Cowboy School = Glyphs, writing, branding, boots, and a lasso

We've been working our way through Scott Foresman's 2nd Grade Reading Street, and this week, we read Cowboys. I've been waiting for this selection because I knew our Cowboy School would be a hit. Here's what we did. I hope you'll be able to use some of these ideas with your lessons about cowboys too in your classroom and homeschool classrooms.


First, we read the Cowboys reading selection, talked about the pictures, worked with the new words, and talked about what it would be like to be a cowboy--or cowgirl too of course.


Then we worked through my Cowboy or Cowgirl Glyph. We started out with the glyph questions and patterns. If you're not familiar with glyphs, they are a visual way to represent data. For this glyph, depending on how you answered questions about cowboys, you colored the hat, boots, bandanna, and gloves a certain color. You could also use the same items printed on colored construction paper.

Then we worked on some writing. The prompt was simple... "If I were a cowboy ...."  and "If I were a Cowgirl...". This writing prompt was part of each cowboy and cowgirl craft.

Next, we looked at all the glyphs and worked a bit with data analysis and graphed the results from our cowboys. Check out the results! The kiddos even named their cowboys and cowgirls.

We had read about branding too in the Reading Street selection and the kiddos made their own brands. (Yes, Ninjago has had a big influence this year!)

Then we worked with symmetry and created these fun and colorful cowboy boots. I think I'd wear the brown and purple ones. What do you think? Would you wear them?

 And then we watched a YouTube video on how to throw a lasso. While we didn't have a lasso, we had some rope and our target was the deer skull you see here. We discovered this deer last year in the woods which made for an interesting science lesson.

 And that covered our cowboy school.

If you can read the writing prompts above, it looks like the line from Cowboys in Reading Street about what cowboys eat made a lasting impression. They wanted to eat cowboy food! But I didn't add that to the plan--maybe next time.

You can purchase my Cowboy and Cowgirl Glyph HERE at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. The symmetric boots are from Loreen Leedy's TpT  store.

Enjoy!
Robin @ Little Blogfish

Kid's Co-op Linky Fun- Post #3

It's a Kid's Co-op Linky PaRtY for the week of April12th!! I hope you enjoyed your Easter. Let's share some kid-friendly fun. This Little Blogfish is a happy girl to be a Kid's Co-op host along with many other great bloggers! I hope that you'll bookmark Little Blogfish and follow me here and on Pinterest too. 


Please stop by again next week and in between too. Join this fun collection of family & kids play-based ideas and more. Scroll down and check out all the great stuff being shared or add your ideas too. 


Be sure to follow the links and check out these posts. I plan to feature some of my favorite kid-centered ideas here next week too. 

I hope that a few of you will be excited to be featured here next week. I look forward to checking out your links and following and discovering some new blogs...even little blogs like this one.

Now, let’s see what fun this week brings. The Kid's Co-Op link up is co-hosted by these awesome bloggers and will show up on their blogs as well.  Don't forget to add a link back to this Kid's Co-op party somewhere in your post and include our button somewhere on your blog. 

Please stop by and like the Kid's Co-op! Facebook page. 

<a href="http://www.littleblogfish.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://rainydaymum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/comeplayatkidsco-op.jpg" alt="Kids Co-op" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Enjoy and thanks for joining the "school" at Little Blogfish!

Cowboy Glyph and Cowgirl Glyph $.99 Sale on 4/11

I'm running a special sale on my newest Cowboy and Cowgirl Glyph teaching resource and I wanted all my blog readers to know about it. Head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store HERE and get your Cowboy Glyph for a great deal of only $.99 today (4/11) only. {Update--the sale is over, but this glyph is still available for a great deal.}

Product Description: Add a Cowboy and Cowgirl Glyph to your lesson about cowboys. This glyph and craftivity includes a writing prompt that's part of each cowboy or cowgirl glyph. In addition to the glyph questions about cowboys and cowgirls, this packet include four graphs to graph your results if you choose. This is a great way to integrate art, social studies, writing, and math!

