Math Lesson Ideas for the Number 2 (two)

Objective:  Help children recognize the number 2 and the word “two”, numbers are used for counting, count 2 objects, learn to write “2” and “two”.

Preparations:

• Find an art print or picture from a calendar or magazine with good examples of “TWO”.
• Optional:  Have connecting blocks or die-cut paper apples in two colors.
• Have stickers.
• Write the number “2” and the word “two” on a word card.  Use the “1 one “ word card from the “ONE” lesson.
• Decide on a simple book, poem or nursery rhyme that has good examples of two.  Possibly use, “One, Two, Buckle my Shoe”.  (Included at the end.)
• Have colored paper and pencil for each child.

Lesson Ideas:

• Display the word card with “2 two”.  Discuss the difference between the number “2” and the word “two”.  Compare to the number “1 one” card.
• Read a simple book or poem.  Discuss the examples of two. Discuss different body parts to see how many they have.  Do you have two legs?  two eyes? Etc.
• Show the picture and have each child pick out two things in the picture.
• Show how to make the number 2.  Have them make them in the air with their finger.  Have them close their eyes and write the number 2 in the air.
• Give each child a paper and pencil.  Have or help them write their name.  Show the word card again for “2 two”.  Have them write a number “2” several times, and the word “two”.  (If a child has a hard time writing their letters, write the word “two” with a yellow pencil and have them trace it.)  Put out stickers and have them select 2 for their paper.  (They could also draw two things.)

Extension ideas:  Possibly include some comparison or patterning activities with connecting blocks or die-cut apples.  (small, medium, large, same, different, AABB pattern, etc.)

Nursery Rhyme:
One, two, Buckle my shoe;
Three, four, Shut the door;
Five, six, Pick up sticks;
Seven, eight, Lay them straight;

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Letter Formation

Teaching Handwriting

Teaching a one-stroke method for Lowercase letters (except for “f, i, j, k, t, and x”) makes handwriting easier, neater, faster, and makes cursive easier when they are older.   Letters are started one of 4 ways:

1. First, “l, i, j, t, h, b, p, r, n, and m” are started with a straight line down, and finished with an up and over the hill in the case of “h, b, p, r, n, and m”.   The “b” is made by coming straight down, then up and over like an “h”, then tucked under.  (Associating “b” with “h” and helping children connect their similarities will help children keep “b” and “d” straight in their mind.)
2. Second, the letters “a, d, g, q, s, and o” are started by writing a “c”.  Such as, “a” starts like a “c”, then go up and touch where the “c” starts, and come straight down.  Wait about 6 weeks after you have taught “b”, to introduce “d”.  This will help children keep these two letters straight.  Associating “d” with “a” and connecting their similarities, will help children be less confused between “b” and “d”.  Most children get them mixed-up.  Just keep comparing “b” to “h” and “d” to “a”, and they will eventually get it straight.  Here is a sample instruction for “d”:   “d” is made by starting at the broken line, go around like a “c”, then go up to the top line, then come straight down to the bottom line.
3. Third, “u” and “y” are started by drawing a smile, then come straight down.  In the case of “y”, add a hook like in the j and g (For example see picture below).  Teaching “y” this way will do two things.  It will make the “y” easier, and it won’t look like an “x”.  Also, it will make the transition to cursive easier.
4. Fourth, v, w, x, k, and z are the angled letters.  These are harder for children to form.  Teach these later in your instruction, unless the child has one in their name.

We have phonics based lesson plans that provide great ideas for kindergarten, preschool, or home schools.  Visit our website.  www.phonicsbyspelling.com

Possible Units for Each Month

This is a list of possible units that can be used for Kindergarten, Preschool or Home school.  We have on this blog many free ideas for some of these units.  We like to teach all phonetic sounds to young children using music and pictures, thus making it easier to learn to read.  Check out our website for products. 

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August/September

• Names/Alphabet
• Germs/Hand-washing
• Summer/Autumn/Fall
• Sounds Aa, Cc, Ll, Tt, Ff, Hh, Bb
• Manners/Class Rules
• Homes, Needs, Bodies
• Leaves/Trees
• Numbers 1, 2 ,3, 4
• Colors/Primary/Secondary
• Same/ Different

October

• Sounds Pp, Mm, Nn, Ii, Rr, Ss, SH
• Review Ll, Tt, Hh, Ff, Bb
• Harvest/Pumpkins/Plants
• Measuring/Inches
• Insects/Spiders
• Numbers  5, 6
• Number Review
• Needs/Homes
• Magnets

