Five for Friday: January 20

Hi guys!

Taking a break from report card writing to share some activities from our classroom from this week! I hope you can find one to try in your classroom!

1. MAGNETIC LETTER SIGHT WORD SEARCH

I saw this idea originally on Instagram (posted by @invitation_to_play, she is great and you should follow her if you do not already!) and knew I had to try it out! I am always looking for fun ways for the kids to practice their sight words. I just put the magnetic letters in black beans and wrote the sight words on cardstock!

2. EPSOM SALT “SNOWY” SALT TRAY

It’s a little bit hard to tell in the photo, but epsom salt looks like snow (well, more than regular salt!) My teammate shared this with me and I picked some peppermint scented epsom salt up at the Dollar Tree while I was there last weekend. You can find it in the beauty aisle! I put the epsom salt in a wooden tray and set-it out with a paper straw I had handy (they are from Michaels and you might still be able to find them in the clearance section!) I also made some new alphabet cards that have the formation steps on them to guide the students when they are practicing writing the letters in the salt.

You can grab these cards (they come in both uppercase and lowercase letters) in my TPT store by clicking here.

3. SHAVING CREAM MATH INVITATION

Here’s another idea I got from my awesome teaching partner next door. It’s so simple too and the kids love it! I set out some plastic numbers and pattern blocks for the kids to use as a reference. They were great manipulatives for the centre because you could easily rinse the shaving cream off at the end of the day!

I love these plastic numbers! I got them in a goodie bag at a math conference but I can’t remember who makes them or what they are called. I would love to get the alphabet version if they make them! If anybody knows who makes them or what they are called could you leave me a comment and let me know?

4. NUMBER CLIP IT CARDS

I created these because I wanted an activity to use with one of my guided math groups where I could assess their shape identification, number identification and one to one correspondence at the same time. After I practiced/assessed the group I was targeting I just turned it into a numeracy station that anyone could visit!

I added these clip cards to my Number Clip It pack. There are 4 different kinds of clip cards included! You can check it out by clicking on the image below:

5. DINOSAUR CENTRES

Our students voted to turn our dramatic play area into Jurassic World, so I decided to put some dinosaur provocations out to see if it would spark some questions and wonderings.

Here, I put out some dinosaur bone puzzles and a paintbrush in sand. We watched this video on palaeontologists and then the kids practiced being palaeontologists as well by digging for dinosaur bones, putting them together and trying to identify which dinosaur it may have been.

I also set out this play dough invitation. The students were invited to create play dough dinosaurs or make a dinosaur habitat. We also encouraged them to create dinosaur stories. This one was a huge hit!

However, we don’t seem to have many wonderings emerging about dinosaurs. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes! So this weekend I’ll be thinking about some new provocations I might set out to expose them to spark some wonderings!

Thank you for reading! If you would like to read more Five for Friday blog post, you can click the button below to check out the linky: