over to get it. 

This was a definitely a little cheer brought to a dreary winter day. 

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The Teaching Bug

Snow Day-Snow themed centers

It is snowing here unexpectedly today and I thought since I was stuck inside to share some of the wintery themed freebies I have created that you can cut out and place in your centers this month.  Although I am not much of a fan of snow it is beautiful to look at .  I also know that when we head back  to school on Tuesday the talk will be about the snow we had over the weekend.  Be sure to click on the pictures to head over and pick up your free copies of them. 

This freebie you can use to practice the skill of synonyms and antonyms.  We love matching our snowmen to their hats and the children record their answers on a sheet during center time to check for understanding.  Very quick to print out and laminate for years of use. 

 

 

 

 This next snow themed activity reviews compound words.  These wacky snowmen help my students work on creating compound words and practice recognize them while they are reading. 

Our last little snow themed activity was used during the holidays but it can easily be adapted for the winter months.  We have a lot of indoor recess and behavior can be a challenge.  Set up a snow store with items donated by parents or raid your local dollar store.   Students earn money for good behavior during the week and as they collect their snowbucks they can purchase things in the store.  Great activity for counting money. 

I am going to stay under this blanket and warm up.  I hope you find these useful in your own classroom. 

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Pre-Primer Dolch Sight Word Book

In my small groups we have been working on those sight words that we just haven't quite mastered yet.  We started with the basics and I pull these out when I need to review with my students.  I take these sight word books and print out about 5 of them and staple them together so they will be handy in my small group bin . 

   I added sentences to each page so that my students could learn to read the sight words in the sentence.  I also placed tracking dots so that they could follow along as we went through the book. 

  We spend about 5 minutes going through the book before we begin our lesson for guided reading.  The books have also been a great resource to use in centers.  If I want my students to complete an activity with the sight words then these books are placed in the center for them as a reference.

 

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