Growing up in Michigan meant we spent a lot of time playing games indoors during the winter. Two of my most memorable games were Authors and Park and Shop. Authors was a a regular set of 52 cards with the 4 suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades but the graphics on the cards were classical authors like Twain, Alcott, Dickens, Shakespeare and a few others. 4 of each author’s most famous works were listed below their pictures so you couldn’t help but learn those titles for each author. The other kind of weird game for kids was Park and Shop. This board game was covered with shops like the Butcher, Tailor, Hay Grain & Feed store, and the one I remember the most, the HABERDASHERY! Really…..what 7 year old knows that word and its meaning! Throwing the dice got you moving around the board completing your shopping list. We played this one a LOT! Guess it might have been like a version of Monopoly! Playing games is a great way to learn a new skill such as math facts, vocabulary or High Frequency words. We LOVE to engage our students with a variety of learning games. Below are 6 of our most popular formats.

Game 1 – SWIPE

Swipe uses cards with any type of phonic or word skill that needs practicing. Our game below features Vowel Digraphs. A player turns over the top card and reads the word below the Snowman graphic. Play passes to the next player who turns and reads the next card. Play continues until a SWIPE card is turned over. That player can take a card from any other player! Play continues until the “SUN” card is turned and the game ends…because the sun would melt all the snowmen! The player with the most cards wins! We offer this game in a lot of different themes- bats, insects, sports, trolls etc. All come with EDITABLE cards so ANY words can be added. Check out SNOWMAN SWIPE!

Game 2 – TRICKY

Tricky is one of our students FAVORITE games! Again, we offer it in a variety of themes. Tricky involves taking a bit of a risk. Players turn over cards one at a time and read them. Hidden in the deck are several TRICKY cards. Players must decide whether to risk the cards just read and continue to draw and read words. If a TRICKY card shows up they lose the cards drawn on that turn. It’s fun to see which of your students are the risktakers and which ones are more cautious! Play continues until all cards have been played. Again the player with the most cards wins! EDITABLE cards are available with these games too. You will LOVE this Tricky game too! TRICKY SNOWBIRDIES

Game 3 – Path Games

Path games can be a lot of fun. Play is determined by the roll of a die so everyone has an equal chance to win! Cards with high frequency words are turned over and read after player has rolled and moved that many spaces. If a child can’t read the word an adult or more capable student helps them. The goal of a learning game is to learn and no one is penalized for not knowing something yet! It’s not an enjoyable experience to play something too hard…so we provide a bit of support. EDITABLE cards again are provided so you can customize the cards to suit the level of your students. Just run the cards on different colors of card stock or paper and differentiate the levels that way. SNOWBALL FUN

Game 4 – BUMPER

We modeled this game after the popular math game BUMP. Using word cards or a word spinner, players place unifix cubes on the words they draw. If another player turns over a word with an opponent’s cube on it they can BUMP them off! This is done is a joyful manner so no feelings are hurt. Children love to BUMP each other’s cubes off time and time again. Of course they must read the words each time so lots of exposure to those high frequency words takes place! EDITABLE Mats, cards and Spinners are included. Storage labels are used to organize each of the games with their “parts”. READY, SET, SNOW BUMPER

Game 5 – Roll and Cover

This is an easy prep game. 6 words are printed on both colored or Black & white mats. Dice are shown above each column. A die is rolled and players move their cubes or other “cover-ups” up to the top of the column of the number rolled and read the word. Keep going until a player reaches the top of a column. Clear the board and play again or switch to another of the 6 mats with 6 new words! EDITABLE mats are provided. WINTER ROLL & COVER

Game 6 – CVC Roll & Read

Build some CVC words and determine if they made a REAL or not! Players roll a die 3 times recording a consonant from the first, then a vowel from the second, and finally the last consonant from the third column. They use the recording sheet and then read the word. Now it’s time to determine if it formed a real word! Circle YES or NO. This is fun because our littles don’t always know what words are real! This game fits perfectly with the Science of reading CVC words. There are NO EDITABLE mats with this as we strategically placed all the consonants and vowels on the cards so that no “naughty” words would ever be formed! There are 4 different mats with each game and we have this format in LOTS and LOTS of different themes! SNOWBALLS ROLL & READ

Need a FREE game to get you started?

Just like the game above here is a free one to get you started! SNOWBALL FUN FREEBIE

Hope you are enjoying a white winter wonderland or a warm weather winter depending on your location! Happy January!

