Integrate Content on Groundhog Day!

It's SO much fun to incorporate the holidays into the classroom whenever possible, but of course, it's also important to ensure you are teaching the standards. Here are some fun activities you can do on (and the week of) Groundhog Day, February 2nd, that will integrate the holiday into your content areas!

Start off the day with an explanation of Groundhog Day. You can grab the free passage below which explains where the day originated in a simple way, and it has a vocabulary/context clue question, a genre question, and two questions where students must apply the text (use evidence) to draw the situations. 

Click above or click here to download!

Of course, the last two questions will also lend to a great science mini-lesson on light and shadows! Have students take turns practicing being the Sun (hold a flashlight) and being a groundhog (sit on the floor for better position of the light above them). Which way does the groundhog need to come out of its burrow to NOT see its shadow? (Facing the sun or with the sun directly overhead!)

You can integrate a quick graphing lesson by having students take a tally of their peers, then graph results- will the groundhog see his shadow? Do you want a longer winter or early spring?

Next up, share a fun (and INFORMATIVE) mentor text with students to get some ELA skills in, too!

Click here or on the book above to purchase the book using my affiliate link on Amazon.  The few cents I make from purchases add up to fund awesome giveaways!

Groundhog Gets a Say is a very entertaining nonfiction text. Students love it because the creatures in the book have funny, sarcastic comments (in speech bubbles) to say about each other. I love using this book because it teaches students all about marmots (I've even learned a thing or two from the text!) and also is written in a persuasive way! We know that writing genre is always tricky!

If you'd like to get print-and-teach activities for this mentor text, you can get it here from Ideas by Jivey's TpT store. It includes a tally page, fact-recording sheet, turning facts into opinions activity, a brainstorm page to use for opinion writing about another animal, and a quotation marks and tags practice page. 

Happy Groundhog Day!!

Sweet Treats for February: Have a Hoppy Leap Day This Year!

Hey y'all!  It's Ashley from Just Reed.  I'm pretty stoked that it's Leap Year this year.  I love teaching my students the science behind WHY we have Leap Day every four years, and that's a tricky concept for firsties.  Jivey had a fabulous post a few days ago that is critical to explaining how the Earth revolves around the sun and rotates on its axis.  I loved her suggestion that you have students act this out!  I , too, love to make this  concept concrete for my little ones!

Give each student a paper model of the earth and the sun.  Have them color and cut these out.   Have students dramatize the revolution of the earth around the sun.

I like to explain Leap Day to my students like this:

I think some of us adults even get confused about Leap Day, so this is a very simple explanation!

For fun, students can make this frog and leap pad craft and then complete the written response.  This response page integrates lots of math and makes Leap Day relevant to them!

Guess what?  You can have ALL of these goodies for FREE! Simply go to my Teachers Pay Teachers shop to download them.  

Sweet Treats: President's Day Journal Prompts

Hey all! It's Tara from and they all fall down with a freebie to help you finish February strong! Seriously - where has this month gone? And... How did I just finish a week off and it doesn't even feel like it? UGH! :) 

I am a HUGE fan of the Epic Rap Battles on youtube - they are not appropriate for use in the classroom, but they are always a good laugh when I am kid free. I wanted to create something to get my kids thinking about the differences in the Presidents.... the times they were in charge of our country.... things they never imagined dealing with....

This is a bit out of the box for my second graders, but it would be interesting for those of you that teach upper elementary and maybe eye-opening for us with our littles too!

SOOOOO.... here is the Epic Battle of Lincoln vs. Washington (in journal form) :) It even includes a ballot for you to hold a mock election in your classroom. Which President would win today? :)

Click on the picture and it will take you to my dropbox! :) Thank you for downloading! 

 If you enjoy these I have journal prompts for nearly every month of the school year....feel free to check those out too! :) 

                    

Sweet Treats for Leap Year (Earth's Revolution and Rotation) {Ideas and a Freebie!}

I hope you've been enjoying all of the February Sweet Treats we've been bringing you this month! 

Today's ideas and freebie are perfect for this year because it's a LEAP YEAR! But if you teach about rotation and revolution of the Earth, this will be great any time of year.

We have leap year because a solar year is 365.242 days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. We add an extra day to the year every four years to make up for that almost quarter of a day. But did you know... we DON'T have a leap year if the year ends in double zeroes but isn't divisible by 400? In other words, in the year 2100, there will not be a leap year. Not in the years 2200 or 2300 either! We probably didn't realize this rule since we were all alive in 2000 when we DID have a leap year! It's part of the Gregorian Calendar "rules" that helps to make up for those extra thousandths of a day- if we didn't skip a leap day every now and then, we'd end up with a surplus of days!

For students to understand why we have a leap year, they first must learn that our Earth revolves around the Sun. And if you're teaching Earth's revolution and seasons, you are going to also be teaching about Earth's rotation, too!

Any time you can have students "act out" science terms, you should totally do it. Not only will it help them remember the vocabulary, but it also helps them to "see" things that can be really abstract. For example... rotate and revolve... these two terms get confused the most in your classroom, I bet! 

