Happy New Year!

  To help you get ready for the new year, I have included my latest activity in this post!

 

Snowman ABC Letter and Sound Match

 

Each snowman can be cut out individually or just cut on the rectangle box to separate them. Then cut the head, middle and bottom apart. These can also be cut apart as self-checking pieces so each one is different or just as a straight horizontal line. 

 

I have a huge variety of winter activities in my TpT store, just right for this time of year!

 

 

Another new one is

Winter Snowman Roll and Graph With Cube

This is a fun creative winter snowman graphing activity using a cube template to make dice with snowmen.

Looking forward to sharing the coming new year with you!

Share In The New Year!

To celebrate the New Year, I have this fun thought provoking creative writing assignment! It is designed to stimulate positive thoughts and actions for the coming year.

Free! Happy New Year Resolutions

The littlest learners can have the questions read to them and someone write down their answers. They truly have some interesting suggestions!

 

If you are looking for another activity in the new year, I also have

New Year Skip Counting Cut And Glue

Here is an example of the activity!

Santa Express Geometric Christmas Train

There are so many great stories about trains for children! A very special story for the holiday season is the classic "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg's. This fun product incorporates 5 geometric shapes into the building of a train engine,
plus a creative literacy activity.

 

 Santa Express Geometric Christmas Train

 

 There are 3 complete train engine choices; 1 has red and green colors, 1 is grayscale colored, and the last is black and white. The train can be made as a stand-alone, but that is better printed on heavy paper. It can also be made by gluing the pieces down on another piece of paper.

This project is excellent practice for the fine motor skills of cutting and gluing. It is a good idea to give each child a baggie to hold their cut pieces until they have glued them all.

Introduce or review the five shapes; circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon. Decide if posting the picture of the finished Key that is included, so the children may use it for reference. When doing the black and white or grayscale engines, the children can color or decorate them when finished.

This activity can also be used in a center, but it is better if the pieces are laminated first. Some of the pieces are small so a baggie helps to keep any from getting lost.

 

The literacy activity has a black and white train paper with lines for writing and reading their creative stories. There is a cover sheet to make these stories into a class share book the students can read and reread again and again.

 

 The Geometric Train can be used for other stories about trains.

Some examples are:
1. Smokey by Bill Peet
2. Crack in the Track (Thomas the Tank Engine Story)
3. Little Train by Lois Lenski
4. The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
5. Steam, Smoke, and Steel: Back in Time with Trains by Patrick O’Brien
6. Big Book of Trains by DK Publishing
7. The Goodnight Train by June Sobel
8. The Potty Train by David Hochman
9. Dinosaur Train by John Steven Gurney
10. Freight Train by Donald Crews

 

I have another train product that can also be a Christmas train activity,

but can be used at other times of the year too.
Christmas Train Do Together Parent/Child Homework Activity

 

There are many other geometric activities and money saving geometric bundles in my store.
Geometric Activities
Also See:
Christmas Activities
Puzzles & Games
Colors & Shapes
Free Activities

Enjoy this holiday season!

Beginner Crossword Puzzle Using Color Words

Crossword puzzles are the world's most popular word games for children and adults!

This is a great product to teach the concept of crossword puzzles and review color words. It can be done one-on-one and in large or small groups.

The smaller the group being introduced, the easier to teach and observe while doing the activity. When working with a large class, depending on the age, it may be necessary to do it together step by step. You may need to do a copy of the activity along with them for all to see.

The first letter of each box is printed the color of the correct word, so the child knows where to start spelling the word. The student might notice that black and brown start in the same square, but the box is brown.

The color words are on the paper to help spell the words correctly. The numbered box is beside the word to help them locate the same square on the grid and the direction to write the word. A key is included.

Find this activity here:  

 

My First Crossword Puzzle

Enjoy this freebie page!

You can instill the love of using words, along with the educational benefits and maybe create a lifelong puzzler! 

Enjoy!

Twelve Years Ago, I Can't Believe It Has Been That Long! Celebrate With My Anniversary Sale!

 In October 2012, I decided to join a rather new “out of the box idea” online site 

called

TeacherspayTeachers!

In 2006, Paul Edelman, a former NYC public school teacher created this new concept for teachers to save them time in the classroom. It was becoming one of the fastest growing companies in the US!

