Blog - Pencils to Pigtails

Groundhog Day Shadows, Crafts, and More Activities!

February 1, 2017

Do you celebrate Groundhog Day with your preschool, kindergarten, or first grade students? These fun groundhog crafts, activities, and facts will keep your students engaged all week!

We are still having so much fun with Groundhog Day. Today we reread the class book “Legend of the Groundhog”.

This book and all of the activities we did today are included in my bundle on TPT which you can grab here:

Groundhog Day Bundle – Crafts and Nonfiction Unit

The kids were THRILLED to hear that they would go outside and look for their shadows. We started with the prediction activity. Most of my students thought that they would see their shadow and they tended to agree with the legend that this meant there would be 6 more weeks of winter. We completed the bar graph as a class. I called each student’s name and we each colored in a box for the votes made. (You could do the bar graph before or after going outside.)

When we got outside the students were so excited to look at each of their shadows. I asked them some higher order thinking questions. “Why would the groundhog be scared of his own shadow?” They were on the right track when a couple answered that he might think it was a monster. I agreed with them that he was scared of something or someone, but NOT a monster. Another child piped up that he was scared of a predator. What impressive vocabulary for a kindergarten student!

There is something so sweet about this picture!

When we came inside students filled out the sheet with the sentence starter, “Our class went outside and ….” I told the students that they all needed to write that they “did” see their shadow but they could make their own decisions about whether or not they thought this meant 6 more weeks of winter.

Later I let them decide if they wanted to do the writing craftivity with “The Legend of the Groundhog” on top or “Happy Groundhog Day!” on top. Students decided which paper they were most proud of and glued their groundhogs to the top for an easy hallway display.

As I’ve said before, my students are total experts on groundhogs now. I loved how these turned out!

This child’s says “I love Groundhog Day! Groundhogs have flood bumps.”
(Just in case you are wondering, groundhogs dig down and then up again creating a “flood bump” so their burrows don’t get soaked after a heavy rain.)
I love the way this quick hallway display turned out!

Make sure to read over my other post about Groundhog Day! You can find it by clicking on the link below!

Let me know how you celebrate this special day with your class.

Groundhog Day Fun by Pencils to Pigtails

Groundhog Day Crafts, Activities, Science, ELA, Math, and More!

February 1, 2017

Do you celebrate Groundhog Day with your preschool, kindergarten, or first grade students? These fun groundhog crafts, activities, and facts will keep your students engaged all week!

I had no idea how interesting groundhogs were until I read the book Groundhog gets a Say by Pamela Curtis Swallow. Although it is written as if it is told by a groundhog, it is full of interesting facts about groundhogs. I created a bundle for PK-2nd grade teachers that you can grab at my TPT store.

Groundhog Day Bundle – Crafts and Nonfiction Unit

My students love to do group research. (Yes! They can research with a group… even in kindergarten!) Just to give you an idea- I have 6 groups of 2-3 students. My lowest group was studying wordless photos of groundhogs. Then they were told to draw a picture about what they learned. My highest group was reading short passages about groundhogs and squirrels and comparing the 2 animals by completing a Venn diagram. I know it sounds like a lot for kindergarten but they can do it. I did this with my class today for an observation and it went great! If you would like to pick up just the Nonfiction Research Unit – you can grab that here.

Differentiated Group Research Project all about Groundhogs

I liked the idea of having each groups materials ready in a plastic bag so I could quickly pass them out and have the students get right to work. This worked seamlessly. The resource comes with a group planning guide and cards to label the groups which was really helpful and kept me organized. I’m sorry I don’t have more pics from this activity but I was so busy being evaluated that there was not much time to take pictures! 🙂 The kids impressed me so much with how hard they worked and how much they learned. We completed a KWL chart together and their answers were fantastic. Did you know that groundhogs are skilled climbers and swimmers which helps them escape predators? They are called whistle-pigs because they whistle to alert other groundhogs of potential danger. They truly hibernate meaning their heart rate slows way down, they sleep for months, and they barely even breathe…. I could go on and on and so can my kindergarten kids! They are ALL groundhog experts now!

