Tag Archives | atozthemes

Share/Bookmark

Insects & Bugs Teaching Activities

Insects Theme @ Little Giraffes Teaching Ideas
Photos showing classroom activities for a theme unit on insects.  Source: littlegiraffes.com  (Grades K-2)

Bees and Ants
Twelve activities for 3-6 year olds: Read The Honey Robber and the Bee by Eric Carle, pheromone activity, beehive observation, waggle dance, beehive thumbprints, The Honey Bee song, bee windsocks, honey of a snack, read World of Ants, ant observation and collection, sing The Ants Go Marching, marshmallow ants.  Source:  iitc.tamu.edu  (Preschool-K)

Bug-Go
Bug-go is designed to help the players learn to identify some insects while learning which insects are beneficial and interesting facts about others. The game should be played similar to the game bingo. Source: www.uky.edu  (Grades 1-4)

Bugs Unit @ PreKinders
Theme ideas for learning about bugs: insects and spiders Source: prekinders.com  (Preschool-K)

Busy, Busy Bees Theme Unit
Lots of activities for a bee theme.  Source: www.thevirtualvine.com (Grades K-2)

Can You Identify Arthropods?
The student will be able to sort and classify the four Arthropod classes.  Source: iitc.tamu.edu  (Grades K-4)

Creepy Class Creatures
Children will have fun finding out which creepy crawly insects are class favorites.  Source: www.eduplace.com  (Preschool-2)

Insects and Spiders Coloring Pages
Several coloring pages for creepy crawlies.  Source: first-school.ws  (Grades Preschool-1)

Bugs! Lesson Plan
This lesson will let students explore shape and color by creating original and whimsical insect creatures. Students will tear colored paper into shapes appropriate to imaginary insects. Shapes will be arranged and glued to a background sheet.  Source: www.dickblick.com  (Grades K-5)

Insects and Spiders Preschool Activities and Crafts
Printable crafts and activities for insects and spiders.  Source: www.first-school.ws  (Grades Preschool-1)

Insects & Bugs Pins @ Pinterest

Click here for my latest pins for insects & bugs 

Share/Bookmark

Butterfly & Caterpillar Teaching Activities @ A to Z

Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Students will learn to identify the four stages of a butterfly’s life cycle.

The Life Cycle of the Butterfly
Students write a biography of a caterpillar using appropriate vocabulary and time lines.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
A variety of activities having to do with The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

Caterpillar Themed Printables
Sight words, writing practice, nameplates, and cutting practice.

Activities @ Other Sites

Fingerplays, Action Poems, Nursery Rhymes, and Songs
There are several themes: Counting and Number, Animals, Insect and Bugs, Community Helpers, Family, Special Occasions, Transition Times, Transportation — some are traditional nursery rhymes, but you’ll find a great variety of poems here

Butterfly Activity Kit
Contains seven activity units with over 40 activities and reproducible pages. Provided by Earth’s Birthday, a company which sells caterpillars you can raise in your classroom.

Butterfly and Caterpillar Crafts
Puppets, life cycle mobile, handprint butterfly, origami butterfly, paper chain caterpillar, and much more.

Butterfly Crafts
A collection of crafts from MakingFriends.com

Caterpillars to Butterflies
Eight activities: Make a caterpillar from Panty hose, Butterfly Song, Make a Caterpillar to Butterfly T-shirt, Searching for a butterfly, Life cycle of a butterfly on Manilla Paper, Beautiful Butterflies, Symmetry Sandwich, and Caterpillar Measuring

Caterpillars, Butterflies
Songs & Poems

Monarch Butterflies
8 lessons during a 3-4 week period while caterpillars turn to butterflies

The Monarch Butterfly
Photos, facts, and printables about the Monarch

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Unit
Links to lesson ideas, printables, bulletin boards, and much more for your literature unit!

Share/Bookmark

Pi Day is March 14 (3.14)

Great Pi Day Activities for Teachers
A list of activity ideas submitted by teachers.

Celebrate Pi Day – The Irrational Webquest
A web-based inquiry to explore the meaning and history of Pi and calculations involving Pi.

Activities and Links for Pi Day
Resources from the Exploratorium, where Pi Day was founded by physicist Larry Shaw.

Pi Day Activities
This site has activities for crafts, contests, eats, songs & arts, donations, fun with digits, events, projects, and lessons.

Pi Day Activities by Nancy Powell
Pi learning activities for six learning stations.

