The Kissing Hand Activities

The Kissing Hand is an excellent book to read on the first day of school to children who are apprehensive about the beginning kindergarten. As kindergarteners head to school, they often have a difficult time separating from their parents. The book is shows students how to cope with their feelings.

Here are some of the activities I will be using this year.

I found this activity on Teachers Pay Teachers, created by Brooke Hilderbrand.  This freebie includes ideas for a Kissing Hand map, a predictable chart, and a class book. Just print the book cover and student page, copy, and start writing with your new friends!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Day-Feelings-A-Kissing-Hand-Book-for-Back-to-School-310017

 

 

Write the sentence "This is _____________'s hand." on a sentence strip and place the sentence strip at the top of the pocket chart. Put a name card in the blank space of the sentence strip. Have each child read the sentence when his/her name is seen.

Finger Poem:  Raccoon, Raccoon (By:  Pam Miller)

Raccoon, raccoon, (make a mask around your eyes with your fingers)
Up in a tree, (both arms raised)
Raccoon, Raccoon,
You can't see me. (Cover eyes)
Raccoon, raccoon,
I can see you (one hand on your eyes, one pointing out to imaginary
raccoon)
Eating fish and corn and birds’ eggs too. (imitate eating motions)
Raccoon, raccoon,
Hunting at night, (hands shade eyes as if squinting in the dark)
Raccoon, raccoon,
Sleeps in daylight. (the usual sleeping motion we all
do)

 

Free Downloadable Fonts

I just found the best website.  You can download free fonts.  There are so many to choose from.  I just type in a category to search in the upper right hand corner and it gives me several choices.  Now I can create cute worksheets and bulletin boards for free. 

http://www.fontspace.com/

Here are some I found:

Drift Wood

KR All Patched

Burst My Bubble

Stoney Billy

LMS SCHOOL SPIRIT

Chicka Chicka Bulletin Board

This is the bulletin board that I did for the beginning of the year last school year.  I taught kindergarten last year.  I love this bulletin board.  Since I am looping up to first grade, I will have to come up with a new idea.

I am doing a "BEE" theme next year so I was thinking "First Grade is the Place to BEE" and then write the kids names on pictures of bees.  I will upload a picture when I get it done.

Ahoy! First Week Pirate Activities

I found this great book called Pirate School by Cathy Dubowski.  So I decided to do a pirate theme the first week to get the kids excited to be back to school.  This book includes a list of pirate rules.  Of course, pirate rules are very different from our rules.  This should lead to a good discussion about why rules are important.  Then, our class will brainstorm a list of rules for our classroom.  I will chart suggestions under the categories = respect, responsible and safe (these are our 3 classroom rules.  Most of the class suggestions will fit into one of these categories).  After we generate our rules, we will discuss our classroom behavior plan.

Getting to Know Each Other – I modified the activity by Michelle at First Grade Best Find a Friend Who…  to have a pirate theme.

Pirate Find A Friend

Spy Glass - Each student will paint a paper towel roll black and decorate it to look like a spy glass.  Then we will use them to play "I Spy Letters" and go on letter hunts to review the alphabet.  You can also review sight words and numbers using the spy glasses. 

Pirate ABC Book – Each student will be assigned a letter and we will make a class book to review the letters. 

Pirate ABC Book

Weebly - Website Creation Made Easy

I just transferred my website from educatorpages to weebly.  This website is free and much easier to use than educatorpages.  I can upload documents and pictures. 

Weebly - Website Creation Made Easy

Favorite 1st Grade Read Alouds

My favorite books to read to my class are the Ready Freddy Series.  They are chapter books and I read one chapter each day.  There are about 8 chapters in each book.  They are about a boy named Freddy and he is in 1st grade so the kids can really draw some text to self connections.  Also, since these are not pictures books, they really have to try to create a pictures in their mind using the words.  The books are written by Abby Klein and she does a great job at making the reader want more.  At the end of each chapter, my kids want me to read another chapter.  I always tell them they will have to come tomorrow to see what happens.

Math Games

I found this great idea for Yahtzee math games on the Swamp Frogs First Graders Blog.  She created a recording sheet that I will be using instead of the sheet I created. Mine only had 2 columns and hers had 3. This idea was adapted from Shari Sloan at kidscount1234.

I created directions to go along with this game so that I can send it home as a math take home activity.

Yahzee Directions

This also got me thinking about what I was going to do about dice. I have a lot of dice but they usually end up flying around the room or make a lot of noise when rolled on the desk. As I was cleaning, I found that my printer ink cartridges come in plastic containers. Two dice fit perfectly in the containers and with some card stock and tape, I made dice shakers. I can't wait to use this in my class.