We have completed several of the crafts already. The kids LOVED the peek-a-boo groundhog in a cup. I thought he turned out really cute and it really helped students remember the legend.

These are so cute!

We also tried putting the groundhog in some coffee filters. These were colored with markers and sprinkled with water. After they dried, we inserted the craft stick. It turned out pretty cute, but we still preferred the cup.

We had so much fun making the headbands and all the kids are looking forward to wearing those on Thursday.

We haven’t finished our hallway display yet, but we are working on it. This will include a cute little groundhog holding up some of the students’ writing so I will update soon with that picture. Tomorrow, we will be predicting the weather, going outside to check for our shadows, and graphing the results. (All of those activities are also included in the TPT resource.)

If you would like to grab just the crafts without the differentiated research group assignments, you can grab those here.

Legend of the Groundhog Crafts, Writing Projects, Prediction Activities and More!

How do you celebrate with your class? I’m so glad that I finally have some really cute and fun groundhog ideas to use every year!

Head over here to see what we did next in my classroom!

Groundhog Day Shadows and More!

100 Years Old on the 100th Day of School

January 28, 2017

Do you celebrate the 100th day of school with your students? Engage young writers with this adorable FREE writing prompt to be used as one of your 100th day of school activities!

The 100th day of school is always my favorite day of kindergarten! Why? Well… for some odd reason I LOVE dressing up like a granny and the kids crack me up. Like many other teachers, we tell the students to dress like they think they will look when they are 100.

They come up with the cutest ideas!

I tell them nonchalantly in the days leading up that I have to be in meetings that day so my grandma will be coming to teach school and that she is 100 years old.

The conversations typically go something like this, “Let me pull the snacks down from the cupboard because Granny can’t reach those.” “You guys may have to show Grannny how to turn on the computer. They didn’t have those when she was in school.” The kids are always excited to meet her!

This year I hit up Goodwill for a navy floral dress complete with purple flowers and shoulder pads. I found some of my grandma’s old clip on earrings – (mismatched of course), my mom’s bifocals, a snowflake brooch, some knee-high pantyhose (one leg wrinkled around the ankle) and pulled out my favorite Granny wig – braided bun and all. I covered my face in white eye-shadow and attempted to draw on some wrinkles. Then I added some bright pink lipstick. I threw on an Easter hat, grabbed one of my grandma’s old bags and filled it with some knitting needles and a cross-stitch. Another teacher let me borrow her grandma’s walker.

I was laughing to myself at how my morning started and how it ended!

Unfortunately, one child knew right away that it was me so and she proceeded to tell everyone else so I wasn’t able to trick them. (Several years ago I was able to trick the kids all day!) Oh, well… there’s always next year. We had a lot of fun taking pictures and I used a granny voice most of the day. I just LOVE the costumes my students came up with!

100th Day of School Fun!

This is one of those experiences that I think my students will remember when they are older or at least get a kick out of looking at pictures from this day so the hassle is totally worth it to me.

I created a FREEBIE you can grab at my TPT store! We actually didn’t get to this printable until the next day but my students had so much fun drawing a picture of their teacher’s granny. 🙂

I loved how some of them thought to include my walker. 🙂

Click here for that freebie and make sure to click the star in my store to be added to your favorite sellers! You will be updated of fun new products and freebies!

Pencils to Pigtails TPT Store

What about you? How do you celebrate the 100th day of school?

How to Vote and a Mock Election for Young Children

January 17, 2017

Have you ever held a mock election for your students? This was a major hit and the perfect way for us to practice essential writing skills while having fun and learning about the voting process, election day, and inauguration day!

We had so much fun with our mock election on Friday. If you are interested in the mock election activities, the craftivity, or studying inauguration day- you can grab that resource here.

