Scary Black Bat Art / Craft


My 4 year old little one is home and unwell today, so to cheer her up, we did some fun paper craft.

"Let's make a bat!", she said, "and make the house all scary".

We printed her little hands with black paint to craete the wings, and I drew a bat body for her to colour. We are now starting a spider, so I will load some pictures shortly.


Here is how it looks finished.


I could not resist quickly putting it together to form a printable file for you!

Click HERE to find it!

Learning to Write Sentences in Kindergarten

Learning to read and write can be supported in the classroom with a routine activity that creates sequenced-learning and structure. Our Sentence Maker writing page activities do just that!

Today I want to show you our new Halloween version!

I have created a set of 24 worksheets to help you teach early reading and writing skills. There are four different ability levels
  1. cut and paste
  2. trace
  3. copy
  4. independent writing 
All these activities are very specific to students at different levels in the writing process.

Cut and Paste 

  • for your newest learners, 
  • just beginning to understand the concept of a word and 1:1 correspondence 
  • learning how to sequence words to make meaning.

Trace

  • for students who have a good understanding of words and sentences
  •  ready to learn to write themselves

Copy

  • for students who are able to form most letters of the alphabet correctly
  • learning to copy print from models
  • struggle to create idea of their own

Write 

  • for students beginning to write independently
  •  can attempt to sound-out and write their own words


My daughter is always keen to see what I am designing and always wants me to print them out for her! This morning I took the opportunity to explore her keen interest in words and stories, by working with her on one of the cut and paste worksheets. As a 4 year old, she needs to learn to:

  • attend to print
  • discover what a word looks like
  • understand that a sentence is made up of words
  • understand that word order is important
  • realize that we read and write from left to write
  • understand that we need spaces between our words
  • know that punctuation is important in writing and reading
  • know that text and pictures are related
This is what we did, and I would do something very similar in the classroom.


First I told her we were going to write a "story sentence" about a cat. I wrote it on a long strip of cardboard and read aloud as I was writing - making sure she watched me write. I told her I was leaving a space between each word.


I read the sentence a few times, slowly and carefully pointing to each word. I am lucky that she is very keen and interested, so she was paying careful attention. You will need to encourage some students to do this!

I then asked her to point and read WITH me, so we read and pointed together - quite a few times.


Then I told her I would cut up the sentence into words - making sure she could see me cut between the words in the space. It is important for little learners to see that a sentence is not a whole string of words that we say in one breath - it is made up of lots of individual words.



Once cut up - I told her I was going to be a "little bit tricky" and mix them up! I then shuffled the cards around so they were in random order.


I then asked her if she remembered our "story sentence". To my delight, she remembered easily, and told me. I then asked her if she remembered just the first word. She was able to both tell me the word and point to it! (very proud mother moment here!!). I asked her to put the word where it should be, and then proceeded to work out all the other words with her. I will never forget the smile on her face as I showed her my delight in her "clever reading". I had to show her how to leave little spaces between the words.



Of course, we now had to re-read the sentence we had put together.


It was then time to complete the worksheet. I told her it had little word cards that were just the same as our big cards, that needed to be put back into order. She enjoyed gluing the words into the correct order once again, and especially liked colouring the picture.



If you would like to find the worksheet I used, and more, you will find them HERE

Find other packets in the series through our website page.

Write it, Draw it, Make it - Halloween Math Center/Activity



I love using activity mats and write-n-wipe cards with little learners! In the engagement I see with activities like this is amazing. I recently had a great idea to combine them into a 'mat style' activity where students can create and make directly on their game mat. These ones have a little spooky Halloween twist, but stay tuned for many more varieties to engage your learners through the year!
Students will take a spider number and
  • identify the number
  • write the number (use a dry erase marker)
  • draw the number (dots, tally marks etc)
  • make the number with place value blocks or other equipment

Your little ones can complete these tasks with the numbers you select from 1-100. Your littlest learners may just do 1-10 for example. 

They will have SO fun as they add each "ingredient" to the cauldron (starting with the number spider) to finish the board, learning valuable math skills at the same time!



Like all our 'print and play' math activities, this printable include:
  • detailed game/activity instructions
  • game boards
  • game cards
  • a follow-up worksheet
  • a cover page (to help organise your pouches, folders and pouches)

Once students have completed a number they can check it with a friend for accuracy and then get a new spider to complete another number. 


Find this easy-prep activity over in our TpT store!

