It’s that time again for another NEW version of our joke of the day for February! The February Joke of the Day 2nd Edition is ready for you to print and go for the month!

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February Joke of the Day 2nd Edition

Have you been following along each day as I share a different joke of the day on Facebook?

Since this is the second edition, there are all new jokes this month! You’ll find some silly animal jokes and some fun jokes for Valentine’s Day this month. Each month, I also turn them into a printable so you can easily print them out and have the page handy all month to share with your class or family at home.

These jokes are a simple, fun way to connect with your students and make them laugh. This month we have fun jokes that are sure to make your little ones giggle and maybe get some eye rolls.

Share the jokes with your class during your morning meeting, getting ready to go to lunch, or when you are packing up for the day before you go home.

I made the joke of the day printable available to print in both color and black and white.

You can download the February Joke of the Day 2nd Edition printable by clicking the green box below.

In case you missed the first edition of the February Joke of the Day printable, you can find that here.

I hope your kiddos will enjoy this new set of jokes just as much as the first!

See you next time!

Jenette

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I’m seeing hearts everywhere which means Valentine’s Day is coming! Today I have a fun LoVe Bug Hat, perfect for your students to make and wear! There are so many fun ways you could use this Free Printable Love Bug Hat! Keep reading for some of our favorite ideas!

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this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

There are so many fun ways you could use this hat! Here are some ideas:

• Have your students make the love bug hats as part of your Valentine’s Day party! You could have them make them at the beginning of the party to wear, or use it as one of your party/center rotations. Here are some more ideas for your Valentine’s Day party too.

• Have your class make the love bug hats. Then, read your class LuLu the Love Bug. It’s a great story about a love bug that is having a hard time making friends. Each new friend she reaches out to only points out how different they are and how they could not be friends. In the end, she realizes how you can be friends with anyone, even if you are very different.

• The students can make their love bug hats and then read one of our suggested read-alouds and make the literacy snack to go along with the book. You can check out The Day It Rained Hearts here., A Crankenstein Valentine here, and Love Monster and the Last Chocolate here.

Free Printable Love Bug Hat

To make the love bug hat, simply print the 2 pages of the hat out for each student. You can use card stock to make it more sturdy or just plain paper will work just fine too. Have the students color the hat and cut out the 2 pieces.

Have an adult help them staple it together to form the hat. You could also have them attach it to a sentence strip or as another option if you need to make the hat larger for some kiddos, print out a few extra of the back strap pages and use them to extend the hats.

Click the green box below to download the Free Printable Love Bug Hat.

Here are some of our other favorite Valentine’s Day activities!

This heart sort is a great way to practice phonological awareness! The students will sort the hearts into the correct bucket depending on whether it’s a real word or a nonsense word. You can grab the set here.

This quick-prep Valentine’s Day A to Z write the room center is a perfect way to incorporate movement in your reading / ELA center rotation. This is a great way to allow your students to get up and move about the classroom while being on task. They are a great way to introduce students to new vocabulary too!

Do you have any fun Valentine’s Day activities you like to do with your students? I hope they enjoy these fun hats to make the day special!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

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Have you been following along this school year with the joke of the day that I’ve been sharing? So much fun! Today, I have the printable version of the February Joke Of The Day for you.

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Each week day I post a joke of the day on my Facebook page. They look like this below.

I’ve gathered them all up for Febraruy and put them into an easy to use printable for you. This month there are a bunch of cute jokes for Valentine’s Day and a even more silly jokes that will make your students giggle and maybe sometimes roll their eyes.

These jokes of fun to add to your morning meeting, while you’re lining up to go to lunch or as your’re packing up for the day. I’ve made the printable in both color and black and white.

You can download the February Joke Of The Day by clicking the green box below.

In case you’re missed any of the other months of jokes that I’ve shared, you can find them here. 

August Joke Of The Day

September Joke Of The Day

October joke Of The Day

November Joke Of The Day

December Joke Of The Day

January Joke Of The Day

Make sure to come back next month to grab the February jokes!! See you next time!

Jenette

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Do you need an inexpensive Valentine for your students? Grab our Free Printable Valentine Tic Tac Toe and attach a pencil or some X and O cookies!

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These Tic Tac Toe Valentine’s are perfect to give to your students or for your own kiddos to give to their classmates. When I was at Target this past weekend, I came across these cute cookies and pretzels in the shapes of x and o’s. They just called for a Tic Tac Toe Valentine to go with them!

(Just as a heads up, the animal cookie packs have only 4 cookies in them so not enough to actually play a game, but still fun to attach and have them use a pencil to play. I did not purchase the pretzels to know how many are in each pack for sure.)