So......I just uploaded tried and true products I had created and used in my classroom, for other teachers to purchase to use with their students. I also found many activities that I could use that had been uploaded by other teachers, so I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel!

 

What a blessing it has been! 

Not just for teachers, but homeschools, parents, grandparents, preschools, daycares, religious schools, online education, private schools, after-school programs and international education systems!

 

To celebrate I am having an Anniversary Sale! 

My entire store will be 10% off October 18-20, 2024!

Christine Maxwell Hand to Heart

 

Plus Halloween is coming with no tricks, just treats! 

Enjoy! 

Free Bingo Game 0-15 for Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving!

This free colorful, fun math activity will help to introduce students to the concept of playing Bingo, or provide practice for proficient players. Great to play during fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving.

My First Bingo 0-15

 

This game includes 3 pumpkin board templates, a nine grid, a twelve grid and a sixteen grid. Also included are little pumpkin calling cards 0-15, plus directions and suggestions for playing.

 

I've added little leaves, jacks and turkey pumpkins cards as an extra surprise to create some excitement. I used candy corn as my counters to mark the numbers and when a picture card is show each student gets a piece of candy to eat!

 

You will need to write the numbers on the pumpkin boards. 

 Another way to use this activity is to give each student a pumpkin and have them write the numbers in the various squares. For example, you assign the numbers 0-10 on the 9 space grid pumpkin. They use a pencil to write the numbers first, to make sure they have written them correctly, and then trace over them with crayon or marker.

 

This product can also be printed in grayscale to save colored ink!

When playing the game, students can trade cards for each different game.
 The children look forward to practicing their numbers and I get a good visual evaluation of their progress.

Enjoy! 

Halloween is Coming With ABCs

There are so many fun activities for Halloween, especially using the letters.

I love to make books that are child created by using pages made by little learners. Those pages are then laminated, bound together in the book and able to be

shared again and again!

 

A favorite one for Halloween is

 Halloween Trick or Treat ABC Class Book Trace Dotted Letters & Illustrate

I've made a Halloween Trick or Treat ABC Book with 26 pages of A thru Z words. All the words are made with dotted lines that the children need to trace! Have each child pick a letter and draw themselves in that costume or draw how they might look as that example. They will illustrate and color a picture that goes with the words.

BUT if you don't like the words I've picked, I have added other choices for most of the letters. Just print the one you want for each letter to change the original story or have the child pick the one they want. The extra pages are listed after the ABC Story.

Print the 26 A-Z pages you want for the book.

Don't print them all!

Here are some examples of the other B letter choices.

 

The first word listed is in the story, and the other words are pages to choose from.
A-astronaut, angel, alien
B-ballerina, bat, bunny, baseball player, basketball player, bride, butterfly
C-clown, cat, cowboy, cowgirl, cupcake, candy
D-doctor, dog, dinosaur, dragon, diva
E-elf, elephant, engineer
F-fireman, fairy, football player, farmer
G-ghost, gorilla, gladiator, gnome, gypsy, genie
H-horse, hiker
I-Indian, ice cream cone, imp
J-jack-o-lantern, jester, jellyfish
K-kitty, king, knight
L-lion, leopard, ladybug, lamb
M-monster, monkey, mummy, mermaid
N-nurse, ninja
O-owl, ogre, octopus
P-pirate, princess, prince, policeman, policewoman
Q-queen
R-robot, rock star
S-superhero, skeleton, scarecrow, spider, superstar, soccer player,
T-teacher, T-rex, tiger, troll
U-unicorn, umpire
V-veterinarian, Viking
W-wizard, warrior
X-x-ray, eXtraterrestrial
Y-yoyo, yellow duck, yellow bee
Z-zebra, zzzzzz Trick or treat is over. Good night.

 

This is also a fun activity for a child to work on between now and Halloween,

doing just a couple pages a day with a finished book to keep and reread!

 

Another good learning activity for a variety of ages, is to see how many words can be made using the letters for the words Happy Halloween!

Halloween Words to Make

Students, especially younger ones love to be able to arrange and rearrange letters to make different words. The activity includes the letters in two sizes to manipulate during play.

There are different versions in this product, see the link. There are two sheets with the letters large enough for a chart or group work in color and black & white. They can also have magnets put on the back for magnetic play.

