Year Round Activities                          

Primary:

Kindergarten Letter Fun
There's lots of things you can do with Post cereal "ALPHABITS" - I've passed out a small cup of this and asked students to find the letter of the week; I've given them a page of our learned letters and done a letter search (we found that some letters are harder to find); I've used it to spell names; and the best part is that they get to eat letters! You can be
creative and think of so many things to reinforce any letter/s.
Tanya Wahl ~ Urbana, Illinois

Picture Memory
One of the kids' favorite games is Picture Memory made with their own pictures.   I take the extra proofs from Lifetouch or whatever company your school uses and glue them on cardstock squares.  The kids get very excited when they flip their own picture.  They get even more excited when they find the teacher!
Chris Minch ~ Port St. Lucie, FL

Compound Words
Print compound words on sentence strips and cut apart before the lesson begins. Color code the words to help your students match them. Have the definition of a compound word written out and taped to the board. Pass out the words so each child has at least one. Now is the fun part! Take a bookbag, beachbag, or schoolbag that you have filled with items like snowman, toothbrush, nametag, scarecrow, etc., and tell the class that they are to name each item as you take it out. The two students holding the words that name the item come up and place their cards in the pocket chart. You are stressing that the words are put together to form a new word (compound word!) so they are checking that the cards are placed with no space between them. This is a very engaging lesson and everyone has a part to play. I use the word cards as a center for the next few weeks.
Connie Bourgeau ~ Naples, Florida

Intermediate:

My second graders draw names of all the adults on our staff. They are then secret friends to these staff members for the whole year. They send notes throughout the year wishing them Happy Halloween, Merry Christmas, etc.   Then just before school is out, they reveal their identity to the adults. The staff really enjoys all the notes and the students have the opportunity to get acquainted with some adults they might not have any contact with otherwise. During the last week of school, I try to let each child have the chance to meet with their new friend one-on-one and the adult usually has a little gift (pencil, stickers, etc.) for that child. I have found this activity really helps the students with their writing skills in other areas, too.
Kitty Nutting ~ Loveland, CO