November

• Sounds Cc/CH, Oo, TH,  Aa, Dd Kk
• Food Groups-Healthy/Junk
• Opposites
• Thanksgiving
• Numbers 7, 8, 9

December

• Sounds Ee, Gg, Jj
• Sharing/Giving/Helping
• Review Pp, Rr, Mm, Nn, Kk
• 5 Senses
• Shapes
• Music/Program

January

• Sounds Yy, Ww, WH, Uu, Qq
• Winter/Seasons
• Animals-Mammals/Reptiles/Birds/Fish/Amphibians
• Review Cc, Dd, Ss, Gg, Jj
• Review WH, SH, CH, TH
• Time/Year/Months/Clocks
• Count by 5
• Numbers 10, 0, Odd/Even
• Dinosaurs

February

• Sounds Zz, Vv, Xx
• USA/Symbols of our Country
• Review Qq, Vv, Ww, Yy, Zz
• Review Vowels
• Presidents
• Money
• Word Endings
• Safety

March

• Sounds AIR, AR, OR, ER, EAR
• Farms-Animals/Plants/Machines
• Review and Blend Sounds
• Spring
• Numbers 11, 12 and Review
• Number 100 (or whenever you reach 100 days of school.)
• Weather-Air/Water/Sun

April

• Sounds OW, OY, OO, OO, AW
• Transportation
• Nursery Rhymes
• Y as a Vowel
• Community Helpers
• Manipulative Addition/Subtraction
• Planets/Sun/Moon

May

• Sounds NG, _S_, Vowels
• Long Vowel Sight Words
• Y as a Vowel
• Family/Friends
• Review and Blend Sounds
• Rocks
• Fairy Tales
• Music/Program

Check out our website for helpful products for teaching the phonics sounds.  We have lesson plans, reproducible workbooks with simple readers for children, simple songs for each sound with fun pictures children enjoy.   http://www.phonicsbyspelling.com/

Weather Review

 

Objective:  To review weather.

Preparation:

• Find pictures or drawings of weather in books, magazines, internet, or old calendars.
• Have crayons, pencils or markers to finish the books.
• Print the template for the weather book.  Cut into 2 pages. Use half a sheet of construction paper for the cover.
•  weather book template page 1    weather book template page 2  
• Suggested Book: Weather by Gallimard Jeunesse

Lesson:

Read the book and discuss:

• Discuss any pictures of weather. 
• Discuss what weather the children have seen.
• Review ideas from other weather lessons. 

Activity:

Help the kids make their weather book by reading and discussing each page as they work. When finished, read the book together.

Suggested Discussion questions:

• What do you wear when it’s snowy; rainy; etc. ?
• What kinds of activities can you do when it’s snowy; rainy; etc.?

 

 

 

   

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Weather: Rain and Snow

    

Weather: Rain and Snow      

Objective: Help children learn about the water cycle and how water is a part of our weather.

Preparation:

• Find drawings or pictures of rain, snow and other storms from books, magazines or old calendars.
• Collect a pan, water, a cookie sheet, and a stove or something to heat the water.
• Make word cards; evaporation, water cycle, water vapor, and condensation. 
• Have crayons, pencils or markers.
• Scraps of construction paper in white, dark blue, green and yellow.
• Print the water cycle on light blue or white paper. water-cycle-picture   If you do this activity with older children, they can write all the words.  
• Create a sample water cycle.

Suggested books:

• Cloudy with a Chance Of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
• Franklin and the Thunderstorm by Paulette Bourgeois
• What Makes it Rain? by Keith Brandt

Lesson:

Read a book then discuss water weather:

Discussion questions:

1. How do you feel when it rains?
2. Are you afraid of storms, if so why do they scare you?
3. What activities do you like to do in the rain?
4. Where do you think rain comes from?
5. What other weather has water in it?  (snow, hail)

Demonstrate “condensation” and “evaporation” by heating a small pot of water on the stove. Heat the water until you see steam.  Show the “water vapor” and “evaporation” cards.  Say, “The steam is water vapor or evaporation.”  Hold the cookie sheet above the water.  Show how the water condensate on the cookie sheet. Show the word card “condensation. Say, “If we hold this cookie sheet for a long time above the water it will start dropping rain. 

Activity: Help children learn about the water cycle by making a water cycle collage picture.  (Tearing paper is a skill that most children have to be taught.)

