Leapin' Leprechauns

Here is a terrific little game perfect for St. Patrick's Day learning centres, taught to me by a the talented Occupational Therapist Denise Rice who regularly visited my classroom last year.


Here is how it works:
1.  Each student playing needs a Leapin' Leprechaun page (as seen in the photo above).
2.  Each student places 10 pennies on the green circles at the top of the page.
3.  Taking turns, players roll the dice and remove the corresponding number of pennies from the green circles.  As per Denise's instructions "students pick up the required number of pennies by “squirreling” them in their hand (for example, pick up the pennies with their thumb,  index, and 3^rd  finger and at the same time (and with the same hand) hold the pennies they have already picked up with their 4^th and 5^th fingers against their palms).  This also helps to develop proper pencil grasp, so the muscles of the hand learn a correct tripod grasp and the other fingers are curled into the palm of the hand which acts as a “stabilizer” while holding a pencil for drawing/printing. "
4.  The game continues until all players pennies have been moved from the green circles to the pot of gold via "swooshing" them along the rainbow.  Again, the motion of "swooshing" each penny from the base of the rainbow to the pot helps to develop fine-motor control as the child's index finger controls the movement of the penny.
5.  Once everyone is finished, each child gets a chance to wave the magic wand (actually a magnet wand) over the pennies in the pot of gold.  The magical part is that only certain pennies from certain years are magnetic depending on the metal composition of the coin... not that you have to explain that to your kindergarten students.
6. I often provide some addition practice to my students by challenging them to figure out how many magic pennies (magnetic pennies)  there are all together.


If you would like a PDF file of the Leapin' Leprechaun page please drop me a line at mrcampbellsclassroom@shaw.ca and I'd be happy to share!

Curb Appeal

A hot property has just become available in Room 216!  This charming gingerbread cottage features newly installed chocolate chip cookie shingles, peppermint stick trim, and lollipop landscaping. Run, run as fast as you can, it is a house fit for an aspiring gingerbread man.

This is the house as it neared the completion of its most recent renovation.
That giant green beanstalk to the right of the house is one of three we made
after reading Jack and the Beanstalk.  

For the past week the students in my room have been merrily working on decorating this giant cardboard house which was generously donated to us from Notables (Edmonton's fanciest card and gift shop located in the posh 124 Street area).  


Don't let the beauty of it fool you... there has been some hard work and many curricular objectives met through the assembly of this "gingerbread" house.  Multiple skills were used for the chocolate chip shingles alone:  students had to trace around a circular stencil, cut the curved lines they drew, draw 7 chocolate chips on each cookie, and learned about light brown, medium brown, and dark brown.  Notice the gumdrop trim on the rooftop.  Each candy has been carefully cut out by nimble little fingers and then added to the structure in a pattern.  Peppermint sticks were a particular challenge to many children demanding that they pay careful attention to stay in the lines and repeat red on every second segment of the candy cane.  Who knew math and fine-motor development could be so sweet? 


I am currently using the gingerbread house as a quiet place for two students to play with the Lite-Brite (another great fine-motor activity allowing fingers to push light pegs into corresponding holes). And the best part is that the decor can be removed and changed out to a new theme once the holidays are over. 

Full of Beans!

Jack got more than he bargained for when he exchanged his beloved cow for a handful of magic beans.  Imagine the excitement in my classroom when I tell my students that I have a whole bunch of magic beans that can be used to create a variety of colourful and interesting patterns as we build our names.

This organizer is an excellent way to keep the beans sorted.
I print each child's name on heavy cardstock paper.

As the children create patterns on the letters in their names I encourage them to make each pattern different and challenge them to try their hands at "trickier" patterns (like double attributes or three different colours of beans).  Upon completion of their name we count the letters, identify the letter their name begins with, and write a simple "story" about their name to be displayed with their project.

I'm a strong believer in proudly displaying the hard work of my students.
The giant (sporting dark liver spots and feathery orange eyebrows) peeking
over the top of the bulletin board is fourteen years old.  I made him my
first year of teaching.  I guess you could say I'm also a strong believer in doing
something really well once and keeping it for a lifetime.

