DIY Sporty Holiday Ornaments + Giveaway

I blogged over at The Primary Pack today giving some simple ideas for memorable ornaments to make with your children.  I focused specifically on salt dough ornaments.

 I described my favorite salt dough ornament that reminds me of "The Kissing Hand", by Audrey Penn. Head over to The Primary Pack to check out my post.

Now, I want to share the sporty ornaments that I made with my kids this year. 

Materials:

- Hot glue & glue gun

- Small bouncy balls (I got mine from Oriental Trading)

- Small Christmas hats (I got mine from Oriental Trading)

- Googly eyes

- Small piece of string/ribbon

- Small piece of white felt

This project is so simple!

- Just place a large dollop of hot glue onto the top of your ball and position the small hat on top of the glue.

-  Glue on the google eyes with hot glue.

- Glue the small string in a loop on the back of the ball. Cover the ends of string with the small piece of white felt. This will help anchor the string to the back of the ball.

- You have a sporty ornament!

Now, I want to share the fabulous giveaway that is happening today! Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs has put together a "twelve days of Christmas" giveaway! Every day for 12 days, you can enter to win a ton of fabulous prizes. Enter on the Rafflecopter link below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DIY Turkey From A Plastic Bucket

I blogged over at The Primary Pack today with some other DIY turkey ideas and with some ways to use them. You can see the directions to make a turkey out of a Cascade container here. Get the directions to make the Print & Cut turkey here.

I like passing out cards with the specific skills that I want kids to work on: letter identification, beginning & ending sounds, rhymes, numeral identification, counting, addition, subtraction, or any skill you choose.

You can pass out cards to the whole group, or use the turkey in a center. Kids will feed the turkey!

You can bring more fun to the activity by using a little rhyme to spark excitement with the kids. Change the key words to help them focus in on exactly what match they need to find.

 

Get your free copy of the turkey rhyme here.

 

Here are the directions to create the plastic bucket turkey.

You will need:

- Plastic bucket (I got mine from the Dollar Store)

- Foam or card stock 

- Felt to cover the turkey's body

- Hot glue

- Magnet 

- Tape

 

Cut out the beak and fold it in half.

Tape a magnet or rock to the tip of the beak. This is just to give the beak some weight. It will help keep the turkey's mouth closed.

 Your turkey is ready for learning fun!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to head over to The Primary Pack to see more ideas on how to use the turkey!

Head over to my TPT store to get my "Turkey Time" pack. It will be 50% off for the rest of this week for Kelly and Kim's Markdown Monday. Check out their blog for this week's deals!

Super Silent E!

Here's a quick post to share a Super Silent E anchor chart! Hope your kids enjoy the rhyme. A huge thanks to Marcelle of Marcelle's KG Zone. She created the character "Super Silent e" AND she is offering him as a freebie in her TPT shop. Head over and make your own resources with "Super Silent e"!! Click here to get her freebie and don't forget some sweet feedback :)

Super Silent e!

He may be silent in each word,

but his power can be heard.

When the word is only "cap",

it's worn atop your head.

Add the Super Silent e

and "cap" is "cape" instead!

-Laura Schachter

You can pick up a FREE copy of this anchor chart in color and black and white here.

DIY Mini Magnetic Stand

I love PVC!

PVC is such a versatile tool for creating teaching supplies. I created a mini-anchor chart stand and love how sturdy and useful it is for holding directions, anchor charts, and whatever I need. See the DIY directions here.

I made a spider web out of a pizza pan from the dollar store this year, but was having a terrible time trying to hold up the web and act out poems at the same time. PVC came to the rescue! I created a smaller version of the Mini Anchor Chart Stand that could easily hold my metal cooking sheets. It turned a cookie sheet into a magnetic center. When you put the cookie sheet on the stand, you create something exciting from something mundane. It also is perfect for kids to interact with material.

 It is also perfect for holding pictures/ manipulatives for your stories, poems, and any instruction. I used it here for a five little spider poem and song. You can get your free copy here.