This packet includes teaching tips, glyph questions with a student example, patterns to print on card stock paper or you can use the individual student patterns for coloring like you see on the cover of this packet. You will also get two writing prompts using three different writing levels for differentiated instruction. You also get four graphs if you decide to work with graphing and would like to graph the data from the glyphs.

Be sure to follow my blog to learn about other special deals and new products.

Thanks,

Robin @ Little Blogsfish

Cowboy Glyph and Cowgirl Glyph

Who's ready for some cowboy glyph and cowgirl glyph fun? I am. We've been working through our Scott Foresman 2nd Grade Reading Street textbook and have made it to the Cowboys reading selection. My mind started working, and I knew that I needed to create a cowboy glyph. I made this cowboy and cowgirl ready for the students to write too. 

Cowboy Glyph and Cowgirl Glyph Craftivity

Click HERE to visit my TpT store and add a Cowboy and Cowgirl Glyph to your lesson about cowboys. This glyph and craftivity includes a writing prompt that's part of each cowboy or cowgirl glyph. In addition to the glyph questions about cowboys and cowgirls, this packet include four graphs to graph your results if you choose. This is a great way to integrate art, social studies, writing, and math!

This packet includes teaching tips, glyph questions with a student example, patterns to print on card stock paper or you can use the individual student patterns for coloring like you see on the cover of this packet. You will also get two writing prompts using three different writing levels for differentiated instruction. You also get four graphs if you decide to work with graphing and would like to graph the data from the glyphs.


Enjoy!
Robin @ Little Blogfish

Life Cycle of a Butterfly Glyph

Teach your children and students about the life cycle of a butterfly with my new Life Cycle of a Butterfly Glyph. This Life Cycle of a Butterfly Glyph is a combo package that includes my Colorful Shapes Caterpillar Glyph Fun Unit and my Colorful Shapes Butterfly Glyph Fun Unit. I have bundled those two units and added additional patterns to create the egg on a leaf and chrysalis so that you can display the life cycle of a butterfly. A description of each package included follows: 

Click Here to Learn More About My Life Cycle of a Caterpillar Glyph

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Spring Caterpillar glyph for math and literacy fun...Glyphs are fun ways to display data in a visual way. Each one of your students will answer questions and create a unique colorful shapes caterpillar. Place these caterpillars on a bulletin board and help your students learn to graph the results while they have fun and work with following directions. You can even choose to add one of my three cute caterpillar writing prompts. Each prompt comes created for three writing levels. Plus, your students will have fun as they pretend to be caterpillars and answer the caterpillar glyph questions while they work with shapes and colors. This is a great integration tool. 









Your packet will include the following resources: 

page 1- cover page and picture of caterpillar craftivity

pages 2-4 teacher tips and time saving techniques 

page 5 student example with directions

pages 6-13 patterns (multiple like items of each shape are on each page to help save you paper.)

pages 14-15 student glyph questions

Pages 16-21 If you choose, you can post a poster with each question on it on your board or chart instead of printing the questions for each student.

pages 22-28 graphs for teachers to complete with students if you choose

pages 29-30 cute caterpillar key poster to display on bulletin board (everything you need for a great learning bulletin board is here)

pages 31-42 I've included three different writing prompts. Each prompt comes in three different writing levels. You also will get an additional set of blank templates where students can choose their own caterpillar writing idea. These are cute posted beside the caterpillars!
---
Spring Butterfly glyph for art, math and literacy fun*...Glyphs are fun ways to display data in a visual way. Each one of your students will answer questions and create a unique colorful shapes butterfly. Place these butterflies on a bulletin board and help your students learn to graph the results while they have fun and work with following directions. You can even choose to add one of my three cute butterfly writing prompts. Each prompt comes created for three writing levels. Plus, your students will have fun as they pretend to be butterflies and answer the butterfly glyph questions while they work with shapes and colors. 