Free Printable Valentine Tic Tac Toe

These Valentine’s Are super easy to put together. You’ll need to download the Valentine Tic Tac Toe and print enough for the class. They come 4 to a page and both in color and black and white. I suggest printing them on cardstock to make them a bit more sturdy and card-like.

If you want to attach some of the fun cookies or pretzels. You’ll need a stapler. I just placed the cookies in front of the card and stapled them together.

And if you rather not hand out food, another great option would be to attach a fun Valentine’s Day pencil with some washi tape and you’re good to go!

You can download the Valentine Tic Tac Toe by clicking the green box below.

If you’re looking for another student Valentine’s day gifts, you also might like these Valentine’s Day word search valentines. You can get them here. for free too!

Let me know if you use these Valentine’s with your students!

See you next time!

Jenette

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Read Across America Week is quickly approaching so I thought I’d share some fun Read Across America Week Ideas that you can use!

Read Across America Week is an annual event that is an initiative on reading creative by the National Education Association. … This motivational and awareness day calls all children and youth in every community across the United States to celebrate reading.  Read Across America week is usually the first week in March.

At some schools, the whole school participates in this week and has a whole fun literacy week or you can celebrate it in your own classroom or at home.

Read Across America Week Ideas

Take your reading outdoors.

• Take your class outside and find a nice shady area and have storytime outside. You can do the same at home. Find somewhere nice to sit outside, or maybe take a book to a park.

Book Scavenger Hunt

• This one can be done in the classroom or at home. Set out some books that you know have the items on the list and have your little learners look through the books for them. You can print off a picture of the hunt below or you can find the actual printable version of the book scavenger hunt here. We also have an extension page that the kids can fill in all of the items they found in the books that you can grab for free here.

Reading Buddies

• Get in touch with an older grade, 5th, and 6th work well for this, and have their class become reading buddies with yours. They can come and read to the younger kids and vice versa, the younger kids can read to the older kids. You can do the same at home, and put an older sibling together with a younger one and have them take turns reading to each other.

Reading Bingo

• Send this fun reading bingo home with your little learners to make reading even more fun! Have them bring it back completed to you for a small prize. You can grab the reading bingo for free here.

Have Guest Readers or Mystery Readers

• You could invite a local author in to read to the students. Have the principal stop in to read a book to the class or even invite a police officer! Tons of different options you could go with here. You could also invite mystery readers in. Give the class 3 clues to see if they can guess who the reader will be!

Do An Author Study

• Does your class have a favorite author? Some of our favorites to do author studies on are Eric Carle, Laura Numeroff, and James Dean. We have a bunch of activities that you could do along with the author study.

• Eric Carle:
  • Free Printable Caterpillar Hat
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar Literacy Snack
  • The Grouchy Ladybug Literacy Snack
  • A Very Busy Spider Literacy Snack
  • The Tiny See Literacy Snack
  • Pancakes! Pancakes! Literacy Snack
• Laura Numeroff
  • Cookie Counting Puzzles
  • Cookie Hat
  • If You Give A Moose A Muffin Literacy Snack
  • If You Give A Cat A Cupcake Literacy Snack
  • Donut Ten Frames
  • If You Give A Dog A Donut Literacy Snack
• James Dean
  • Cool Cat Awards
  • Pete The Cat I Love My White Shoes Literacy Snack
  • Pete The Cat Cupcake Subtraction Craftivity

Dress Up As Your Favorite Book Character Day

• Have your choose a book and dress up as one of the characters. The class can take turns guessing who everyone is dressed up as! For yourself, talk to your teammates about dressing up altogether to make it extra fun!

Host A Family Reading Campout

• Choose a night and invite the entire school out to a family reading campout. We have done this in our cafeteria. Set up several tents, make pretend campfires and have some teachers volunteer to come and read too! We also set up a reading craft area and gave out special s’more snacks!

Read With Flashlights

• Set aside some special reading time and read with flashlights! Something so small but makes it so fun! The kids love it!

Beary Good Reader Snack

• Here’s a fun snack to give to your beary good readers! You can put the crackers into a snack bag or you can find pre-packaged crackers that you can just attach the bag topper to as well! Click here to download it now.

Read Books That Promote Diversity And Inclusion.

• The Read Across America website has a fantastic calendar of book suggestions depending on that month’s theme. From foster inclusiveness exploring families and history to promoting respect. You can check out the calendar and book suggestions here.

Make A Literacy Snack

• Have you tried one of our literacy snack ideas? We take a read-aloud and create a fun snack to go along with the book. Each one has a free printable available to go with the book too! We have shared over 100 of them now. You can find them all here.

Do you have any other fun ways to celebrate Read Across America week? Share with us below!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Read Across America Week Ideas appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

Today we have another Literacy Snack Valentine Read-Aloud to share with you! This week, we are reading, A Crankenstein Valentine by Samantha Berger.

In this book, an ordinary kid becomes Crankenstein on the most lovey-dovey, yuckiest day of the year: Valentine’s Day. Cheesy cards, allergy-inducing bouquets, and heart-shaped everything? YECHHHH! It’s enough to turn anyone into a monster!

Compared to some Valentine’s Day books, this book shows some dislikes about Valentine’s Day which makes it great since there will be some students who can relate. It’s also great for making inferences.

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For our snack idea this week, we will be making our own Crankensteins!

Snack Idea

Supplies needed

Vanilla pudding – we made instant pudding – each box made enough for approx 7 students. You can also use vanilla pudding cups which would eliminate the need to purchase cups.

Green food coloring

2 Oreo cookies per student

9 oz plastic cups

Plastic spoons

Black sharpie

To Assemble

If using the pudding made from a box, use a few drops of green food coloring to color the pudding. Next, give each student a 1/2 cup of pudding in their cup. Have the students crumble up their two cookies and add them to the top of the pudding as his hair. The students can then use a black sharpie to draw Crankenstein’s face onto the cup.

If you’re using the pudding cups, you’ll do pretty much the same thing. Add a drop of green food coloring to the pudding cup and have them stir it in making the pudding green. If using the pudding cup, they’ll just need one cookie. Have them crush it up and add it as his hair. They can then use a black Sharpie to draw on Crankenstein’s face.

Free Printable

While your students are enjoying their snacks, I made a free printable for them to work on. They get to draw a picture and write about something that makes them say YECHHHH! And they can draw a picture of something that made Crankenstein say YECHHHH in the book too!

Click the green box below to download the free printable from my TeachersPayTeachers store.

If you’re looking for some more Valentine Snack Read-Alouds, we’ve shared Love Monster and the Last Chocolate here.

And The Day It Rained Hearts here.

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Do you have any other favorite Valentine’s Day read-alouds you like to share with your class?

See you next time!

Jenette

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this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

Do you celebrate the 100th day of school with your class? Today’s we have a fun 100th Day Read-Aloud to share with you, Miss Mingo, and the 100th Day of School. by Jamie Harper. This is a new book and has quickly become one of my favorites!

Miss Mingo and her class are celebrating the 100th day of school. The class is made up of an assortment of animals that have brought all kinds of fun items to mark the day. Things range from 100 teddy bears to the number of feet a pelican dives, to the number of spots on each side of a giraffe.

Math becomes a part of the day when it is shown 100 can be reached with a combination of numbers such as two piles of fifty, or ten piles of ten. A highlight of the day is when the students put on their imagination hats to create something from the 100 items each of them is given.

The illustrations in the book are so bright and fun. The 100th day of school has become a day to celebrate and to have a good time, while also sneaking in lots of learning as a part of the celebration. This book captures all the glee of the party, along with the educational fun that goes on along with it.

For our snack today, we’ll be making an edible 100!

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Snack Idea

ingredients – each student will need

1/3 of a pretzel rod – I cut each pretzel rod into thirds

2 cookies with a hole in the center -we used Girl Scout Somoa cookies (a mom has to help her daughter out by buying a few boxes right lol)

assemble

The students can make their own 100 using the food they’ve been given. The pretzel rod will be the 1 and the 2 cookies will be the zeros. You could also use mini donuts for the zeros. Another option if you want to make it healthier you could use a baby carrot as the one and 2 sliced cucumbers as the zeros.

Free Printable

While your students are enjoying their 100th-day snack, I made a free printable for them to work on. They will get to draw in 10 items in each of the boxes to create 100. Similar to the 100th Day read-aloud, when they made 10 piles of shells to create 100.

You can download the free printable from my TeachersPayTeachers store by clicking the green box below.

If you’re looking for another fun activity to go along with the 100th Day read-aloud we’ve shared, we have the 100th Day Color By Code. You can grab it for FREE here.

And your students will have a great time with this 100th-day scavenger hunt too! You can see the digital version here. Or grab the printable version here.

And you can never go wrong with bingo! A perfect addition to your 100th-day celebration! You can grab the 100th-day bingo here.

Do you have any other fun activities you like to do with your class to help celebrate the 100th day of school? Share with us below!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Literacy Snack Idea 100th Day Read-Aloud appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

It’s important to have your students practice sight words every, single day.  Repetition is one of the keys when tackling all of the words children are expected to know.  Practicing words they are learning will keep them fresh in their mind and practicing words they have already mastered will help to build confidence!  One of our favorite things to do is play games to practice sight words so today I’m sharing a fun Pancake Sight Word Stack Game.

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To Prep

The prep for this game is simple. You’ll need to download the game at the bottom of the post and print it out. Cut out each of the pancake pieces and a page or 2 of the plates. Laminating the pieces will make it so the game can be used over and over again.

To Play

There are 2 different ways you can play this Pancake Sight Word Stack Game. All of the words in the game ar3e Dolch pre-primer words.

For 1 or more players – as a small group or as a center

• Each player will need a plate. Place all of the pancake pieces into a bowl. Player one will pull out a pancake piece and read the sight word. If they can read the word, they place it on their plate. If playing by themself, they will go again and if playing with other friends, it is the next players’ turn. If they do not know the word, they will put it back into the bowl. If a player pulls out a pancake with butter on it they will put all of their pancakes that are on their plate back into the bowl. Continue reading and stacking the pancakes until all of them have been read.

• The second version you can play just has a small variation. Give each student a few plates instead of just one. Play the game the same as above, except when a buttered pancake is pulled have them place it on top of a pancake stack. And have them start a new one on another plate and continue to play until all of the pancakes have been read.

The kids have so much fun practicing their sight words this way and you can’t beat getting to play a game with pancakes!

You can download the Pancake Sight Word Stack Game. below.

Here are some of our other favorite activities we like to do with pancakes.

Your students will have so much fun learning how to make pancakes with this fun resource. Cooking class is a fun way to incorporate many different learning standards. In this pack, the students are learning writing, sequencing, retelling, life skills, and much more. It’s a great hands-on activity to get the students excited to learn. 

And our literacy snack idea and free printable to go along with Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle is a fantastic book to read with your class. This is a great book that can be incorporated into many types of lessons, from sequencing to a farm unit. 

What are some of your favorite ways to have your students practice their sight words?

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Pancake Sight Word Stack Game appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

We can’t get enough of Laura Numeroff’s books, so this week for our literacy snack, we are reading, If You Give A Moose a Muffin.

“If a big hungry moose comes to visit, you might give him a muffin to make him feel at home. If you give him a muffin, he’ll want some jam to go with it. When he’s eaten all your muffins, he’ll want to go to the store to get some more muffin mix.” Just like in the original book, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, the boy in the story entertains a moose through a bunch of comic adventures that will have your students giggling the whole time,

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Snack Idea

For our snack this week, we will, of course, be having muffins! I just made muffins from 2 boxes of muffin mix that I had picked up at the store, or if you’re in a time pinch or want to ask to have them donated by a parent, store-bought mini muffins would be a great idea. You could even bring in a jar of jam for the students to put some on their muffins like the moose does in the story.

Free Printable

While your students are enjoying their muffin snack, I made a word search for them to work on. It has 9 words that appear in the story. Depending on your student’s abilities, you can have them do this individually or as a whole group using the smartboard to find the words together.

You can download the Literacy Snack Idea Moose + Free Printable from my TeachersPayTeachers store below.

If your students can’t get enough of these silly characters, they might also like these other activities inspired by the books.

These milk and cookie counting mats are a fun way for your students to practice their counting and number recognition. Caution, there may be some munching going as well!

And these free printable number puzzles are another fun way to practice numbers!

Which of the books by Laura Numeroff’s books is your favorite?

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Literacy Snack Idea Moose + Free Printable appeared first on Primary Playground.

Since this year is a leap year, I thought it would be fun to tie it into a math activity. Your students will have fun practicing their skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, or 10’s with this Leap Year Skip Counting Board Game.

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First, I wanted to share some of our favorite skip counting videos.

Count by 2’s Dancing 2’s by Jack Harmann

Dancing 2’s is a fun way for kids to learn to skip count by 2. Kids follow along doing different dances as they count to 100 by 2. Every time they hit a placeholder of tens they change dances.

Exercise and Count by 5 by Jack Harmann

This fun song set to a Latin bear makes it easy to exercise and count by 5’s.

Count Together by 10’s by Jack Harmann

This is a great video to get your kids up and moving while they count along by 10’s.

Workout and Count- Skip Count by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s | Count Backwards | by Jack Hartmann

Count by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, odd numbers as well as skip count forward and backwards in this interactive learning video. Workout and count has a powerful beat that will motivate your children to move and have fun as they count by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, and odd numbers. Your children will get some great exercise as they practice their counting forward, counting backwards, and counting on skills.

