Pre-K Dinosaur Color By Number/Letter

So now that I have a kiddo myself I have been creating for him and thought I'd share what we have been up to lately.  A little background - he's 3.5 now and is totally into dinosaurs! We have been working on alphabet and counting for awhile but I just now realized that he can do color by number sheets - like DUH! It just had not even occurred to me before now.

I whipped up some sheets that I LOVE! and he does too!

I'll tell ya why I love them:

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Slime Science

Since I'm not in a school this year I have still been involved with kids even in my community.  Recently I held a slime science event at a local community center for parents to drop off kids and shop/wrap presents if need be.  We had four different slime stations and lots of learning and fun took place.

I loved that kids wanted to come outside of school and I tried to provide some great extensions about science from what they are learning.  The stations we had were:

• Magnetic Slime
• Color Changing Slime
• Glow in the Dark Slime
• DIY Slime

I wanted this to extend education in addition to the clear fun of "slime" on its own.  I made a specific booklet that contains all the recipes that we used and activities that go along with each type.  

For our specific event, we had kids rotate around in groups and really didn't get to do too much of the book work, but the table leaders went into specific details and experimented after making it.  

The way our event worked was 2 rotations of slime, then we met, talked and had snack, then finished up our last 2 rotations.  At the end, we met back up and looked at our books to find something new we learned or write it down and that is what they shared before they left.  

Overall, this would make a great family night for your school.  Buying the supplies in bulk really cuts the cost of the event.  We used 2oz cups since they got to take home 4 different types and that worked out great.  The booklet even comes with a whole page of parent extensions!

My four favorite parts:

1.  My Pearly Snow Slime:
Guys I seriously could not stop playing with my own slime I made.  At the DIY station I used White Pearl Paint combined with sequins to make a winter-y pearl paint.  I loved the shimmer and shine but it wasn't too much and the consistency came out just right.  We learned no matter how many times we made it that consistency varied each time it seemed like - too loose, too tight or just right.  It took lots of trial and error - we used pipettes to drop in the Borax solution to make sure we weren't adding too much.  Watering down the glue helps as well.

2. Magnet Fights
Because we used Iron Filings and Iron Oxide in different batches we could test the strength of each. Below is a video of the two different types and how they interacted with Neodymium Magnets .

*yes those magnets have to be used - I noted that in parent materials*

Pulling back the slime reveals the magnetic field!🤓🤓🤓


Also what's really cool is that those two slimes become magnetic to each other after polarized with the magnet.  If they are stored near each other the iron fillings will all gravitate towards the iron oxide slime - PRETTY COOL!

👩🏼‍🔬iron fillings vs. iron oxide powder👨🏽‍🔬 this slime event is going to be AWESOME! #ilovescience #iteachscience #slime #magneticslime #magnets #funsaturday #adultatplay

A post shared by Amber Nicole (@sssteaching) on Nov 18, 2017 at 7:08am PST

3. Exact Temperature Changes

The color changing slime was so fun to make and experiment with! Thermochromic pigment makes this slime so special. The pigment changes color with different temperatures! I could not find one to purchase that changes at a lower temp. Ours changes at 88 degrees Fahrenheit which actually worked out well.

We could dip it in hot tap water, warm with our breath, stretch out warm slime and watch it cool, and get metal utensils warm to make patterns!

The cool science part was letting students use a thermometer to experiment with exactly what temperature changed the slime. Lots of trial and error to figure it out. The powder can be a little pricey but woukd easily make a big batch for one class!!

4. “Literal” lightbulb moments 

The glow slime was really eye opening for some of the kids that have never seen black lights or used them before. It was so cool to see their reactions to he parts.  Clear Glue works better than white glue for glow slime!

We used Highlighter ink in our water since it glows in black lights, we used glow paint and black light paint to make sure our slime glowed in dark and under black light really well. I made sure kids got to see each part of that process as well! 

If you are interested in the workbook that goes with the materials to use in school or for parents you can find more information by clicking here or any of the pictures below.  It also comes with an editable invite and some promo resources!