Your packet will include the following resources: 
--cover page and picture of butterfly craftivity
--teacher tips and time saving techniques 
--student example with directions
--patterns (multiple like items of each shape are on each page to help save you paper.)
--student glyph questions
--If you choose, you can post a poster with each question on it on your board or chart instead of printing the questions for each student.
--graphs for teachers to complete with students if you choose
-- cute butterfly key poster to display on bulletin board (everything you need for a great learning bulletin board is here)
-- I've included three different writing prompts. Each prompt comes in three different writing levels. You also will get an additional set of blank templates where students can choose their own butterfly writing idea. These are cute posted beside the butterflies!


Check out my Kite Glyph too.
 Thanks so much,
Robin @ Little Blogfish

Butterfly Glyph

How can you celebrate Spring without a Butterfly Glyph? I'm happy to share about my Colorful Shapes Butterfly Glyph. 

 Butterfly Glyph

You'll enjoy this Spring Butterfly glyph for art, math and literacy fun. Glyphs are fun ways to display data in a visual way. Each one of your students will answer questions and create a unique colorful shapes butterfly. Place these butterflies on a bulletin board and help your students learn to graph the results while they have fun and work with following directions. You can even choose to add one of my three cute butterfly writing prompts. Each prompt comes created for three writing levels. Plus, your students will have fun as they pretend to be butterflies and answer the butterfly glyph questions while they work with shapes and colors. Click here to visit my shop.

Your packet will include the following resources: 

--cover page and picture of butterfly craftivity

--teacher tips and time saving techniques 

--student example with directions

--patterns (multiple like items of each shape are on each page to help save you paper.)

--student glyph questions

--If you choose, you can post a poster with each question on it on your board or chart instead of printing the questions for each student.

--graphs for teachers to complete with students if you choose

-- cute butterfly key poster to display on bulletin board (everything you need for a great learning bulletin board is here)

-- I've included three different writing prompts. Each prompt comes in three different writing levels. You also will get an additional set of blank templates where students can choose their own butterfly writing idea. These are cute posted beside the butterflies!

**This packet is now available as a combo deal. Look for my Life Cycle of a Butterfly combo with additional bonus patterns. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Cycle-of-a-Butterfly-Glyph

Caterpillar Glyph

How can you learn about shapes, colors, and caterpillars? You can use my Colorful Shapes Caterpillar Glyph Fun!

Caterpillar Glyph

This Spring Caterpillar glyph for math and literacy fun will be a hit in your classroom.Glyphs are fun ways to display data in a visual way. Each one of your students will answer questions and create a unique colorful shapes caterpillar. Place these caterpillars on a bulletin board and help your students learn to graph the results while they have fun and work with following directions. You can even choose to add one of my three cute caterpillar writing prompts. Each prompt comes created for three writing levels. Plus, your students will have fun as they pretend to be caterpillars and answer the caterpillar glyph questions while they work with shapes and colors. This is a great integration tool. Click here to learn more about my caterpillar glyph.



Your packet will include the following resources:
page 1- cover page and picture of caterpillar craftivity

pages 2-4 teacher tips and time saving techniques

page 5 student example with directions

pages 6-13 patterns (multiple like items of each shape are on each page to help save you paper.)

pages 14-15 student glyph questions

Pages 16-21 If you choose, you can post a poster with each question on it on your board or chart instead of printing the questions for each student.

pages 22-28 graphs for teachers to complete with students if you choose

pages 29-30 cute caterpillar key poster to display on bulletin board (everything you need for a great learning bulletin board is here)

pages 31-42 I've included three different writing prompts. Each prompt comes in three different writing levels. You also will get an additional set of blank templates where students can choose their own caterpillar writing idea. These are cute posted beside the caterpillars!
*This packet is not part of my combo packet titled Life Cycle of a Butterfly that includes a butterfly glyph and additional patterns to create the life cycle of a butterfly. Click Here

Check out my Kite Glyph, Bunny Glyph, and Easter Chick Glyph too.

Kite Glyph and 2D Shapes Lesson

It's National Kite Month! I'm excited about my Spring Shapes Kite Glyph for Math and Literacy Fun (HERE). I wanted a fun way to teach about 2D shapes, throw in an art project, and add some graphing and writing fun. I think you'll like it too.

