Gingerbread Man Emergent Readers, Scented Play Dough Gifts, Crafts, & more!

The Gingerbread Man is one of my favorite units of the year! I'm going to give you a handful of gingerbread ideas today, including: three Gingerbread Man emergent readers that you can use with your kiddos, a recipe for some Gingerbread scented play dough, a video from my favorite YouTube channel for kids, & a couple of simple crafts.

**This post may contain affiliate links.**

Let's start with the emergent readers first. One of them covers the fairy tale story itself, one uses manipulative printouts to practice positional words, and one teaches students the directions left and right.

1) The Story of The Gingerbread Man

2) The Gingerbread Man Positional Words Practice

 Students won't even realize that you've snuck some positional word practice into the lesson as they work on building their reading skills with this interactive emergent reader! 

A printable Gingerbread Man manipulative moves around on the pages of the book.

Activity mats are also included to use at your centers. Glue corresponding mats back to back and laminate them so that on one side students will have a guide, and on the other, they will be able to practice on their own with the manipulatives. They are a great way for students to self check what they know!

 3) The Gingerbread Man: Left or Right?

This fun Gingerbread Man reader will take students visually through the story while practicing right and left directions. It also focuses on the sight words "my" "little" "is" "to" "the" "of" and repeats them on every page of the book.

Have your kiddos trace the dotted arrows on each page so they are focusing on which way each direction goes. 

The last page lets them draw a picture of themselves, as the Gingerbread Man stands to the left of them.

All of these readers can also be found in a large Gingerbread Man Bundle of 21 math and literacy activities that includes 230 Gingerbread Man related pages to print for your kiddos. Wow!

Here's a sneak peek at some of the other activities included.

There's over 230 pages total to print!! 

Cool School is one of my favorite YouTube channels for Kindergarten. Here is Cool School's version of the story of the gingerbread man!

Also, here is a recipe for making gingerbread smelling play dough. I especially like the Christmas gift idea! Check it out:

Here are some cute Gingerbread Man crafts that are easy to set up and simple to do. 

I like the tray idea for this first craft. It's way less messier than putting the items into individual bowls or cups!

I love this next one... A gingerbread man ornament craft. Simple enough to do individually at a center!

Thanks for letting me share these with you. I hope your littles love and enjoy them. I also hope they make your teaching life just a tad bit easier! 

PIN ME FOR LATER!... 

-Til next time

       

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Bek

Doodle It Phonics: Interactive Drawing Notebook & Phonics Interactive Poetry Notebook

We're all about doodling lately. Are your kiddos into it, too? Doodling with regular pencils. Doodling with scented pencils. Doodling with scented crayons, and those Mr. Sketch gel crayons and markers of all kinds... Basically any type of writing utensil they can get their hands on, they're using it to doodle! 

**This post may contain affiliate links.**

So I thought I'd meet them where they're at with their interest in doodling, and find a way to sneak some fun phonics practice into their doodle time. Which leads me to introduce Doodle-It Phonics! A doodling notebook that draws (haha, bad mom joke!) a kid's focus and attention to phonics while letting them exercise and explore their creative side at the same time.

Doodle-It can be used as individual worksheets, or it can also be glued into a composition or regular notebook to create an interactive book that students can flip through time and time again. It covers a wide range of phonics. It includes Alphabet, CVC & Rhyming, Digraphs, Blends, & Long Vowel practice.

There are two ways you can have your learners doodle... they can use guided doodling version, or they can jump right into it and try it on their own. The guided version helps them write words and shows a picture so that they can see a visual of the word and either doodle their own version of the object or doodle one like the picture. They can doodle the word as well! Instructions and examples are included in the download.

You decide how you want to use this resource. You can use the 180 pages here and there as you need them, or you can pick and choose what sounds you're currently working on and create a spiral or stapled notebook for students to hang on to. If you use a 3 prong folder, you can continue to add to it all throughout the year!

You'll notice that on the guided doodling version, students have the option to repeat the picture already shown, or they could also draw their own. At this age, some students don't know where to start when it comes to drawing, so I wanted to make sure that even reluctant drawers had a starting place...even if it meant just attempting to doodle the picture already shown. 

Get Doodle-It HERE.

Another interactive Phonics notebook that I use with my kids is this Phonics Poetry Notebook that includes original poetry from my good friend from Let's Learn S'more. 

This Phonics Poetry Notebook gives kids a hands-on approach to learning and practicing their reading skills. There are four versions included for each focus. One version has students writing in the various vowels, diphthongs, blends, or digraphs. The other doesn't. And both of these come in either a less-ink, color-me option or a full color option.

Students cut these out on the solid line and glue them in a composition or spiral notebook, which allows them to continually review prior ones completed! Woohoo! 

Labels are an option that are also included to put on the cover. 

Here's what's covered in this book. Pick and choose what you need:

The Phonics Poetry Book is also available in a Poetry Books Big Bundle:

The bundle includes five different types of poetry books that you can mix and match or do separately. 

Get the Poetry Books Big Bundle HERE.

Well, that's a phonics overload for today. Thanks for letting me share these with you. I hope your littles love and enjoy them. I also hope they make your teaching life just a tad bit easier! 

-Til next time

       

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Bek

Bats - Nocturnal Animals Differentiated Readers {Plus a FREEBIE!}

With fall upon us and Halloween right around the corner, I'd like to show you some differentiated 'I Am a Bat' emergent readers. And then I have a FREE DOWNLOAD you can try out if you haven't already! 

**This post may contain affiliate links.**

While you really can use these readers at any time of year, I tend to do them around our Halloween and Nocturnal Animals units. I have many animal readers in this series, but I'm only going to highlight the bat readers today! 