The post Winter Fun Learning Games appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Don’t know about you but our Kindergartners and even some 1st graders have trouble identifying and forming teen numbers. I think this is partly because most of those numbers have “unhelpful” names like eleven and twelve and the others are said “backwards” from the way they are written…like seventeen 17 and nineteen 19. And whose idea was it to come up with thirteen and fifteen as names? I often would say “three-teen” and “five-teen” when we would count just to clarify those numbers for the students who might be a little confused! You often will hear the teen numbers described as TRICKY TEENS!! No kidding!

Teen Frame Math

We LOVE to use themes in our classrooms and PIRATES were always a hit with both our boys and our girls. Here is a peek into all the resources that come with this PIRATE Themed TEEN PACKET! First there are Number Building Mats Students turn over two of the provided cards and determine what number from 1-20 was formed, Then they place the correct number card on the mat in the small box. This activity works well with a small group of students in a Math center.

Another version has the ten-frame card already showing on the mat. Students turn over a single digit ten-frame number to determine what complete number was formed. This version helps emphasize the numerical value of the numbers….they are 10 PLUS a single digit.

Math Games- BUMP and BINGO

What better way to practice a new skill than with a game! The popular BUMP game is so much fun. In our version, a student turns over a card and place it next to the TEN FRAME already printed on the mat. They turn over a smaller single digit card and identify the number they formed. They place their “cover-Up” (we use Unifix cubes) on that number. The other player continues in the same way. Play continues back and forth. Now the fun really begins! When a player forms a number with a cover-up already on it If the number formed has the opponent’s cube on it this player gets to “BUMP” it off and places their cube in its place. If it has their own colored cube then they place a second cube on top and now that number is “frozen” and can”t be bumped off! The bumping and freezing continues until one player has placed all 10 of their cubes. WINNER! Students LOVE this game!

Nine BIngo boards are provided and is played the traditional way. A caller selects one or the provided cards, shows it to the players, and they cover up that teen number on their board. All 9 cards have the same 9 numbers but in different positions on their boards. The same TEN FRAMES cards from the “building mats seen above are used to determine the “called out” number. Small Pirate cover-ups are provided.

Pirate Practice Worksheets

This packet is LOADED with practice worksheets. A variety of formats allow students to hone their skills with identifying and forming teen numbers in many different ways. When your students have completed these they will know those tricky teen numbers!

Need a FREEBIE?

Check out this FREE sampler packet to see some examples of the activities in the FULL product.

Click FREE PIRATE TEN FRAMES to download.

Did you know that “National Talk Like a Pirate Day” is September 19th? Click the title to read all about it and its origins. Soooo much fun! Want to do a whole week…or month with a Pirate theme? We have songs, beginning readers, literacy activities, and other math resources all using a Pirate theme. Click PIRATE PRODUCTS to view them all.

The post Pirate Teen Math Fun appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Learning the Alphabet Letters and Sounds

Learning all the letter names and the sounds they make is a primary skill usually taught early in the school year in Kindergarten (although sometimes introduced in a Pre-K or Transitional Kindergarten class). With only 26 letters to learn this should be a pretty easy task. Thankfully about half of the letter are fairly easy to memorize because their “sound” is closely related to their letter name. Examples are T (tuh), M (mmm), and P(puh)! Then there are those outrageous ones like H (huh) and W (wuh) and of course the C which says (kuh) and the G…not (Juh) but (GUH)….well, mostly in the CVC words that Kinders typically learn to decode first. Kind of confusing for a few of our kiddos!!

How do we go about teaching these 26 letters so they are memorized quickly without taking 26 weeks (think Letter of the Week) and the process of actually using the letters and sounds can begin? 26 weeks is almost the whole school year where there are about 30 weeks of school in most districts! Here is one product we created to help speed up this learning. Many different components reinforce the letter names and their sounds. Consistent ANCHOR pictures goes with each letter. These same pictures are used throughout all the activities so there is little confusion! 5 different types of interactive printables are included to provide lots of practice with the letters. Large teaching cards and anchor charts are also provided. This is a valuable resource that can supplement a district adopted reading curriculum easily. Find it HERE at our TPT store.

Need another ALPHABET song besides the traditional ABC song?

