Letter Aa Activities

I decided to write about what I will be doing each week with my little preschoolers. Then next year I can simply look the information up as opposed to trying to remember. I am terrible when it comes to writing everything down in a lesson plan book. We are beginning our first week of preschool next week. Our first set of lessons will be based on the letter A, number 1, shape circle, and theme "going to school"

Books for Letter A:

• Ten Apple on Top - By: Dr. Seuss
• Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator! - By: Mo Willems
• The Lady with the Alligator Purse - By:Nadine Bernard Westcott



Letter A Art Project - Ten Apples on Top

• There's an Alligator Under My Bed - By: Mercer Mayer

Books about going back to school:

• The Kissing Hand - By: Audrey Penn
• First Day Jitters - By: Julie Danneberg
• My Teacher is My Friend - By: P. K. Hallinan
• My First Day of School - By: P. K. Hallinan
• The Berenstain Bears Go to School - By: Stan & Jan Berenstain
• How do Dinosaurs go to School? - By: Jane Yolen
• If You Take a Mouse to School - By: Laura Numeroff
• First Day of School - By: Mercer Mayer

Art:

• "Ten Apples on Top" by Dr. Seuss Give the students half of an apple and have them stamp apples on top of a simple picture of a head. I allowed my kiddos to use red, yellow, and green paint for this activity to show all the apple colors.
• When you cut up apple for the above activity save the seeds to be glued on later. You can glue them on their 10 Apples on Top art project or have them complete a simple apple coloring page and glue the seeds in the middle. You can also glue the seeds on a large letter "A"
• Alligator paper bag puppet
• The Kissing Hand - This is a great way to start off the school year, especially since so many children are nervous about their first day of school. This book helps them understand their nerves. Printable: The Kissing Hand Poem

The Kissing Hand - Poem & Art Project

Letter of the Week Book:
Each week we make a book with our letter of the week. The first 4 pages are part of the book. Then the last two pages are additional practice. Page 5 with the letter and pictures is for rainbow writing. The kids trace each letter 5-10 times using lots of different colors. The final page I change how we use this each week. The kids can place small stickers all along the letter. These stickers could be things like apples, ants, alligators... We poke holes in the letters (refer to the post called "Push Pin Fine Motor") They can practice cutting on the lines. Have the students dab their pointer and middle fingers on an ink pad and then "walk" along the letter.

Letter Aa Printable Book

Singing/Rhymes:

You can use pictures of apples on a tree with the following rhyme, I have also had each of my students pretend they were the apple so at the end when the apple tumbles down they fall slowly to the ground.

(Five) red apples hanging in a tree,

The juiciest apples that you ever did see!

The wind came by and gave an angry frown

And one little apple came tumbling down!

 

Five Little Apples

Five little apples hung on a tree...

The farmer didn't care

So guess who came to eat?

A MOUSE... Munch, Munch, Munch

Four little apples hung on a tree...

The farmer didn't care

So guess who came to eat?

A BIRD... Munch, Munch, Munch

 

Three little apples hung on a tree...

The farmer didn't care

So guess who came to eat?

A SQUIRREL...Munch, Munch, Munch

 

Two little apples hung on a tree...

The farmer didn't care

So guess who came to eat?

A PIG... Munch, Munch, Munch

 

One little apple hung on a tree...

The farmer didn't care

So guess who came to eat?

A SHEEP... Munch, Munch, Munch

 

Now the tree is bare

There are no more apples there

But when next fall comes around

Guess who'll be there?

The mouse, the bird, the squirrel, the pig, and the sheep. Yum! Yum!

The Ants Go Marching
  

3 Apples Up On Top

2 Apples Up On Top

Motor:

Give the students several whole apples to see if they can balance one apple on their head, then two, then three... Usually they will fall off with just one apple on top.


March like an ant when moving around.
 

Print out a large letter "A a" and then have the students make ant shaped finger prints with black ink along the line of the "A a" (3 small finger prints together then draw legs)

 

Math:

Circle printable tracing page

Have the students guess how many seeds are in a yellow, green, and red apple. Then cut each apple open and graph the number of seeds on a graph.

Have the kids place apples in order from smallest to largest.

Create a pattern with actual apples or with pictures of apples in the 3 colors - red, yellow, and green.

Begin working on the number 1. Practice writing the number 1 and counting. Here is a worksheet I use for this activity. Number 1

Creative Play:
Pretend you are different Animals
I am going to have pictures of animals and have the kids act like the animal to see if the other students can guess what animal they are.



Apps for Stages

Looking for some good apps but not sure how challenging the app will truly be. This website lists apps by stages and also describes what each stage looks like. http://apps4stages.wikispaces.com/

Multiplication

I always try to teach my students how to complete multiplication independently. However sometimes they need some extra help and here are some of the things that can assist them. Teach the students a song to remember how to count by each number.