Now that we’ve had some fun practicing our skip counting and getting the wiggles out, let’s play a game! This Leap Year Skip Counting Board Game can be used as a leap year activity but can, of course, be used any time of the year. I made 3 different game boards so your students can play spending on the counting method they’re working on right now.

To Prepare

You’ll need to print out the board game of your choice. You can download it at the bottom of this post. To play, you will also need a die and 2 game pieces to move. We used snap cubes, but anything from coins to mini erasers would work.

To Play

Have the person player roll the die and move that many spaces. If the player la ads on a flower, they will need to say the missing number. The player to the finish first wins. Have the players play again with a different board game to practice different ways of skip counting.

You can download the Leap Year Skip Counting Board Games by clicking the green box below.

If you’re looking for some more skip counting activities, we have some more fun options for you!

In this Leap Year Leap Frog Skip Counting Activity, there are skip counting cards for the students to put in the correct order and then use the frog to leap from lily pad to lily pad to practice their skip counting. There is also a page of blank lily pads for the students to write in the numbers.

Also included are numbers 2-100 to have the students place each number card in order for them to practice skip counting, by 2, 5, or 10’s.

And we also have this free printable skip counting by 2’s activity.

What are some of your favorite ways to have your students practice skip counting?

See you next time

Jenette

The post Leap Year Skip Counting Board Game appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

Do you celebrate the 100th day of school with your class? Today I’m sharing a fun activity you can add to your special day, a Free 100th Day Celebration Color By Code page.

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Reading The Night Before the 100th Day of School by Natasha Wing is a must! Such a fun story for the 100th day!

Another fun read-aloud to go along with the day is Miss Mingo and the 100th Day of School. I have created a literacy snack and free printable to go along with the book too. You can find out more here.

As part of celebrating 100 days of school, we like to do activities that revolve around counting to 100, by both 1’s and 10’s. I’ve created a fun 100th Day Celebration Color By Code activity that will allow your student to practice numbers counting by 10 to fill out the picture.

The first time the students do this activity, I always encourage them to color the crayons first so they can easily see which color the number needs to be.

To do the color by code number, the students will carefully color the picture one area at a time using the matching color for the number. The students will continue coloring the numbers until the entire picture has been completed. They will then be able to see their hidden picture!

You can download the Free 100th Day Celebration Color By Code from my TeachersPayTeachers store below.

If your students enjoyed this free printable color by code numbers, they’ll love these winter-themed color by code sight words. There are 50 pages that include the pre-primer Dolch words. Or primer words here.

We even have CVC word color by codes too!

What are some fun things you do to celebrate the 100th day with your class?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

The post Free 100th Day Celebration Color By Code appeared first on Primary Playground.

Do your students need a little extra help skip counting by 2’s? This free printable skip counting by 2’s game is a perfect addition to your math center rotation.

Songs to help your little learners

These are 2 of our favorite songs to help learn how to count by 2’s.

Jack Hartman / Dancing 2’s

Dancing 2’s is a fun way for kids to learn to skip count by 2. Children follow along doing different dances as they count to 100 by 2.

Scratch Garden / The Counting by Two’s Song

The kids also enjoy this song, helping to count by 2’s as the rocket ascends.

Prep – Work for Skip Counting Games for the Classroom

To make the center, you’ll need to download and print the free printable below.  Cut and laminate the cards so the game can be played over and over again.

To Play

There are a few different ways you can have the student practice their skip counting. Start by only giving them 5 cards so they can practice skip counting by 2’s. 2, 4, 6. 8. 10. Once they have that concept you can continue to add cards and have them place the stars in order again skip counting by 2’s.

To make it even a bit more challenging, when they are ready, have them choose a higher number to start with. For example, the student chooses 36. Then have them continue to skip count on by 2’s.

The recording sheet will help keep the students accountable for their center time.

You can download the Free Printable Skip Counting By 2’s printable below.

If you are looking for another fun way for the students to practice their counting by 2’s, check out this free skip counting board game.

I hope this fun little activity makes for a fun and engaging activity to help your student practice their skip counting.

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Free Printable Skip Counting By 2’s appeared first on Primary Playground.

Have you ever had a student move away during the school year? We become so close to our students, it’s a sad day for both us and the students in the class when a classmate moves away. To make it a bit easier, here’s a student moving away gift idea for you!

I made this fun free printable to help send your student on their way to their next adventure with a special gift from their class.

Instructions

Simply print the free printable at the bottom of the post. You’ll need a variety of paint colors or ink pads to have each of the students in the class use a finger to make the balloons on the printable. Wait for it to dry, pop it into a frame and your gift is ready!

You could also have all of the classmates sign their name on the paper, or you could write each one of their names in a balloon.