TPT – Donald Trump Resource

We have really enjoyed this unit from making Donald Trump’s hair to voting for our school president!

The kids were begging me to let them cast their vote for our new “School President”, but I held them off as long as possible. I told them that it was important to consider all of the positive qualities about both our gym teacher, Mr. Hice, and our music teacher, Mr. Mills. I reminded them that although I knew that gym is always a popular subject, they should not vote for Mr. Hice just because they enjoyed that class. We have been comparing the two candidates all week.

Mr. Hice and Mr. Mills came by to make a plea with my students about why they should vote for them. Mr. Mills pointed out that he was older and therefore wiser. Mr. Hice came by and really pepped the kids up by reminding them that he teaches them games and his class is fun. His “speech” was a little more passionate then Mr. Mills. 🙂

Later in the day, I asked students to write both teachers’ names on the ballot and place a check mark beside the candidate they wanted to vote for.( If you haven’t read my previous post, my assistant Mel made us this beautiful ballot box, ballots, and “I Voted Today” stickers. The kids were thrilled!)

Drumroll please…………..

Mr. Hice came out ahead! I asked my kids why they voted for him and I was so impressed with their answers. Several said, “He keeps us healthy!” or “He teaches us new games!” My favorite answer was when one child said, “He keeps us hydrated!” I asked him if he knew what that word meant and he said, “Yes! It means you drink a lot of water!”

So congratulations to Mr. Hice, our new School President (according to Mrs. Statum’s class anyways). Congratulations to Mr. Mills as well who was named the new School Vice President. I tried to explain the term Vice President by comparing it to our Vice Principal. Students were quick to say “Oh! Like Mrs. Sylvia!” (Our school secretary!)

I can’t wait to show them some video on Friday of the actual Inauguration Day. How exciting is it that my kindergarten students can tell you all about the President’s role, the activities that will take place on Inauguration Day and explain how the election process works? (All while sneaking in lots of handwriting, reading and writing standards!)

Did you miss our first post about our craft and writing prompts? Head here!

Inauguration Day for Young Students

Did you see the cute white houses we did and how we prepared for our own election? Head here!

Election and the Inauguration Day Set-up!

Inauguration Day and the Election for Children

January 13, 2017

How to vote, the voting process, election day, inauguration day, and so much more! My students have LOVED learning all about this year’s Presidential Inauguration with all of these fun activities!

You can find the resource here!
Donald Trump Craftivity and Writing Project

Students loved the White House coloring page.I asked them to color the windows and cut it out. Most of my students decided to paste it on a large sheet of dark blue paper.

Several drew snowflakes or created trees with construction paper. The “road” was completely their idea and I loved it.

I was especially proud of my little boy who created a car from construction paper. Believe me, he was very proud too!

We reviewed our word wall cards and I was pleased that this week students had a much more in depth understanding about the president and what will happen on Inauguration Day.

I also had students complete the coloring sheets provided as morning work this week. I love that these are differentiated to meet individual learning needs. My high students loved the challenge and my lower students were able to build some confidence. The best part was that I didn’t have any early finishers. Crickets in my room and I have a very talkative class!

I also let the students know that we would be holding a mock election to see who should be the school president. I told them that Mr. Hice, our gym teacher and Mr. Mills, our music teacher were the two candidates. The kids were thrilled at just the thought of holding an election. I gave each student a sheet to write the names and draw a picture of the candidates. (I included more advanced ways to compare the two candidates in the resource, but for kindergarten I stuck with a simple sheet. If you teach an older grade you may want to use the Venn diagram page or the page where students list favorable traits on the emojis.)

(Many of my students drew our gym teacher with a basketball and our music teacher with a guitar.)

I told the students that they needed to do some thinking about who they would cast a vote for. I reminded them that they shouldn’t cast a vote just because they like one subject over the other.

