Spring into Learning

After such a cold winter, we are ready for spring! Bring on the sandal weather. Here are some things we are doing in the classroom to tie in the season with our learning standards:

Reading:
Easter eggs are inexpensive and have so many uses. This week I put our spelling words in the eggs. My students have never been more excited to get their spelling list!

I also hid sight words in this sensory bowl for my students to explore. They used whiteboards to practice writing after opening the eggs.

For my students still working on letters and spelling their names, I hid magnetic letters for students to practice their names.

I also found these flowers at the dollar store and taped on letters and rhyming words. Match them with the correct flower pot (also $1). You can also use these to sort by color, counting and shapes. 

Buggin' out

Not usually a fan of anything with more than four legs. But with spring comes, well, bugs and science standards on insects. In an effort to embrace these creepy crawlies we are buggin' out this week. Here are some of the activities (all tied to learning standards!) to welcome spring and the insects that come with it.

Book Recommendations:
- Buggliest Bug
- Diary of a Worm
- Diary of a Fly
- Diary of a Spider
- From Caterpillar to Butterfly
- Buzz, Buzz
- Honey in a Hive
- Icky Bug Counting
- Icky Bug Alphabet
- Fly Guy series
- Eric Carle books (see Eric Carle Author study)

Reading:
Some of my students are still learning their letters. We made this beehive and made "b" bees. On each bee is a word that begins with the letter "b". I think they have the b/bees down!

To tie this lesson in with science and math, we read Honey in a Hive. I brought honey for my students to sample. Then we made honeycomb with our yellow, hexagonal pattern blocks.

Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Fly, Diary of a Spider Activities
These books are just so fun and lend themselves to so many activities and extensions. All three books share common characters, so you can use them together or individually. I envy the author's humor and playfulness. All must reads!

Diary of a Worm

We made these diaries with recycles grocery sacks and lined paper to mimic the style of Diary of a Worm. Something about their own diary encouraged them to write more! After reading each book, we added something to the journals. First, we made a list of things we like and don't like and glued it in our journals.

Diary of a Fly
After reading Diary of a Fly, my students used magnifying glasses to draw diagrams. This student made a diagram of his eye with small pieces of things a fly might like. 

Diary of a Spider

They also made a list of things that scare them and do not scare them like the spider in Diary of a Spider.

We worked on the "s" sound and made "s" spiders. Each leg of the spider has a different word that begins with "s".



Vocabulary:

These vocabulary cards are available at Teacher's Notebook. Perfect for this unit.








Spelling:
This week we worked on the -ug word family. We made these cute bug jars with all our words

Math:
Check out this super cute math packet that includes addition, subtractions, numbers 1-100, patterns and graphing!

Click Here! to go to Miss Caroline @ Teachers Notebook

Just for fun:
Lemon and lime sensory rice.
I put 3-4 cups of rice in a ziploc bag. Then the food color. I usually use the whole bottle to make the color brighter. If using food gel, mix will 1 tablespoon hot water. Then add a few (maybe more than a few) drops of extract. I found lemon and lime extract on Amazon from Bakto. They make amazing extracts in many flavors.