This would make a fantastic gift to give to your student teacher as well. Sending them onto their next adventure! If you’re looking for more student-teacher gift ideas, here’s 20 more.

You can download the free printable below.

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Student Moving Away Gift Idea appeared first on Primary Playground.

Do you teach fables and fairytales? One of my favorite fables to teach is the story of The Little Red Hen. In this beloved tale, the Little Red Hen makes delicious bread that her lazy friends can’t resist. The students are always eager to see what The Little Red Hen will do when everyone wants a taste!

For our Literacy Snack Idea Red Hen this week we will, of course, be having bread just like in the story!

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Snack Idea

This week you can go the easy route like I did this time, and I picked up sliced lemon bread from Walmart for the students to enjoy. Or make a couple of loaves of banana bread at home and bring it in for the students.

Free Printable

While the students are enjoying their yummy bread snack, I made a free printable for them to work on. They will get to number the boxes in the correct order that the story took place. It’s a fun way to practice their sequencing. I did make two different printables with different animals to go with different versions of the book too in the download.

You can download the Literacy Snack Idea Red Hen free printable from my teacherspayteachers store below.

If your students enjoyed this fable sequencing activity, you can find more like this and more fable activities to go along with The Little Red Hen in my Fables and Fairytales Sequencing Activities Pack.

You might also want to check out our Literacy Snack Idea to go along with the book, The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs. You can find that here.

What is your favorite fable to teach in class?

See you next time!

Jenette

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I’m seeing hearts everywhere! That can only mean that  Valentine’s day is coming soon! We’re celebrating with hearts for our Literacy Snack Hearts Read Aloud this week and we will be reading, The Day It  Rained Hearts, by Felicia Bond.

One day it rains hearts, and Cornelia Augusta catches them. She realizes that the hearts are perfect for making valentines. Each heart is special in its own way, and Cornelia Augusta knows exactly who to send them to, her animal friends.

A fun way to spark creativity and thoughtfulness! The perfect book to pair with Valentine’s Day crafts.”

For our snack to go along with the book this week, I  found these sweet, yummy heart cookies the other day and just knew they were perfect!

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Ingredients

heart cookies or heart-shaped treat of your  choice (I found these heart cookies at Trader Joe’s)

free printable

Since we’re going easy this week and passing out heart cookies, we’ll move on to the free printable for the students to work on while enjoying their snacks.

They will get to draw/make their own valentine to give someone out of “hearts” they’ve caught. They will then write about who they would give the valentine to.

If you’re looking for some other extension ideas to go with this book, one of our favorites is making this Valentine’s mailbox craft with writing prompts.  They look absolutely adorable hanging in the hall!

You can download the Literacy Snack Hearts Read Aloud free printable to go along with the book from my teacherspayteachers store below.

What are some of your favorite ideas to celebrate with hearts in your classroom?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

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this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

The Lunar  New Year is quickly approaching, so I wanted to find a fun read-aloud for the day. This week for our literacy snack idea, we’ll be reading, The  Runaway Wok, by Ying Chang Compestine.

This is a remake of the traditional Danish folktale, The Talking Pot.

“When a boy goes to the market to buy food and comes home with an old wok instead, his parents wonder what they’ll eat for dinner. But then the wok rolls out of the poor family’s house with a skippity-hoppity-ho! and returns from the rich man’s home with a feast in tow!”

The Lunar New Year emphasizes sharing. Families and friends gather from far and near to share a New Year’s Eve feast and to wish each other a prosperous and happy new year.

The most significant dish during the Lunar New Year for children is the festive stir-fried rice. Parents urge their children to eat it so so that they will get along in the new year. So for our literacy snack this week, we’ll be having festive stir-fried rice!

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Ingredients

eggs

salt

green onions

olive oil

garlic

frozen green  peas

bell  pepper

cooked rice

raisins

soy sauce

Assemble

This will be a snack that you make ahead of time at home and bring in to share with the class. The recipe for the festive stir-fried rice is in the back of  The Runaway Wok book. Requesting it from the library is a great option in case you don’t have the book.  It’s a simple recipe and makes the perfect amount for your class to try some. I used quick rice that I made in the microwave, using  2 cups of dry rice.

It’s a great opportunity to have the students try a dish that they may otherwise be hesitant to do so. A lot of them are surprised at how much they liked it!

Free Printable

While they are tasting their festive stir-fried rice,  I made a free printable for them to work on.  They get to draw in the circles the 3 things that the wok took from the rich family to give to the poor family.

You can download the free printable from my teacherspayteachers store below.

Do you have any other fun activities that you do for the Lunar New Year?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

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What are your favorite ways to reinforce sight words that the students have learned? My kids have been loving these color by code sight word pages!