Mr. Mills stopped by to tell us that he was older and therefore wiser then Mr. Hice. We plan to talk to Mr. Hice tomorrow to hear why we should vote for him. 🙂

In the meantime, my AMAZING assistant Mel created the most adorable “I Voted Today” stickers for the students to wear after they place their ballot. I included ballots in the resource listed, but I have to admit that I like the ones that Mel surprised us with even better so we will be using those. She also came up with this adorable ballot box! Now, how bad do you want a Mel in your room??? 🙂 At our school we have an assistant for an hour a day and I am so grateful for that!

I have left the ballot box, stickers, and ballots sitting out just to build excitement and it has really worked. My students have been begging me to cast their votes. We will be voting tomorrow and they can’t wait.

Think about how you could use this resource in your classroom. In the past I brought in pictures of my dogs and asked students to decide who should be our Dog President. I told students all about each dog’s good and bad character traits. They had so much fun. I wouldn’t want to let two students run in my room because I could envision a lot of jealousy and hurt feelings.

How could you use this in your room?

Did you miss how we began this lesson? Head Here!

Inauguration Day for Young Children

To see what we did next, head here!

Mock Election with Young Students by Pencils to Pigtails

The Presidential Inauguration Day with Young Children

January 7, 2017

Have you ever taught your students about the presidential election? My kids had the best time learning about inauguration day and how to vote while working on essential writing skills.

When Donald Trump was elected, we really loved learning about Inauguration Day!

I know that there are many differing opinions about our most recent Presidential election. However, I think it is really important to teach our children that they have a voice. I developed a unit on Donald Trump to use with my students. You can find it here:

Donald Trump Craftivity and Writing Project

I found an old bulletin board set that I used when I taught fourth grade so I started by showing my students some pictures from the bulletin board set along with the word wall cards from my Trump unit. I also found a newspaper article in this month’s Kidsville to share with them.

I LOVED hearing my students discuss the President. I began by asking them who the current President is. None of them knew! Several said that Donald Trump was the President. I explained that Inauguration Day will take place on January 20th, 2017. We discussed a typical Inauguration Day which usually consists of the incoming President attending a worship service, a ride with the outgoing President to the ceremony, taking an oath of office, a parade, luncheon, and a ball. The students were so intrigued by the idea of a ball! (More on that later!)

I really enjoyed hearing what my students had to say when asked what the President does. One said that he can tell the robbers not to go in people’s houses. Another said he can decide who goes to jail. One little boy said that he can call the fire department if there is a fire and another child said he can decide when it is time for everyone to eat dinner. 🙂 I gave them a very basic overview of various responsibilities that our President has.

I then gave the kids some “think time” to figure out what they would tell the President if they had the chance to give him some advice. They came up with the cutest answers and I wrote them on the board. Some of the sentences were “Practice dancing.” (for the inaugural ball, of course!) They also said he should be a good boss, watch baseball to relax, get a pet, take care of everybody, go to bed early, and protect the world. I loved that last one! I am so impressed with them!

Students were asked to pick 3 of the sentences and copy them. Many times I ask students to come up with a sentence phonetically, but for this assignment I wanted them to copy 3 from the sentences we generated together. I was pleased that they seemed to have a strong understanding that a sentence consists of a complete thought and that they were able to practice essential components of a sentence such as beginning with a capital letter and using end marks. (I am noticing that I need to work on handwriting more though!) 🙂

After they finished we looked at several pictures of Donald Trump. I showed the students my sample craft and told them that I just couldn’t get his hair right. They had so much fun attempting to create his hairstyle. As you can see, we could not figure out exactly what color his hair should be! I passed out the pieces one item at a time, but I’ve never been one to correct students if they don’t make their craft look just like mine. I love how they each have their own individual style!

The kids are so proud of their Donald Trumps! I am too.

Head here to see what we did next!