So this is what the cover looks like. It's the same for all three levels of the reader. 

Here's what it looks like full size. Each page of the book comes two-to-a-page so that you can easily print the books using the collate and staple options on your copy machine. Then use a paper cutter to quickly slice between the books and just like magic, they're already assembled for you!

Meet your students right where they're at with three differentiated levels to choose from. Your kiddos can highlight any sight words, chunks, or blends that you are currently working on.

Learn some unique facts about bats that many people don't know!


Learn what they eat and how they sleep.

The last page is one of my favorites. It's included in all of the readers of this series. Students write down a list of the favorite things they learned while reading the book! It's a great way to incorporate writing practice. This picture is from a set of rabbit readers, and I just happened to have it handy to show you. This is how the bat books end as well.

Let me show you two ways you can get this bats reader set.

You can get this differentiated reader by itself here:

I Am a Bat Emergent Readers

 Or you can get it in a bundle with other readers:

Nocturnal Animals Emergent Readers

Six readers, all about nocturnal animals, are included in this bundle.

Remember reading that book when you were a kid, about the old lady who swallowed a fly? Well, guess what? She swallows a lot more things now, including bats! My students LOVE when I pull this book out. I made some activities and centers to go along with this book.

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat Activities

 Now, let me show you a FREE DOWNLOAD you can get right now that will give you an opportunity to try those differentiated readers out!

This is the I Am an Alligator set. 

It's set up exactly like the bat readers, only your students will be learning about alligators instead! Oh my! 

Try this series FREE right here:

I Am an Alligator Differentiated Readers

Don't forget to leave a rating. I enjoy reading your feedback and hearing what you think!

-Til next time

       

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Bek

The Tortoise and the Hare Reader and Activities

Hello friends! I've got quite a handful of activities to share with you.

Get ready to feel excited about fables with The Story of the Tortoise and the Hare emergent reader! Your littles will LOVE having their very own kid-friendly version of this story to read on their own.

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Bek

Summer Goals Flip Book Plus 3 FREE Downloads

{This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission at no cost to you when you click on the link and purchase something through Amazon.}

My how the school year flies by! It's already Spring Break this week for my kids, which means one thing: The countdown until summer break has begun! 

We had one snow day this year, which means our last day is now after Memorial Day. I'd love to hear when YOUR last day of school is? (Leave in comments below!) 

Today I'm going to highlight a brand new end of the year activity that I'm super excited to use with my kids. Plus, I'm going to share some fun ideas and also give you three free downloads that you can print now and set aside for use at the end of the year with your students. This way you won't be scrambling at the last minute looking for something new and fun to do. 

So this Summer Goals Craftivity is fun, easy, and will go right along with the other activities, ideas, and crafts that you have planned for your kids to do at the end of the school year.

Six tabs provide a variety of goals for your Preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade littles to make as they begin to think about planning out their summer break. Pssst... they will also be incorporating writing practice at the same time!

Let me show you  a closer look!

There are actually six different covers that you can choose from for this activity. There are ten different characters for your kiddos to pick from. 5 girls and 5 boys. Encourage them to find the one that most resembles them. They can improvise if needed (add glasses, or whatnot).

I had my Kindergarten daughter help me make a sample so that you can see the steps students need to take to complete this project. 

Start by having them pick a cover and color it. 

Then they can grab a pencil and fill out the beginner writing portions of all the pages included. The first page has the "I will eat..." and "I will read..." tabs. Nali (my daughter) plans to eat ice cream and read Pete the Cat books!

The next page gives students a place to write a goal about something they want to play. I plan to encourage my kids to think about something new to try. My daughter was not creative at all in her example, as she has been very eager for warm weather so that she can play outside!

Then, students can make a goal about how they can help someone this summer. My daughter wants to help her next door neighbor clean up her toys, how sweet!

Next, students plan somewhere they would like to visit. For this one, I suggest encouraging them to think of somewhere reasonable. This is a good opportunity to talk about making goals that are reachable! The zoo is a great goal for a place to visit this summer. The moon? Maybe not so much!

Then they will have a chance to write out five goals. They can be the same five goals they already created but now all in one easy-to-see place, or they could even be five additional goals. My daughter did a mix of both:

Time to cut it all out! Simple cutting and easy assembly allows for all students to happily succeed.
Throw some math in there, and have your students practice measuring by laying out the tabs from shortest to tallest!

Then glue the tabs together to make a flip book!

Now your students can take turns reading their flip books to their peers before taking hanging them up in the hallway!

You can get this activity here: All About Me Back to School Flip Book

Before I give you a few FREE DOWNLOADS, let me show you some other end of the year ideas I found on Pinterest that I can't wait to try this year:

I know the kids are going to go crazy over this popping balloons idea!

Check how how sweet this 'waving goodbye' idea is!

I am a huge watermelon fan and there are so many cute ideas in this theme:

With the new school year quickly approaching, I know that many teachers are already starting to get things organized and ready for this Back to School this fall. I've shared this download before, so some of you may have already grabbed it!  But these Student Information Sheets are a great way for you to print out NOW and tuck in your Back to School file folder for when it's time to think about the new year:

FREE STUDENT INFORMATION SHEETS DOWNLOAD

Another FREE DOWNLOAD I'd like to share is especially for YOU this summer!


SUMMER FAMILY-FRIENDLY DRINK & TREAT RECIPES

Ok, one more! Summer is the time to think about camping. Here are some FREE Camping themed sticker incentive charts that come in both full and less ink options. Enjoy!

GONE CAMPING STICKER INCENTIVE CHARTS

-Til next time

     

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Bek