Owl Week (with freebies!)

Full disclosure: this post is actually from last year, and due to glitches with one of my files, I never posted it.  Better late than never, I hope!

What better time than October to study owls?  They are such beautiful, fascinating birds and we had a blast learning more about them.

We read book about owls . . . .

Watched owl videos . . .

and of course we did owl-themed activities!

After reading and learning about owls and their carnivorous diet, Colby completed this cut-and-paste activity, gluing the prey animals in the owl's belly:

For a free copy of this activity, click here!

We listened to some owl calls,

and used this fun owl spinner to work on graphing, ten-frames, and addition.

Not all of the materials included in this activity are shown here - there's a lot more in the download!

(I bought this inexpensive pack of spinners: plastic game spinners, but you can also make your own with a paperclip!)

This activity includes addition and ten-frame worksheets, task cards with recording sheet, spinner, and graphing sheet.  Get your free copy here!

If you've never seen an owl eject a pellet, now is your chance!  We started Owl Pellet Day with this icky-but-interesting video:

Then, we broke out the actual pellets!

(We got our owl pellet kit right here.)

We examined,

we measured,

we dissected,

we identified,

we learned,

and we recorded our observations in this FANTASTIC free booklet by Renee Dooley.

You can download your own free copy at her TpT store; don't forget to leave feedback!

The boys really found the owl pellets fascinating!

We examined some of the teeny bones under the microscope, too,

and saved the bones to assemble another day.

Colby and I read Owl Moon by Jane Yolen:

and made good use of this book study by Little Red's Schoolhouse:

It's a fantastic packet for grades 1-3 and we strongly recommend it!

For lots more owl-themed ideas and freebies, try our Pinterest board:

Owl Crafts and Activities For Kids

Happy Halloween, everyone!

    

Freebies! Buttons, Pete the Cat, Math & Literacy

Over the summer, a friend of mine posted pictures of her son playing with his grandmother's jar of old buttons on Facebook.  My younger son can spend hours sorting and playing with beads, jewels, and other small manipulatives; I knew he'd love to paw through a pile of vintage buttons!  I called my mother, who had kept a box that belonged to her grandmother, and she generously went to dig it out of the attic for us.  After noticing this book online,

I decided to incorporate the buttons into our schoolwork.  We started by reading The Button Box, by Margaret S. Reid.  It's a cute story about a boy going through his grandmother's button box, sorting the buttons and imagining who they might have belonged to.  Colby loved it.

He was thrilled when I put this button box in front of him!

I gave him plenty of time to just enjoy it, and then I asked him to choose one particular button that he really liked.  He selected a matching pair of shiny gold ones, and I gave him this worksheet:

He drew a picture of the button in the center, and then came up with five adjectives to describe it.

Get a free copy of this worksheet here.

I asked him to imagine who might have worn the buttons, and he thought they probably came from some sort of military uniform.  He drew a picture of a soldier wearing the button, and then wrote about it.  

Get a free copy of the writing pages here.  

(There are several versions for different ages and writing abilities, and each version comes in color or black-and-white.)

Next, I asked him to sort the buttons.  We talked about all the different ways we could sort them: by size, or shape, or what they were made of, or how old they were.  Then he wrote down some of these ideas on this worksheet:

Get a free copy of the worksheet here.

Finally, we completed this pocket chart activity.  Colby matched the button cards with the appropriate numerals and number words.  He loves the way it looks so much that we're leaving it intact until we need the chart again!

Get a free copy of the button pocket chart activity here.

Who else loves buttons?  Pete the Cat, of course!  We read  Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, by Eric Litwin.   This is such a cute book!

We did some simple descriptive writing, with an illustration of course.  This page is from Team Sugar's Pete the Cat Journal Writing Prompts.  It's such a cute packet of writing pages, and so inexpensive!

This super fun Pete the Cat Subtraction Mat is a fabulous freebie from Learning With Mrs. Parker.  Check out her blog and snag a copy here!

We did some addition with these button ten frames and two d10 dice.