Big Bad Wolf Craft - FREE



Incorporating some activities on 'The Big Bad Wolf' is a fun way to reinvigorate learning about fairytales. I always like to introduce learning about narratives, with a focus on characters in familiar fairytales. The Big Bad Wolf, is always a favourite with my students, especially the boys.

I want to share a craft activity with you today, that can be completed alongside some work on writing. 



If you have not seen my Big Bad Wolf writing worksheets, 


you may like to check them out - they are FREE for the rest of the week! Read about them here

I have created this very cute and simple Big Bad Wolf paper craft to use with or without these worksheets - maybe even with a unit of work on The Three Little Pigs, or Red Riding Hood. It is FREE too - and will stay that way!

Click HERE to find the download - I hope your little learners like it :)

If you are teaching a unit of work on Fairytales, you may like my 'Fairytale Games Pack' that helps teach numbers and number skills up to 20. 

Find it by clicking on the image below:


Thank you so much for stopping by today, have a great week!

FREE Big Bad Wolf Writing Pages

Big Bad wolf fairytale writing

The Big Bad Wolf! He pops up in The Three Little Pigs and again in Little Red Riding Hood. Although some students may be a little wary, most will find him a little fascinating. Especially if you read a story like The Wolf's Story - What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood 

I had fun designing some scary cute wolf graphics recently and including them in a new Sentence Maker pack for you. Our sentence maker resources help you cater for 5 levels of writing abilities - or sequence your learners through a week of sequenced progression.  

We would love to share it with you over on TPT for FREE!

You can find more writing pages for Fairytales, in this bigger packet on TpT.

Fairytale writing in kindergarten

Level 1 - Read, Cut and Paste (Monday)

Sentence writing in kindergarten

Activity 1 is a cut and paste 'sentence maker'. Your students will learn about putting words in the correct order, leaving spaces between their words and print having meaning. I always enlarge these onto big paper and do them as a whole class, modelling all the strategies "good readers and writers" use.

Level 2: Read and Trace (Tuesday)

sentence writing in kinder

Activity 2 is a tracing activity - students will need to read the sentence first and then copy by tracing the letters in the correct formation. I move students on to the 'tracing' page once they have shown they can consistently complete the 'cut and paste' versions correctly. I also check to see that they can point to each word in a basic sentence and attempt to read it, knowing that each 'paste' is a complete word.

Level 3 - Read and Copy (Wednesday)

Writing in kinder


Activity 3 - students who are able to copy print from models will enjoy this one. They can first read the sentence and then copy out the sentence underneath. This is for students that have demonstrated neat tracing over consecutive worksheets and the lines they make with the pencil show firm, steady control. Students that show signs of wanting to create their own text may also use this version - encourage them to invent their own sentence that follows on from the one printed.

Level 4: Attempt independent writing (Thursday + Friday)


Writing after reading

Activity 4 can be used for your most confident writers and will require them to complete a their own sentences about the Big Bad Wolf.

I hope you and your students like using these worksheets - find our growing collection of pages over on our website page.

Our Week of Writing packs also use this 5 day sequenced progression and we have has so much positive feedback from teachers to say it is working beautifully for their emergent-writers! 


Three Little Pigs Cut and Paste FREEBIE

Are you teaching a unit of work on fairytales in your kindergarten classroom? I love teaching this unit and linking it with a writing unit on narratives, as they show a nice clear story structure. We also like reading some modern versions of fairytales and comparing the themes and topics that are explored in both.
3 Little Pigs Cut and Paste Worksheet

Here is a little cut-and-paste transformation worksheet. Your students will need to read the sentence then cut and paste the jumbled words into the correct order to match.
Fairytale Writing in Kindergarten
With your students read the model sentence. Encourage them to point carefully to each word as they say it, developing 1:1 correspondence. 
Ask your students to cut the words out and shuffle them into correct order.
Writing Sentences in Kindergarten
After ordering the words, encourage students to read it again before they glue it into order.
Cut and Paste for Kindergarten

Find it in Google Drive: 3 Pigs Cut and Paste Writing

I like to first model this process with enlarged word cards (written on index cards) and model some reading behaviours as well as writing.

Making Sentences 

More Fairytale Writing Pages

Fairytale Writing in Kindergarten

Fairytale Math Fun!

I have just listed a packet of 6 math center game activities with a fairytale theme on TpT.

The games/activities will help you teach a wide range of number concepts for numbers 1-20 and allow you to differentiate accross the abilities in your class.

I had so much fun making this set, and I am sure your students will love it too.
 