Also included are two worksheets with little Happy Halloween letters at the bottom to cut off for arranging the letters into various words. Color and black & white copies in my TpT Store. Snack size baggies would help students keep track of their letters.

 Even beginning readers can make simple words like: A, he, we, all, etc.

 The only extra thing needed is a pen or pencil!
Excellent activity for fast finishers or when there are a few extra minutes in the day.

So enjoy part of this activity FREE, only on here on my blog!

 

Be sure a visit my

Christine Maxwell Hand to Heart TpT Store

to see other products I have for

Halloween!

 

Don't forget to Follow, you never know when I will add another free activity!



Kleenex Box Dice for Halloween!

No Tricks, just Treats!

Sometimes trying to make paper dice with little learners is too hard for them to put together.

 

This is when cube Kleenex Tissue boxes are sooooo helpful!

So I have updated and added to this product to make it easier to use,

plus the size makes it an awesome class activity!

 

Halloween Pumpkin Roll and Graph.



The children roll their dice and color in the correct box on the graph showing the same pumpkin. Several faces are similar so they need to look carefully before coloring the box.

See which pumpkin reaches the top first! This activity can also be used in small groups or in a center.

Enjoy!

Turkey Races Graphing Using Cube Kleenex Box or Dice Template!

Horizontal and vertical graphing can sometimes be very confusing for little learners, but turkeys can make it a concept easy to understand!

I have created a new turkey version of a similar winter snowman product. It also includes large and small pieces for a better visual understanding of the objective. Learning to do graphing should be a fun unforgettable activity!

 

Thanksgiving Turkey Roll and Graph Using A Cube Kleenex Box or Dice Template

This is a creative Thanksgiving or fall turkey horizontal and vertical graphing activity using a Kleenex Tissue box or a cube template to make dice for graphing the different turkeys. It is a favorite with children!

 The product has pieces to do a large floor size graphing activity and a regular sized activity! It works best to print the activity out first, to help you decide, what size you want to make the large graphing grid. (Large graphing grid not included.)

(These are pictures of the large grid, but being used with the snowman graphing activity.)

For the large activity, you will need to create your own large graphing grid, preferably one that can be reused again and again! It can be any size you wish! Plus you will need colored paper to fill the grid squares, unless coloring them in with a onetime use.

You can use any size large piece of paper, heavy vinyl picnic table cover or plastic like a shower curtain and create a large visual floor graph to use with the pieces.

You can also create a large graphing grid on a chalkboard, whiteboard or paper, then carefully taping the pieces on, creating a large wall hands on activity.

There is a page to make your own dice using the turkey dice template, which is tricky for many children! An easier version is to create a large die using the six larger turkeys and a square Kleenex box (Not included.) or cut the small turkeys and glue them to small wooden cubes to create dice. 

Just add the turkeys and colored pieces of paper to fill in the boxes as each turkey progresses in the graph. They can be taped on, but I like to use binder clips to have the turkeys standing up!

Decide which activity you are going to do and if using the color or the grayshade activity. This activity includes 2 different dice pages, 4 different graph pages with two types of graphs, large and small movable turkey pieces and the ending question sheet.

 

The turkey pictures can be cut apart and put in blinder clips to move with the activity. Children love picking out their favorite turkey to race and quietly cheering them to the finish and moving the big and little turkeys on the big and little graphs! See which turkey is the winner!

There are two different versions of the horizontal and vertical included graphs; one in each has more boxes to color in when doing the activity with older children.

It is important to notice that the turkeys look very similar, so the children need to look very carefully before coloring the box. The children roll their die and color in the correct box on the graph showing the same exact turkey.

This is a wonderful way to have hands on learning activity, especially for little learners being introduced to graphing.

You may want to start by introducing the large graphing activity using only two or three turkeys and gradually add all six. The included paper grids can be trimmed so that only a 2 or 3 grid is used!

This product makes a good visual discrimination practice and evaluation activity, as well as graphing. This activity can be used with individual students, small groups,
the whole class and also in a center or pocket chart.

 Another activity that can be played by printing out extra turkeys is Concentration.

I also have a similar product called

Winter Snowman Roll and Graph Using Cube Kleenex Box or Dice Template

 I plan on making several other activities with the same concept including the large pieces, as children love them and with practice they can do them without adult help!

I also have a Thanksgiving writing product

  Turkey Writing Paper for Thanksgiving-Three Grids and Ideas

Enjoy!