March14 is Pi Day
14 Fun Math and Geometry Activities to Celebrate the Most Useful Irrational Number

The Derivation of Pi
Students use real-world objects to understand the concept of a constant such as pi. (Grades 6-8)

Pi Day Songs

Pi Trivia Quiz

How to Calculate Pi by Throwing Frozen Hot Dogs
This one sounded like too much fun not to include.  

Pi Day Challenge
The site says, “The Pi Day Challenge is a series of puzzles that are logic-based.”  Problem: I couldn’t find any other details on the site.  I believe the puzzles will show up on 3.14, so check back!

Joy of Pi
Facts and resource links for learning about Pi.  You can also find information about the book.

Pi Tip:  If you want to type the pi symbol (π), hold down the Alt key and press 227 on the numeric keypad.

Books about Pi

Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi (A Math Adventure)

Piece of Pi: Wit-Sharpening, Brain-bruising, Number-Crunching Activities with Pi (Grades 6-8)

Share/Bookmark

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

The Lorax Reader’s Theater Script
Shared by a member at the A to Z forums.

Family Literacy Bag: The Lorax
Resource for a family literacy bag for The Lorax and Tell Me, Tree. Designed to encourage hands-on fun and learning at home. It can also be used in after-school or summer programs.  readingrockets.org

The Lorax Project
Encourages educators and students to celebrate the Lorax’s message and act on their own pledges to beautify and conserve their school environment and beyond. Includes lots of resource information.  seussville.com

Barbaloot Suits: Preserving Biodiversity
Students will learn about how and why Olson studies plants. Students will compare a situation in which farmers unknowingly destroyed a plant species with the conservation themes outlined in Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, and then summarize the Seuss work through illustration.  nationalgeographic.com

Lessons of The Lorax
(PDF) Part 1: Students read The Lorax and analyze and interpret the events in the story that led to the damage of the environment. Part 2: Students compare the events in The Lorax with real-life events concerning the brown pelican. (A TEKS based activity for Grade 5)  utdanacenter.org

The Lorax Explorations
A few lesson suggestions for middle school students.  Grades 6-8 teachers.net

The Lorax Lessons
These are enrichment activities to be used when reading the book, The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. (Grade 6)  merkel.region14.net

Truffula Trees Display
This idea could be used for a hallway or bulletin board display. Each leaf of the truffula tree has a suggestion on how we can help the environment. burbankreads.blogspot.com

Lorax Classroom Pledge Poster
“Our class pledges to do our part to protect the environment…” Includes lines for students to sign. Printable PDF. Part of The Lorax Project  seussville.com

Lorax Earth Day Pledge Tree Strips
Printable PDF with slips for students to write their pledge. Part of The Lorax Project.  seussville.com

The Lorax Worksheet
A during and after reading worksheet for use with The Lorax.  teachersdomain.org

Truffula Trees Dominoes
Printable dominoes with truffula trees on them. classroomjr.com

Truffula Trees Craft
Make truffula trees from pipe cleaners, playdough, and pom poms. craftjr.com

Share/Bookmark

The first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere is March 20 (sometimes March 21) – the vernal equinox.

Spring Theme Pages @ A to Z

• Earth Day
• Easter
• Insects
• Life Cycles
  • Butterfly
  • Chickens
  • Frogs
  • Plants
  • Pumpkin
• Plants
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Weather

Spring Lesson Plans @ A to Z

Spring Egg Art Lesson Plan
Students create a spring egg out of pastels, construction paper and glue.  Grades 1-4

The Month of March
This activity teaches the children about alphabet letters, the weather in March, Spatial concepts, opposites and St. Patrick’s Day.  Preschool

Spring Activities @ Other Sites

Spring Art Activities
A few art ideas from Teachers.net.

Spring Crafts
Don’t you just love spring? Butterflies, flowers and playing outside. Grades Preschool-1

Spring Theme Unit
Lots of printables–forms, word puzzles, flower phonics, writing booklet, and more!

Spring Into Science for Teachers
An article from Early Childhood Today full of ideas for bring Spring into the classroom.  PreK-5

Spring Songs & Poems
March, April, May, Spring, Kites, Wind

Don’t miss these theme pages:

Earth Day | Easter | Insects | Plants | St. Patrick’s Day | Weather
Life Cycles ~ Butterfly ~ Chickens ~ Frogs ~ Plants ~ Pumpkin