Leprechaun Hunt Around the School

As I mentioned in my last post, my kids hunt for that pesky little leprechaun as a culminating activity for our St. Patrick's Day fun-filled week.  I have posted the clues - they're just $1 - on TPT right here.  It is one of my favorite activities of the year with my SuperKids!  :)

 

I hope that naughty lil' leprechaun will make a visit to your school, too!  ;)

Leprechaun Fun & More Freebies! :)

I am so excited for this upcoming week in the SuperKid room.  Throughout the week,  I  a mischievous leprechaun (visiting from Ireland, of course) plays tricks on us while we are at lunch and recess!  That naughty little green guy flips over chairs, hides our green markers and crayons, scatters green manipulatives around the carpet, and turns words on the Word Wall upside down!  On Friday, we return from library to find a completely ramshackled classroom and a clue that leads us on a chase around the school!

All week, our literacy activities will be St. Patrick's Day-themed.  I created this word tree map for a writing station and it's FREE right here in my TPT store.  :)

 We will also talk about what makes us lucky- my kiddos sure are blessed in lots of way!  On Friday during our St. Patrick's Day party, I take pictures of each student wearing fun shamrock sunglasses.  They use their picture on this writing prompt that I compile into a class book called "Lucky SuperKids."

 

This writing page is also free and you can download it here!

And don't miss this super fun St. Patrick's Day reader that the kids just love...

...and my Lucky Charms graph for some edible math!

Do you have some fun St. Patrick's Day activities planned for your students this year?  

Freebie: St. Patrick's Day Writing Prompt Cards

I'm already getting excited for St. Patrick's Day fun with my kiddos!  Check out what I did last year to celebrate with my SuperKids in this post.  I made some fun writing prompt cards to use for station work this year.

Download this fun freebie here!

One more, one fewer - math freebie!

This is such a great activity to use in small groups and then transition into a math center/workshop.  It is also a nice way to informally assess your students' understanding of the plus and minus symbols, as well as the ability to easily add or subtract 1 from a number mentally and easily.

After reviewing what it means to add 1 or take away 1 from a number, as well as a review of our plus and minus symbols, the students get rollin'!  I have students roll the dice, record the number rolled, and then roll a dice with + and - symbols on it.  After circling the whichever symbol was rolled, they add or subtract 1 and record the answer.

I up the ante by having some students roll 2 die at the same time, adding the rolls together, and recording that number in the first column.

Even more challenging, I have other students roll dice labeled with numerals so they can not rely on counting the dots to find the sums.  Witness some fabulous finger-countin' action!

For my most advanced students, we use these decahedron dice that are labeled with the numerals 2-12.  After rolling 2, they find the sum, and then continue the game as usual.

 

You know it's a kid-approved math center when students turn over the page to continue!  Love it!  :)

 

Grab this recording page for FREE right here and make sure to leave me some feedback.  ;)

Ways to Make a Hexagon

After we've studied all of the 2D shapes, I love this lesson about putting them together to create hexagons in different ways.  I get such good insight into my students' general understanding of geometry with this fun and challenging activity!

After explaining and briefly modeling their "mathematician mission," I give the students each a recording page and wooden pattern blocks.  After they have discovered 6 ways to make a hexagon, they use the paper pattern block shapes to glue down their solutions.

 

 

Some of them couldn't find 6 ways in the allotted time, and that was just fine. 

 

We then gathered on the carpet where I had a poster-sized version of the recording page on the floor.  The students took turns using our large foam pattern blocks to share the ways we found.

 

The kids were shocked when I told them there are actually 8 total ways to make a hexagon using our pattern blocks!  As we found each of the 8 ways, we recorded how many of each shape was used in each creation:

This chart leads to great discussion about why the square and rhombus can't ever be used.  Even after finding all 8 ways, I had a few students who still insisted it must be possible to use the square and rhombus and tried for another 5 minutes before deciding I must be right.  ;)  They also had some great discussion about why the triangle was used so often.

While this lesson is part of our curriculum, I owe a huge thank you to Kathryn at Kindergarten Kindergarten for the idea of making the chart!  It was an excellent addition to this tried-and-true shape activity!

shape freebie

Do you have your students use 2D shapes to make creative pictures?  Here is a free little page they can use to count and record the number of each shape they use.

 

Click here to download it through my TPT store!  Hope you enjoy!

2D Shapes!

Lots of Kindergarten classes probably study shapes near the beginning of the year, but we wait until January.  There are several reasons why... we like all of the kids to have strong counting abilities, we problem-solve with the shapes, and we dig deep into the world of 3D shapes.

To kick-off the unit, we analyze 2D shapes, describe their attributes, compare and contrast them, and practice drawing them.  As a whole-group, we create anchor charts to list attributes as we examine the different shapes.

 

At math small-groups, I help the students examine the shapes further, and they summarize about each of them on recording pages.  This is a great informal way to assess if they have a foundational understanding of 2D shapes and related concepts.

 

"no corners"

 

"triangle has 3 sides"

 

"no points"

 

I just love this snowman made of circles - look at the mouth! :-O

 

Adorable square robot!

You can buy my packet of 2D Shape Summary Pages over on TPT!