Are you tired of the oh so familiar ABC song? Well we were also….. sooooo we created this new song. It both introduces the letter name AND associates it with an anchor picture that clearly starts with that sound. The tune is Mary Had a Little Lamb and is so easy to learn. There are colorful pictures to go with every letter and interactive printables in 2 layouts. Students can personlize their papers with the letter starting their name or the letter of a favorite family member, toy, food, etc. Find I LIke Letters here.

Popular Center Activities for you to try

Our best selling products are a hit with many students. Included are interactive mats and cards to use in a learning center, Interactive handwriting and matching worksheets and a path game. ABC Race Cars will have your students will racing the lower case letter cars to the finish line that has the matching CAPITAL letter. Kids LOVE this one!

Comments from some teachers about these products!

“Such a cute way to help them learn the skill so that they are having fun at the same time.”

“Another fabulous unit!!! These will be perfect to use in my Kindergarten! This one is so cool to motivate learning the alphabet! Thank you!!!”

ABC Outer Space has students flying space monsters to match their spaceships. Again interactive printables and a path game are included.

Fly your lower case letter airplane to the matching UPPER case runway in this engaging center. Like the two other products above there are loads of supportive activities and path game. Click ABC Flyers.

Want to save some $ money? Get ALL 3 of these sets for the price of 2! Click BUNDLE to find it!

FREEBIE Time!

Check out this sampler of the pages included in the ABC Center product shown at the top of this blog. Click ABC Sampler FREEBIE to download this one.

Hope you enjoy the remaining days of summer break and have a great start to a new school year!!!!

The post Alphabet Letters and Sounds Activities for Beginning Readers 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.

The Science of Reading research puts emphasis on the important role CVC words play in early reading instruction. Teaching and practicing CVC words will increase the many skills crucial for reading fluency: knowledge of phonics, phonemic awareness, decoding skills, and word recognition. Reading CVC words help build phonemic awareness. This is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in spoken language. When students are learning to read, they see many short words that change just one phoneme or sound. This builds awareness of the sound sequences which also aid in learning to write. We have created a lot of effective products that will aid your students in developing these important skills.

BINGO! Short Vowel Games that provide a fun way to practice!

Bingo is an easy game to play and your students will LOVE playing these C-V-C Bingo games. There are 8 Short vowel words on each of the cards – one for each vowel- with 6 different “layouts” of the same 8 words so 6 students can play at the same time. The mats come in both color and Black and white. Included are some interactive practice pages too! Click BINGO Games to link to this at our TPT store.

C-V-C Center ACTIVITIES

Loaded with a variety of C-V-C activities, this product will be a great addition to your classroom centers. It has Short Vowel Picture Mats with matching cards, Mixed Vowel Mats and cards, recording sheets, word sliders, and both easy and slightly more challenging short vowel printables in this 45-page packet. Click CVC Center Activities.

C-V-C Word Building Roll and Read

This popular game helps students practice reading both REAL and NONSENSE words. Players roll a die and write the letter from the first column on their recording sheet. Then they roll again and writer the medial letter that matches the die. Rolling a third time and writing the final letter completes the CVC word. Now the player reads the word and decides if it is Real or Nonsense and circles Yes or No on their recording sheet. This is an easy to prep versatile game format that your students will enjoy playing as the number of words that can be formed are nearly endless!

Click C-V-C Word Building Center to view this product!

Here’s a FREEBIE for you to try!

Here is a 5th game mat that goes with the complete game shown above. CLICK FREEBIE to find it at our TPT store.

The post The Science of Reading C-V-C Words appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Time to BUMP!

Kids LOVE to Bump! Have you discovered the fun and versatility of playing Math BUMP games? They are easy to learn and can be customized to practice addition, subtraction, multipliction and division! They make a perfect addition to any Math Center or use them on a fun FAMILY Math Game Night! Bump Games can even be sent home for some non-tradtional math Homework! Bump games are great for getting your students to apply their math skills while playing a fun game! They won’t even know they are practicing math facts while “bumping” each other off the numbers!!

How do You Play BUMP?

First decide what skill you want to have students practice. You need a Game Mat and 2 different colored sets of 10 Unifix cubes. Below is our Teen Number BUMP. Instead of rolling a die to determine their choice of number, students turn over a 10-frame card and form a “teen” number. The 1^st player turns over a card and, for example, makes the number 19 and puts a Unifix cube on that number.  Play goes back and forth with layers turning over cards and building teen numbers. When a number formed has an opponent’s Unifix cube on it, the player can “bump” them off and put their cube there! If a player builds a number that has one of their own Unifix cubes on it, that player adds a second cube to the top and “locks” that numbered space.  Now they can NOT be bumped off that space! If a player builds a number that no longer has an open space, their turn is over.  Play continues until a player uses all their Unifix cubes.

