ECE weather symbols and name alliterations

Social-emotional development= check

Sounds and letters with alliterations= check

Weather unit for early science learning= check

Another idea from my daycare employment years about 17-21 years ago that is still brilliant and super easy to implement. I did this with 4s and this simple idea was such a treat for them that they spent the rest of day wanting to be re-introduced to everyone with their new names! So here were a few weather symbols that were creatively used:

Lightning Lucas

Sunny Sara

Windy Will

and then for me

Rainy Rebecca

There were more children in the group, so more weather symbols to adopt and name tags to make. Self-images and confidence blossomed right before my eyes. The children's chatter centered around weather terms and symbols led to interesting discussions and expanding the theme for a few extra days due to their enthusiasm. Hurray for science! Reviewing some of the alphabet through the first letters of each child's name plus mine was cleverly achieved with the alliteration. Win. Win. Win. 

ECE Food Experience for Jams and Jellies

J is for jam. J is for jelly.

Yum! A delicious activity that combine early math and science concepts of graphing and evaluating through taste.

peach preserves = orange construction paper

grape jelly = purple construction paper

strawberry jelly = red construction paper

apple jelly = yellow or amber construction paper

These are the 4 choices I have used that get great participation from all the students. It also helps to have 4 so that their slice of toast or fresh white bread can have a teaspoon of a different one in each corner.

Supplies:

*simple graphing worksheet

or large easel paper and marker to create a large class graph (if so, student name should be on their paper squares)

*1 construction paper square of each color of jam/jelly for each child

*adhesive (glue stick or tape)

*plastic spoons (4)

*plastic knives (# of children in your group)

*1 jar peach preserves

*1 jar grape jelly

*1 jar strawberry jelly

*1 jar apple jelly

*paper plates to help contain crumbs and sticky mess (# of children in your group)

*container of wipes to also help with sticky messes

*toaster, unless your kitchen cook is able to toast bread for your group (safety-wise, remember if used in classroom, it should be placed high on a counter away from where the children are sitting)

*white bread slices (# = # of children in your group)

I think that's it. I've done this with 4 year olds and I've even done a variation with 7th graders in an introductory FACS class.

DAP Kindergarten word search activity with words ending in -eg and -og

What makes this activity developmentally appropriate practice?

Reason #1: word list is kept to 8 words

Reason #2: words are kept to 3 letters using CVC pattern

Reason #3: words are kept in traditional English language reading format of horizontal or left to right

Once kindergarteners have been introduced to CVC pattern for making words, they should be able to sound out and read the words in the list and be able to find all 8 words without confusion or frustration. 

To make it more challenging, more words can be added to list and/or have more than 1 word on each line. Then after that level  of difficulty has had successful completions, word search puzzles can be created that introduce words going vertical or that include a third group with a new word ending.

Note: I've created these with color coding for the 2 endings and printed them with the color instructions in their hue, so when copying or printing with just black or grayscale, you will need to use a colored pencil or crayon to key the students' papers.

Kindergarten Word Search Activity by Rebecca Morris Sadler

When you find a word, color it in puzzle green if it ends in -eg and orange if it ends in -og. Words to find are:

• peg
• leg
• beg
• Meg (meg)
• fog
• jog
• dog
• hog

Words will only be found in horizontal order.

h	o	g	z	p	s
w	q	p	e	g	i
y	t	c	d	o	g
l	e	g	k	r	v
s	h	v	j	o	g
q	b	e	g	m	r
u	x	f	o	g	a
a	y	c	v	t	z
b	m	e	g	l	n

Kindergarten word search with -eg and -og words 2017 by Rebecca Morris Sadler