My top picks: 

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#Hashtag Emoji Awards

I'm so excited to use these new awards this year in my classroom!  They will work for ANY grade level and the kids love them because of how "trendy" they are!

With over 30+ templates there is something for each student in your class!  It even comes with a end of year fill in sheet complete with : 

• fill in story
• emoji circle
• School preference 
• Hashtags for your school year
• Timehop of favorite memory

I print the memory page on the back of all my awards so the students have their awards and memories together + it is a great fill in activity for the end of the year!

Click any of the pictures to check out more details about these #hashtag Emoji Awards

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Test Prep Campout - Classroom Transformation

The day finally came for our TEST prep campout and it could not have gone better! The tents were set up and it was time to review what we had learned from the year!

Below I'll go through some of the 8 stations!  I took grades on 5 of them and groups had bags they packed to take around and make sure they had all their supplies.  It lasted over 3 hours for us and took up most of our day.  While some groups finished, they were reading for our book clubs if they had any extra time.

To be honest, we didn't even do the camping exercises.  We just didn't have time.  We stopped after every station and did a song from MooseTube on GoNoodle for a fun camping brain break and it worked perfect.  Make it work for your classroom!

Students had to color the smores page by part of speech.  They ate some smores trail mix as well (teddy Grahams, chocolate chips, and marshmallows) This obviously was a favorite station!

Focusing and eating, what a combination!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Test-Prep-CAMPOUT-3068743

They had to pack  a backpack with figurative language supplies and it spelled out a pun "Oh man, that camping trip was in tents." They thought that was hilarious and an easy way for me to check as well!

This station proved to be a little difficult but many groups worked hard and I was proud of them sticking with it.  Some supplies always came up as challenging so I helped with those.  You can see a student wearing my brownie vest as our VIP vest it rotated each station!

At the Catching Lightning Bugs station, they sorted elements of stories: 

• 1st, 2nd, 3rd person
• vocab words/context clues eg. "has a word with definition directly after"
• figurative language "contains a simile" "contains an idiom" 
• genres 
• and even more...

If sorted correctly the bugs had number patterns they recorded.  I highlighted the italic words to make it easier for them to find.  I thought this would be easier than it was!  I definitely will incorporate that more into future years.  Great compare and contrast skills!

 Fishing for Fragments - they had to throw back fragments, keep sentences, and pass run on sentences to the captain.  Using a raft, life jacket, and oars made it SO EASY AND FUN!

In the 2 tents, they did an analyzing poetry page and a listening center over a nonfiction camping story, "The Camping Trip That Changed America."  They had rigorous test like questions based on evidence over it as well.  

You can use these affiliate links if you want a raft or these really cool star lights as well that we used in the background and for reading under the stars later in day 

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Prefix Patients

Are you looking for a way engage students in content?! Why not let them be doctors?!

This is one of my favorite classroom transformations!  Prefix patients gives students a chance to communicate and practice the meaning of prefixes to make words with self checking patient charts!

FIRST - students work with partners and get a patient they must help.  One student is the doctor and one the assistant.  The doctor reads the first ailment - "broken jaw" (see above)

SECOND - the assistant goes to the injuries pages posted around the room. In light boxes if you want the "xray look"  He or she uses the clues under the broken jaw and goes to the prefix and root words below to figure out what word matches. 

The words for all the ailments fit in a paragraph on the patient chart that the student can check to see if they make sense and if they made the words properly.

Then they switch for the 2nd patient.  This could easily be one with 1 student at a time. I just only have enough gowns for half my class so we work together and switch. 

This is so easy to pull off: 

- sheet trays!

- gloves and masks from our school nurse (or ask a local doctor to donate)

- goggles (our science closet)

-gowns (donated from a doctor office that I use yearly)

- I bring in tweezers and sanitizer and stethoscope from school or my house

Check out what is included below: 

- patient chart covers

-doctor badges 

- diplomas!

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