Check out the following pictorial that illustrates how to play BUMP!

These games are part of a larger product called SPRING 10-Frames. It is loaded with math TEEN building mats, worksheets and these BUMP games. Find it here by clicking SPRING Ten-FRAMES.

Here’s BUMP Freebie just for you

We created a FREE set of 3 BUMP Spring-themed BUMP games for you to try out. Click INSECT BUMP to find them at our TPT store. We have lots of other themed 10-FRAME activities. Check out our MATH category to see what we have to offer!

The post Spring BUMP Math Games appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Leprechaun Learning games can be so helpful in practicing skills over and over! Your students won’t even realize they are learning oodles of words while just having fun! We LOVE playing learning games and have them for every holiday, season, and theme we use throughout the year. March has St. Patrick’s Day so we have created these Leprechaun learning games shown here as well as many others!

Lucky Bugs SWIPE High Frequency Word Game

Students LOVE playing this fast-paced easy to learn game. They take turns flipping over, reading aloud, and collecting word cards. Once a “SWIPE a card” is turned over that player get to SWIPE a word card from another player! When a player turns over a ”POT OF GOLD” the Game ends. Everyone counts his or her cards. The person with the most cards is the winner! Reshuffle the cards and play again as time allows! Of course EDITABLE cards are included so ANY words can be added. Click LUCKY BIG SWIPE to find this one at our TPT store.

Gold SWIPE

Here’s another version of the same game but with different clipart AND different words. These cards have both Short Vowel CVC words and LONG VOWEL Silent E word families (Ex. ake, ate, ice, ike, one, ose, use, ute etc.) EDITABLE cards are included so any words can be added to this game too! GOLD SWIPE will be a great addition to your classroom.

Leprechaun TicTacToe

This is a great way to play TicTacToe while practicing High Frequency words! Players take turns flipping over a word card, reading the word, and placing their colored “chip”or cube on the matching word on the TicTacToe board. Place 3 of your color in a row and you win! Shuffle the cards and play again! There are charts showing all the ways to make 3 in a row and a Tally sheet for keeping track of games won per player. EDITABLE cards and mats are included! Click Leprechaun TicTacToe to find this fun game!

High Frequency Words Roll and Cover

Easy to prep and easy to play, this game has 6 High Frequency words on each of 6 differently colored game mats. Two players each have a few colored coverups and a die. The first player rolls the die and reads the word at the bottom of the column that matches the number they rolled. After reading that word, they put their colored cover-up on that space. Play goes back and forth with players placing their colored cubed moving up the columns. Keep playing until a player reaches the top of a word column. Click Leprechaun Roll & Cover to find this one at our TPT store. Of course there are EDITABLE mats for this game also!

How about a Free Learning Game?

If you want to try out the game shown above, download this FREEBIE game mat. It’s a 7th game mat played the same way. Both color and black & white versions are included. Click Leprechaun Roll and Cover FREEBIE to get this one at our TPT store.

The post Leprechaun Learning Games appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

History of Gingerbread and the Christmas Connection

I have always wondered how gingerbread became so synonymous with Christmas so I looked it up and found some interesting information. Ginger was one of the major spices that were carried along the Spice Trade routes from India and China to Europe. (Think Marco Polo!) It is said that Queen Elizabeth I was fond of having her bakers shape the dough into caricatures of her favorite court guests. It might have been a bit unnerving to bite your own head off! Knights would receive a piece of gingerbread to bring them luck in jousting tournaments. Years later In Germany, gingerbread cookies were shaped like hearts and decorated with romantic messages. Nuremberg became known as the “gingerbread capital of the world” in the 1600s and bakers began creating elaborate masterpieces with these edible building blocks.

Gingerbread houses probably were inspired by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, when they wrote “Hansel and Gretel.” Children were intrigued with the witch’s cottage decorated with candy! Newcomers brought gingerbread to the United States and gingerbread houses became popular as Christmas decorations among German immigrants in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They used gingerbread pieces to decorate evergreen branches they brought into their winter homes to add a touch of greenery. When Christmas trees made an appearance, gingerbread cookies were used as the first ornaments. Whatever its history I sure am glad this aromatic spice has become a part of our Christmas celebrations!