Pencils to Pigtails Inauguration Day – Week 2

Easy Homemade Play Dough Recipe

January 4, 2017

This easy gingerbread play dough recipe is the best and perfect to whip up to use in your home or classroom because there is no heat required! It has the perfect consistency and makes the whole house smell so good!

Aniston is obsessed with Play-Doh at the moment. We’ve had plenty of fun with a few of the kits you can buy, but I’m not a fan of the way it smells and the residue it leaves on your fingers. Plus Aniston LOVES to get up on the counter and cook with me. I’ve come up with a Homemade Gingerbread Play Dough recipe that we really love. Yes, it’s a little Christmas-sy but I plan to use this recipe year round. It smells delicious, is quick to mix up and you most likely have the items already at home to make it. There is no heat involved so Aniston can dig right in and get her hands ~~dirty~~ doughy.

Homemade Gingerbread Play Dough

1 Cup of Flour
1/2 Cup of Salt
1/2 Tbsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp. Ground Ginger
1/2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1/2 Cup of Water

(If you wanted to leave out the cinnamon and ginger you could make regular play dough. You may want to add a drop or two of food coloring to add interest. I have used this same recipe to make apple pie play dough using apple pie spice in place of the ginger and cinnamon!)

Toddlers love to measure, pour, and stir so try to let them be involved as much as possible.

After we finished mixing it up, I pulled Aniston’s little white table out and filled it with rolling pins and cookie cutters.

She was in awe of the Gingerbread Man chant and was constantly singing, “Run! Run! Fast as you can! You can’t catch me… I’m the Gingerbread Man!”

(Love the little cutie in the background of this one!)

We didn’t wrap the first batch up too good so a couple days later Aniston was more than happy to make it again.

(Hint: Wrap with plastic wrap tightly and store in air-tight container.)

Excuse the crazy outfit but if we are staying at home I have a rule that Aniston can dress as she likes. 🙂

The next day Aniston’s cousin came to play. Who knew you could keep two busy toddlers entertained for an hour so easily? I think it’s definitely worth the trouble to make and clean up!

What about you? Have you ever tried homemade play dough? This would be a great activity to try in your classroom. I will definitely be saving this in my December box for next year!

Missing Mitten Mystery

January 3, 2017

This adorable freebie created to pair with The Missing Mitten Mystery written by Steven Kellogg will keep primary students engaged while practicing essential writing skills! Young children love working on writing while trying to solve the mystery!

Update! Guess what? The post below was written BEFORE I created this FREEBIE that includes mittens and writing templates that you can find by clicking on the photo above to download in my TPT store! Please read through my older blog post to see how I introduce the mystery to my students!

The kids and I were excited to jump back in the swing of things after our Christmas break. I always like to display any books about snow in the month of January. We live in Tennessee and so an inch or two of snow can get us very excited. 🙂

This morning I read the students “The Missing Mitten Mystery”. This book was written and illustrated by Steven Kellogg and is perfect for incorporating into your Writer’s Workshop time.

I always begin the story by discussing the term “mystery” with students. I gave them a brief time to talk with their shoulder partners and make predictions about the story.

You will also want to point out that Steven Kellogg is both the author and illustrator. I’ve always thought his illustrations are especially beautiful and detailed.

Read the story but make sure you stop after Miss Seltzer calls Annie to come inside.

I tell students that I want them to write about what they think happened to Annie’s mitten. Do they think Annie was on to something when she suggested a bird took the mitten? Do they have another idea?

I gave each student a small red mitten I had pre-cut out of construction paper. (This REALLY adds to the excitement!) I guided them through creating a story starter. Ours was “I think Annie’s mitten is _________.”

For kindergarten students I was really pleased with what they came up with!

Most of my students predicted that the mitten was either on the snowman’s hand or that the eagle had taken it. I had a few think the mouse had it or that she had left it outside while playing.

It is always fun to come back together and let the kids share their work. I then read the rest of the book where they discover that the mitten was left inside the snowman creating the perfect heart shape.

I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine always do!