Insects, Balloons, Superheroes & the Circus!

Just as we began our May Days themes, a lot of external things came to pass...SmartBoards being installed, new {& LENGTHY} district assessments, tech issues with DIBELS that resulted in retesting all the kids...twice.  We also had a really tough day as we learned that we were losing 7 teachers next year.  While it was a little disappointing to not get to all of our super fun activities, I also had much practice this week in patience, flexibility and remembering what really matters.  These were all intended to be individual posts full to the brim with ideas, but just as things in the classroom can change at any moment, I'm learning the same goes for Blogland.  I hope you'll still find something new and ready-to-use!

Bugs & Insects

We used Eric Carle's coloring sheet to sequence the events in The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Since I can't ever leave anything as just a worksheet it became our favorite product...a sentence strip crown!

{egg carton insects with all 3 body parts & antennae}

{tissue paper butterflies to beautify the view & replace our friends who flew away}

We used this super cute Read the Room blends activity from Teach it With Class and I was thrilled & surprised to see how many of the words my kinders could actually sound out and read on their own!

Shannon at Kinder-pond also provided us with a directionality book & nonsense word sort.

 Bubbles & Balloons

{using Crickweb's fabulous counting activities on our new SmartBoard!}

{counting how many times we can hit the balloon without it touching the ground}

{moving bubbles to correctly spell mixed-up sight words}

Circus Day

{watching actual Ringling Brothers footage before writing about acts}

{our adorable animal cracker circus train}

Superhero Day

{we created superhero names by writing a list of nouns and a list of adjectives and putting them in a basket.  everyone chose one word from each group and voila!, new supercharacter to write about.}

Lindsey at The Teacher Wife also has an awesome unit on -er & -est endings using superheroes that we used in our guided reading groups.  Definitely worth a couple of dollars!

 And a little something extra...

 

While our SmartBoard was installed we spent the morning across the hall buddied up with our favorite first graders in Mrs. Wick's class!  They had been studying homes for people and animals and we just couldn't pass up this cute activity.  After reading House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle, we made our shells fancy with decoration, too.  Thanks for sharing Mrs. Wicks!!

{cute crab & shell printables from A Mommy's Adventures}

I also found this activity on Homeschool Share that would be great to incorporate into a math or calendar lesson!