Kite Glyph

You can use this spring glyph for spring fun while you meet common core standards. Your students will learn to recognize shapes including the oval, circle, square, rectangle, parallelogram, trapezoid, hexagon, pentagon, triangle, and rhombus while they create spring kite glyphs full of colors from the rainbow for your bulletin board. 


This glyph is easy on you too--just print the patterns on white copy paper and your students will follow directions to color each shape with colors from the rainbow. You can even make choices to allow for differentiated instruction. The fun doesn't stop there! Next, your students will work as a class or in small groups to graph the kite glyph data that is represented in visual form on the kites. Then tie in a literacy connection with three writing prompts based on the glyph and one additional prompt that uses a Venn diagram connection. This packet includes the following items. Please check it out at my Teachers Pay Teachers store HERE.

Page 1 Title page
Page 2-3 Teaching Suggestions
Page 4 Students Example of the Kite Glyph
Page 5 Kite Patterns
Page 6-7 Labeled Shape Mats
Pages 8-9 Shape Mats that Students Label (for differentiated instruction)
Page 10 List of Shapes for Students to use
Pages 11-12 Two Sets of Instructions for Coloring the Shapes (for differentiated instruction)
Page 13 Kite Coloring Directions
Pages 14-15 Shape Mat Poster/ Answer Key (you could also print this page for student use and skip the coloring of the shapes)
Pages 16-17 Kite Glyph Questions
Pages 18-23 Corresponding Graphs and one Blank Graph
Pages 24-25 Kite Key Glyph Poster for your Bulletin Board
Pages 26-28 Writing Prompts
Pages 29-30 Venn Diagram Writing Prompt

Thanks,

Robin @ Little Blogfish

Earth Day Education Linky Party

It's an Earth Day Education Linky Party!! Come join the fun and check out the links for some great education-related Earth Day crafts, Earth Day craftivities, Earth Day art, Earth Day lessons, Earth Day fun for children and more. Add your links too and we'll all share great ideas for how we teach our children to heart the Earth!

Check back soon to see some of my favorite Earth Day ideas featured here on my blog soon too.

Enjoy!
Robin @ Little Blogfish

Earth Day Freebie

Here's an Earth Day freebie just for you. I think you and your kiddos will enjoy this Earth Day Word Challenge. Just be sure to conserve paper and let students work in groups and, of course, reuse it next year to promote good Earth Day practices. Click HERE to get your free copy.

Earth Day Freebie for Kids

Earth Day Activity: This packet contains the resources to play three word challenge games.

For each game, cut out the letter cards for each word (reduce, reuse, recycle). Use just those letters to create as many words as you can.

This can be an individual activity, partner activity, group activity, or entire class activity. Have fun!  


Enjoy!
Robin @ Little Blogfish

Earth Day Activities for Children

Are you looking for an Earth Day craft that helps you integrate subjects like social studies, writing, math, and art? If so, I think you'll like my latest Earth Day Glyph. I wanted to create a craft that demonstrated good Earth Day practices, and I developed this glyph that students create using items from your recycling bin. 

Earth Day Recycle Glyph and Craftivity

This glyph includes Earth Day activities and fun with real Earth Day practices-- This glyph lets you demonstrate how to reduce, reuse, and recycle! In order to reduce the amount of pages you print, I have created a flippy book. 

Images of Earth Day Flippy Book and patterns for two age levels

Your students will use this book to learn about reducing, reusing, and recycling for Earth Day in April. Then they will create an Earth Day Glyph as they reuse everyday items like newspaper and magazines. To reduce the pages that you will copy, five writing prompts are included but students are asked to reuse paper to write their response. You can also use the glyph questions to create a class graph on your board too. Happy Earth Day. I hope you enjoy this Earth Day craftivity that let's students show how the really heart the earth. Check it out at my Teachers Pay Teachers store HERE.