Kindergarten Kingdom

November can be a dreary month.  The festive orange pumpkins and bright fall foliage of autumn have been put away.  The tinsel and gingerbread are not yet ready to make their Christmas appearance.  And so we arrive at a month that can be rather bleak.  To combat this dilemma I have designated November as Fairy Tale month each year.  What could be more magical than sprouting beanstalks, industrious pigs, and magic carpets?


Most Kindergarten classroom have a dress-up center in the form of a large playhouse.  Often featuring plastic food, small dishes, an assortment of clothes to change into, and baby dolls to care for.  It is a great place to practice the business of being an adult and running a household.  But suppose you were destined for a greater calling... perhaps a position in a royal family.  What is a little king, queen, or knight to do?  Each November my house center magically transforms into a posh fairytale castle with a wardrobe bursting with crowns, capes, and scepters for those that choose to play there.  And we are never too alarmed if a grouchy stomping giant shows up or a menacing witch planning to brew up a powerful potion swoops in!

People notice the details!  The coat of arms is my cat Fernando's.  
I liked the visual of the dragon and the little castle icons around it.

Of course the design of the castle in my classroom was greatly influenced by Sleeping Beauty Castle at my favourite place on earth... Disneyland!  

My favourite place with my favourite person... life is good!  
The coat of arms on this castle belongs to the Disney family.

Fine-Feathered Friends

I suspect that there are many turkeys out there today letting out a sigh of relief!  To learn about Thanksgiving I read a number of turkey themed stories to my Kindergarten students.  Two of our favourites are 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey and The Turkey Ball by David Steinberg.  We then get crafty by making colourful turkeys of our own.

This is a great pre-reading and sequencing activity as the children construct their own craft following the visual icons.  The results speak for themselves:

Hop To It!

One of my goals as a teacher of young children is to continually find ways to actively engage my students in learning.  I have been quite successful at resisting the temptation of plying my little learners with worksheets and reproduced "busy work".   I want my Kindergarten students to get up and move while interacting with one another!  Worksheets just don't do that (plus most five-year olds are not at the stage where they can sit independently for lengths of time while focusing on tasks which require large amounts of fine-motor coordination).  


This Easter Egg Delivery Egg-stravaganza game is the perfect activity to play with a group of 4 or 5 students during your Center Time or at Literacy Stations.  The curricular objective of the game is for students to match upper-case letters with their lower-case counterparts.  

Before you begin, place a number of "houses" with upper-case letters around the classroom.  Provide each student at the station with a basket full of paper Easter eggs with lower-case letters printed on them (these lower-case letters need to match the upper-case letters of your houses... or else there would be no matching and no point to the game).  The children then hop about the classroom (a sneaky way to work on large-muscle development during language arts instruction) delivering eggs to their correct houses.  I give each of my students a pair of floppy golden bunny ears to wear to really get everyone into the spirit.  Once everyone has finished delivering their eggs, we take down each house and go through the contents to ensure that there were no delivery mistakes.  At this point, to deepen the learning, we also talk about the corresponding sound each letter makes and I ask every student in the group to tell me a word that starts with the letter.  They can look for clues using the colourful alphabet posters that decorate our classroom.  This is definitely a much richer learning experience than an ABC worksheet.


Time Saving Tip:  I write the upper-case letters on the laminated houses with washable marker.  That way, I can customize the letters for the children in each group.  As well, I adapt this game over the course of the year.  In December, the children don Santa hats and deliver little paper holiday stockings to each house.  By February the children are ready to deliver valentine hearts with lower-case letters emblazoned on them.  By providing theme and variation the children think they are engaged in an all-new game while allowing them multiple attempts to practice and eventually master the skill of letter matching.  The possibilities are endless...

100th Day

Here is the monster we made for the 100th Day of School.  Her name is Mona and she proudly sports 100 spots cut out by the nimble fingers of the students in my class.  Can you find the 100th spot? 

It may not be the world's best poem but it rhymes (sort of) and I made it up all myself.

The Busy Bees rotated through five special 100th Day stations with the most popular being the Cupcake Decorating Station.  Here is the "recipe" that the children had to follow as they assembled their sugary concoctions. Please don't tell our school nurse.