Since I home-school I like to keep holiday learning light and fun! Today is Valentine’s Day and Friday so I decided to do a couple of craft projects for school today.

I have two children home-schooling with me. My son is in third grade and my daughter is in first grade. I could make two separate lessons but WHY do that when I can just differentiate the same lesson for my two learners!

Here’s what we did for math

(Click the picture for a closer view.)

You have probably seen this cute little cut and paste Valentine’s Day puppy before AND we made him more interactive by adding addition (for my first grader) and multiplication (for my third grader) facts on the pieces. Then we made each piece a ‘flap’ by only gluing one edge down. Under each ‘flap’ we wrote the answers! Differentiated, math fact practice, Valentine’s Day craft fun! Yay!

Here’s what we did for language!

(Click the picture for a closer view.)

We took the traditional poem:
“Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet
And so are you.”

And we used the beat and rhyme pattern to make our own poems about things that interest us. My son chose dinosaurs and aliens.

“Dinosaurs are real.
Aliens are fake.
Candy is good.
But you are a cake!”

Both my children learned a lot about beat and rhyme within poetry from this simple assignment which they thought would be VERY easy. It was a challenge to not use any of the original poem! First we mapped out the original poem on our white board to show which lines rhymed and which ones didn’t. Then we started brainstorming by developing the two rhyming lines. Then we filled in the other lines.

Who says school can’t be fun-filled and creative? Happy Valentine’s Day!

I love themed learning centers. With all of the snow that most of the nation is getting right now it is hard NOT to do a learning set that isn’t winter themed. So I created my Complete Primary Winter Literacy Center Set to offer 7 activities, games, and lessons for primary learners to explore language within a fun, colorful snow theme.

This set includes:

• **The Snowman – an original story written by Veronica Stanley-Hooper
• **3 Writing Prompts
• **9 Story Sequencing Cards for “The Snowman” book
• **16 Vocabulary matching cards
• **1 Build a Snowman Following Directions Activity – 4 Tracing pieces and Directions Card

For a total of 30 pieces of literacy learning for center work or small groups!
All of the games are self-correcting and PERFECT for independent learning too!

Covers Common Core Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.1
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.2
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.3
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.4
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.4a
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.2
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.7
AND
Key Concepts:
• To follow written directions in order to assemble a complete piece
of work.

This set is great for First, Second, or Third graders. You can find it on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store : http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Complete-Primary-Winter-Literacy-Center-Set-7-Language-Arts-Lessons-1051019

My daughter LOVES to write in her journal and to do creative writing. But as part of the standard elementary curriculum students need to write for purpose too. I developed this set for both my first grader and my third grader to use to practice three different types of writing –an opinion paragraph, a narrative paragraph, and a sequential/informative paragraph.

The book tells a charming story of a group of children who make a snowman. When they go indoors for some hot cocoa the snowman makes a wish for a family. After drinking their cocoa the children return outdoors to continue building. They build a snow family and the snowman gets his wish! The book is written in child friendly prose with lots of high frequency words and the inside cover page of the book lists some words for review, so text is easy to read and understand. The story also serves as the basis for the three writing assignments included in this set.

The set includes the book “The Snowman” written by Veronica Stanley-Hooper (me) and three writing prompts. The first writing prompt asks students to retell the story in their own words using picture clues that are printed next to the words First, Next, and Last. The second prompt asks students to offer a review of the story by answering the questions that are numbered in the directions. The last writing prompt asks students to write the directions for building a snowman in order using the sentence starter words: First, Next, Then and Last. The teacher should demonstrate or read examples of finished paragraphs before setting children off to write their own using the writing prompts in the set.

You can find the Winter Primary Writing Set – The Snowman at my Teachers Pay Teachers store here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Primary-Writing-Set-The-Snowman-CCSS-ELA-W11-12-13-1024761

Math is always more fun when you are playing a game to practice skills. So I developed this game for my children to practice evaluating number sentences for greater than and less than values. I designed this game with two levels of game play so that my first grader and my third grader can enjoy playing the same game!

This colorful winter themed game contains 80+ game pieces. Your students will compare numbers using greater than and less than symbols in a fun matching game format. The game is designed with two levels of play for beginner and intermediate learning. Both levels are self-correcting and can be played individually, in a small group, or in a learning center. Teacher notes and assembly instructions are included. Common core CCSS.Math.Content.1.NBT.B.3 is covered by playing this game with your students! Yay!

You can find this game on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store here http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Greater-Than-and-Less-Than-Snowman-Matching-Game-Two-Levels-of-Play-999097.

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As you may know I homeschool my children. My daughter is in 1st grade and we have been working on reading with fluency and understanding. Her skills are developing nicely, but words with the silent ‘e’ ending still trip her up sometimes. There are MANY worksheets that claim to practice this skill but frankly I don’t really like worksheets, so I set out with a plan to develop a game to help my daughter practice identify and read words with the silent ‘e’ ending.

The Chill ‘E’ Penguins Silent ‘E’ Matching Game and Word Book helps your students practice matching words that have silent ‘e’ endings and their partner words that do not have the silent ‘e’ (such as ‘cap’ and ‘cape’) with pictures. This 34 piece colorful set is designed for your student to practice matching the words on the penguins with the correct pictures. Some words are=> pin, pine, can, cane, cap, cape => plus a lot more! The game is self-correcting. Directions card, teacher notes for instruction and assembly are included.

The companion word book is colorful, cute and the perfect way for your students to practice reading sentences and using picture clues to determine the missing word. Then your student writes the missing word on the line. All of the missing words end in silent ‘e’ and are a part of the matching game. A handy word bank on the first page of the book helps your student to spell the missing word correctly.

The Chill ‘E’ Penguins Silent ‘E’ Matching Game and Word Book covers common core standard CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3c Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds. The game is perfect for individual or small group play or you can use it in your literacy learning center. The word book is great for independent practice or for use in small instructional groups.

My daughter LOVES to play the game and I have set it up using a pocket chart in our homeschool classroom. You can check it out here http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Chill-E-Penguins-A-Silent-E-Matching-Game-and-Word-Book-Set-984072 on my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

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