Where the Wild Things Are By Maurice Sendak Objective: Create a short composition to fill in picture only portion of book with no words~ what does a wild rumpus sound like? Ask the kids “what sounds would you hear at a wild rumpus?” Growling Sneering Howling etc…. How long would each sound last and would […]

“Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.” – Mindful.org Last Saturday I attended a workshop by Brenda Barr on this topic. It was perfect timing as the holiday season is upon […]

In second grade we figured out the rhythm to Shoo Fly. We clapped it both with saying the words and without. We then used NK Magnets to show our rhythm! When we did this, we had to talk about syllables and that for every syllable, there needs to be a note ~ of course we […]

  The first graders have been working on long and short, so this week I wanted to offer an activity that they could not only have some fun with, but could also apply what we have been talking about. The 2 goals I had in mind were to first, identify the long sounds in the […]

This activity you can do as a center, in small groups or as a whole class. For the center activity, you will need listening center equipment, which can be expensive, so opting to do this as a whole class or in small groups makes sense! The goal here is to take the skill of identifying […]

After your kids have had some fun with the Name Game Extended Lesson, now we can take it even a step further!!! In this lesson, students will be on the hunt for long and short objects that they can find around the room. Not only will they have a blast doing this, they will be […]

Well, apparently , I got ahead of myself. I was all set for today’s center lesson ~ fired up about what materials I needed and how I was going to set it up. The activity was so cool that of course the kids were going to love it!! ….then a question came to mind ~ […]

As the new year gets under way, names can be an issue, especially for those of you working with transient populations. As I have stated in the past, I love doing name games in the beginning of year…and throughout the year for the little ones. Kids love the sound of their name and it helps […]

For the first week of school, my goal was for the activity to be familiar for the kids returning and simple enough for any newcomers. I also wanted it to be fun and unexpected! I created task cards for each group to help them be more independent ~ they worked really well in that kids […]

When creating a center based curriculum, there are a lot of logistics involved beyond what concepts/ skills you want your kids to learn. Questions arise: what procedures need to be taught? What materials are involved? Do I need to set them up, or can the kids do it? How does only having 20 minutes play […]