Expanding My Sharks! + FREEBIE

I recently started a collection of "Fives" poetry.  The first in the collection is my favorite, SHARKS!  I originally was going to just include the poetry and manipulatives to go along with it, but I couldn't resist.  The pack now is over 200 pages and includes tons of active learning ideas.  I wanted to share some of the ideas with you AND give you a copy of the poem for FREE!

My favorite part of the "FIVES" poetry is creating the Pringles can manipulative.  Kids go crazy over the little plastic toys!  It is also very practical, because you can store the sharks inside the can when you are done.  Click here to see the previous post on the sharks.

Here are the affiliate links that I used for my finger puppet manipulatives!

I've added a bunch of fun ideas to go with the poem.  One of my favorites is creating your own interactive book.  You can use Velcro and the shark manipulatives to help students explore the concept of subtraction.  The beauty of these books is that they are hands on and allow students to really experience "taking away".  I have included color and black and white versions. 

 

There is also a version of the book that is not interactive, but shows subtraction through using X's.  This is also available in color and black and white.

I use this poem with my preschool aged daughter.  She loves interacting with the poem on the pocket chart and on the personal poem.

 I created alphabet extension worksheets for every letter of the alphabet.  Students can interact with the poem or with the room itself.  I provide a focus wand and get the kids moving. 

 They are asked to find and identify the letter on the worksheet.  It is inside the magnifying glass.  They will then find the letter, either in the poem or in a word around the room. 

 

When I set up this activity, I provide a clip board, pencil, focus wand and pencil.  Students can travel around the room to complete the activity.  They are asked to trace and write the letter, identify and highlight the letters.  The last part is differentiated for different levels.  In the easier version, students will cut out the letters and match them to the letters in the boxes.  Students will only have one extra letter.   In the more difficult version, students will have 3 extra letters to distinguish between AND will have to find the correct letters and place them in the boxes.

Here is an example of a completed extension worksheet.

Next, we have the word extension worksheets.  I included common words from the poem and made a blank page, so that you could add your own words!

You would use these worksheets in the same way as the alphabet worksheets, except students will be focusing on words.  I have two different sized focus wands to use for the pocket chart and personal poem.

There are three differentiated extension worksheets.  Students will begin by using their focus wand to identify the specific word in the magnifying glass.  Then, they will find the word in the poem or around the room.

All three worksheets begin with tracing the word, writing the word and highlighting the word.  The worksheets are differentiated in the cut and glue portion.  Version #1- Students will cut out the scrambled letters and match to the letters in the box.  Version #2-  Students will cut out all the letters and distinguish between the letters they need and do not need.  Students will match the correct letters to the letters in the box.  Version #3-  Students will distinguish between the letters that they need and will unscramble the word in the blank boxes.

  

Here is an example of a completed word extension worksheet.

The last set of extension worksheets is for identifying numbers.  These worksheets work on identifying number words, numerals, and counting out and drawing the same number of objects. 

 This activity begins in the same way as the alphabet and word hunts.  Students will use the focus wand to find the number word on the worksheet and in the poem or around the room.

 This can also be extended where students identify the same number of objects on the pocket chart.

 And the matching numeral.

There are two differentiated sheets for the number extension worksheets.  Students will find the number word, trace the word, write the number word, trace the numeral, write the numeral, and draw the correct number of circles in the ten frame.  Version #1-  Students will cut and glue the sharks into the boxes.  This will help students with one-to-one correspondence.  Version #2-  Students will cut out and have to glue 5 sharks on the sheet without a model.

 Here are two of the differentiated worksheets.

 

Here is a student working with a personal poem sheet.

 The last set of extension activities is for subtraction practice. 

This set includes a teacher subtraction mat.  You can laminate the mat and use dry erase markers to record the number sentences.  It includes shark subtraction cards with X's, equation cards, an "I can" pictorial cards with instructions, and two different types of recording sheets.

 Students can use manipulatives or the shark puppets to act out the subtraction problem in the task card.  Students will identify the numbers that will create the subtraction equation.

Here are students finding the numeral that shows how many sharks there are in all.

Here, they are using their focus wands to identify how many sharks were "taken away" in the task card.

 Here they are finding the difference.  They are identifying the number of sharks that "are left".

 

I love this, because students are able to become comfortable with the function of each number in a subtraction sentence.  They will also become comfortable with math terminology.

 I hope that you have found some useful ideas to use with your "FIVES" poem!  I will be creating a whole zoo of fives to help your students explore both addition and subtraction!  Look for the next addition.

 

Click here to get your FREE "Five Big, Blue Sharks!" poem.  I would love to hear how it works for you.

 

Thanks so much! 

Springing Into Science! + FREEBIE

I love Earth day!  Even more, I love to keep the idea that we are responsible for our Earth alive and healthy all year long.  Part of taking care of the Earth is learning about the world around us. 

I've joined up with an amazing group of bloggers to bring you a ton of ideas about using science in the classroom or home.

 Every year, I ask my own children what we can do to take care of the world.  This year my son said, "Pick up trash and keep the world clean."  My daughter said, "Don't eat the worms".  We compost and just planted our own garden, so I am assuming that had something to do with her answer :)

I decided that I really wanted to bring home the idea of how each single person in the world really impacts our Earth.  To do this, we decided to draw a picture of our world.  I put a large piece of butcher paper on the ground and we all drew what we see in "our world" around us.  There was a school, houses, trees, playground, road, flowers, a pond.  We looked outside and really focused on remembering details of the world around us.  We then placed little people toys all over the "world".

When using this in the classroom, I would have each student put a "person" (some sort of toy or picture) on the map to represent themselves.

 To really show the impact that each person has on the world, we placed one piece of litter for each person on the world.  The kids noticed very quickly that the ground was becoming covered in trash.

To demonstrate that people have the ability to make a huge positive influence on the world, I had each "person" pick up one piece of trash. Kids quickly see that they can have both a positive and negative effect on the world around them. I love using the map, "people" and trash, because it is a really concrete activity and kids are able to see the impact that every person can have on the world.

 The students then sorted the litter into the correct bin: recycle, compost, or trash.  The sorting mats that I used were from KTeacherTiff's Earth Day Love Pack.

Here is all the "real" litter, after we sorted.

Here are the kids with their thumbs up!  They cleaned up the world!

Here is another way that you can complete the same activity.  In my Take Care Of the Earth pack, I have sorting mats and litter cards for trash, recycling, and compost.

I had the kids do the same thing as they did with the real litter, except this time it was with litter cards.  We really focused on looking at how "yucky" their playground would be, if everyone dropped trash.  We talked about our own playground and how we could make a difference there.

Here are some anchor charts from my "Take Care of the Earth" pack.  Students can refer to the posters/anchor charts to find out what to do with different types of litter. They turned out to be really helpful as a reference material.

 Sorting the litter cards onto the sorting mats was so much fun!

It was just as much fun as the real trash and less dirty :)

Here is a freebie that I would love to share with you from my Take Care Of The Earth pack.  Students will "color, count, tally or graph" the types litter.  Click here to get your freebie.

Don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter to win the Take Care Of The Earth pack. 

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Don't forget to hop on over to The Research Based Classroom for some more amazing science ideas!

  Thanks for stopping by and hopping along!
While I have your attention, have you seen this GREAT Educents bundle that is 75% off?!  It has two of my products in the bundle!  Monster Munch and Fill Up My Bucket!

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