FREE File - Flower Pots!

Multiplication Game

Help you students learn early multiplication with our Flower Pots printable card game. 
They will match pictures of flower pots with 'groups of' descriptions. 

Find this game in Google Drive: Flower Pots Equal Groups Early Multiplication Game



To offer extension to more advanced learners, you can ask them to find the total. They will total groups of flowers in multiple pots by
  • repeated addition
  • skip / rhythmic counting
  • an early understanding of multiplication facts

Another Black Cat!

My daughter and I have become somewhat preoccupied with black cats since our crafty experience last week. It doesn't help that the shops here are filling up with Halloween bits and pieces...everywhere we go we are seeing cats, and witches and pumpkins....


With a bit of a clean-up, we turned one of my daughter's cat drawings (at another post I will tell you about her rapidly developing drawing skills) into a black cat craft!

She drew this and I made it into a template for you! You can make a black cat with a long twisty tail to hang as a mobile from the ceiling.

We'd love to share it with you from Google Drive: Black Cat Twisty Tail Craft





We have also just moved our two bookcases full of children's books downstairs (it is scary just to see how many I have collected over my teaching years). My daughter keeps finding books about cats and it seems it is her latest obsession emerging interest - to find as many cat books as possible!

More For Black Cats

Slinky Malinki is one of her new favourites....it has been on the shelf for quite some time, and it is now getting its long overdue hero status! If you have not read any Slinky Malinki - you simply MUST!

My Black Cat Craft

We also have a black cat craft in our TPT store based on one of my sketches! You can find it HERE

Black Cat Halloween Craft

Animated Reading for Equal Groups

October is the perfect time to listen to Cat and Bat - our animated story about a cat, a bat and a candy tree! Your little ones will learn about equal groups in math too!



We hope you love these ideas. 

Be sure to think about joining our email newsletter list so you never miss out! 

Spooky House Drawing - Perfect for Halloween

Halloween Art Project

Spooky Haunted House Art Project - Directed Drawing

We'd love to share a fun art project with you today. A spooky haunted house is an engaging project for students to draw and create and provides for a creative and engaging writing task too!

We used art paper, watercolors and oil pastel to create ours.
  1. Follow the directed drawing steps to draw the haunted house.
  2. Paint the house using watercolor.
  3. Once dry, outline in black marker.
  4. Add line detail with oil pastel or thick rich crayons.
Free drawing steps: Draw a Spooky House

Halloween Art Project

To generate engagement and spooky vocabulary, we read Spookyrumpus by Tony Mitton. It is a hoot and full of fun, energetic and slightly-spooky language - perfect for some writing to accompany this art project. 

Halloween Art Project

While reading, stop on one of the pages and ask students to generate a detailed word bank full of descriptive language. Tell them to identify words using their senses - what would this page
  • look
  • sound
  • smell
  • feel
  • taste like?

Halloween Art Project

As you read, jot down some of the descriptive phrases and words used by the author. These can be used in student writing too!

Halloween Art Project

Students may like to write a description of the spooky house setting without giving a full complete story. Our Spooky Directed Drawing pack has 15 different projects that will help springboard a huge range of stories and writing tasks. 

Here are some Frankie paintings we did from this pack:



Today, we'd love to share the Spooky House pages with you right here on our blog: Spooky House Directed Drawing and Writing Pages

This sample includes the drawing steps for the haunted house in our 4 project style options: Big Draw, Draw and Write, Classic Draw and Read-Draw-Write


Spooky House Numbers


If you're looking for a fun math activity with a spooky house theme - I'd love to share these worksheets with you from Google Drive: Who Is In the Spooky House



Roll, Count & Color - Halloween Worksheets


Are you looking for a fun, engaging and skills-based math activity for Halloween? How about one that just takes a few seconds to prep?!

Look no further than our new packet of Halloween Math Worksheet Activities. 

Included is an adorable set of 15 math game worksheets for students to 'play' and color for Halloween.

Students will need to roll a standard six sided dice or two, to know which section to color. 

There are 3 versions of each of the 5 designs 
  • subitizing (roll and match to numeral)
  • add 2 (roll and add 2 to dice throw)
  • doubles (roll and double dice throw)

This product has been revised, and I have included the original file (another bonus 10 worksheets for you!). 

You can use these 'play on the page' activities as independent desk work, in math centers, small groups or as a fast-finisher for revision.

Here are just a few:


 


Hop over to find them in our store on TpT!