Christmas is fast approaching but there’s still time for some learning fun in those busy classrooms! Check out these easy to prep and fun to use resources!

Time for a Christmas Song….and movement

Want a fun song that will get the wiggles out of your students as vacation is coming nearer? This is just what you need. Sung to the tune JIngle Bells with new lyrics your students will be snapping, clapping and turning around with every verse! JINGLE BELL BOP SONG. There is a Short E Bingo game with ready to print and play game boards for 8 players. A great learning center activity!

Still time to read! No Prep Readers

Grab these easy one-page fold and read booklets and add some reading fun with a new one every day for 2 weeks! These 10 No prep readers are just right for getting more reading practice in before school breaks for the holidays! NO PREP CHRISTMAS READERS

1-2 Christmas For You

This fun packet has several resources that will add learning…and fun…to your classroom. There is a Shared Reading book with an innovation of the familiar 1-2 Buckle My Shoe. 2 different beginning readers (in color & b/w) and 3 POPULAR Math BUMP games are included as well as several other activities. Check it out by clicking 1-2 CHRISTMAS FOR YOU!

Free Ready to Print and Play Path Game

Just print this game in color and cut out the OP Family Word Game – Santa’s Workshop Surprise and it’s ready to play tomorrow! Students roll a die, move that many spaces, and read the “OP” family word oh that space. If they roll a six they turn over a card and move ahead or back 1 or 2 spaces according to the card. First player to reach Santa’s sleigh WINS! The black and white version can be sent home with a parent directions page! Easy no stress homework!

We certainly hope you are enjoying many festive activities, books, crafts and learning games with your students this month! We wish you many happy moments and a restful well deserved vacation!

The post Christmas Fun! appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Maybe you’re lucky enough to live near an aquarium where you could take your class on a field trip. I’ve been to the Monterey Aquarium in California and would have loved to take my class there…but alas, it was just a bit too far away. Hey, with all the content on the internet you can actually take a Virtual field trip to the ocean! Check out these! Zoo Tours: Monterey Bay Aquarium  or KidVision Field Trip

Adding a new theme- Oceans!

Thinking about adding an Ocean unit of study to your 1st or 2nd grade classroom? Well, you should and this 145-page Ocean Packet will provide the base of everything you need to kick it off! Loaded with informational text about whales, dolphins, sea lions, lobsters, jellyfish and soo much more your students will be engaged by the text we wrote specifically to teach them fascinating facts about sea life! There are body part charts of lobsters and crabs. The life cycle of a Hermit crab or the Food chain of the Orca with interactive printables will have your students applying the information they learned in many different forms. There is a big section where the concept of Fact vs. Opinion is practiced in a variety of ways so your students wil begin to understand the difference. So many helpful activities are included you’ll jusr have to check out the extensive Outrageous Ocean Life product and Preview.

Here are a few comments from teachers who have used this product.

“What a comprehensive packet. This has everything I need to do an ocean study with my kiddos. Love the manatees! I really like the fact and opinion pages. It will give my students great practice.”

“Thanks for this product! This has been a wonderful addition to my ocean unit. A great resource for my special education students. The kids enjoy this and will continue using it. This is a time-saving resource that has helped my students catch up on skills they have missed. I would recommend it.”

Kindergarten Packet for Ocean Study

Need something for your Kindergarten classroom to kick start your Ocean study? This packet starts with an innovation of the familiar “1, 2, Buckle My Shoe” but is Ocean themed! Beginning Readers, games, writing papers, pocket chart cards, and even Math practice pages are included. Check out “1-2 An Ocean For You” !

Tricky Sharks Game

This is our MOST popular gsme format for practicing High Frequency words. We’ve even included cards with “AR” and EDITABLE word cards so you can customize them to fit the needs of your students! If you need to learn how to play Tricky Sharks just check out our FREE game packet that has a video tutorial on how to play this fun game. Download the free Tricky Robots game there too and try it with your students!

No Prep Readers

Here are some easy No-prep Readers for Kindergartners or beginning 1st graders. Simply print the page, fold, and it’s ready to read. Each of the twelve booklets come with an interactive printable to extend the learning. Click No Prep Ocean Readers to view it at our TPT store.

Time for a FREEBIE!

Here is a fun little poem we wrote about ocean life in the sea! Included is a poem chart in color and B/W, directions on adding movements to each sea animal, a vocabulary chart, writing templates and photographs of the ocean critters written about in the poem. Find it here on our FREE Resources page! (Lots of other freebies are there too!) Check them out!

Take a deep dive and add an ocean theme to your classroom this coming school year! You’ll be glad you did!

The post Outrageous Ocean Activities! appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

All About Apples

Did you know there are about 7,500 different varieties of apples grown all over the world? That is simply mind blowing! How could you EVER pick your favorite one? Here in the United States there are much fewer types grown, only about 2,500 different kinds. Whaaatt???? I have seen a LOT of varieties of apples in grocery stores. There are a few more varieties available at a nearby apple picking area called Apple Hill. This is a very popular place to enjoy delicious apple treats each fall.

History of these Varieties

In the 1980s, top apple growers in the United States focused on growing mostly Red and Golden Delicious apples. (There were certainly the ones I carried in my lunch to school most often!) Then there was a push by a Washington State University horticulturist to develop different kinds of apples and the market exploded. Galas, Pink Ladies, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Smitten, the list goes on! Poor Johnny Appleseed is famous for planting orchards all over the Midwest but I’m sure he concentrated on only one kind!