Thanks!
Robin @ Little Blogfish

Geometric Easter Eggs for Art and Fun Craft

How great is it when your kids beg to do work? We've been busy creating geometric Easter eggs. We've colored one a day and reviewed the shapes on each one. Here's what my 2nd grader created during our "fun" school time. I love integrating math and art. Throw in a holiday and you've got a hit!

Geometric Easter Eggs

We used all sorts of eggs with different shapes on them like ovals, pentagons, circles, and rectangles. You can do the same. The key is to overlap the shapes and notice the shapes that are created. You color the parts that overlap a different color. Notice how my 2nd grader didn't color each large rectangle. He colored the smaller shapes that were created.

You can make your own eggs too, or if you're interested, this is part Geometric Eggs for Art and Fun packet of 11 shapes that's available at my TpT store for just $1 now.

Enjoy!
Robin @ Little Blogfish

Chick Glyph

How can you have a Bunny Glyph without a Chick Glyph? After I created my Spring Bunny Glyph, I realized that we needed another puppet. That's when the Chick Glyph was born...or maybe I should say hatched.

I thought kids would have a great time writing puppet shows with their Bunnies and Chicks too. Here's an example of a my Chick Glyph. Check out the egg on his belly. I even added a little bit of art with shapes!

Chick Glyph

For this glyph, students answer questions about chickens, spring, and bunnies. This glyph will work well for spring topics like the life cycle of a chicken. In fact, the questions the students answer will relate to what they've observed regarding baby chicks. The top feather, beak, wings, and tail all tell a story. Data analysis is FUN!! You can check out my Chick Glyph HERE and there is also a bundle deal HERE. Thanks!

Thanks,

Robin @ Little Blogfish

Bunny Glyph: My Easter Craft For Kids

Easter is right around the corner and it's time for some fun Spring crafts with an educational connection. We love using glyphs. I enjoy them because I like to integrate subjects instead of keeping every subject separate. When we use glyphs, we cover art, math, writing, and even science. Glyphs are visual ways to represent data.

This Easter, we worked on my Spring Bunny Glyph. I've been busy creating glyphs because the kiddos love them and beg to do them, and I just love how they make learning fun! I created this one so that all I had to do was run a few pages of white paper (or any color) through the printer for each student. The patterns and the questions are on the same page. For example, for the first question, a boy colors the insides of the ears blue and a girl colors them pink. Here's a bunny a kiddo created using the glyph questions. The size of the nose, the length of the arms, and the tail on the bunny all represent how this student answered questions about spring and bunnies.

Bunny Glyph

I added a frame to this bunny and options where the kiddos can write a poem or add some artwork. This kiddo decided to draw and color an Easter egg. Did you notice that the bunny is on a paper bag? We had been creating some paper bag puppets and I got inspired. Not only is this a glyph, but it's a puppet too.

This Spring Bunny Glyph is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store HERE. It's also part of a Spring Glyph Bundle Deal with another glyph HERE.

Did you use this glyph in your classroom? Feel free to add your link here. I'd love to see how it turned out.

Thanks, 

Robin @ Little Blogfish

Kid's Co-op Linky Party: Post #2

It's a Kid's Co-op Linky PaRtY!! Let's share some kid-friendly fun for the week of March 30th. This Little Blogfish is a happy girl to be a new Kid's Co-op host along with many other great bloggers! I hope that you'll bookmark Little Blogfish and follow me here and on Pinterest too. 


Please stop by again next week and in between too. Join this fun collection of family & kids play-based ideas and more. Scroll down and check out all the great stuff being shared or add your ideas too. 


One favorite from last week was The Artsy Craftsy Mom's Kandinsky's Water Color Circles. Here is what she linked up last week. 

Another favorite was Kitchen Counter Chronicle's Spring Flowers for the Front Door. Here's she linked up last week. 

Be sure to follow the links and check out these posts. I plan to feature some of my favorite kid-centered ideas here next week too. 

I hope that a few of you will be excited to be featured here next week. I look forward to checking out your links and following and discovering some new blogs...even little blogs like this one.