• Give each child a sheet of light blue or white water cycle picture paper.
• Tear dark blue paper big enough to fill half of the bottom part of the paper to look like the ocean. Have the children glue it on their paper by the word “ocean”.
• Tear a sun shape of yellow. Have the children glue it by the word “sun” above the ocean. Talk about how the sun heats the water and causes it to evaporate. Help them write “sun” on the sun.
• Tear a piece of white paper and have the children shade it with gray with the side of a crayon to look like a rain cloud. Have the children glue it on their paper opposite the sun by the words, “rain cloud”. (Explain how the droplets of water vapor come together and cool to make a cloud and when they get too heavy they condensate on bits of dust and begin to fall to the earth as snow or rain depending on how cold they are.)
• Have the children draw the rain coming from the cloud by the word, “rain” below the cloud. Discuss the ways the rain helps all living things and all the benefits of rain and storms.
• Tear a piece of green or brown paper to look like a slope of land coming down to meet the ocean. Have the children glue it next to the ocean piece of paper by the word “land”.
• Tear a strip of blue paper to look like a river. Have the children glue it on the slope of land by the word, “river”. Talk about the collection of rain into rivers, lakes and oceans
• Read all the words on the picture together.

Check out our website: http://www.phonicsbyspelling.com/

Weather – Wind

 Wind

Objective: To learn about and experience wind and air.

Preparation:

• Find drawings, books, magazines or old calendars of wind.
• Have crayons, pencils or markers for the children.
• Square paper or print out pin wheel template. pinwheel template
• New pencil, straw or make your own stick by rolling up paper.
• Straight pins.
• Masking tape.

Books:

• Wind by Ron Bacon
• Wind by Marion Dane Bauer

Lesson:

• Explain to the children that wind is moving air. 
• Wind is invisible.
• Discuss some of the signs that tell us it is windy. (Use pictures or books)  Give them clues such as clouds moving in the sky, wind chimes ringing, feeling the winds on our skin, and leaves or paper blowing across the yard.  
• People use wind for many different things such as; flying a kite, sailing a sailboat, or blowing windmills to create electricity.

Activity:   Pinwheel  pinwheel template

• Give the children the square or template.
• Have the children color and decorate both sides of the pinwheel.
• Have them cut on the diagonal lines. Making sure to have them stop cutting where the line stops.
• Take every other point and bring it to the center of the pinwheel.
• Push a pin through four of the points and the center of the pinwheel.  Then push the pin through the eraser of the pencil or about ½ inch from the top of a straw or rolled paper.
• Bend the end of the pin down against the pencil, straw or rolled paper. Leave a little space between the pin and stick so the pinwheel spins freely. 
• Wrap several times with masking tape to keep in place and to cover the sharp end of the pin.

Optional activities:

Kite:     http://www.ehow.com/how_4742941_make-paperbag-kite.html

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Symbols of The USA–The Statue of Liberty

 

The Statue of Liberty

Objective: To introduce children to The Statue of Liberty as a symbol of USA promise of freedom. 

Preparation:

• Find drawings or pictures of The Statue of Liberty from books, magazines or old calendars.
• Have green crayons, pencils or markers and paper for the children.  (Print,”The Statue of Liberty” on the paper.)
• Suggested book:   The Statue of Liberty by Lucille Recht Penner

Lesson:

• Read the book then discuss while showing pictures:
• The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable symbols of the United States in the world. For many visitors traveling by sea in days gone by, the statue located on Liberty Island, in New York harbor, was their first glimpse of America.
• The statue symbolizes liberty and democracy.
• The Statue of Liberty is a huge sculpture that is located on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. This monument was a gift to the USA from the people of France.
• Liberty was designed by the French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The hollow copper statue was built in France – it was finished in July, 1884.  It was brought to the USA in 350 pieces on a French ship.  The statue was reassembled in the USA and was completed on October 28, 1886.
• Liberty’s right hand holds a torch that is a symbol of liberty. There are 354 steps inside the statue and its pedestal. There are 25 viewing windows in the crown. The seven rays of Liberty’s crown symbolize the seven seas and seven continents of the world. Liberty holds a tablet in her left hand that reads “July 4, 1776” (in Roman numerals).
• This is the poem that is mounted on the base of the statue.  Emma Lazarus wrote it.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
with conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Discussion questions:

• What is liberty?  — the power of choice.
• What is a symbol? —  something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible.
• What are some other symbols of our country? — The Flag, Eagle, etc.

Activities:

• Draw the statue. Give each child a paper and a green pencil or crayon. Help the children draw the statue one step at a time. Wait to start each step until all children have completed the previous step.
• Pictures of the kids: Take each child one at a time. Wrap a green sheet around the child and attach at shoulder. Have them wear a Statue of Liberty headband (you can get them from Liberty Tax or have them make one). Give them a flashlight to hold in their left hand. In their right hand give them a small poster board with “July 4th 1776” written on it. Have them pose like the Statue of Liberty and take a picture.

