Eggcellent ideas for Spring

 I have ideas for activities with eggs for you.  The #kinderfriends are doing a give away too, so be sure to enter! I also have a sweet freebie for you. Keep reading so you can grab it.

I love doing a mini unit on spring with my class right before break.  Part of that unit is learning about all the baby animals being born.  It is really fun to learn about how many different animals come from eggs!  That's why I made this sweet little emergent reader:

My kiddos LOVE this book!  You can grab it right here:  Emergent Reader: Oviparous Animals - What Comes From an Egg?   We really enjoyed learning about a new animal each day for the next page.   I did a Google search each morning to show the kids real images for the eggs.  I projected the images on the big screen in our classroom. 

I also had some great books to read to my sweet students on this topic.  You can find lots more ideas for books and other activities about eggs and spring here:  Baby Birds! Spring ideas from Mrs. Byrd   You can also grab some tips on coloring eggs in your classroom and grab a FREEBIE for spring word work with plastic eggs here: Coloring eggs in the Classroom .

It's fun to have your students design a colorful egg for spring.  This is my teacher example that I show my students as I explain the art project to them.  You can see how we made these eggs on this blog post: Melt Art Fun!  I had a cute little bird in my egg.  But, it's fun to let your students pick whatever animal they want to come out of the egg.  

It's also really fun to hatch real eggs in your classroom.  Last year, some kids at school found these little yellow eggs and we hatched  them in our room.  We watched them go from eggs to larvae to pupae and finally we had live adult ladybugs.  It was an adventure every day finding aphids.  I am so glad I happened to have a great little habitat for the buggies!  I posted pictures and videos about the ladybugs on Instagram.  I try to post something on Insta from my classroom each day.  You can find me on Instagram here:  @mrsbyrdslearningtree

This year a sweet parent brought in some tadpoles from her pond.  It's been a learning experience keeping them.  None of us had ever tried to watch the frog life cycle in a classroom before.  Thankfully another sweet mom brought in a great bowl to keep them in.  

I was worried about how they would do over spring break and I was THRILLED today when they were still doing fine.  Yay! 

 Isn't this little guy cute?

OK, it's FREEBIE time!!!

I wanted a fun little number, counting, and number word review for my class this spring.  So I put together this little math station activity.  It is FREE this week only!  Grab it by Thursday April 13th 2017.  It will turn into a regular priced item on Thursday night.  The link is below.

I have kids work collaboratively to put the numeral cards in order first.   Then they take turns matching the nests and word cards to the numbers.    This set also has two worksheets to reinforce the concepts.  One is to practice the number words and neat handwriting.

The other sheet is a cut and paste matching numerals and number of eggs.  It's a cute one:

I hope this is a big help to you!  You can grab it in my TpT store here: Spring Eggs Number Match

Don't forget to enter the #kinderfriends giveaway.  Some buddies and I are giving away some "EGGSTRA" special spring products.  One lucky winner will get all 7 packs!  Woo hoo!  Hope you win:)

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy teaching!

It's a Spring FREEBIE!

Hello there and happy first day of spring!  I am doing lots of fun things with a spring theme in the classroom this week and I just wanted to share this fun math fact number bond activity my kiddos will be doing on Friday.

You will need some plastic eggs and candies to do it.  I am using the m&m candies as you can see in my photo above.  You could use any little candies that fit in the eggs.  When you fill the eggs with candy, you will need to put only two colors in each egg.  That way you will have two parts for the number bond.  The example above is 3 green and 4 purple make 7 altogether.  You can see pictures of the candies in the egg and the matching number bond next to it on the recording sheet.

I don't let my students eat the candies while they are working, but maybe you do...  mine usually have a little basket they have made to put them in to go home.

This is a fun activity and it is great practice for math facts and number bonds.  Yay!

If you are looking for more ideas for spring in the classroom, you can find books and art here: Baby Birds!  You can find fun learning activities and games here: Spring is here!l  You can find some adorable egg art here: Melt art Fun!  There are lots of ideas on my spring Pinterest board here: Spectacular Spring

Here is a picture of the recording sheet for this number bond activity:

You can go grab it in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here: FREEBIE! Spring egg number bonds

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Happy spring!
Happy teaching!

Baby birds!

Spring is here!  Flowers are blooming, birds are busy, and eggs are everywhere.  We had fun learning about spring in the classroom last week.  The kiddos made little spring baskets using berry baskets from the farmer's market.  They used 1/2" strips of colored paper to weave through the sides and two standard pipe cleaners twisted together for the handles.  It sure is good fine motor work for young students.  They were excited about the baskets and what we would make to go inside.

We read some fantastic books about spring and the signs of the season in nature and the world around us.  This topic always includes baby animals and eggs, so, we learned a bit about them too.  This is my all time favorite non fiction book on eggs:

 

It has lots of interesting information about eggs and the many animals that are born from them.  The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous!  If you don't have this book in your collection, it is a must have.  And I just found this one below as well.  It is brand new and will be released on April 14th, 2015.  I have ordered it for my classroom and can't wait for it to come.  I have most of the books in this series.  They are all wonderful.

