The Three Bears and a Family Thematic Unit

Thanksgiving is the perfect season to talk about the importance of families, and to celebrate the importance they play in our lives.

To begin my unit study on families, I love to start with two of my favorite books, "Hairy Bear," and  "The Three Bears." 

After discussing fantasy stories, where animals talk, we move to the discussion to the families of each of my students. This unit always seems to be a favorite for all! And it should be, who is more important to each of us than our families!

Family Unit Contents:

This developmentally appropriate thematic unit: The Family offers a variety of family themed activities that will connect all facets of the Kindergarten, Pre-K, or Homeschool curriculum.

Contents Include:

Literacy Games/Activities:

Family Vacation: Segmenting Words
The Family Reunion: Producing and Generating Rhyming Words
Family Camping: Identifying Upper and Lowercase Alphabet Letters
Family Camping: Identifying Sight Words
Animal Families: Fluently Naming Upper and Lowercase Alphabet Letters
Animal Families: Fluently Naming Sight Words

Math Games/Activities:

Birth Order: Gathering, Sorting, and Interpreting Data
Family Counting Tree: Addition and Subtraction
Cookie Jar: Counting On
The Family Tree: Matching Quantity and Numerals


Guided Reading Books

The Family

Songs/Fingerplays

With My Family
Families
My Family Tree

Writing

My Family Tree: Scaffolded Writing Lesson
Family Word Wall
My Family: Writing Prompt

Social Studies

Family Traditions: The Patchwork Quilt
Birth Order: Family Combinations
My Family: A Family Home-Connection Activity

Art

My Family: Shape People

Thanksgiving: Teaching Thematically

Looking for a great Thanksgiving Song?

    I'm a very fine turkey and I sing a fine song.

    Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble.

    I strut around the barnyard all the day long.

    And my head goes bobble, bobble, bobble.

    And when Thanksgiving Day comes round,

    Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble.

    I'll go and hide so I can't be found.

    Then my head will still bobble as I gobble.

And check out this great Thanksgiving Unit:

This Thanksgiving unit is strategically linked to the Common Core Standards! It is divided into areas of literature, media, music, art, literacy activities, math activities, worksheets, science activities, creative writing, word wall words, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation. 



Literacy Activities:
Hop To It: Identifying Letters and Sounds
Turkey Lurkey: Producing and Generating Rhymes.
Turkey Twist: Kinesthetic Practice With Letter Recognition
Dinner Rush: Naming & Generating Beginning Sounds
Thanksgiving Races: Developing Fluency
Rhyming Worksheet


Math Activities:
Turkey Guesses: Making Estimates
A Feast For All: Counting Objects to Show Physical Representation of Numbers
Thanksgiving Feast: Counting Forward From a Given Number in a Set of 10
The Turkey Dance: Identifying Numbers and Recording Results.
Thanksgiving Parade: Ordering 1-10 Ten Frames
The Turkey Bowl: Comparing Groups of Objects

Songs
Gobble Gobble Gobble
5 Fat Turkeys
I Like Turkey
A Very Fine Turkey


Writing Prompts/Word Wall (Style Choices)
Thanksgiving
I am Thankful For
Thanksgiving Word Wall

Art Projects
Handprint Turkey
Easy Construct Pilgrim
Construct Indians
Tangram Indian
Draw a Turkey

Guided Reading Books
Happy Thanksgiving

Social Studies
Pilgrim Kids: Compare and Contrast Facts

The Best Halloween Video Ever Made: For Kids

I have owned the old VHS copy of this for 20 plus years! Halloween "Tales" acted out by a theatre troupe. Children are captivated by the live action. So, if you have an extra 27 minutes tomorrow, try to squeeze this in and enjoy:

Halloween Tales: The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, Monster Manners, Bony-Legs

Skeleton & Mummy: An Easy Halloween Art Project

We read this great book by Steve Metzger. In this story there are two skeleton friends, one of whom dresses up like a mummy to scare his friend! Following the story, we had a guided drawing lesson making a skeleton and mummy. Supplies needed are a large sheet of black paper, white oil pastels (crayons), paint brush, and tempura paint. The instructions for this easy project follow.