Now, let’s see what fun this week brings. The Kid's Co-Op link up is co-hosted by these awesome bloggers and will show up on their blogs as well.  Don't forget to add a link back to this Kid's Co-op party somewhere in your post and include our button somewhere on your blog. 

Please stop by and like the Kid's Co-op! Facebook page. 

<a href="http://www.littleblogfish.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://rainydaymum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/comeplayatkidsco-op.jpg" alt="Kids Co-op" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Enjoy and thanks for joining the "school" at Little Blogfish!

How To Add a Pinterest Pin it Button to Blogger Posts Video Tutorial

Would you like to add a Pin it button to your Blogger posts? I have created a video just for you that explains how to add a Pinterest Pin it button to your Blogger posts. I hope you enjoy my video.

If you enjoyed this video, Pin it, follow my blog, and follow me on, Pinterest, of course.
Robin @ Little Blogfish

Kid's Co-op Linky Party Fun: Post #1

It's a Kid's Co-op Linky PaRtY!! Let's share some kid-friendly fun. This Little Blogfish is a happy girl to be a new Kid's Co-op host along with many other great bloggers! I hope that you'll bookmark Little Blogfish and follow me here and on Pinterest too. 


Please stop by again next week and in between too. Join this fun collection of family & kids play-based ideas and more. Scroll down and check out all the great stuff being shared or add your ideas too. 


I plan to feature some of my favorite kid-centered ideas here next week. I was so excited to featured on B.Inspired, Mama and Toddler Approved last week. Check out my son's O'Keeffe inspired flowers and tips for making them too Here.

I hope that a few of you will be excited to be featured here too. I look forward to checking out your links and following and discovering some new blogs...even little blogs like this one.

Now, let’s see what fun this week brings. The Kid's Co-Op link up is co-hosted by these awesome bloggers and will show up on their blogs as well.  Don't forget to add a link back to this The Kid's Co-op party somewhere in your post and include our button somewhere on your blog. 

Please stop by and like the Kid's Co-op! Facebook page. 

<a href="http://www.littleblogfish.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://rainydaymum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/comeplayatkidsco-op.jpg" alt="Kids Co-op" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Enjoy and thanks for joining the "school" at Little Blogfish!

Our School's Georgia O'Keeffe Art Lesson

Art lessons from the classroom: With spring blooming at our backdoor, we tossed most of our textbooks aside for a while and decided it was time for some spring art. We've had fun learning about Georgia O'Keeffe and her artwork. I thought I'd share an art technique with you that will help your budding artists.

Our lesson started with a whirlwind tour of The Georgia O'Keefe museum HERE. I've said it before, but I don't know if I'd make it as a homeschool teacher without the internet. We were able to tour this museum from our home. Now that's great!! I sorted the artwork by category first, so we were just looking at the flowers. You'll need to do the same because not all of her work is for the kiddos. 

We talked about the colors and her techniques. My student was interested and ready to go. 

Next, I armed him with his camera and sent him outside with simple directions. Take pictures of the flowers in our yard the same way a bird or bee  would see them. The images to the right of the post are my 2nd graders O'Keeffe inspired collection of what's blooming in our neck of the woods.

This is the picture that I liked the best. While it's not a flower, my kiddo still followed my directions. This is from a bird's eye view. Can you guess what it is?

With our photos ready, it was time to work on some art of our own. This is a simple technique that can have great results in your classroom.

1. Ask your kiddos to place one dot on their paper. No matter where they put this dot, it becomes the middle of the flower.

2. Now, for the next set of directions. Choose either Wide or Narrow. This choice will determine the width of the petals. My kiddo chose narrow and I chose wide.

3. Next, draw the narrow or wide petals out from the middle of the flower with pencil. The only rule is that the petals must go off the edge of the paper on all four sides. This is what gives us the bird's eye view.

4. Then we traced our pencil lines with colorful permanent markers.

5. We finished up our flowers with your standard water colors. I really loved the results.

My Kiddo's Flower

My Flower

I hope you're able to use this technique in your classroom no matter where your classroom may be.

Enjoy!

Robin @ Little Blogfish