2 X Tables = Yankee Doodle Dandy
3 X Tables = Row Row Row Your Boat
4 X Tables = Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
5 X Tables = Teach a Regular/Steady Beat
6 X Tables = London Bridge or Mary Had a Little Lamb
7 X Tables =Mary Had a Little Lamb or Are You Sleeping
8 X Tables = This Old Man
9 X Tables = Yankee Doodle Dandy or Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer

Also teach your students how to use a multiplication table. This can be a great visual support when they are learning their times tables.
Multiplication Table Printable



Multiplication Table

Sand Letters

Tracing Sand Letters

Students need so many different sensory inputs to learn new skills. I believe that the more diverse ways I teach the better understanding my students will have. I created these letter cards that show the directional arrows for writing. I then laminated and bought sand from a craft store. I traced the letters with craft glue and sprinkled sand over the glue. Once everything had dried I had a great sensory activity for the students to feel each letter. They love touching the rough, bumpy sand for each letter. This has helped them create motor memory for the way the letter should be written.

Trace Letter - Printable

Dollar More

Dollar More - With Visual Supports

I love teaching the dollar more strategy. For kids that have greater difficulty adding coins and bills together this strategy is genius. What you do is provide the students with a price for example $2.80. The student gives $2.00 for the bills and a "Dollar More" for the change to equal $3.00. What I created was a visual support to help students understand the difference between money before the decimal and the change after the decimal. This visual support has been extremely effective in teaching money skills. I like to place several pictures with the prices in front of the student and have them select the one they want to work on. This way we can also work on the skill of knowing if you have enough money to buy particular items. Here are a few suggestions to help with generalization and motivation.

1. Always use real money. If you are worried about stealing, keep the money in a locked box but use real money.

2. Find things the students would be interested in buying to have them practice their money skills. Then use a picture or the actual item while they practice. 

3. While teaching this skills also work on having the student identify if they have enough money to purchase an item. I like to place their favorite picture/item in front of them and then give them slightly less money than they need. This way they understand that just because you have money doesn't mean you can buy anything you want.

***4. If you have a student who is reluctant to work this can also be used as a behavior motivator. I will start the student off with $1.00. Then ask them which item they would like to buy and these are things that are classroom reinforcers such as run time, sensory time, extra recess, book time, special toy, small snack, anything reinforcing. Then I tell them that it will cost $6.00 to earn that particular item. The way they earn their money is to complete tasks in the classroom. One line of math = $1.00. One fine motor task = $1.00. Reading a story = $2.00, etc. This is like the "I am working for" program but requires a high level of thinking and a real life connection to money and the value of money. As the students become better at working I increase the amount of money to earn a given reinforcer.

5. You can also provide the students with a set of prices and bills to complete this task in your TEACCH system - You would want to closely monitor the money. One way to do this would be to have price cards in the TEACCH box and then the students would request the money from the teacher and return the money afterwards.

6. After the students are comfortable with using dollar bills then increase the difficulty level by having five dollar bills, then ten, and twenty dollar bills.

Dollar More - With Real Money  Visual Support

 Dollar More Printable

Angry Birds

Angry Birds Welcome Wall Decoration

WelcomeWall Decoration

This year my roommate decided on an Angry Birds theme for her 6th grade classroom wall. I thought these pictures were awesome so I decided to share. She is going to add her students names to each piggy. Her students can also earn classroom library time where she has placed bean bags and angry bird pillows.



Welcome Wall Decoration

Categories with Favorite Characters

Disney Category - Boys vs. Girls

Categories are always a key part when it comes to language skills. I haven't found a kid yet that doesn't enjoy Disney movies. Over the past few years I have been collecting Disney Play sets. I now use these while working on language. For students who are learning categories this becomes a fun activity. I have them sort these in many different ways - refer to the pictures for examples. The students think they are playing when in reality they are learning some valuable skills. I also love these toys because I can get so much language from my students. When I am working with students with language needs I pull out my Disney toys. They can work on requesting more toys. We can play with the figures together building joint interactions. We can work on building simple language words/phrases such as Tigger bounces say "bounce" I know that the play sets cost money, for me they were well worth the investment. If you do not have the funds another idea is to print pictures on card stock of the students favorite characters from movies, books, tv remember to laminate. Use the pictures in the same way as the figures.

Disney Category - Animals vs. People

Disney Category - Movie Sort

Disney Category - Land Animal vs. Water Animal

Movement with Dice

I found these wonderful soft cube dice that allow you to change the picture, word, number, etc that is on each side. Oh the possibilities! The first day I tried them I placed colored paper all around the room. The kids rolled a color die and a movement die and then went found the correct color by moving around the room. They thought this was the greatest activity ever. They worked on their gross motor skills and color skills. Next I am going to try numbers and movement. What is great about these dice are the fact that I can change what skill they are working on from things like the movement to retelling parts of a story to multiplication facts. Like I said the possibilities are great!
Movement printable



Soft Dice with Plastic Picture Inserts