Find the center of the paper and draw the hips.

Add a spine and a skull.

Add a shoulder bone. Draw the arm bones and hands.

Add the leg bones.

Add The Ribs.

Draw a second skeleton to the side of the first. And begin to wrap this skeleton using paint.

Keep a light touch with the brush and you slowly wrap and wrap and wrap.

Paint the eyes and add a mask if you wish.

Voila! You have the two friends, skeleton and mummy!

Skeleton Thematic Unit

D’em Bones

 The human body is amazing! It can lead to a number of different science studies including a study of skeletons. With Halloween around the corner, this is a fun time to learn about skeletons. Books, art projects, posters, playdough, letter (or word) and number (or addition) games, songs, models, and puzzles can add to the scientific information that you present. 

Although skeletons can give a Halloween atmosphere to your classroom, they are fascinating at any time during the year. Just find a few books and some supporting materials and you will have the beginning of a captivating unit of study. For learning games and related ideas, check out our Skeleton unit.

This "Developmentally Appropriate Thematic Unit starring Skeletons will thrill the students in your classroom or homeschool setting.

The Skeletal System is intriguing to learners of all ages, and Halloween is a great time to strengthen science knowledge of the human skeleton with a little bit of haunted fun! However, this unit is intended to be used anytime during the year to teach about human skeletons. 

All activities have clearly defined objectives and are strategically linked to the common core standards.


Activities include:

Literacy Activities
Six Swinging Skeletons: Naming and Generating Beginning Sounds
Black and White Party: Naming Opposites
Skeleton Dance: Matching Letters
Skeleton Dance: Matching Letters
Skeleton Town: Uppercase Alphabetical Order
Skeleton March: Identifying and Writing Alphabet Letters

Math Activities:

Skeleton Match-Up: Matching Quantity With Numbers
The Bone Yard: Counting Backwards
Skeleton Squeeze: Greater Than/Less Than
Collecting Bones: Counting and Cardinality
Skeleton Family: Writing Numbers

Songs
The Skeleton March
The Ghost of John
Bones: Metacognition Activity

Art Projects
Skeleton Construct

Science
Q-Tip Skeletons: Following directions to make a skeleton.
The Human Skeleton


Guided Reading Books
Skeleton
The Skeleton

Writing Prompts
What I Know About Skeletons
Skeleton Word Wall Words (Realistic Photos)
Label-It Skeleton

November Alphabet and Sight Word Game Cards

Use these handy cards as Flash Cards or for any activity that calls for alphabet or letter cards such as:Write the Room
Boom (Or a similar type game where all cards are lost if the extra card is drawn). * Each set contains an extra "Boom" type card
Go Fish
Old Maid
Memory Match
Draw and Write

*Sight words include all kindergarten level words in Wonders, Journeys, and Imagine It reading series.

Fall Themed Clip Art Set

This adorable clip art set will enhance your fall creations, activities and/or games. It is on sale now for only $2.00.

The Orange Ghost and Halloween Themed Activities

Deep in my file cabinet, under "H" for Halloween, I have music for the delightful song, "The Orange Ghost." Now I would love to give credit for this little treasure, but it has been in my possession now for 24 years, left behind by a teacher who began her career in the 1950's. I suspect it may have come from a elementary music text of that era.

 I have used this song now for quarter of a century and my students love it! And, they especially love to make the orange ghost! If you would love to get a copy of this sheet music, the poster above, the art activity, as well as 110 pages of learning activities, you will want to check out this Early Learning Thematic Unit developed for students ages 4-6.

This Cross-Curricular Thematic Unit Contains the following activities that are strategically linked to Common Core Standards:

Literacy Activities:
Pumpkin Smasher: Identifying Initial Sound
Mystery Letter: Identifying letters
Pumpkin Bingo: Identifying Letters
Trick or Treat: Using Onset/rime. 