A Song about the Gingerbread Man – A Complete Retelling…and a Phonics Game

The story of the Gingerbread Man is a popular story for children to read in the month of December. That tricky fox outwits the hapless gingerbread man and ends up with a delicious treat! We created a song that retells the whole story….it really does! It is easily sung to the tune “Skip to My Lou”. Included are a big book with a mini-movie that turns the pages as we sing the lyrics. A fun Phonics game, The Cookie Jar Game, is included with CVC short vowel words and EDITABLE cards. Easy to play! Students will have so much fun they won’t realize they’re practicing reading words! Find this best selling product by clicking The Gingerbread Man Song!

GINGERBREAD SWIPE

One of our popular game formats is SWIPE. This fun game is easy to learn and will become a favorite one! Gingerbread SWIPE has Short I words on the cards but there are also EDITABLE cards included. Players turn over a card and read the word. Then they take turns reading cards until someone turns over a SWIPE card. Now they get to SWIPE a word card from any other player! It is all done with a joyful spirit, of course. Once someone turns over a Game Over card the game ends and the player with the most cards wins. Find the Gingerbread Man SWIPE Game here.

CVC Picture Sorts and More!

Phonics is one of the necessary tools for learning to read and this Gingerbread Fun Center activities packet is a great way to learn to read and write CVC words. There are mats with trees and pictures on ornaments to sort onto the correct Short Vowel sound mats. Interactive printables offer many opportunities to practice reading and spelling CVC words. Use the 36 cards with missing vowels to place around the room for a “Read the Room” activity or use the cards at a center where students turn the cards over and record their answers. (The cards are color coded so you can easily provide the correct recording sheet.) Need another phonics game? A path game has the vowels on the spaces. Students turn over one of the 40 picture cards and then move to the vowel that matches the vowel sound. The game comes in both Color and B/W versions. Find this 57-page packet HERE.

Here’s a FREE Phonics Game for you to try!

Here’s a fun way to practice High Frequency words…..a TicTacToe game! Players turn over a word card, read the word, then place their cover-up on the space on the gameboard that has that word. 3 in a row and you win! Students don’t need to know how to actually play TicTacToe with any strategy because the turn of the cards determines where they place their cover-up. The words on the cards have both CVC AND CVCe words but there are also EDITABLE mats and cards so ANY words can be added! Click GINGERBREAD SWEETS Tic Tac Toe to download this free game at our TPT store.

December can be a crazzzzzzzy month for teaching but by introducing some fun Phonic Learning games your students might actually learn a little bit in spite of themselves! Be sure to find some time sit down and sip some hot cocoa or tea and eat sweet gingerbread treats…and breathe!

The post Gingerbread Phonics Fun! appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Add some Fun Songs to your classroom this Halloween

When I think of Halloween songs the only ones that come to mind are The Monster Mash and Michael Jackson’s Thriller! While neither of those are easily sung by Kindergartners or 1st graders (and we love to sing with our students!) we came up with some songs that are truly singable and kids love! Music is great for creating connection and especially helps develop language fluency. I can still sing Sur La Pont D’Avignon that I learned in French class in the 7th grade and we all seem to know the words to Frere Jacques or La Cucaracha!! Are you ready to add some fun singable songs to your Halloween celebration? Here goes!

Our first song is called Halloween Friends Go This Way and That! It is sung to the tune Did You Ever See a Lassie? If you are not familiar with that tune, no problem! All our songs come with a “mini-movie” that shows the pages of the book turning while we sing the songs! This gets the print in front of the students so they see the words while singing the song! A nice added bonus we think! This product also comes with math manipulatives and mats and some story problems. Your student can create the problems to solve on the mats or generate problems of their own and record them on the recording sheet. Writing is inspired with the included writing papers (in color & b/w) as well as a Vocabulary Word chart to spark some ideas! Click HERE for Halloween Friends!

Ten Days of Halloween is a great song that is sung like “The 12 Days of Christmas”! This fun song comes with stick puppets and ACTIONS that will have your whole class engaged in singing this song! Your students can perform for their classmates or invite parents in for a mini-concert of songs and poems! Also Included is a path game with High frequency word cards and EDITABLE cards so any words can be added. Click HERE for this song packet.

Another song with goodies! Five Trick or Treaters!

