Fingerprints, Vowels and Number Sense

I have been so busy this month since going back on the 8th! I am struggling to keep up with this blog and school work.  How do you all do it?  :)

 

Well, since I've been MIA I have a couple of random activities to share.

 

First of all, I wanted to share a class book we made. We read the book It's Okay to be Different and then brainstormed ways its okay to be different. The students then finished a sentence frame and illustrated a picture. One of my students said "It's okay to love Jesus". So adorable!

In the front of the class book, I had all the students stamp their fingerprint and we discussed whether finger prints are more similiar or different.  I included a magnifying glass in the class book envelope so as students are sharing it with their family, they can use the magnifying glass to see the different finger prints. I asked that the parents point out that even though our finger prints look alike, they are all a little different and that makes us unique!

 

Click here if you'd like to see my whole I am Unique Unit from TPT.

 

Since most of my students didn't know what letters were vowels (gasp!). We made vowel art after our lesson on vowels. I gave students black construction paper, foam letters, bright crayons and letter stencils. Then they got to make their own art using a,e,i,o and u. They loved it!

 

The last activity is for those who are needing to build beginning place value concepts as well as number sense with numbers 1-20. Many students were struggling with teen numbers so we used this activity to build their number sense.  I prepared a bag of unifix cubes for each student with numbers ranging from 9-20. Each student had a tens and ones mat and a bag of unifix cubes. They built their ten (if they could) and then placed the left overs on the ones side. They then wrote the number of cubes in the bag. This activity really showed me who was still counting each cube and who could count using tens and ones. Once everyone had built their number and written it on their board with a dry erase marker, I called out "switch" and the students responded " Uh-oh! Switch!". They then passed their bag to the next person and started to build tens with the cubes in their new bag. 

 

 

 

I hope to be back soon! Hopefully someone can use these activities to help their kiddos!

 

Erin