Independent Activities
Ghostwriter: Writing Uppercase Letters
Fall Into the ABC’s: Tracing & Writing Uppercase Letters
Halloween Sounds: Matching Sounds

Math Activities:
Monster Math-Mash : Identifying More or Less
Candy Count: Building Equivalent Sets of Numbers
Missing Pumpkins: Ordering Numbers
Candy Match: Matching Quantity to Number

Independent Activities
Halloween Buddies: Number Recognition
The Great Pumpkin: Matching Numbers & Quantity

Writing Prompts/Word Wall
My Costume
Halloween
Halloween Word Wall Words

Guided Reading Books
Trick or Treat

Class Made Books
Trick or Treat

Science
Witch Stew: Making Conclusions Based on Observations and Experiences
Monster Slime: Following Directions to Complete an Experiment

Art Projects
Pumpkin,Pumpkin Puppet
Construct a Jack
Orange Ghost 
Triangle Witch
Pumpkin Lantern

Song Posters
Pumpkin-Pumpkin
The Orange Ghost (includes sheet music)
Ten Little Ghosts
The Old Witch

There's No Such Thing as a Witch (includes sheet music)
Halloween Is All Around

I Spy Alphabet Activity

I Spy Alphabet bottles are fun to make and fun to use! All you need is a water bottle, some rice or birdseed, and a handful of alphabet letter beads. 

Let your students scoop in enough rice or birdseed to fill half of the bottle - the smaller bottle are a perfect size, but any water bottle will work.  Add 15-20 letter beads; provide letter beads of any color or size as long as they fit in the top of the bottle. (If your students make name necklaces, this is a great way to use the leftover beads!) If you wish, students can also add other small objects such as colorful beads or bits of confetti. Finally, twist the cap on the bottle and shake. 

Students can now hunt for - and record - letters in the bottle. This project gives the students an opportunity to review letters in a fun way while providing a tangible alphabet tool to take home.

October Alphabet and Sight Word Game Cards

Use these Alphabet and/or * Sight Word Cards for the Following Activities:

Flash Cards
Write the Room
Boom (Or a similar type game where all cards are lost if the extra card is drawn). * Each set contains an extra "Boom" type card
Go Fish
Old Maid
Memory Match
Draw and Write

*Includes upper and lowercase alphabet letters and all sight words used in the "Wonders - Journeys - and Imagine It" reading programs for Kindergarten

Numbers All Around: Building a Solid Foundation 0-10

Numbers surround us; they are part of our lives every day. Before coming to school, students see numbers on clocks, remote controls, license plates, etc. We need to continue to surround our students with numbers. Have the numbers permanently displayed, post numbers with that number of objects, and put up charts for number chants (1 Potato, 2 Potato) and nursery rhymes (1,2, Buckle My Shoe). 

Although we will expose our students to many numbers during the kindergarten year, we need to develop a sound foundation with the numbers 0-10. Instead of rushing on to the teen numbers when your students recognize the numbers to 10, continue working with those numbers. Students need to be able to recognize the numbers 0-10, write them, count out the correct number of objects again and again, compare numbers, match number and quantity, and (eventually) add and subtract numbers within 10. If you develop a solid foundation, then using numbers beyond 10 becomes much easier for students.

To help your students recognize and use numbers, check out the following materials:

Pumpkin Thematic Unit for Early Learners & Free Pumpkin Song Poster

It is October and pumpkins will be everywhere for the next couple of months!

Kids will be constructing pumpkins from paper, doing science activities, painting pumpkins, playing games with pumpkins, carving pumpkins, and more.

This product contains many "Pumpkin" and harvest themed activities to enjoy in your Kindergarten or Pre-K classrooms.

One of my favorite pumpkin activities is to have a pumpkin in the classroom that I leave out of the activities. It simply sits on a shelf and waits out the October festivities.

Why? Because of this lovely book! This fun to read tale is a twist on the "Ugly Duckling" and emphasizes another purpose for pumpkins that happens in November.  Any guesses?

As your class enjoys the study of pumpkins enjoy one of my favorite pumpkin songs and this free song poster!

Kindergarten Portfolios: A Torn Apple Project

Here my students are building hand muscles while making a great portfolio sample page. If you have not started student portfolios for this school year, it is not too late! Portfolios are the best way to assess student achievement.

Each of our 50 plus Thematic Units contain portfolio sample pages as well as our two portfolio specific products.