 

They are a perfect compliment to these oldies but goodies:

 

 

 

 

 

This year, we decided to make baby birds to go in the spring baskets.  We cut toilet paper rolls in half.  The kiddos painted them as an independent center one day.  Each child did two.  Then later in the week, the kids added eyes, beaks, and feathers with an adult.  These items were glued on using a low heat  hot glue gun, which is why it is an adult supervised activity.  The adult does the gluing, but the child is the creative director regarding color, size, and placement of the items.  If you have a way to make these kinds of projects happen in your classroom, they are very special to the students and will be treasures for years to come.  Here are a few of ours:

Aren't they adorable?  The kiddos also added colored eggs and some sweets used for math problem solving to the baskets as well.  You can see more about our colored eggs on this blog post: Coloring Eggs in the Classroom.  Our last day before break was super special because we also got to see and touch these cool things:

A big thank you goes out to my AMAZING instructional aide, Stacey Grant, for bringing in those cool eggs to share with our kiddos.  I also want to thank the student in my class who brought in the baby chicks.  He was so excited about them hatching at home and I am so happy that he was able to share them with our class.  Thanks so much!  It made our day!

I have so much more to tell you about our studies of spring.  This post is getting very long, though, so it will have to wait for the next one.  Hope you are enjoying all the fun curriculum connections that spring provides.

Happy spring!
Happy teacing!

Coloring Eggs in the Classroom

Do you color hard boiled eggs in your classroom?  I do.  We always do a little unit of study on spring and all the signs of the season in nature and the world around us.  I do not use any frame of reference to Easter other than it is a holiday that some people celebrate at this time of year.   I like to do this activity on our last day before the kids go on spring break as a fun way to end our unit.  We always talk about baby animals and baby birds.  Eggs inevitably come into the discussion as well.  

Do you know how few children are doing this at home with their families?  I have such sweet childhood memories of doing this with my mom.  When I ask my kinder students if they have done this before, most say no.  The few who say yes, have often done it in a preschool or after school care program.  That makes me a bit sad.  But, it is another reason I do it with my students.

I know what some of you are thinking, "coloring eggs has no academic value".  I disagree.  I see this as an art activity and art activities have great value in my classroom.  We want 21st century students to be creative and think outside the box.  We want them to be problem solvers finding unique solutions to difficult challenges.  I know all the art teachers in the world will agree that all these characteristics  can all be learned through the arts.  When I say the arts, I am not talking about a classroom "craftivity" where each child's product looks exactly the same.  I am talking about providing the tools and materials for students to make something completely their own.  OK, I know we are talking about coloring eggs.  Yes, it is a simple activity and will not produce a grand masterpiece.  But in kindergarten, it is practice that gets students' creative juices flowing.  All these art experiences build on each other and help students see themselves as "creative".   And when these art experiences are combined with opportunities to be creative in math, science, and other subjects, we are reaching our goals to help prepare students for a successful future.

OK, thanks for reading my rant on art and why it is still very important in education.  Coloring eggs is a very simple art project that is inexpensive and easy to set up.  Kids think it is FUN, which is another very important part of kindergarten.  I get the color pellets at the dollar store.  I got the colored egg cups in the photo at the top from a set years ago and keep them for this activity.  They are very handy and if you want to color eggs, it is worth getting them and keeping them for the future.  We just use crayons to decorate the eggs before they go into the dye.  Make sure you get the eggs out of the fridge for about 30 minutes before you color them.  If they are too cold, the condensation and temperature make it hard to use the crayons effectively.  

It is hard to see the crayon lines on the eggs, but some of them are super cute!  Each child did two and that is the perfect number of eggs to fit into the little baskets they made.  I let the eggs dry in the carton just as you see above.  I write the child's name on the lid of the carton to keep track of the eggs and then it is easy to put them in the baskets when they are dry and ready to go home.

You can see the eggs with the other goodies in the spring baskets in this shot from above.  We also put some cute baby birds and a few treats in there as well.  My sweets kiddos were so excited about their spring baskets and the "special" things they made to go in them.  That made me feel so happy as we said good-bye for our week off.  Happy kids, happy teacher, life if good!

Here is a little FREEBIE  for you that I use to do scrambled sight word eggs in my classroom.  This is a recording sheet for students to write the words they make and color the egg to match.  You will need ten different colors of plastic eggs to put the letters for each word inside.  I write my letters on colored paper squares.  You can use letter tiles too.  This activity is great because you can use it with any word list that is appropriate for your students.  I have two complete sets of eggs to make it easier for a small group to accomplish this task at a table.  In kindergarten, I find that it works best to have an adult at the table while kids are working.  Just click on the image below to go get  your freebie.  Have fun!

Happy spring!

Happy teaching!

Melt Art Fun!

This is a fun and unique way to do crayon art and I hope your kiddos will LOVE it as much as mine do.  You will need a flat surface griddle.  They often go on sale and can be had for under $20.  Cover it with foil.  Turn the temperature to just about 200 degrees.  You will need crayons with the wrappers off and some kind of tool to hold and move the paper.
Here is my set up:

This is set up for two children to use it at the same time.  Two sheets of paper fit together very nicely on the tray.  Copy paper works especially well for this art activity.

This is a center in my classroom.  I only allow four students at a time to be at this one.  Two can be working on the art while the other two watch and wait.  I have an adult supervise this a few times before it can be independent.  I have done this for years in my classroom and have NEVER had a safety issue.

Once the surface is hot, it is ready to go.  You can draw with the crayons, but they melt as you draw.  It is like drawing and painting at the same time.  The end result is very cool!

It is important to use some kind of tool to hold and move the paper.  I use pencils that have not yet been sharpened.  The final product does not take long to dry, just a minute or so.
We did eggs last week and of course, we couldn't stop there....

So we made colorful chicks hatching out of them:

"My chick is kuot!  My chick is haching."

'My chick is happy.  My chick is difrent from the others."

"I like my bluejay because it is blue."

They are so darn cute I could lay an EGG!
Happy spring and happy teaching!