Animals in Winter

 

Our Animals in winter product is a complete science unit for animal basic needs, names of local animals, behavioural adaptations and biodiversity.  

The teacher presentation can be used as a teaching tool and research talking point.   Topics that are include: Hibernation, Torpor, Adaptation, and Migration. 

Posters for the classroom

Put them up as you discuss each topic

Worksheets and activities are included for each topic.

End of the unit activity to sort and organize the animals by the behaviour they exhibit in winter.  

Each topic also has a student reader.  Students can read along.  

The booklets are easy to print back-to-back.  Remember to print on the short side.

We added multiple end of the unit projects.  A way for students to study one animal including it's winter behaviours.  

Choice of the following animals:

racoon

eagles

grizzly bears

orcas

otters

polar bears

wolves

If you like what you see and would like to purchase it, visit our TPT page HERE.

PINK SHIRT DAY

                 

Pink Shirt Day is around the corner.  You may not have Pink Shirt Day where you are are but it is a day to remind us all how to be a good friend, and most importantly stand up to bullying in our schools. The activities we have can be done even if you don't have a Pink Shirt Day where you are. 

By February you have been trying to establish a culture in your classroom of caring for one another and being respectful.  Your school has probably had assemblies reinforcing positive behaviour.  Pink Shirt day is just a good reminder to everyone on how to treat people with respect and kindness and builds on the work you are already doing.  

The most important thing in establishing a positive, respectful, culture in your classroom is by modelling it EVERY SINGLE DAY.  

Pink Shirt Day presentation and activities.  

Presentation and some of the activities. 

The Pink Shirt Day presentation covers the history of the day, why we celebrate it and ways everyone can participate.  There is also a presentation with some activities you can do as a class. 

The history of Pink Shirt Day.  

Includes examples of how to be an upstander not a bystander.  What else can students to do?   Examples like, include others, wear pink, be kind and other suggestions. 

A list of picture books that promote being oneself, being kind, acceptance, and making friends. 

 

Included in the bundle are a variety of activities for grades k-7.  Activities such as, acting out scenarios,  making pledges, and group or partner discussions.

Creating a pink shirt or poster.

An easy reader to read and colour. 

Follow-up activities from the read aloud books.  Each book has several templates to choose from.  Ideas for the templates could be: make a class book, use them for a buddy activity, or use them as a bulletin board display.

Creating new friendships with the read aloud, Stick and Stone.  Fun activities that that help students  find out who the students have things in common with.  STEM activities to work in partners with.  

Pink Shirt Day bundle will take you through a week of activities.  

You can purchase here through our TPT store.  

Valentine's Day Activities

 Happy Valentine's Day!

The month of February is all about Valentine's Day.  Stores get on the bandwagon right after Christmas!  It's that day where you are supposed to tell the people you love how much they mean to you. (Shouldn't we do that everyday?)  

Valentine's Day in an Intermediate Classroom:

If you teach older grades you probably won't do a lot of Valentine's activities but depending on the age you teach, they may still want to exchange cards etc.  I would have a discussion with your class on what works best.  I would always do some sort of an activity to "celebrate" the day and this is a perfect time to join up with your buddy class* and have some fun together.  

*A buddy class is a class (usually younger than what you are teaching) where you do different activities together.  You pair students up and whenever the two classes get together those students work together.  Usually you do an activity once a week. 

Most classes I have taught above the age of 11 would actually rather not exchange cards (and the parents are happy with that...one less thing they need to purchase) but of course who doesn't want to play a fun game or two to break up the day. Valentine's Day celebrations are a nice way to break up the month of February with some fun activities. Just do what works best for your class and have some fun!

Valentine's Day in an Primary Classroom:

Valentine's Day the kids love giving and receiving little cares/candy/and trinkets.  So, because the day is so exciting, its bes to get ahead of the chaos that is sure to ensue.  The first thing I do is write a note to parents ahead of time, to let parents know how many students there are in the class.  I ask parents to only put 'from' on the card not to fill in the 'to' part.  This makes it easier for the students to hand out their cards independently, because helping pre-k/k read all the names of their classmates at the same time when there is only of you is near to impossible. 

Next is, what will the students use to hold all the cards/candy and trinkets?  I used to have th students make their own holders with materials I already had in the classroom. 

Something like this:

Or you can purchase the kit from amazon: 

I'd use paper bags from the Dollar store, just plain brown ones.  That is where you'' ll also find stickers and googlie eyes.  If you are short on cash you might want to add an extra not to parents that a couple of $ will be needed for supplies.  I cut out construction paper.  4 strips, 2 mall and 2 medium, for the arms and legs.  Be patient because making accordion paper is difficult for some students.  Construction paper was also used for the heart face, hands and feet.  For ease I used punch cutter.  

https://a.co/d/iIT6mU5

But you can also just cut them out by hand.  I also make sure these are done ahead of the day as they do take time to make.  If the students are older they can do all the cutting of the construction paper themselves.

Once the bags are done.  Tape them to either the cubbies or the back of their chairs and have the students make a line up to deliver the cards.  Just remember, on the day of deliver and opening the cards will take some time.  then spend the rest of the day doing some of the activities in the bundle below.  

We have put together some activities that you can do in your classroom or at home to celebrate the day. Each product can be purchased separately or in this big bundle!

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Included in this bundle is

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This activity is really easy to do and the whole class can be involved.  Included is 5 Look and Find boards for your projector, and 5 checklists.  I would suggest printing off the checklist in colour and laminating it to use it again or just put it in a sheet protector.  Each board is bright and engaging and comes with 15 hidden pictures.  Most are easy to find but a few may be a challenge.  There is the option to just print as a pdf and students can have their own copy to do at their desk.  Just print them back-to-back with the checklist. I have also included an answer sheet for each board if needed.

Free! Click HERE to go to our store.

Next we have a Valentine Bingo.  5 different games, 4 are medium difficulty and 1 is a little more challenging.  This is included in our Valentine Bundle but its actually a FREE item.  So if you want to get a Valentine wordsearch for your class that if free then just click the link.  You will have to have a Tpt account.  

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Valentine Cards!  Just print back-to-back, cut, colour, fold, and voila.  There are multiple templates that you can combine together.  1 page equals 3 cards.  This is a nice way for your students to put their own personal touches on their cards this year!

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This is a fun take on math task cards.  1 page comes with 2 tasks. There are 14 task cards so this is better done in pairs or small groups.  They would be great to use as a Big Buddy activity. Included are 2 pages for students to write their responces and answer sheets for you! Comes in colour or black and white.

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Who doesn't like a good game of BINGO? This is 30 full BINGO cards in either colour, that you can laminate and use over and over, or black and white and you can have your students colour the sheet as well! Each set comes with 40 calling cards.  One has verbal prompts so you can even have students call the cards for you!  The calling cards are also in colour, but without verbl prompts. 

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Also included is a small group BINGO. This also comes in colour or black and white.  There are 8 different BINGO sheets (small group) and 16 calling cards. This is a fun activity you can do in a small group.

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Another fun activity that gets your students moving and learning new words!

This bundle or the individual products can all be found on our Tpt account.  Make sure you go and get the freebie!

All of these products can also be used at home!  Just adjust for your needs but Valentine family BINGO sounds great to me! 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

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