Here’s Johnny!

When you think of Back to School and September, apples are often the symbol for the month. Apples make a great learning theme for your primary classroom. Learning about Johnny Appleseed is a fun bit of history to study around his September 26th birthday! Because we LOVE to sing with our students, we wrote a song that tells the story of Johnny Appleseed. The song is easily sung to the tune, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” however a mini-movie comes with it that has us singing the lyrics as the pages of the book turn! LOTS of additional resources are included: Beginning Readers, games, and math worksheets. This is a perfect mini-thematic unit with enough activities to last a full week or more. Click HERE to find this one at TPT.

More Apple-Themed Resources!

An Apple-Themed packet, 1-2 Apples For You, is LOADED with all the activities for a fun study of apples in September. It comes with a Shared Reading Book that’s a innovation on the familiar “1-2, Buckle My Shoe” poem. Beginning Readers, writing charts, themed writing papers, BUMP Math games, pocket chart cards and so much more is included! Click HERE for this complete 88-page packet.

Beginning Reader – Apples

No primary classroom ever has enough Beginning Readers to meet the diverse needs of the learners as they progress in their reading journey! Here is a Non-fiction Reader that is all about Apples! Add this Beginning Reader to your apple-themed studies. Click HERE to link to it.

In Need of a FREE Learning Game?

Most Kindergarten students learn letter names and sounds at the beginning of the school year. Why not use a fun game for extra practice? SWIPE is an exciting game format that students LOVE to play. APPLE SWIPE comes with both colorful & black and white cards. EDITABLE cards are included so any content can be added, like numbers or high frequency words. Click HERE to download this FREEBIE at our TPT store.

Are you craving some apple pie or a crisp apple snack right now? I know I am!

The post Apples – A Great Theme for Learning! appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Camping in the classroom is sooooo much fun! Well, you don’t really sleep over at night, you know! Having a camping theme, either at the end of the school year to spark some enthusiasm for learning, or using camping as a Summer School theme is great fun! I used this theme for several years while teaching summer school. I called it Camp Learn-A-Lot but other names can be created. Maybe Camp Read-a Lot or Camp Learning Fun might work for you. Put out a small pup tent to use as a reading nook in the corner of the room to set the scene. There are lots of websites such as Oriental Trading Company that have decorations, stickers, pencils, etc. to add to your classroom camping theme.

Activities to Do

Just like real summer camp you can start every morning with a camp routine like saluting the flag and singing a camp song. “Going on a Bear Hunt”, “Five Little Speckled Frogs” or “The Campfire Song” sung by SpongeBob Squarepants are good ones. You’ll find lots more by easily searching the Internet and YouTube! There are oodles of craft ideas and activities on Pinterest to help extend your classroom camping experience!

“A-Camping We Will Go” Song and related Resources

We love to sing with our students and so have created several camping songs with loads of related literacy resources. One of our favorite products is the song “A-Camping We Will Go”. It is easily sung to the tune “A-Hunting We Will Go”. Don’t know that song? Well, we’ve included a mini-movie with us singing the lyrics as the pages of the book turn! Easy peasy! A Beginning Reader, Themed writing papers, Resource photographs, picture word cards, and Vocabulary charts are also included. Grab it by clicking HERE! We have several more songs like
“Did You Ever Go A-Camping?” and “Five Happy Campers”. They also come with loads of reading. writing and math activities and printables. Save some money by purchasing a BUNDLE of camping products HERE!

Beginning Readers with a Camping Theme

One can NEVER have too many “just right” levels of books for students to engage with text. Here are some Beginning Readers with 2 different levels of text difficulty. These too come with interactive printables that extend the learning. Click HERE to find these.

More Easy Readers

Need some easy readers for students just learning to lift that print? These Easy, No Prep Readers were created just for them. Print, Fold and Read! There are 10 different books so you will have plenty to work into your camping theme! There are also some interactive printables that go aiong with the books. Grab these HERE.

And……What is Camping without S’mores?

One great way to end your classroom camping experience is to celebrate with s’mores. These can easily be made in a microwave. Just place the bottom graham cracker on a plate, top it with a square of chocolate, and add a large marshmallow. Pop it into the microwave for 12-15 seconds. When you pull it out, place the top graham cracker on top and squish it down! You can only make 1-2 s’mores at a time but with about 3 a minute you can make quite a few in just a short time. Provide LOTS of napkins because these treats are MESSY! But they are SOOOOOOO good and really, what is camping without s’mores? Grab this Math 10-Frame Freebie that is s’more themed!

Another FREEBIE! Starry Starry Night High Frequency Words

Create a “night sky under the stars” with High Frequency word STARS by printing ANY words your students need to learn! Add the words you’d like on the EDITABLE stars, print them on yellow paper, cut them out, and staple them to your classroom ceiling! Turn out the lights and lay on the floor. Now shine a flashlight on each of the words as the students call out the words! This is so much fun! I left my words up for the next school year and students were always looking up at them and trying to read them! Click HERE to get this Free product.

Now who’s ready to go to camp? Me! Me! Me! Give this a try for the remaining days of any school year or during Summer School! You won’t be sorry!

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