This color by code sight word is an activity that can be used in a variety of ways. Color by code sight words works well for morning work, early finishers,  literacy centers, or as homework. It’s a great way to reinforce the sight words they’ve learned at school and for them to practice them at home again easily.

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The first time the students do this activity, I always encourage them to color the crayons first so they can easily see which color the sight word needs to be.

To do the color by code sight words, the students will carefully color the picture one area at a time using the matching color for the sight words. The students will continue coloring the sight words until the entire picture has been completed. They will then be able to see their hidden picture!

If your students enjoyed this free printable color by code sight words, they’ll love these winter-themed color by code sight words. There are 50 pages that include the pre-primer Dolch words.

Or these ocean-themed color by code sight words pages. 

Click the green box below to download the free printable color by code sight words page from my TeachersPayTeachers store.

I also have another free color by sight words page for fall that you can grab here. 

What are some other ways you have your students practice their sight words?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

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Valentine’s day is quickly approaching! So I’m trying to be ahead of the game and work on our valentines.

Both of my kids are obsessed with dinosaurs! I wanted to share with you these free printable dinosaur valentines that I made for my daughter to hand out to her classmates this year.

They are quick, simple, and inexpensive to put together.

Supplies needed

The free printable valentines printed on cardstock  (you can download them below)

twine or string

dinosaur erasers (we found ours in the Valentine’s section at Target)

scissors

needle (optional)

Assemble

You’ll want to download and print the valentines on cardstock and then cut them out. To attach the dinosaur to the valentine, I used a need to puncture through the cardstock in two different spots.

I then used scissors to make a slit using my holes as a guide to start. Next, you’ll cut a piece of twin and feed it up through the holes to the front.

Place your dinosaur down and tie in on with a bow. Don’t forget to have your kids sign their names too!

The valentines come together quickly and turn out super cute! My daughter is so excited to hand them out to her friends this year.

You can download the free printable dinosaur valentines below.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

The post Free Printable Dinosaur Valentines appeared first on Primary Playground.

We’ve been working hard practicing with our ten frames for the last couple of weeks. We have also been doing an author study of Laura Numeroff and reading some of her books. I thought it was fitting to break out the donut mini erasers and use them to work with our ten frames with these Free Printable Donut Ten Frames.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

Free Printable Donut Ten Frames

I set out If You Give A Dog a Donut along with our donut ten frames for one of our centers.

These donut ten frame cards are a fun math center for kids to work on counting, one to one correspondence, and even decomposing numbers. Each card has the number and the number word for recognition. They work great for early finishers and make are a great addition to math centers.

You can download the Free Printable Donut Ten Frames by clicking the green box below.

And to give the students even more practice, I have made ten donut task cards to go along with these as well. You can find those here.

You can also find another set of free penguin ten frame cards in this post here.

What’s your favorite activity using ten frames?

See you next time!

Jenette

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this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

This week we’re reading one of my favorite Abraham Lincoln read-aloud called Just Like Abraham Lincoln by Bernard Waber. It is a well-woven story about ordinary people who find themselves brought together by a common interest. It describes some of Lincoln’s good qualities and what he may have been like. The book is a great introduction to the history and unlikely friendships.

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For our snack, I thought it only fitting that the students get to make their very own log cabin!

Ingredients

A handful of pretzel sticks – that’s it!

Assemble

There is no right or wrong way to put the log cabin together. Let the students be creative in making their cabins!

Free Printable

While the students are eating their snack, I made a printable for them to work on. In the Abraham Lincocln read-aloud., Mr. Pott’s is compared to Abraham Lincoln. On the printable, the students will list three different ways they are alike.

Click the green box below to download the free printable from my TeachersPayTeachers store. 

As we’re continuing to learn about Abraham Lincoln this week, we’re also be making our very own Lincoln log cabin craft. Such a fun way to get the students excited about learning!

I hope your students enjoy this Abraham Lincoln read-aloud and making their log cabins!

See you next time!

Jenette

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With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching and everything hearts and chocolate, I’m excited that we’re reading Love Monster and the Last Chocolate by Rachel Bright for this week’s Literacy Snack Monster Read Aloud.

“When Love Monster comes home from vacation, he discovers a box of chocolates on his doorstep. He knows he should share it with his friends, but what if there’s none left for him after everyone has a piece? What if they take his favorite-the double chocolate strawberry swirl? And even worse-what, if the only piece left, is the coffee-flavored one? Ick! In the end, Love Monster learns that sharing with friends is the sweetest treat of all.”

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Snack Idea

For this week, we’re not technically making a snack, but instead, we’re all going to share a box of chocolates! That’s all you’ll need is a piece of chocolate for each student.