Going trick or treating is such fun and this song celebrates that event! Five Trick or Treaters comes with a mini-movie and stick puppets for performing the song. A Path game uses “R” blend words and comes with EDITABLE cards so ANY words can be added. There are also Sorting Mats for “R” blend words and a few worksheets for practicing these words. Click HERE to see this one!

Halloween Night!

The last of our featured singables is this one called Halloween Night. This is easily sung to the tune The Ants Go Marching. There is a BIG BUILDUP to its surprise ending! Your students will LOVE performing this for their own classmates or entertaining another class just to see the surprised looks on their faces when they get to the last page! Included are 3 BUMP Math games that are great for practicing addition skills. They come with EDITABLE mats so other numbers can be programed in and harder skills can be practiced. Complete directions are included in case you’ve never played BUMP games with your class. Students LOVE “bumping” the other players off their numbers while practicing their math skills….all in good fun, of course! Click HERE to get this fun surprise ending song!

Here’s a FREEBIE Song to add to your repertoire!

Look Who’s Here is sung to the tune The Itsy Bitsy Spider. Besides the Shared Reading book and mini-movie, there are some reading worksheets that practice High Frequency words here, is, & a, words used in the song. Some cute writing paper and and a class book cover or bulletin board sign round out this packet. Click HERE to get this FREEBIE at our TPT store.

The post Halloween Songs for Kindergarten & First Grade appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

History of Scarecrows

Scarecrows have been around since ancient Greek times! Their version of a scarecrow was a wooden frame covered with nets to protect their huge wheat fields that grew along the Nile River. Farmers would hide among the wheat in hopes of catching the quails that were feasting in their fields. About 2500 B.C, Greek farmers carved wooden poles into the image of one of their many gods who they thought would scare birds away and protect their vineyards. Scarecrow images evolved over time until farmers in the Middle Ages started using old clothing and stuffed shirts and pants into something that resembled a man. Birds figured it was a real person so they stayed out of the fields. BUT, the trick is to move the scarecrow every few days or the birds will soon figure out it’s not a real person and they won’t be scared any longer! Nowadays many farmers use sparkly strips of colored ribbon that blow in the wind and reflect sunlight to deter birds from eating their crops.

Scarecrows have become a Symbol of Fall

Somewhere along the line scarecrows became associated with fall and the harvest. Decorations fill homes and stores and there are often Scarecrow making contests held all over. Scarecrows can be menacing or even pretty cute! The birds don’t know the difference! We love to incorporate scarecrows as one of our classroom learning themes and have created several products based on this symbol of fall.

How about a Song about Scarecrows?

My Colorful Scarecrow uses color words in the song so it fits right in at the beginning of the school year. It is sung to the tune “The Itsy, Bitsy Spider” and comes with a mini-movie that has the pages of the book turning as we sing the lyrics. Show this on a big screen and your students will be happily singing along in no time! Lots of “colorful” activities are included in this packet. View the song right now! Click MY COLORFUL SCARECROW to find it at our TPT store.

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

You may be lucky enough to have a Pumpkin Patch close enough to take a field trip to and pick up those cute child-sized pumpkins! If you can’t get to one you can take a “virtual” trip with this fun product. It has a song, easily sung to the tune Here We Go “Round the Mulberry Bush. If you can’t sing it comes with a mini-movie where the pages of the book turn while we sing the lyrics. Show it on a big screen and your students will see the lyrics as they sing along. It is another exposure to print! Click PUMPKIN PATCH to link to it.

How about about some Math practice with 10-frames?

Ten-frames are very useful tools for students developing number sense and place value. Ten-frames provide a strong visual representation of number and how numbers work and relate to each other. This packet provides colorful ten-frames using acorns, pumpkins, and leaves with mats, number cards, recording sheets and much more. There are 3 BUMP games that are so much fun to play. EDITABLE versions are included so you can change the numbers to meet the learning levels of your students. Full instructions explain how to play this popular skill-building game. Click 10-FRAMES to see it at our store.

Here’s a FREEBIE

Our No Prep Readers are popular with Kindergarten teachers. Simply print, fold, and your students will be reading these one-page practice readers. This Scarecrow reader is part of a bigger set of 10 readers. Click SCARECROW FREEBIE and Set of 10 READERS to see these beginning readers perfect for fall.

The post Scarecrows – A Great Learning Theme for Fall appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.