You will need:

• 50 inches of 1/2 inch PVC Pipe
• Cutting Implement (I use a Ratcheting PVC Cutter. The ratchet makes it very easy to slice through PVC. My tool cuts up to 2 1/2 inch PVC)
• 2 Tee Sockets- Should fit 1/2 inch PVC pipe
• 6- 90 degree Elbow Joints-Should fit 1/2 inch PVC pipe
• Velcro
• Optional: Decorative Duct Tape or Spray Paint

 Here are the dimensions for the completed stand.

 The project is very simple. You cut all your PVC pipe to the correct dimensions. To create the base of the stand, insert the 1 inch pipe into both sides of the Tee Socket. Do this for both sides of the base. Attach a 90 degree elbow joint to each side of the Tee Socket.

 Push the 10 inch PVC pipe into the top of each Tee Socket. Push an 8 inch pipe into each of the Elbow Joints on the Base.

 

The last step is to push Elbow Joints onto the top of the stand and attach the 8 inch section of pipe across the top. You're done with the stand, unless you want to decorate it. I attached decorative duct tape around each of the sections of pipe.

 

To attach the pizza pan or cookie sheet to the stand, add Velcro to the sides and top of the stand. In the picture, I put small sections. However, after using for awhile I attached Velcro the length of each stand. This keeps it from pulling off every time I switch the magnetic surface. I add small sections of Velcro to the back of the cookie sheet, or pizza pan.

 Thanks for stopping by to check out my Mini Magnetic Stand. I love it and hope you will, too!

Get Hands On with Conjunctions!

As a child, grammar baffled me. I could never remember all the rules. I remember tuning out whenever conjunctions, dangling participles, or any other grammar terminology surfaced. This grammar deficiency made it very difficult to teach grammar. I had a grammar phobia... 

It took me awhile to get in my grammar groove. I basically had to rethink and reteach MYSELF all of the grammar rules that I had tuned out as a child. This included conjunctions. A conjunction is a word that is used to connect sentences or clauses within a single sentence, It is the glue that holds the thoughts together.

I wanted to create something visual that would demonstrate how the conjunction holds those thoughts together. Almost immediately, I came up with an index card and clothespins. It is simple to make and use, but a very powerful tool in showing how the conjunction holds the thoughts or sentences together.

Make Your Own Conjunction Connector

You will need:

• Index cards (I would use a different color for each conjunction)
• 2 clothespins for each conjunction
• Tape
• Sentence Strips for the phrases or sentences
• Post-it notes (If you need to change the verb to match the subjects)

It is so simple to create your own conjunction connector! 

Write your conjunction on the front of the index card.

Flip your index card over and tape a clothespin to the left and right. The end that opens should face outwards. That's it! You are ready to combine sentences!!

The following sentences use the conjunction "and", but you can use the same idea for other conjunctions, too! 

Here is a quick idea of how I presented the conjunction "and" when combining two sentences together to create compound subjects or predicates.

1. Start with two sentences and have students look for matching subjects or predicates . 

 2. Use a marker to underline the subject or predicates that are the same. In this case, there is a matching subject "The dog".

3. Cut out one of the matching subjects or predicates. Use tape to affix the matching subjects or predicates together. This is a visual and kinesthetic representation of combining like subjects or predicates. It is a powerful way to show exactly what is happening when you combine like subjects or predicates.

4. Use the "and Conjunction Connector" to combine the sentences. Clip the clothespins to attach the predicates and create a compound predicate. 

"The dog was hungry" + "The dog was thirsty"

Becomes  "The dog was hungry and thirsty."

The same thing can be done to combine two sentences with like predicates. This is where it can sometimes get interesting...

You will start out the same way. Read two sentences, identify the like subject or predicate, and underline the matching subject or predicate.

Cut and tape the matching predicates, and attach the two subject together.  The subject of your sentence may change from singular to plural, when you combine two sentences and create a compound subject. If the subject changes from singular to plural, you will need to change the conjugation of the verb.

 We placed a Post-it note over top of the verb that needed to change. This highlights the need to change the conjugation of the verb in a visual and kinesthetic way.

I hope you found some ideas to use with your own kids! Maybe it will even make learning about conjunctions FUN!