30 Fantastic Free Early Elementary Resources You Can Download and Use Today

This week I asked a group of teacher-authors to share their best FREE resources for November for preschool through first grade, and boy, did they come through! Browse through the list, and if you find something that looks promising, click on the picture to go right to the source!  I hope you find some amazing resources to help YOU to make November awesome!

 

Reading

Thanksgiving Emergent Reader Vocabulary Books from Sea of Knowledge

 Thanksgiving Pocket Chart Activities Building Sentences by Primary Inspiration by Linda Nelson

 

Turkey Cut and Paste Book by ABC's of Literacy

 

Sight Words | Thanksgiving | November from Pint Size Learners

 

Thanksgiving Table Book from Angie's Schoolhouse

 

Writing

Graphic organizers from Eugenia's Learning Tools :

November Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten from Life Beyond the Gradebook

Math

 Owl Math Addition and Subtraction from me, Paula's Primary Classroom

 Thanksgiving Telling Time Game by Carla Hoff

Addition fact practice from Just Ask Judy for K-1

 Missing Addends Math Center from K's Classroom Kreations

Thanksgiving Addition or Multiplication Turkey Spinners from Caffeinated and Creative

 Thanksgiving Addition Plus Zero Clipcards from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas

 

 Squirrels and Acorns 3D Shape Matching from  Preschool Activities Nook

 

Thanksgiving Number Bonds Game | Missing Numbers Game from Sweet Sensations 

 

 Autumn Ordinal Numbers and Positional Words by Laura Martin

 

Digital

Addition with 0 Fast Fact Fluency | Digital Pixel Art for Google Sheets™ from Crystal Mencia

 

 Ordering Numbers with Google Slides Fall Number Order from Angie Fish

Pumpkin Writing Prompts and Activities from The Education Highway

 

Food

Turkey Snack from Julie Lee

 Squanto's Snack from Stephanie Stewart

Crafts

Thanksgiving Turkey Craft - Holiday Table Centerpiece with Casserole Recipe from 1st Grade Pandamania

 Simple Turkey Craft by Teaching Exceptional Kinders

 

Thanksgiving Table Talk Craft from Roots and Wings

Thanksgiving Pop-up Card Craft and Writing Activity from Learn With Alea

and more!

Thanksgiving Bingo from PlayLearnTeach

 

 Thanksgiving Preschool Skills Clip Cards from The Stay at Home Teacher - Kaitlyn Renfro

 Turkey Counting Sensory Bin from Literacy With the Littles

 Autumn Maze by Froggy About Teaching Resources

Quirky Turkey Card Game from Tammy's Toolbox

Want even more? Head over to An Apple For The Teacher and find a K-6 roundup from my friend Kelly!

Happy holidays everyone!

Paula

Wishing you a Beauti-Fall Thanksgiving Week

There are so many things that I am thankful for.

My family.  My dogs (who ARE family).  Work that I love doing, and people I enjoy doing it with.  Home.  Friends near and far.  Small children and the joy they bring to everything.  Abundance, and beautiful places to enjoy it.  I could go on, but two doggies and this view are waiting for me, and if we are to be truly grateful, we have to go and immerse ourselves in life, and soak it all up. 

Wishing you blessings beyond measure this holiday season!
Paula

Thankful for the memories

I'm an imperfect person - aren't we all?! - but I am so grateful for one small thing I definitely did right.  I recorded some of the marvelous things the boys said when they were little, and I am ever so thankful!

For Thanksgiving 2001 I cut out lots and lots of paper leaves, and even added a touch of watercolor paint to them, to record what not only my own children, but also my daycare kiddos, were thankful for.  I thought these leaves would be just right to decorate the Thanksgiving table with, and I still dig them out for the holiday meal.

It's a small thing, but so often the small things turn out to be the big things.  The boys were 2 and 7 years old at the time, and thankful for the cutest things: each other, puzzles and games, playing in the leaves, and "for our army men that died in war saving us."  These faded scraps of construction paper encapsulate my memories of yesteryear, and the innocence of childhood.

A couple of years later I repeated this project, but used precut foam leaves.  Again, these are treasures beyond measure.

My (then) 8 year old was thankful for his alarm clock!  Ha!  At 20, I don't think he cares for it in quite the same way... well... for that matter, now he uses his cell phone.  Wow, some things really do change.  My (then) 5 year old has outgrown Zoobooks and markers, but we are all still thankful for friends, food, and Star Wars.  :-)

We are all older, and the things we are thankful for are different, but I'm going to break out this activity again, and this time I'm going to join in and make a note of the things I'm thankful for too.  Family, friends, work that I love, and memories of small boys who have grown into fantastic young men.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving or Christmas?

I could have titled this post "Out of the mouths of babes" again, because I'm going to start with a kid quote from one of my own children.

It was Christmas day, and the family was all gathered.  Presents were long since opened, and delicious smells were coming from the kitchen.  My barely 4 year old son asked me, "What are we eating for Christmas?"  I started listing the dishes, "Turkey, stuffing, green beans, potatoes... all the things we ate at Thanksgiving."  "Not leftovers AGAIN!" he moaned.

I think sometimes our youngest children have trouble remembering which holiday is which, and what symbols represent each one.  Pumpkins are a bit ambiguous, good for both Halloween and Thanksgiving, and a roast turkey dinner gets served up more than once at this time of year also.  Families gather for many holidays - so what exactly are the differences?

I've created a new activity for preschool and kindergarten kiddos, aimed at helping them figure all this out, and here it is :

Here's the finished Venn Diagram, with symbols sorted out by holiday.  I hope this helps the kiddos figure it all out! 

 

Want to add a literature component to this activity?  Try reading  Over and Over by Charlotte Zolotow.  It's a beautiful book about a young child experiencing the celebrations of a year, trying to sort them all out, just as my son did way back when.

What ever holidays you celebrate, I hope they are filled with family, love and joy!

                                                                                                                           - Paula