 See my other activities for:

Thanksgiving

Christmas 

Winter

I have a wide variety of other educational fun products to help children learn! I would love for you to Follow to keep updated on new activities, freebies, linkups and so much more!

Sending you best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

 

See Turkeys Run! Run Turkeys Run! Fun Graphing Activity!

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for all of our blessings!

Little people sometimes say it best! I have so many blessings in my life! I want to take this time to say how thankful I am for the blessing of your friendship!

 

I have posted this before, but it is so popular I am sharing it again!

Turkey Writing Paper for Thanksgiving-Three Grids and Ideas

 

This is a set of black and white realistic turkeys for literacy activities.

There are three different writing grids, so you can pick the right one for your age group. Also included is a blank turkey page so students can add a picture to their story or the littlest learners can just draw and dictate thankful pictures.

Great for students to color, after their story is written or pictures are drawn. They are extra cute when stuff as added, feathers, beads, etc.

There are 3 Title Pages: What I Am Thankful For, How To Cook A Turkey, and How To Disguise A Turkey and an Ending Page: Happy Thanksgiving.

The students love to share their stories! They can be made into a class book to be read and reread or posted for all to see.

 

See Turkeys Run! Run Turkeys Run!

This is a new activity that I posted a few days ago!

Thanksgiving Turkey Roll and Graph Using A Cube Kleenex Box or Dice Template

 

Horizontal and vertical graphing can sometimes be very confusing for little learners, so I have created this Thanksgiving product to include large and small pieces for a better visual understanding of the concept. Learning to do graphing should be a fun unforgettable activity!

Please note….. I picked turkey clipart that is lifelike. They look like real turkeys and are very similar! This can be confusing for some children, but this makes a good visual discrimination practice and evaluation activity, as well as graphing.



There is a page to make your own dice using the turkey dice template, which is tricky for many children! An easier version is to create a large dice using the six larger turkeys and a square Kleenex box or cut the small turkeys and glue them to small wooden cubes to create dice.

 

It works best to print the activity out first, to help you decide, what size you want to make the large graphing grid. (Not included.)

For the large activity, you will need to create your own large graphing grid, preferably one that can be reused again and again! It can be any size you wish! Plus you will need colored paper to fill the grid squares, unless coloring them in with a onetime use.

You can use any size large piece of paper, heavy vinyl picnic table cover or plastic like a shower curtain and create a large visual floor graph to use with the pieces. Just add the turkeys and colored pieces of paper to fill in the boxes as each turkey progresses in the graph. They can be taped on, but I like to use binder clips to have the turkeys standing up! This is a wonderful way to have a hands on learning activity, especially for little learners being introduced to graphing.

You can also create a large graphing grid on a chalkboard, whiteboard or paper, then carefully taping the pieces on, creating a large wall hands on activity.

You may want to start by introducing the large graphing activity using only two or three turkeys and gradually add all six. The included paper grids can be trimmed so that only a 2 or 3 grid is used!

Children love picking out their favorite turkeys and quietly cheering them to the finish.

This activity can be used with individual students, small groups, the whole class and also in a center or pocket chart. Another activity that can be played by printing out extra turkeys is Concentration.

Note the large graphing grid is not included in this product! Download the three page Preview in my store to see the complete activity.

Also see other turkey activities and Thanksgiving products in my

Christine Maxwell Hand to Heart TpT Store.

 

Thanksgiving Turkey Handprint Poem and Keepsake
Thanksgiving Geometric Turkey
Thanksgiving Song And Posters G-O-BB-L-E Was His Name-O
Thanksgiving Thankful Badges & Bookmarks for Teachers, Students, Staff & Parents
Thanksgiving Turkey Do Together Parent/Child Homework Activity
10 Little Turkey Birds Songs, Number Puzzles and 10 Props for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Secret Number Letter Puzzle Messages Skip Count
Free! Turkey Writing Paper for Thanksgiving-Various Ages-Three Grids
10 Little Turkeys Class Book and Student Book for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day Skip Counting Cut And Glue
Thanksgiving Turkey Tails
Thanksgiving Hand Turkey Handful of Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is Coming!

When teaching children,

you always need to be planning and staying prepared one step ahead!

Many of you are already thinking about Thanksgiving!