Have students stand up and spin in one place, or ROTATE. Remind them they have to spin on their AXIS so they can't rotate into their friends. ;-)

Then, stand in the center of the room and have students move around you around the edge of the room, or REVOLVE around you. 

And if you are really daring and not afraid of chaos, you can have the students simulate the Earth's rotation AND revolution by having them spin as they move around the outside of the room!

It's so important to let students explore for the same reasons you should simulate! There are a few great ways you can let students explore and experiment with a globe and a flashlight. The easiest way for students to "see" night and day is to darken the room, turn on a flashlight and shine it at your globe, then have students walk around the globe to see the side facing the "Sun" is having day, while the other side is dark and having night. 

To explore how the seasons occur, it's great if you can collect multiple globes from the classrooms around you to allow the students to work in smaller groups. Students should notice right away that the globe is tilted, just like the Earth. Have students move the globe to the top, left side, bottom, and right side of the table, keeping the axis pointed in the same direction each time. They should be able to see the seasons happening because of the tilt- have them decide which places on the table would be our "summer" and "winter." If there is time, they could also experiment with what would happen if there was no tilt- would we have seasons? Have students hold the globe so that the axis is straight up and down and move to each of the 4 spots around the table. 

All of those exploration ideas might work best after using this freebie! Students will read about how the Earth revolves, and why we have seasons and leap years. They will read about how the Earth rotates, and why we have day and night. Then they will answer questions that require knowledge from both passages, as well as a written constructed response!

If you love using paired texts in your classroom, you might also be interested in these high-interest, engaging paired texts from my store!

You can also follow my Pinterest board all about Paired Texts!

Follow Ideas By Jivey's board Paired Texts / Paired Passages on Pinterest.

For even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!

Sweet Treats: A Collection of February Goodies

Gary here. From ScrappyGuy Designs!

Ahh, February. The month for lovers. Lovers of presidents, groundhogs, and each other. The month of stressing out where to take your love for that special dinner (groundhogs don't appreciate caviar, by the way). This month the FEB-ulous peeps at the Primary Peach are gathering in a Love Circle to provide you with some amazing ideas to help you get through the shortest month of the year.

 

 

When it comes times to exchange cards and gifts within our little group, I try to give a little back to the earth with a recyclables project. I ask my students to design a Parade Float (think RoseBowl) using old cereal boxes, tissue paper tubes, cookie containers, etc. This will become their Valentine Mailbox. I am always blown away with their creativity as they come flooding in. We also have a contest and award prizes for the Most Colorful, Most Creative, Best use of Recyclables, Overall Winner, etc. The floats are displayed outside the classroom and others are invited to cast their ballots as well. It turns our small exchange of cards into a full out event!

 

I found this great site that has many, many, many great ideas to show the kids. Just to get their creative juices flowing.

 

Crafty Morning

 

Here are just a few samples:

 

 



 

 

And as an added bonus I am leaving you a little bit of love.

 

 

This link will only be available until the end of February! Be sure to grab it quick.

 

 



 

 

For even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!

 

 

  

Treats Without the Sweets {FREEBIE}

Hey Friends! It's Theresa from True Life I'm a Teacher!

If you're joining us for the first time...WELCOME! For the month of February we are sharing "Sweet Treats" which involve lots of freebies just for YOU!

Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way...let's get on with the good stuff!!!

Since Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday this year, many classes are exchanging Valentines on Friday, which is just two days away! Yikes! If you haven't made it to the store (#targetrun), I've got you covered. All you need is your printer!

My sweet seconds will be trading cards, goodies, treats, and sweets, but I'm taking a different approach. That is, I'm NOT giving my kiddos candy, but they are going to LOVE {pun intended} the treat I have for them.

Lately, my darlings have been OBSESSED with "fortune tellers" - although, when I was in school we called them "cootie catchers." Regardless of what you call them, they are apparently all the rage right now, and my May drawer - you MAY get it back, you MAY NOT - is filling up with confiscated fortune tellers to prove it.

So, I'm actually going to GIVE my students EACH a fortune teller themed with hearts, flowers, and sweet sentiments.

Fortune tellers are super easy to fold together, and honestly, the folding is part of what makes them so fun! In case you've never made one, or your kiddos have never made one, start by cutting around the edge of fortune teller...you need to start with a square.

Once you've have a square, here's how your fold it:

First, place the square face up, and fold in half. Unfold. Then fold in half again, so that you have created an X.

Next, with the printed side still face down, fold the corners to the center of the paper.

Next, flip the paper over so that the folds/flaps you just made are face down. Now, fold in the corners again, just like you did in picture 4.

Once again, flip the paper over so that the folds/flaps are face down. Fold the paper in half (both vertically and horizontally). 

Slide your thumbs and index fingers under the flaps. Voila...Fortune Teller!

You can grab your Valentine's Day fortune teller freebie HERE (or by clicking the picture below)! I included the fortune teller you see in the pictures, as well as one in which you could personalize with your own sweet sentiments.

Be sure to check back each day of February for other sweet treats!

And...for even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!