We talk about how it made you feel to know that the monster’s friends saved the last chocolate for him and who they would each like to share their last chocolate with.

Free Printable

After we talk about the book, I created a printable for them to work on. They will continue the conversation we had by drawing and writing about who they would share their chocolate with. It’s a great way to incorporate kindness as well.

Click below to download the Literacy Snack Monster Read Aloud free printable,

If you’re looking for another great read-aloud idea for Valentine’s day, you might want to check out the literacy snack idea to go with The Day It Rained Hearts.

I hope you enjoy your special time with your Valentine’s!

See you next time!

Jenette

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For Valentine’s Day, we have a Friends Social. We are celebrating the friendships that we have!

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Food

Since we have this party in the morning, I like to change it up a bit and go for healthy red  breakfast foods. We have strawberries, raspberries, apple slices, red grapes and mini bagels with cream cheese with some fun sprinkles.

Valentine cards

Earlier in the week, we make our Valentine bags during class so everyone has one. We make these puppy craft bags to hold all of our goodies. You can print the template for free here.

I ask the students not to address the card, just to fill in the from. It makes it so much easier and quicker for them to go down the rows passing out their cards.

You can find this letter in my Room Parent Binder.

Activities

With the rock painting craze, we are doing a new activity this year during our party. We’re painting friendship rocks! You can get all the details here.

And for our game, my students are always begging me to play bingo so it’s a must during our parties!

Another fun option would be to have a cupcake or book walk as your party game. I have Valentine’s Day calk walk numbers here to make set up quick and easy.

What other kind of Valentine’s Day Class Party Ideas do you have for your parties?

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Valentine’s Day Class Party Ideas appeared first on Primary Playground.

This month we’re adding in some hearts and emojis! Make sure you check out the link to the free emoji ten frame cards at the end of the post!

Valentine’s Day Heart Counting Mats 1 – 20

These counting mats are a fun way to practice numbers for the students that still need a bit of help.  The students will help gather the correct number of hearts. They can then practice writing the number. Laminate the pages so they can be reused over and over with a dry erase marker.
We use heart table scatter found at Dollar Tree or colored puff balls from the craft section. For the smaller cards, we use our mini erasers.

Candy Hearts -Valentine’s Day Addition Mats – Addition to 20

These addition mats are a fun hands-on way to practice addition.  The students will use candy hearts to make the addition problem and find the sum. They can then practice writing the number. Laminate the pages so they can be reused over and over with a dry erase marker.
We use candy hearts or colored puff balls from the craft section, Mini erasers would be a great option here too.

Heart Ten Frame Task Cards

We’re moving into our ten frames and these heart making ten task cards are perfect for that!
These task cards are easy for the students to use and will help them with number recognition, basic addition and counting on. Using the ten frames will reinforce the students’ understanding of these concepts.

February Kindergarten Math Journal

These Kindergarten Math Journals are a great way to transition into your math lesson or to use for morning work. It includes 20 pages of fun and engaging activities for kindergarteners to help build a foundation of numbers, addition to 10, number pairs, graphing, what comes next, patterns, using a ten frame to make ten and number bonds.

Heart Number Bond Task Cards

A few of your students may be ready for these but maybe not yet, but they’re too cute not to mention. These task cards are easy for the students to use and will help them build their understanding of the part-part-whole concept, number recognition, and basic addition.

Emoji Ten Frame Cards

These FREE emoji ten frame cards are a great way for the students to practice counting on, one to one correspondence, and even decomposing numbers. Hop over to this post to get some more ideas for the emoji mini erasers and grab a free math printable from SimplyKinder while you’re there too!

I hope you’re able to incorporate some fun activities into your math this month!

See you next time!

Jenette

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I don’t know about you but I LOVE the Olympics! I love watching all of the amazing athletes and learning about them and their road to get there. It’s always so inspiring!

To get us excited about the Winter Olympics, I printed out a bunch of flags from different countries that will be participating. I had the students color them and we’ll be hanging them up in the classroom.

My goal is to also keep track of the medal counts for the top few countries with the class this year during our morning meeting to keep them engaged.

I created a winter sports word search to introduce some of the games that some of the students may not have heard of or seen before. You could even send it home for the students to work on while watching the Opening Ceremonies and have them bring it back for a special treat.

You can download the Winter Sports Free Printable Word Search from my TeachersPayTeachers store by clicking the green box below.

I also have a fun winter sports scavenger hunt that you can have your students do as well!

You can find all of the other scavenger hunts I’ve shared here.

What is your favorite winter sport to watch during the Olympics?

See you next time!

Jenette

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