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Dinosaurs

 

Objective: Children will learn about dinosaurs.  (Some children are afraid of dinosaurs, so it is good to be prepared to address it.)

Preparation:

• Find drawings or pictures of dinosaurs from books, magazines or old calendars.
• Create a sensory table by filling a tub with rice, beans, sand, etc.,then bury plastic dinosaurs in it. 
• Make or buy self hardening clay or Plaster of Paris.
• Plastic dinosaurs
• Suggested Dinosaur Books

• My Big Dinosaur Book by Roger Priddy
• How Big Were the Dinosaurs? by Bernard Most
• If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today by Running Press;
• How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends? by Jane Yolen

Lesson:

Read a book then define some of the following words:

• dinosaur:  Means “terrible lizard” in the Greek language.  These are prehistoric, extinct animals.
• fossils: Any impressions, remains, or tracks of plants or animals from prehistoric times left in rocks.
• paleontologist: People that study fossils and prehistoric life. 
• prehistoric: The time before written history.
• extinct:  Plants or animals that no long live on the earth.
• carnivores:  Animals that eat meat or other animals.
• herbivores: Animals that eat plants.

Dinosaurs lived on earth a long time before humans, but fossils and science have helped us learn what dinosaurs may have looked like, what they ate and how they behaved. Scientists believe that dinosaurs lived on Earth until about 65 million years ago when a mass extinction occurred. It is believed that they could have become extinct because of a large asteroid impact or volcanic activity. Over 1000 different species of dinosaurs have been named and the list continues to grow as new fossils are discovered.

Some dinosaurs were meat eaters (they ate other animals) and some were plant eaters. To help fight meat eaters, many plant eaters had natural weapons such as the spikes on the tail of the Stegosaurus and the three horns attached to the front of the Triceratops’s head shield.  Meat eaters had sharp teeth.  Plant eaters had flatter teeth for grinding plants.  

Five Little Dinosaurs

• Five little dinosaurs sitting in a swamp (hold up five fingers)
• The first one said, “Let’s go run and jump.” (Point to a different finger for each dinosaur)
• The second one said, “I smell Tom Tyrannosaurus.” (Point to nose)
• The third one said, “I bet he’s looking for us.” (Put hand above eye and look around)
• The fourth one said, “He might grab us by the neck.” (Put hands around the neck)
• The fifth one said, “Let’s run away quick.

Activity:

• Sort Animals:   Fossils:   Give each child enough clay to make a 2″ ball. Have them flatten it with their palm. They can now make “fossil” prints in the flat surface of the clay using small chicken bones, small plastic dinosaurs, leaves…etc.  Let dry and harden.  
• Sensory Table:    Fill a tub with sand, rice or beans then bury plastic dinosaurs for the children to find.

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Mammals

Mammals    

Objective: Children will learn the characteristics of mammals and how they compare to other animals. 
Preparation:

• Find drawings or pictures of mammals and other types of animals from books, internet, magazines or old calendars.

• Make word cards for the words, Mammals, Animals, Yes, and No.

• Have paper and crayons.

• Suggested books:

  • Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
  • The Hat by Jan Brett

Lesson:
Read the book(s) then discuss while showing pictures.
Discuss the characteristics of mammals

• All mammals are warm-blooded.

• Most young are born alive.

• They have hair or fur on their bodies.

• Every mammal is a vertebrate. 

• All mammals have lungs to breathe air.

• Mammals feed milk to their babies.

Activities:

Play the Yes and No game with pictures of different animals.  “Is this a mammal?” Then place the animal on the yes or no pile.  (This gives an opportunity to discuss characteristics of different animals.)

Have children draw their favorite mammal.  Write the name of the mammal on the picture.   

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Word Cards for Attention!

Word Cards

Using word cards to introduce every subject helps children know where the lesson is headed.  It helps them stay with you.  Even if the children you are teaching don’t read yet, a word card helps them learn to read plus it gets and keeps their attention.

It is often said that when teaching or giving a speech, tell them  what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you have told them.  This is especially true of young children.  Here are some tips for using word cards:

•  Use a word card to bring them back to the subject.   
• A word card can be used in fun, possibly silly, ways.
• Keeping the word cards down to 1 or 2 per lesson will help children stay focused.
• Vary how the word cards is used.
• Word cards can also help at home to keep children on task and focused.

Have fun using word cards to increase learning for the children in your life.  We would love feedback on how you have successfully used Word Cards.

For more educational products and information visit www.phonicsbyspelling.com