 

I have a variety of Thanksgiving activities in my TpT Store

Christine Maxwell Hand to Heart

simply click on the

CUSTOM CATEGORIES

on the left side of my store and look under Thanksgiving!

 

I just added a super simple product called 

 

Thanksgiving Hand Turkey Handful of Thankful.

I am posting it here as a blog freebie!

This is an easy peasy, no prep way, to create a turkey about being thankful using

a child's hand!

Print this Handful of Thankful template out on the front side only.

It uses very little ink, print and create!

 

Have the children work in pairs to trace around the hand of each other or an adult can trace around little people hands. They add their details to make a turkey and color.

 

They write four things that they are thankful to have in their life, inside the tail feathers. Little learners can use their own spellings to create their turkeys and older children can write small sentences. The tiny learners can tell an adult their answers and they write them.

 This can be a wonderful display for Thanksgiving or a great class book to share!

It also makes a cute keepsake for parents.

Enjoy!



Products and Activities

 So exciting!

If you have a classroom, homeschool, preschool, daycare, afterschool, roadschool,

are a parent or grandparent this is for you! 

Thanksgiving Turkey Tails Number Sense

 

 

It is a fun way to introduce or review the various forms of the numbers 1-5 using turkey feathers!

 

 

I would love for you to follow me on Instagram at cjsmaxwell

 

Enjoy!

Fifty Nifty Days of Learning

50 nifty days of learning or 50 nifty days of school is cause for a celebration!

It happens about this time of year depending upon when you started.

I have two new products for this special occasion!

The first is a bookmark!

 

50th Day of School for 50 Days of Learning Bookmarks! Color & Blackline

While it is a paid product in my store for all four versions,

I am posting two on here free just for my blog followers!

Enjoy! 

I have also added a song for the 50 days too! 

50th Day of School Song for the 50 Days of Learning

What a fun activity for the 50th Day of Learning or 50 Days of School!

There is a song poster, the number 10 poster and the letter posters that spell FIFTY. Also included is a cover sheet and directions. Each poster is 8 1/2 by 11 inches.

It is a great way to learn some letters of the alphabet and practice memory skills!

Assembly: Print the song poster, the 10 poster five times (if using) and the letter posters on heavy paper and laminate. The 10 poster can be printed out five times and placed back to back with the letter posters. Then they can be flipped during the song from the letter to the number 10.

Activity: Show the song poster and teach the song. Introduce the letter cards to go with the song. Pass the cards out to 5 students and as the letter is sung, the card is held up. Repeat until every student has had a chance to participate.

To make the activity harder, sing the song with flipping a letter to 10 for each verse and do a motion and/or sound instead.

For example, they sing F I F T Y for the first verse. Then turn the letter F over for the second verse and have the children sing and show ten fingers for 10 for the letter F. They would sing 10, I F T Y. The third verse would be 10, 10, F T Y. Do this until all the letters are turned over and the last verse is 10, 10, 10, 10, 10! The 5 number 10 posters add up to 50 and 5 sets of ten fingers add up to 50 fingers!

Download Preview in my store (link above) to see the complete activity.

 

Happy 50 Days!

Fall Fun!

The days are getting cooler and the sun goes down much earlier now. It is the beginning of the glorious season of fall and although the leaves are just starting to turn, it is a great time of year to curl up with a good book and read to or with a child.

 Here are Free! "FALL INTO A GOOD BOOK!" Bookmarks

for Back To School, Fall and Autumn to help you keep your place!

Color and Grayscale

Plus they like to have their own bookmark too!

 

This is a creative product for September leaves using “stuff” and glue.

Autumn/Fall Tree

 It includes two blank tree templates to be completely decorated into an autumn or fall tree. The tree should not just be colored, it needs something on it! Younger children enjoy doing it together with an adult, especially telling about their tree!

 The tree can be covered with whatever, but it must hopefully stay attached when hung up. Plus it shouldn’t be so heavy that it won’t stay taped to a wall.

Suggestions for stuff as decorations: glitter, pompoms, tissue paper, felt, foam,
sprinkles, colored rice, family pictures, beads, sequins, shells, feathers, flowers,
nature materials, sand, fabric, papers, foil, string, recycling materials, lace,
whatever stuff you have around the house.

 

I have seen so many beautiful ideas and they look wonderful hanging all around! The children love sharing their creations too! 

Enjoy!