There are two different colored ten-frames for each number 1-10, so they can be used for adding doubles, or more complex addition.  (They're not all shown in the photo).  

Get a free copy of the Button Ten Frames here!

We finished up with buttons and continued with Pete the Cat, moving on to Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin.  This is my favorite Pete book thus far!  No matter what he steps in, Pete keeps his characteristic positive outlook and loves his shoes.

Colby really enjoyed this cause and effect activity by Allison Palm.

It comes with these great pocket chart cards, which we chose to use on the floor,

and this follow-up sheet.  Colby got to choose his own cause-and-effect scenario for Pete and his beloved white shoes.  Pete stepped in purple paint, and ended up with purple shoes!  You can find these activities right here.  (Super inexpensive!)

The next day, we moved on from learning about cause and effect and focused a little more on color words.  This fun freebie from Made For 1st Grade is actually meant to be assembled into a class book, but it works just as well for a single student!  I knew it was coming eventually - poor Pete stepped in dog poop.  Colby chortled the whole time he practiced writing "brown".

We practiced AB, ABC, ABB, and AABB patterns with this awesome free worksheet from The Groovy Teacher.  Colby loves to color so this was perfect for him!

For lots more Pete the Cat freebies and DIY ideas, try this Pinterest board:

Pete the Cat

Blogs & TpT Shops mentioned in this post:

Team Sugar

Learning With Mrs. Parker
Allison Palm
Made For 1st Grade
The Groovy Teacher

Mittens, Penguins, and Wintry Things

This picture pretty much sums up the entire month of March in my neck of the woods:

Snow, snow, and more snow!  Every time we thought it was over, another storm blew in.  

The boys and I really didn't mind; we like snow, and we spend our days cozy at home anyway.

One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is that we never have to cancel due to bad weather!

It did delay the start of any spring-themed activities, though.  It just didn't seem right to be jumping into flowers and robins with another 12" of snow falling outside.  We've continued on with cold weather stuff, including Jan Brett's "The Mitten".

How cute is this free activity from What the Teacher Wants?

Colby's page says "A rat climbed into the mitten because he was cold".

We practiced ordinal numbers with these "The Mitten" Sequence Cards by Erin from Creating and Teaching.  They're free!  Download a copy here.

Colby retold the story with the help of these free printable retelling props from janbrett.com. 

Find the Mitten printable here,

and the animals here.

Handprint art at it's finest!  Colby turned his hand print into an iceberg with five little penguins!  He made the thumbprint penguin appear to be leaping into the water.  We added tiny googly eyes to each penguin.  The finished product is very, very cute.  We found the idea here.

There is a Marsha McGuire I-Spy activity for every occasion!

Check out I-Spy Cold Weather Addition and Subtraction, and while you're at it take a minute to explore the rest of her TpT shop - we love her products! 

This super cute addition to ten activity is from Caitlin Clabby's Penguins: Math, Literacy, and SO Much More.  I've mentioned this product in previous posts (here); there are over 30 penguin themed activities!  We've loved everything we've used so far, and we will have plenty more to do next year.  It was a great buy.

Colby loved this beginning sound sort by Lorie Duggins.  It's just one activity from her FREE 53-page Snowman Literacy Centers pack.

Here's a closer look at part of the activity.

Colby loves to rhyme!  It occasionally trips him up, though, so we're making sure to get a little more practice.

This fantastic Winter Rhyming Cards are a freebie from KinderKids Fun!  Visit the blog and download a copy, and some other great freebies, right here.

I got these adorable nesting penguins on Amazon.com, and we love them!

Colby just doesn't get sick of playing with them.  You can find them right here .

For oodles more freebies and ideas, check out these Pinterest boards:

FREE Winter Printables {Educational}

Winter Crafts & Activities For Kids

Penguin Crafts & Activities For Kids

Blogs and Shops mentioned in this post:

What the Teacher Wants

Erin from Creating and Teaching (TpT Shop)

Jan Brett Website

Marsha McGuire (TpT Shop)

Caitlin Clabby Kindergarten Smiles (TpT Shop)

Lorie Duggins (TpT Shop)

KinderKids Fun